…and Now I’m Back
My interlude is over, and I’m back to blogging – at least that’s the plan, and I don’t see any reason why I won’t be back on the blog-waves on a semi-regular basis.
My summer was crazy with work. I probably let myself get spread too thin, and I paid the price of context switches and deadlines and delivered what I planned to deliver. One nice thing that happened amidst all of this work is that I had a chance to practice and polish my personal kanban process. I’m a big fan of pkb and should probably share my approach to the tool sometime.
But I took a break for more reasons than being busy. Every few months, it seems, I seem to have a personal crisis about the future of software testing. I sort of find it ridiculous that there are so many self-proclaimed experts in a field that is at best barely defined. Everyone seems to have a definition of what testing is, and what testers do. I think that’s perfectly fine…until testers begin to discount (or mock) the testing work of others just because what their definitions of roles and approach don’t match. I bet what I do is different than most of you – but we’re probably all still testers (of some form)and I expect we can find some value in the diversity of our approaches.
Then, after reading one too many articles from testing “experts” that failed to grasp many of the basic concepts of what they were writing about, I began to fear that we’re taking a step backwards for every step we advance. Rather than wrestle with so many things outside of my control, I decided it was time for me to focus on what I could control and give myself a break from the testing community. I love you all, but sometimes you drive me crazy.
I didn’t plan to solve any of my internal strive during my time away, and I didn’t. But – I think I’m better equipped to focus on what I can control and continue to share what I find valuable in my world. I still believe in a bright future for software testing, but we need more open, seeking minds to get us there.
Hope you had a nice summer, and good that you are back and can start producing more interesting articles/posts/insights for us to read. 🙂
I too see many misconceptions about software testing / quality, some of which can be explained away by semantics, some not.
I’d like to know more of what you’re thinking here because after some discussion* we could reduce the perceived discrepancy to a method of increasing business value-add from testers.
*I’m sure you’re smarter than I, but nobody’s omniscient and everybody communicates a bit differently 🙂
Hi Alan, in this time I have read ‘ The zen and the art of motorcycle manteinance’ and I recall you did talk us about that Ducati of yours.
There is a lot of talking to do about testing, and even if sometimes we step in the right direction and sometimes not, it is important to share and to talk about it, so it is nice to have you back.