Stop being a NON-Technical Tester!

By on December 19, 2011 in Best Practices, On-Going Improvement

There is an on-going discussion in the World of Testing around whether a tester should be more or less technical in his work… (and this is without even asking if we should call someone technical or not!)

The truth is that I believe testers SHOULD be technical, and that there is a marked added value for a tester that is technical over one that is not.

This doesn’t mean we should be only technical and stop concentrating on understanding our users, or that we should strive to be more technical than our programming peers. But there are many ways in which we should start getting rid Non-Technical tester each of us carries inside of us.

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10 reasons why You are NOT a Professional Tester! — Part 2

By on December 5, 2011 in Management, On-Going Improvement, Testing Intelligence

This is part 2 of the article I published last week with the 10 Reasons why You are NOT a Professional Testers. As I started on the first part of this series, I think the bulk of the blame is on us, the testers, for not looking at our jobs as a profession.

Without going into the specific reasons, for that you can read inside, I think we need to improve the way we look at our tasks, how we communicate with our teammates, and how we look at the future of our profession.

I am looking for your feedback, so please feel free to let me know what you think!

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10 reasons why You are NOT a Professional Tester! — Part 1

By on November 28, 2011 in Management, On-Going Improvement, Testing Intelligence

There are many places where testers are not treated as professionals, in the same level as other members of the development team. We can blame the rest of the world for this, but the truth is that most of the fault falls on us and on how we approach our work.

Look for testers who approach their job professionally and invest time on aligning the value of their work with the needs of the Organizations, and you will see places where the testers are appreciated and treated with professional respect!

What are the reasons many testers are not considered professionals? Some of the answers to this question are inside this post, and the ways to solve these issues are relatively simple and straight-forward!

(This is the first part of this article, I didn’t want to make a post that was too long to read. The second part will follow shortly…)

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One metric = One Big Mistake

By on November 14, 2011 in Communication, Metrics & Statistics, Testing Intelligence

Sometimes measuring only one thing can be worst than not measuring anything at all.

Whenever you work with metrics you need to remember that it is not as easy as waving a number and having everyone agreeing with you on the conclusion of your observation. You need to take into account that some people, specially those who have something to loose with your findings, will try to show why you are wrong (and they are right!)

Here are some quick pointers on how to succeed with your metrics based observations in your (political) workplace.

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Short post – plan your tests, even when you don’t have time to plan them

By on October 21, 2011 in Best Practices, On-Going Improvement, Test Process

How many times have you told yourself you don’t have enough time to plan your tests, so you might as well just get testing… If you are anything like me, then this happens to you 2 or 3 times a week. Classic examples are: – When you run a short test on a piece of [...]

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Switching to Agile Testing, not as simple as changing your t-shirt

By on September 28, 2011 in Management, Test Process

In addition to all my other tasks in PractiTest, I am a tester working and consulting on a number of Agile projects.  In total I’ve been in testing for over 15 years and doing agile testing for close to 5 years. Here’s a fact some people tend to overlook, just like any other profession, to become [...]

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