Three months into being a test engineer I was placed with a senior test engineer with more years experience than my age. In navigating the complexity of the software world (which I did not have a background in) and testing itself, he provided me with many basic gems which generally helped me to take a less flustered approach, and “Keep it simple stupid”.
“What is this?” “How does it work?” “Why are we doing it?”, And only then: “Ok! Let’s test it!”
“Complexity is a sign that something is not yet well understood.”
“Testers go where developers fear to tread”
“QA – Products, QMS – Processes”
“People, Process, Tools.”
“You can’t test quality into your product”
And just an ism or two of his:
Now we’re getting into the realm of speculation…
“What I lack in speed, I make up for in wisdom” – as he pottered away at testing
My personal summary:
- Don’t just dive into testing something, take time to understand its context, (you may find issues before you even start to test it)
- If you want quality, you need a quality process. Watch where you spend your time – it may be better to improve a process than heavily test its result.
- Don’t be afraid of complexity, but probably don’t accept it either.
- Spend your time focusing on actualities, spike possibilities, and if you are speculating you’re probably wasting your time in a meeting.