Volunteers needed for a FREE remote testing workshop concept

I am looking for two or three people to act as guinea pigs for a remote testing workshop concept I am working on.

The workshop will be FREE but require a couple hours of your time each week for about seven weeks.  I am hoping to start this workshop be the end of August 2015.

• Ideally the participants will be fairly new to testing with less than two years experience. 
• Able to work within UK timezone (Early evenings)
• Willing to provide feedback about the workshop.

Why am I doing this?

I want to give back to the testing community, I understand it can be difficult for those new to testing to develop testing skills and techniques that they can apply directly to their work.  The concept of the workshop is that there will be series of self learning exercises and some challenges that they can apply to their testing in their current role.   Each week the group will get together using video conferencing to discuss what they learnt and share it with others in the group.

I currently have one volunteer and I am looking for 2 or 3 more, if you are interested then please reach out to me via twitter @steveo1967 and we can discuss in more detail.

**UPDATE - it is now full - please contact me via twitter if you are still interested and I can create a waiting list.**

Testing Qualifications - Certification revisited

Let me start this article by saying I am not against testing qualification at all and they can be a useful resource. Note I use the word qualification; certification is getting to become a bit of a loaded word. Richard Bradshaw talked about his experience here.  I tend to agree with what Richard is saying, as a starting point ISQTB (Or whatever name they wish to use) is a good idea and concept.  For those who have never been involved in testing and wish to know more about ‘some’ of the techniques and methods and a little about the history of testing then it can be a useful building block.  My concern is that it is not being sold in this way and that it becomes a filter to be used by companies and employment agencies.  I have talked about this previously here.   Danny Dainton also talked about his views on ISQTB from the new tester perspective here 

The reason why I have revisited this discussion is due to the recent debate on twitter about test certification and especially ISQTB.  Part of the discussion was the way in which numbers appear to have been used in an advertisement for companies to ensure their testing teams get the ISQTB certification.

Advert can be seen here. Googling a little more provided me with this information 

The bit that concerns me with this sort of misleading propaganda is this:

Various studies estimate the cost of a post-production software defect in the range of $4,000 - $5,000.[1] If ISTQB Software Tester Certification can help a software tester to eliminate just one post-production defect in his or her career, the return on investment for an ISTQB exam could exceed 1500%. With the Volume Purchase Program, that ROI could exceed 2000%.

Where are these figures obtained from?  It is a fallacy that with the way software development works today that fixing a defect later costs so much more.  Details of the cost of defect fallacy can be found here and ANYONE working in software development please read this great  book – The leprechauns of software engineering

This then lead to a talk that Rex Black was doing at STPCON in which the phrase:

“…greatly lowers the cost of post-release defects.”

Can clearly be seen

This is what concerns me a great deal, everything within the ISQTB world appears to be focused on profit and how to maximize the most amount of money with the least amount of effort.  Now someone may correct me if I am wrong on that one.  I do hope that I am and that the people who provide this training do really care about the testing profession and the people paying their hard earned money is of something that is worthwhile to them.  The problem is when profit is involved in learning activities the needs and the best interests of the student are normally lower down the list than the ROI (sic) for the training company shareholders.

I am not against testing qualifications I am against the way in which they are being sold and used within the profession.  I do not like the use of multiple choice exams in which someone can learn by rote and then pass and not know anything really valuable about testing.

We need a system of learning in which we can learn the basics, practice them and be assessed on our thinking and reasoning. The problem is that this is too difficult to do en masse since it eats into profit hence my concerns about profit before learning.

There are other testing training opportunities such as the Rapid software testing course by James Bach and Michael Bolton is another alternative.

Or  black box software testing course created by Cem Kaner is a step in the right direction.

How come we do not hear more about these?

Is the lobbying and scaremongering of the ISQTB too big?  I really hope not there are many passionate testers in the world and we have a moral and ethical obligation to provide the correct training and learning opportunities for these people.  We need to stop using false data and information to scare companies and managers into making people attend these courses

We need to be truthful to both those attending such courses and those paying for these courses.   Maybe there should be a disclaimer on the ISQTB website?

• This foundation exam will teach you about some methods and techniques of testing however it will NOT be able to prove the testing competencies or abilities of those doing the examination.
• It will be able to tell you that the person doing the exam has a good ability to remember stuff or got very lucky when selecting multi-choice answers at random.

I think I would be more comfortable with ISQTB if they provided alternatives and did not sell the exam as a way to be competent tester.

Off track slightly – when I decided to become a rugby league coach many years ago I had to do the following

• exam
• a practical assessment with the trainer
• 3 assessments in the field with an assessor
• keep a training diary for a year, of new stuff I learnt or stuff I implemented 

Only after that year could I class myself as a competent rugby coach.   Hmmm that is an idea maybe ISQTB could do that kind of assessment and training?

We are all responsible for our own training and learning and there are many ways in which we can learn. The problem is I see time and time again many people who call themselves testers and have done no learning or training specifically about testing since sitting the ISQTB foundation course.  This is what really needs to change in our craft.  We need to have a passion for what we enjoy.

