Challenges and Wins

I was guest speaker for a software testing class at EC Utbildning a couple of weeks ago. I talked about one of my hobby horses — using automation to amplify my ability to explore — and I'll give the same talk at the Ministry of Testing Cambridge next Tuesday. Perhaps you can make it?

Chatting with the Swedish students on the call before my presentation I asked what they liked about testing and, as no-one seemed to want to go first, I gave my own answer:

I enjoy testing because it mixes technical, social, and intellectual challenges.

And that's true but it isn't always enjoyable in the moment.

Last week at work, in a small group session, I offered to share my screen while we tried to exercise and then, when it wasn't working, debug some new monitoring functionality.

Honeycomb is a valuable tool, and I've used it plenty of times, but not at an expert level. The instrumentation we'd been developing is based on existing code that integrates with Honeycomb and I have no experience of it at all. Still, I volunteered to drive because someone needed to and it's a learning opportunity for me.

But that didn't stop it being an uncomfortable feeling when I couldn't understand the data we were looking at, didn't follow the thoughts being shared by my partners, and had no suggestions for where to go next.

Not doing so well on the technical and intellectual challenges, then, but the social challenge was also very real. I have confidence in my own abilities, like and trust these colleagues, have paired with them many times, and know I can be vulnerable in front of them, yet I still feel extremely exposed in situations like this.

I don't know if I will ever get over that, but I do have some approaches for dealing with it these days, for instance:

Accept suggestions with humility not irritation
Be open and request explanations
Course-correct by summarising and asking for opinions

I don't always succeed, of course, but on this occasion I think I did well enough. And some days that's where the enjoyment comes from: discovering, exploring, and applying strategies for addressing the problem, whatever else happened. (And, no, we didn't get to the bottom of the issue on the call.)
Image: Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

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