Creative Work

It’s early January, but I think I’ve already read at least a half dozen web articles on how testers need to be creative and use their brains, etc.. The articles are exactly on point in some sense, but most give me the feeling that the authors think that software testing is (one of) the only profession(s) that requires thinking and creativity.

Which is, of course, complete crap.

In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink tells story after story about how creativity is the competitive advantage for any business, and any knowledge worker. The jobs of today, and especially the future all will require creativity and thinking over “book smarts” and rote work. Software development (including testing) is just one example of a knowledge worker role that requires those skills. Everyone who wants a successful career should look for ways to learn, opportunities to be creative, and new ways to think about hard problems.

Peter Drucker came up with the term Knowledge Worker in the 1950’s, and most definitions I’ve read describe software testing quite well (wikipedia article here if you’d like to form your own opinion) – but if you don’t want to click, try this excerpt:

Knowledge work can be differentiated from other forms of work by its emphasis on “non-routine” problem solving that requires a combination ofconvergent, divergent, and creative thinking.

I think the problems in software testing (and in software development in general) are some of the most interesting and challenging problems anywhere – but I do not believe that the approach to the problem solving is particularly unique – especially as unique as some of my industry peers seem to imply.

I encourage anyone curious about knowledge work to read Druckers writings on the subject, and especially Pink’s book mentioned above.