I will finish this article with something I tweeted during the discussion and something I really do believe in

Testing is about asking questions and using critical and creative thinking.  It cannot be measured with a simple pass/fail

Something Old, Something New

"Be careful. People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things . . . well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, say; a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don’t want to know that man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds . . . Not news but olds, telling people that what they think they already know is true." 

TERRY PRATCHETT The Truth: a Novel of Discworld

This passage from the Terry Pratchett novel "The Truth" resonates very much with me especially when it comes to world of testing.  I see a connection with how different people in our craft react with each other when it comes to new ideas, thoughts and innovations.  There are those who embrace change and want to know more.  There are then those who like time to think critically and use different forms of reasoning before deciding if it is good or not.  Then there are those who dismiss out of hand anything new, anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or goes against their current beliefs.

My concern and the reason for this blog post is how within testing we can become more creative and innovative.  As one of my previous post stated I think to be creative we need to think about finding problems than trying to solve them.  Continuing on the path of our focus being only to solve problems restricts our creative thinking.  At the same time we need to find ways to convince those who dismiss anything new or unexpected.  To do this a set of guidelines should be introduced to encourage creative thinking rather than discourage:

• Those who easily dismiss new ideas should not be quick to be negative, negative comments and views are one of the easiest ways to destroy creativity.

“The creative impulses of most people can be suffocated by negative criticism, cynical put-downs or dismissive remarks.” 

Ken Robinson – Out of our Minds

• Company leaders need to lead from the top and encourage new ideas and innovation, making the task of thinking (creative and divergent) as important as other everyday tasks. They need to give time to allow this to happen.

“it’s not enough to think differently. We also have to act differently” 

Abraham Lincoln (Taken from  Ken Robinson – Out of our Minds)

• There is a need to encourage people to try, and to see failure and mistakes as learning opportunities. We should stop blaming and encourage risk taking to enhance the opportunities for serendipity moments.

“We don’t teach people how to deal with failure and this is a fundamental oversight.” 

Ken Robinson – Out of our Minds

• We need to have more diversity within teams, encourage people who may have different views to yourself to work with you.  Employ someone who thinks differently to you.  This gives more chances that new ideas will be generated from these differences.

“Such people will provide a wider range of knowledge from which to extract information and build upon ideas.” 

Why diversity is the mother of  creativity - Jeffrey Baumgartner

• Spend more on training the people who work with you or for you.  Take an interest in their learning, encourage, mentor, and support their creative needs.

 “Creative teaching requires moving from a focus on imparting knowledge to knowledge acquisition, providing opportunities for the learner to engage in deep thought and productive action.” 

Susan Keller-Mathers, Encyclopedia of Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent

• It is not enough to come up with new ideas; creativity involves doing something and applying your ideas.

"Innovation is the process of putting new ideas into practice. Innovation is applied creativity." 

Ken Robinson – Out of our Minds

Some may find this a strange post and wonder what it has to do with testing.  I see testing as a very creative process especially when it is unburdened from too much process and stifled by procedures.  Exploratory testing lends itself very easily to the creative process and encourages the tester to think and discover new and exciting ideas.  We need to do more of this style of thinking so we become more engaged with our creative side.  A few people over the past few years have been saying that testing is dead, I would say that the non-thinking uncreative tester is going to die out and become extinct  (The checking robots as some may classify them).  We need to encourage and develop working environments in which  people can connect to their creative side and be allowed the freedom to explore new ideas and not be afraid of making affordable small mistake from which they can learn.

I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes from the American poet Jack Kerouac,  It is OK to be different and to challenge the status quo we need to encourage more crazy ones into testing.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” 

Jack Kerouac

Mentoring a New Tester

A couple of days ago my son in law was talking to my wife with regards to what he would like to do after he completes his service in the Army and what options he has. From this conversation my wife had an idea about him entering the world of software testing and as such asked me to have a word with him to see if he would like to join this crazy world.

Matt (@Matt_Wellington) is a member of the Royal engineers and has done two tours of Afghanistan has a member of the EOD bomb search team. He spends his days searching for IEDs and making sure it is safe for colleagues and local people to walk safely on the roads. He currently has two years (plus) left in the Army and is looking for new challenges; well software testing is a challenge and one I feel he could be great at.

I mentioned on twitter that I was thinking of mentoring Matt and any advice would be welcome.

I got a sudden flurry of encouraging tweets.

@ola_hylten

@steveo1967 Why not dig into the exercises in rapid software testing? I don't think @jamesmarcusbach or @michaelbolton would mind that!

@PeterWalen

@steveo1967 Who is he with and when does he get out? I might suggest some intro stuff "Testing Computer Software" tied with non comp. books.

@michaelbolton

@steveo1967 Give him something to test. Observe him doing it. Feed back. Repeat

@destruise

@steveo1967 It gives them a good insight on the 'before' and 'after', and by writing cases from the start they are productive! win/win :)

@ola_hylten

@steveo1967 Then you can move on and do weekend testing with him observing first and then you do pair testing with him at the keyboard.

