All that testing getting the way of is in quality -- James whittaker
A quick self assessment
Does your organization value testing?
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]equivalent to development
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Less than development but very close
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]Less than development bug more than doc writers
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]It takes effort, but the tolerate our existence
Do your developers value testing?
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]They fix every issue we report
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]The take all our issues seriously and fix most
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]We have to fight to get bus fixed
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]They would happily replace us with trained monkeys
Do you have a clear career path?
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]I can climb the career ladder as high as any development
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]I can climb, but have to go into management to do so
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]This job will not take me as far as I want to go
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]I am a second class citizen
Your skill set
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]Would get me a job anywhere I wanted
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]I have a few options that are better than where I am
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]I have options, but they would be lateral moves
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]I feel stuck in this position
Your contribution
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]The tests I develop are as valuable as any code a developer writes
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Test is important but not quite as much as development
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]Test is definitely a second class citizen
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]The developers are the heroes in my company
Your compensation
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]I make as much or more than my development counterparts
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]I make less, but it’s close
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]Testers at my company swim in the shallow end of the wage pool
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]I would trade salaries with almost anyone in the development org
If your score is ..My advice is ..
6 Stay employed
<11 Smile, it ain’t that bad
12-16 It could be worse, I guess
17-21 Houston, we have a problem
22-24 Uh, there’s more to life than work... right?right ?
Respect
You can whine about it ...
You can demand it ...
Or you can earn it ...
Gaining respect for testing
Take 1:
Anyone whose job is to pass judgement on another’s work must have the authority to do so. Without authority, their findings will be ignored and their work without effect.
-- Bret Pettichord
Really? How’s that whole authority thing working out for you Bret?
Reality check: how many of you work for a company where you enjoy such authority?
Take 2:
Testers earn respect by being credible, showing good results and making good decisions.
-- Alan Page
These are the same criteria by which we judge admins, document writers and every other support organization. Is test just another support org?
Or, does the work we do make us more critical path?
Take 3:
We simultaneously learn about the product, design tests, execute them and report bugs.
-- James Bach
So this confirms the support status of the test discipline. We support the people doing the high value work by tidying up around them.
Surely there must be more?
And there is more
It’s called RESULTS
Results: software is getting better!
Why software is better ...
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]Automatic update/cloud deployment
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Crash recovery
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]Reduction of dependencies through standards
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]Continuous build/integration/release/test
[if !supportLists]5. [endif]Initial code quality
[if !supportLists]6. [endif]Convergence of the user and test community
Where is testing in this mix?
1-6 above
Lots of activity over the years, little forward progress
How much has testing really impacted software development?
How much better is software quality because of our presence?
If we were to go away, would anyone notice?
Is there anything we can do to increase our value proposition?
Four unpleasant facts
Only the software matters
User fall in love with software. Period
[if !supportLists]l [endif]They don’t care about the code
[if !supportLists]l [endif]They don’t care about test plans or test cases
[if !supportLists]l [endif]They don’t care about bug reports
[if !supportLists]l [endif]If it doesn’t ship, it isn’t important
Do you want to matter? Work on something that matters.
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Testing has value only to the extent it helps make users fall in love
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Testers gain respect only to the extent that they focus on this goal
[if !supportLists]l [endif]What are you doing to help the appeal of your software?
The value of testing is in the activity, not the artifacts
You cannot rationalize the effort it takes to make something users don’t care about
The care and feeding of test artifacts detracts from impacting the product that users do care about
The test team’s relevancy is related to their impact on the product not their ability to create documents
In fact, as long as testing gets done it really doesn’t matter who dose it
The only important artifact is code
Only the software matters but software is made of code
Code is the only artifact guaranteed to be properly maintained
Want a test to matter? Make it part of the code
Every team must have testers who are good coders
Bugs don’t count unless they get fixed
Bug reports create work and slow progress toward the gaol
The have value only if they describe an actual problem
Perfect software is as ridiculous as perfect government
Quality fundamentalists make poor contributors
Tester have to stop being the only people on the team disconnected from reality
Bug reporters are less valuate than bug fixers
So what’s next for testers?
This has opportunity written all over it!
Lose the dogma, shed the tradition, times have changed and so must we
Three wrongs don’t make a right:
[if !supportLists]l [endif]“Developers can’t test” # yes they can, stop being their crutch
[if !supportLists]l [endif]“Users care about quality” # they expect it to be managed, not attained
[if !supportLists]l [endif]“If I don’t find all these bugs, users will suffer” # you will never find them all, users will suffer no mater what you do
Getting testing done
Testing is not the sole domain of testers
[if !supportLists]l [endif]It’s only important that testing gets done
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Not who does it
Users can do it better
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Testers are few in number; users are not (we hope)
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Testers have to acquire devices; users have them already
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Testers have to act like a user; users are not acting
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Testers would do well to test less and manage better the testing the takes place naturally
Developers can do it better
[if !supportLists]l [endif]The old stereotype is gone, if not whose fault is it?
Involving “users”
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Development channel build, test channel build, stable build, dog food, trusted testers, early adopters, crowd source, beta ...
Involving developers
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Developers understand features so make testing a feature
Involving specialists
[if !supportLists]l [endif]Security, accessibility, internationalization, ...