Ask anyone who works with
me what makes me happy, and they will tell you, "Being miserable".
I love bearing bad news, Oh, I pretend I am concerned
about ensuring quality, protecting the organisation and adding
value, but really I just love to find fault. I love to say "I told
you so", or "Your all a bunch of cowboys" or "This is simply not
fit for purpose" But for a tester just to go about finding fault
and telling anyone that will listen that the code is a pile of
'doo-doo' is a bit like a child that refuses to eat their greens
and is allowed to go straight for the pudding. It really isn't
healthy.
I would
like to suggest two fundamental and basic areas of test discipline
we need to adopt as part of a healthy 'eat your greens' approach to
testing,
First
I believe we have a
responsibility to really understand both, what are the
requirements, and what we are testing. I know it sounds obvious,
but I can't count the number of times I have seen bug reports
raised which totally misses the point. I have seen functionality
reported as a bug, which is actually the exact functionality the
business asked for. I have seen bugs raised, against functionality
that is not due to be delivered. I have even seen a bug raised
against a system we were not even testing!
Raising invalid bug
reports helps no one, and adds administrative overheads. Testers
have a responsibility to fully understand what is being tested and
what it is being tested against. Test managers have a
responsibility to ensure that they don't rush testers into writing
and executing tests without enough time to prepare and to get up to
speed on the system.
Within this area of
understanding what is being tested, I think there is another area
that indicates a maturity of testing (and tester) which has to do
with discernment, making correct judgements and applying an
intelligent and critical evaluation of the merit of the test being
undertake. This involves not simply blindly following a test
script, but thoughtfully deciding when to deviate from the script,
either because the deviation is likely to reveal issues with the
system, or because the test itself in inadequate or wrong is some
respect.
Second
If we raise a bug, we
have a responsibility to give the developer as much information as
we can to assist them with understand the bug and working towards
its resolution. Depending on the tester, there will be more or less
information that we can give, ranging from a full account of what
the bug is and how it can be recreated through to suggesting root
causes and avenues of investigation or corrective action the
developer can take.
I have seen some truly
appalling bug reports in my time, and have had to sit and take the
justified criticism of development leads on the chin and then go
and have stern words with the team. As a test manager, it is your
responsibility to ensure your team are eating their
greens.
If there was a light bulb
joke for testers it might go like this.
How many testers does
it take to change a light bulb? None, they only point out that it
is broken!
Simply writing the
bug report is not enough, like many things we say, it's not what we
say, but how we say it that counts. Mature testers, (who eat their
greens) take time to read through their bug reports to make sure
they make sense, are well structured, are devoid of accusations and
confrontational tones and give as much relevant information as
possible. Certainly a bug report should only contain one issue, not
two or three (or more!). Top tip for bug reports…… screen
shots.
I am sure others could
come up with additional items, which though not quite as fun as
raising the bug, are none the less critical to a healthy mature
test process and test team. In fact why not suggest some via the
comment section, that way we can all come up with clean plates and
be ready for some jelly* and ice cream.
Tony Simms is
the Principal Consultant at Roque Consulting (www.roque.co.uk
). He can be contacted via email at tony.simms@roque.co.uk
*
For American readers, that's Jello
not what you think of as jelly but that the rest of the English
speaking world rightly calls jam!