"Some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright"- Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption. This blog is from one such bird who couldn't be caged by organizations who mandate scripted software testing. Pradeep Soundararajan welcomes you to this blog and wishes you a good time here and even otherwise.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Testing – Testing Indian Testers

Hi Reader,

One of the worlds renowned Test Expert James Bach wrote in his blog “I was wrong about India” in 2003 November and isn’t that a Big credit to India. We have been progressing in a great way and the whole world is eyeing on India as we keep doing more and more good to the country and to the world market.

Although there has been great progress there are certain elements that still need improvement and let’s discuss those elements here.

__ Testing – Testing Indian Testers __

One such improvement is already discussed in “Are you a Tester or Toolsmith?” and let me discuss other factors that keep me wondering why we can’t improve on the following …

Are you a pink slipper?

Of course I agree there was a boom and need of Test Engineers and to meet the demand many faked experience and joined some MNC. They did take us happily but after they started the background verification, we were pink slipped. Testers contribute a larger percentage of this pink slip community.
Should we spoil our international repute by doing so?
If you are an experienced and passionate Tester and when a junior comes to you to seek advice, tell him/her not to become a pink slipper in future. If you do so you shall progress India one step ahead. (provided he/she listens)
Update : Read this - Fake it and Break it

Are you a pay slipper?

Of course I agree that Test Engineers are not paid as equally as a Developer of the same experience but if you are a comparator when it comes to pay, you are doing something wrong, to yourself, the company hiring you. I had a chance to glance the book “Lessons Learnt from Software Testing” by James Bach, Kem Caner, which had a sentence that “Testers are paid less but in the dot com time, Test Architects were paid more than the Dev guys of the same experience” in lesson 29x (not sure). Well I say, should you worry too much about pay when Testing is your passion and not just career alone.
Should we spoil our international repute becoming a pay slipper?
No! Not always, for passionate Testers pay isn’t a problem as long it is able to bring you bread, butter, jam, some savings. This doesn’t mean settle for a low pay, it means, be a smart negotiator or accept the industry standard pay.

Are you a job slipper?

Of course, I agree that there are hell lots of engineering colleges pumping out many engineers every year. Where will they go? Some take up engineering by paying some donation, some study through loan, some need to clear his/her father’s debt…This doesn’t mean you stick on to something you are not interested at for a long time. As I said earlier in “Why Testing failed in a Freshers mind”, Testing is a forced profession but only a few land up liking it and most use Testing job as a stop gap to jump into development. I also met a surprising person in my previous company who wants to slip from development to Testing just because she got married and need more time for her personal life. Isn’t this a wrong notion and aren’t we spoiling ourselves?
If you want to go to development, don’t take up a Testing job at all (if possible) or work harder to get a development job.

Are you a prestige slipper?

Of course, some insane people still think Testing is not a brainy job and keep talking ill about Testing or Testers. You are unfortunate if you have made them your friends and give an ear to them and shift your career from Testing to Development. I am not against Development, I am against the insane people doing Development and talking ill about Testing or Testers. There is a saying in Tamil “Donkeys don’t know the smell of camphor”. Ignore donkeys and keep smelling the camphor.

Are you any other slipper?

Of course, there are lot of other elements of improvement but if you belong to any of the following category, time to improve buddy –

Yes, I join some QA/Testing groups/forums and keep asking basic questions without doing some ground work or googling it.

Yes, I reply to the queries in QA/Testing groups/forums without exactly knowing the answers as I feel participation is important and I end up confusing the upcoming Testers.

Yes, I don’t read user manuals of Tools that are used in Testing and even for a small doubt I wait for replies from the community.

__ Testing – Testing Indian Testers __


Now there are two possibilities

Choice 1. Yes, I will help my country progress further.
Choice 2. No, I won’t do/repeat any of the above.

Your country will be proud of having you irrespective of your choice being 1 or 2.


“You can make your country proud not only by laying your life in enemy’s hands but also by Testing with passion”

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com
Disclaimer : I am aware that there are many passionate testers in this country who has put our country in such an enviable state and this post is an effort to add more feathers to the crown.If you feel guilty of doing any of the above, thank yourself for feeling guilty and get self inspired after making necassary changes.Dont feel that the above is happening in India only, there are other countries too but first let us set an example.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree to your comments. And I am also of the belief that many of the people who put fake exp are those who have talent but then because of some reasons havent been able to give out their best.

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

I too believe that they are talented but there have been someone who has misguided them to do so... lets pray those people too read this post.

Anonymous said...

You say things in a simple , attractive , insightful and impact , not only in this post , all posts. Hats off dude !

Sivan

Anonymous said...

this is a gem of a blog on testing !

Anonymous said...

the above statement is true and your other posts gave me a different dimension about testng ..

Anonymous said...

This is great and this article should be read by those who think that testing is not a Good Job like development.

__VJ

Anonymous said...

found this link from orkut and I am really impressed by this blog and Hats off

Anonymous said...

I do agree with your remarks and the opinion what you have given to the testing profnls, upcoming testers and the youngsters who have that passion to go in for rigorous "TESTing- Drive". Its good to find that you have tried to ignite that passion for testing only for those who wishes to.

Anonymous said...

The post he has written is too simplistic, i feel. It needs more elaboration. There can be always 2 sides of the coin. He has not put his view into full perspective. He has just patched up what we have been hearing for sometime. Some for and some against. Anyway, good that someone has given time to it. Cheers!!

Anonymous said...

I concur with the statement.

Ample of small firms are ready to welcome the fresh Test engineers . people really have passion to Testing should be optimistic . But desperately indulging in fake exp put their career and future in trouble. all the thing i want to say , "more the pain more the gain ".
There is no need to do different thing. but to do the thing different .