You are a kind of a priest, was the commentary of a new colleague. At first a strange remark, but I think it is partially correct. Last week I started at my new job and changed from Sogeti to Collis, a move because I’m curious how it is to work for a smaller company <<end advertisement>>. Everything these first weeks is new for me and I have had a lot of meetings to get to know each other. At the end of one of these meetings we exchanged these remarkable sentences:

Colleague: “Welcome at Collis, if there is anything wrong, and you’re not smiling anymore if you’re talking about your job promise to call me.”
Me: “That’s fine (with a smile on my face because until now I like my new job)”
Colleague: “What type of person are you? What drives you to do this job?”
Me: “Learning all day in this new business, motivating other to do so, working this kind of people that are here (I met a lot of highly motivated people)”|
Colleague: “You’re a kind of a priest?”
Me: “Huh?”
Colleague: “Yes a priest, how you act and what you’re doing.”
Me: “What exactly do you mean? Why a priest?”
Colleague: “You have a smile on your face like a priest when you talking about your job, your firm in what you do. It’s a kind of a faith I think for you. You like it to motivate others.”
Me: “Is that positive or negative?”
Colleague: “I think positive…”
Me: “Hmm, let me think about that, maybe it’s a good topic for a blog post.”

Et voilà, I think he is right, at least we can make a nice comparison to this kind of people. And learn from them on how they act and what they are doing for others. In this second post about attitudes of testers, let’s see what we can learn from them priests or preachers. I’ll try to point out some characteristics and translate them to testers but there are maybe more things we can learn from them. Let me know.

Faith
First of all, the most striking characteristic is faith. They are strongly related to a certain faith, and know it from inside out. They know often all the details of their faith, the pro’s and con’s. They trust on their faith and the things they do are based on the principles of their faith.

As testers we can believe in a certain approach (or methodology). Some of you have their own and are working with the best of several best practices (that’s why a best practice doesn’t exist ). You firmly believe in the things you’re doing. And if possible you try to convince others of your faith. I think it’s good to choose for yourself a certain approach. That doesn’t mean, just one simple approach but it can be a combination of a few. In different situations, you’ll need a different solution.

Belief the message
Can’t we say that most of the priests belief in the message they send out to other people? Based on years of devotion, a lifestyle and experience they form their opinion and send this message out to other people. That doesn’t mean this message can’t change over the years. But they believe in the message they send at a certain moment.

Believe in what you say testers! Especially during meetings. For example the project meeting with developers and the project manager. If you make a choice based on what you know, and your experience, dare to make those choices.  You’re often the test expert, so you can tell what to do in the situation. How often does it happen, if the developer says, it’s already tested that the project manager says testing that part isn’t needed anymore? So when are you finished?
Believe your message and opinion and do what you think that is needed related to test activities. Let the developer prove it’s tested properly. In this case act like a priest and practice what you preach.

Listen carefully
One of the quality that priests have is that they can carefully listen to others. They are able to listen, ask questions and search for the deepest motivation and thoughts people have (often in situations with a lot of problems).

We testers also have to listen carefully to a lot of different people. I think we have to learn to do a better job in learning to others. At the first place, listen to the end user. What do they want? When is a project ready? What is fit for use from their perspective?

You have to listen to project managers if they explain their choices. Listen to developers and architects when they explain the solution. Ask questions, listen to what they say, ask more questions go deeper and listen again. You cannot judge, even make choices, if you’re not sure what the drivers of others are.

Tip: The better you listen to your oracles the better choices you can make, the better end result you will have.

Ability to deliver the right help
Priests deliver after listening carefully. And hopefully give the right help at the right place and time. Based on their experiences, what they learned from other troubles, they can decide what to offer. Based on their faith with the principles the priests make choices.

As Michael Bolton says in his response at the earlier Attitude of testers post “do we as testers need the skill that gives us the ability to choose and apply techniques appropriately?”. I think that’s true. Why? Because you know things of different methodologies, experience is needed, and motivation but more important you’ll need to choose between these things.

What solution fits in which situation? Experience can help in combination with your ability to listen to what others have to say.
Some final remarks:

• Do the test rites that are needed to accomplish the assignment
• Know what’s going on in your surrounding
• Help others with for example improving their skills
• Last but not least testing is not just  a simple job, it’s a mission.

Maybe choosing this job (priest) is not the right example at this moment, with all the negative publicity around the Catholic Church. Sorry for that. But I had this conversation, and therefore I had these thoughts.

Earlier posts about the testers attitude:
#1: Attitude or methods
#2: Testers are priests

1. Tweets that mention Software Testing and more » Blog Archive » Testers are like priests -- Topsy.com Says:
   May 14th, 2010 at 13:40

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Andreas Prins. Andreas Prins said: New Blog post about the attitude of testers #AoT #2: Testers are like priests, http://tinyurl.com/24fv9a9 What do you think? [...]