Attitude or methods?
May06
Are there must haves for testers? Things testers should know of methods they have to master or work with? Attitudes, habits or other things they should have in their set of (soft) skills?
Until now I haven’t joint weekend testing somewhere on the world. Maybe it’s time to organize this in the Netherlands. What I see in all these blogs around software testing is that those people are very motivated, to learn and improve their testing skills! In most of the post about WT you read a lot of lessons learned.
Jeroen Rosink shares with us a couple of these lessons learned in his post. In none of these lessons learned I see direct method related lessons, a lesson like, “As ISTQB Chapter X page xxx we must do this or that” . Also in other posts around weekend testing I can’t find these things. After careful consideration you can translate with some fantasy these things to a method like ISTQB, but this is not direct translation. That meant that the next question comes up in my mind today: Are methods enough? Is a tester that knows different methods, holds a couple of certifications in his portfolio able to the right tests?
Most of the people that join WT or other types of boot camps are often motivated. They want to share and collaborate. You can see that the attitude of these testers is a proactive one. There are motivated until the end. I know quite some people that are doing their job also on Saturday. The reason they are doing it is to earn money. But the driver of these testers isn’t the money.
They want to share their passion about the things they learned. But more important they use it for their customers. The attitude of these persons is: communicate about the lessons learned so everybody else can learn from them.
Sometimes I’m wondering why such a small part of the certain traditional test courses are focussed at the attitude of the testers. In my opinion are the testers of your organization the ambassadors by your clients.
Not the suit and the tie you wear but the attitude will determine how the client will judge you.
A focus at methods only isn’t enough, but is a focus at attitudes only enough? If you have the right attitude are you able to learn all testing skills that are needed to be a successful tester?
This post is the first one in a set of post about the testers attitude.
Please let me know what the most important testers attitudes are for you!
May 6th, 2010 at 11:20
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May 6th, 2010 at 11:37
There is already an European Weekend Testers community. See for example the upcoming event: http://weekendtesting.com/discussions?vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=90.0
But for me the most important soft skills for a tester should be: Convincing, advising, collaborating and listening. And if you’re in a management function motivating is an important one too.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:56
@Richard,
Thanks for the reply, you’re right with the EWT, In my first concept I wrote the Netherlands, changing this to Europe, makes a statement that wasn’t right. (changed is to Netherlands)
What do you think, are the attitudes you mentioned more important than having a lot of certificates and knowing all methods? What is in your opinion the balance?
Motivating is in my opinion an important one, this is linked to trust in people…
May 6th, 2010 at 13:09
Hello Andreas,
Nice posting you made. Interesting comparison between usage of methods and attitude.
I believe attitude and methods alone are not enough. If I speak with fellow testers about books and they look at me with glazy eyes and confessing they haven’t read a book related to testing in the last 8 years I wonder how the maintained their value as tester.
Reading books, or learning in the first place is something we seem all to agree upon. We even discuss it with our employer. Mainly it is our attitude we are not using it properly.
If you look at the postings related to weekend testing, the lessons learned are primarily those additional lessons I didn’t have out the methods. Lessons I came up with to value the time I spend on testing. I believe the willingness of learning values over any method.
It is some kind of attitude of a tester to look what he personally learned and can become better as tester instead of copying sentences from methods.
Though, books and multiple methods can help the tester to find the questions. And sometimes place the information in proper perspective.
Regards,
Jeroen
May 6th, 2010 at 15:16
“Is a tester that knows different methods, holds a couple of certifications in his portfolio able to the right tests?”
A reminder: “knowing different methods” and “holds a couple of certifications” are orthogonal categories. Neither has a direct relationship to the other.
Maybe the reason that you don’t see “direct method related lessons, a lesson like, “As ISTQB Chapter X page xxx we must do this or that” is because the ISTQB’s direct method related lessons are so pathetically limited. The ISTQB isn’t a method in any case; it’s a marketing organization for certifications. Any “method” that it purports to teach is a side effect. When I was asked to join the ISTQB, I was told in no uncertain terms, “Think of the money you’ll make.” Here’s more direct evidence for the ISTQB being a marketing organization, a promoter of fear, rather than a promoter of skill. http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/130
The second false dichotomy here is the one between attitude (mindset) and methods (techniques). Both are important; excellence in one won’t make up for absence of the other. But there’s also something missing here: skillI –the ability to choose and apply techniques appropriately.