@michaelbolton

@steveo1967 "How do you recognize a bug?" has many parallels with "How do you recognize a bomb?"

@steveo1967 So let me get this straight: he searches for things that might blow up harmfully, and you say he has no testing experience?! ;)

@ola_hylten

@michaelbolton @steveo1967 Good point Michael :) Software testing has less personal risks, hopefully, most of the time ;)

@PeterWalen

@steveo1967 agree w/ @michaelbolton He's got training in critical thinking now apply it differently. 1/2

@PeterWalen

@steveo1967 @michaelbolton If he's not ovrseas maybe test meetups may help? Software generally safer than ordinance ;)

So after explaining what testing involves (Briefly – some may think how can you do this briefly!!!)

I first gave him the challenge as suggested by Michael Bolton ‘How do you search/recognise a bomb?”

Matt explained about planning before hand, then re-evaluating when at the site, following safety procedures and using local and own knowledge to search the area. Then when something looks suspicious use techniques learnt during training and on the job experience to confirm the presence of an explosive. Marking the area as such if it is dangerous or the fact it has been searched and then reporting to his senior office the results of what was found.

After hearing this I explained the comparisons with software testing and his answer was is that all this is to it then? Oh the joys of the innocent……

I then gave Matt some material to read, wrongly or rightly the CD from the ISEB course, I feel this is a good way to start and to get to know some of the basic methods of testing, boundary, static etc. I also gave him copies of some excellent software testing books.

The art of software testing by Myers

A Practitioner's Guide to Software Test Design by Lee Copeland

Both which I still use as references

My plan for mentoring are as following

• Basic techniques – the toolset every tester needs
• Scripted Testing
• Exploratory Testing
• Test planning
• Test reporting/debrief
• Weekend testing
• Paired testing

The aim is to have lots and lots of practical/hands on.

Matt does have limited time since in a cpl of weeks he will be working 7 days a week so I need to use an approach which is not overloading and allows him to build up his testing skill set and increase his confidence of the craft.

To this aim I gave Matt his first testing exercise based upon a weekend testing session organized by Jon Bach

The mission was to test the ebay website and find:

• The most expensive
• A search that returned only one result
• A search that returned an unusual item

I asked him to document what he did, what he found and most important his thought process.

The results of this first testing session are amazing – I think I have found I natural tester…… I will publish the results of this first testing effort in my next article.

If anyone wants to help/encourage/support or advise Matt then please get in touch with him on twitter (@Matt_wellington)

Training in India

I recently ran an exploratory testing workshop in India and I thought I would blog about this experience.

There are many differing views about Indian software development teams, some which are unfounded and some that are characteristics of the working style of Indian teams.

From my experience of working with many different teams around the world the statement above can really be applied to any team no matter where they are in the world how people interact and their style of working is dependent on their culture and way of working.

The workshop I was running had a lot of interaction and required engagement from those attending otherwise it is hard to gauge if the audience understands what you are trying to deliver. I was worried due to what I had been informed about the culture within India that there would be little if any engagement and everyone would agree with what I was saying, even if what I was saying was wrong. (I like to set little traps in my presentations and say things which anyone in testing will know is stupid and start a debate.)

I remembered an article that Jon Bach had written about his viewpoint on working with Indian testers and how he ended up making an apology. (http://jonbox.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/to-india-an-apology/). This article was KEY in how I ended up presenting the workshop to the teams in India.

So taking on board the lessons Jon had learnt I started to change my presentation a little to become more personal more about who I was rather than what I was trying to deliver.

I changed the start of the presentation and included a lot of personal information about myself including photos which I had of my family. When I started to run the workshop I explained that this was just an approach, a possible way of working I was not going to say to anyone attending that this is how you MUST do things and if you disagree with anything I am saying then please let me know. I then spent the next 20-30 minutes explaining about myself and my family. I think that this part was the key element – the need to reach out to the India team on a personal level, family in India culture is very important (Joint Family). I talked about our daughter and granddaughter coming to live with us when her husband was away for six months with the army and lots more. I then asked people attending to talk about themselves and their families. Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed it become more relaxed and people appeared more receptive.

Can this one little change make such a difference?

So I begin delivering the workshop and found the engagement and interaction of those attending to be amongst the best I have come across whilst I have been delivering this workshop. There was passion, interaction, thoughtful questions and in some cases surprising answers. In my opinion it was one the best workshops I have ever been involved with.

Was I just lucky?

If I had not changed the start of the presentation would I have still ended up with the same reaction and interaction?

I cannot really say since I have no comparison – this was a one chance to deliver to a team in India, I was on a tight schedule, so it was important to get it right.

I really must say a big thank you to Jon Bach, since without reading about his experience I think I would have blindly gone and presented and not got the response I required nor would anyone have really learnt anything.

So the tip for anyone working or dealing with teams from India is to make sure you can engage with them on a personal level , open up and let people know who you really are.