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Testers are Gate-Crashers

 

The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester, which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective.

It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, Slack, and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory.

I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be.

Perhaps you'd like to join me?

 --00--

"Testers are the gatekeepers of quality"

Instinctively I don't like the sound of that, but I wonder what you mean by it. Perhaps one or more of these?

Testers set the quality standards for a product.

Testers make the final decision on whether a product ships.

Testers choose how to trade quality off against other concerns.

I can see from your face that I'm not quite capturing what's in your head? Remember that gatekeeping is binary. While the gate can sit on the fence, the keeper has to choose: in or out.

Yes, I suppose that does sound like testers having control over business decisions. And, yes, I'm sure you're right, nobody wants that. I have another suggestion, though!

Testers are responsible for the quality of a product.

OK, you guessed that I threw that one in for a laugh! You're not high enough up the greasy pole to believe that kind of responsibility can legitimately come without a corresponding  sackful of authority, resource, and budget. 

And, to be fair to you, I know you think that everyone has a role to play in making a product at the level of quality the company wants.

We could go on like this, and it would be fun, but I know you're busy so perhaps you had something more like this in mind?

Testers assess whether a product meets quality standards ...

You like that one? Less gatekeepers and more box-tickers for you, then, with someone else to decide whether a customer gets the thing yesterday, today, next week, or never. But I hadn't quite finished:

... arrived at through collaboration ...

I'm feeling that you're less sure about this one now, but we've already agreed that the compromise between quality and other factors is a business decision. And in any case there's more:

... in line with whatever time and resource budgets have been agreed.

Ah, you're back onside now! Yes, I thought this was where you were at. You've told me many times that the price of perfect is prohibitive. 

While this is certainly within the scope of a testing role for me, it isn't quite the Gatekeeper of Quality is it? It also massively undersells the wide range of benefits that a good tester can bring to an organisation by opening or even crashing through gates rather than standing next to them.
Image: https://flic.kr/p/4MieTg

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Comments

  1. Conrad BraamMay 30, 2023 at 7:35 AM

    As always you put us in our place with your writing, while giving us insight and inspiration to work better at our testing and reporting what we find more clearly James.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. James ThomasMay 30, 2023 at 8:21 AM

      Cheers, Conrad! It's not my intention to put anyone in their place but I'm very happy to be an inspiration for better testing.

      Delete
  2. priteshJune 1, 2023 at 1:12 PM

    [[..Pingback..]]
    This article was curated as a part of #88th Issue of Software Testing Notes Newsletter.
    https://softwaretestingnotes.substack.com/p/issue-88-software-testing-notes
    Web: https://softwaretestingnotes.com

    ReplyDelete

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