Monday, March 10, 2014

Testing Timeline: What is your %

Do you test software? Do you test every day? Do you get paid for it?
If you answered yes to any of the two questions, I have one more question for you :)
What percentage of office time do you actually test (interact with the software)?
The answer to 'Testing includes...' might differ from one person to another. I don't want to get into that discussion right now. I am more concerned when people spend very little time interacting with the product and complain of bugs being found by the customer. Consider the following three scenarios:

Scenario 1:
A feature has been revamped and will be released to market soon. A tester who has never worked on the feature is called to test the revamp. The tester could:
  • Understand the existing feature
  • Understand the revamp
  • Analyze the XYZ specification
  • Write test cases
  • Test the feature and file bugs
  • Test the system
Scenario 2:
Your team reaches office at 9am and is available till 6pm.
The total time spent testing the product on an average is 3 hrs. Rest of the time is spent on the following:
  • Attending meetings
  • Updating KnowledgeBase pages
  • Plan for next release
  • Taking interviews
  • Document the learning
Scenario 3:
Here is a tester who refuses to follow the rules. She never attends any meeting unless her inputs are a must-have. If she wants to learn anything, she knows the right person who can help her. She is very good at networking and has lots of friends in the whole company. She has one bad habit though, as her colleagues mention. No - not the one about rules, when she is given a feature to test, she spends most of the time interacting with the feature. Her activities can be summed up as follows: 
  • Understand the mission quickly
  • Highlight the traps and risks
  • Test the feature, system
  • Use information from different sources as a heuristic
  • Get help from those who can help her
What is your take on 'How much should you INTERACT with the feature/product/system?'
If you are smart enough, I would expect your answer to start with
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'It Depends...' and continue the discussion. At the same time, I am open for new answers.

1 comments:

Blench and Bloom said...

Thank you for wwriting this