What attitudes are important? I’d include a passion for learning; tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; patience with and compassion for other people on the project; curiosity; skepticism (not the rejection of belief but the rejection of certainty); congruence (that is, the capacity to match words and other forms of expression with feelings and thoughts). With these in your mindset, I’d suggest that learning of techniques and skill would thend to develop quickly and naturally.
—Michael B.
May 6th, 2010 at 15:17
Include with that skillset the ability to close an italics tag properly. Doh!
—Michael B.
May 6th, 2010 at 15:39
@Jeroen, Thanks for your response. I agree with you that lifelong learning for testing is needed. But if testers haven’t read any test related documents over the last 8 years, what do you think of their attitude? Is it still fun for them? Do they take their job seriously?
@Michael Bolton, thanks for sharing the funny/poor conversation as metioned in the blog of James. Sometimes is the Glossary of these methods/advertisement (sorry for the word) useful to speak the same language.
As said, showing your added value to the customer is important, what you need is the ability to choose and apply techniques. Without the mindset, that it’s important to share them with the stakeholder for example you missed the point. Balancing is needed I agree with that.
Thanks for the other attitudes, I come back to that later.
May 6th, 2010 at 16:33
Nice post!
One area where I disagree and which feeds into Michael’s point about skepticism is that we should be questioning ourselves. Where does my opinion come from? Is what I just said right? For example
“Not the suit and the tie you wear but the attitude will determine how the client will judge you. ”
In an ideal tester’s world this would be how it works. In my experience, in reality people will judge you on your first impression and now matter what attitude you have will change that opinion. Try showing up in jeans and a flabby t-shirt at a job interview and see if you attidude saves the day…
I agree that people with all the positive points you and Michael mentioned will make better testers, no question about it.
I’d like to invite you to Saturday’s EWT to see for yourself what people bring to the (virtual) table. It’s a good opportunity to experiment with your testing skills and theories in a safer environment than your workplace. It helps that people are friendly
What I get out of it more than anything else it the experience and memories of taking part in sessions.
Thanks for posting this, it made me think, which is a good thing.
Thomas
May 6th, 2010 at 18:27
@Thomas,
Thanks for the response.
You’re right at the point people judge in the first second. The 2+9 second rule says, people judge in the first 2 seconds, then you have 9 second to convince them and connect with each other. That’s why I often wear a suit if I have to go to a new customer for my boss.
Let’s do together a good job for our customers, so they know we’re good in our profession. And we like the job we do.
May 6th, 2010 at 22:18
On Weekend Testing:
We have localized chapters running currently, but this does not mean that you cannot attend the Mumbai Weekend Testing (for instance) when you’re from the Netherlands. It just means, that these are primarily by Mumbai located people, but you may in fact join any of the currently organized chapters: Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Europe, Astralia/New Zealand. We’d love to see you attend one of our next missions, usually at 3.30pm GMT on Skype for Europe.
On attitude vs. methods:
It’s one thing to know all the methods, it’s another thing to know when they best apply. My attitude to learning new methods is to get to know more methods, try them out, in order to get to know when I shall apply them the next time I’m faced with a problem. Weekend Testing provided me with some thoughts on new methods, but also with the context to apply it – or a binary: is this applicable in that context?
On self-education:
There are other pointers on the web where you may want to take a closer look for self-education. Weekend Testing is one source of inspiration, blogs, tweets, and other informations are also available. Just as magazine articles, online articles and conferences, there are also video tutorials like Bach’s and Kaner’s BBST course. In your own company you may want to introduce Testing Dojos, or just a weekly Brown Bag, where you get together for lunch & learn. Several people also raise regularly testing challenges on their blog: James Bach, Michael Bolton and Matt Heusser are just a few there. Finally, the Miagi-Do school of software testing might be another source for self-education.
But, unfortunately, you won’t take all (or just some of) these sources into account without the right attitude.
Happy learning.