Anyone can be a tester

I came across a situation a few weeks back that I have faced many times before. There is a  project kicking off and it's going to require testing - excellent I should be able to help. Being a passionate tester and test manager I asked if they need any help, after all there are several 0's in the project value. The project leadership team said 'no, we are all good the team from blah office are available'. No problems I say, let me know if the situation changes. Being a tester, and to be frank, a nosey little bugga I did some research, it turns out that the 'Test Manager' has 'Solutions Architect' as her current role in her email signature - hmmm. A little more investigation and the 'Testers' are listed as 'System Engineers' as is the 'Performance Tester'. I was feeling rather deflated. But it got me thinking - why is that so many people in IT organisations seem not to respect testing as a profession? I mean have you heard of a tester being asked to come on board a project to be a SharePoint developer, or DBA?

I recall a presentation delivered by Dr Mark Pedersen, a colleague of mine at K.J. Ross & Associates titled "Selling Testing to the Business". In this presentation there was a slide which presented the findings of a study done by HP in the early 90's (Grady, 1994). I have included it below...

I've translated and calculated some more metric's into the table below. I like to look at things from a few angles.

Test Type	Defects Per Hours	1 Defect every ... Hours	... Defects detected in an 8 hours day
Day to Day	0.21	4.76	1.68
Black box	0.28	3.57	2.24
Glass Box	0.32	3.13	2.56
Inspection	1.05	0.95	8.4

For the purpose of this post, I am focused on the 'Day to Day' vs the 'Black Box' metrics. Based on the above numbers it's reasonable to infer that by using Black box testing technic's (and all other things being equal) we will find slightly more defects than if we just followed the business processes.

My hypothesis as to why so many IT people don't respect testing as a profession, and were the old saying 'Anyone can do testing' comes from, is based on the observations and experiences were folks from all manner of backgrounds and vocations have been involved in testing and found defects just by using the system in the manner to which it was intended... And here in-lies the challenge to the current and next generation of testers to advance the profession by improving our effectiveness - or maybe it's a case of simply communicating the improvements we've already made????

Happy New Year, 2011 bring it on!

On the brink of returning to the office fulltime I'm excited!

2011 is going to a big year for me personally as we embark on the construction of our new house. It's only just dawned on me, even though it took 8 months to develop and get approval of the floor plan, there is soooooooo much more detailed requirements are needed to ensure that the vision in our heads becomes reality. Stay tuned for more on that front as the build progresses.

During the break I received notification that my application to the Australian Computer Society had been accepted. I also received a copy of their magazine, Information Age. I was most pleased to discover the quality of the articles and the topic's covered were of such a high standard that I read it cover to cover, and instead of the novel I'm in the middle of reading! I particularly liked the articles 'Are you ready for 2020' and 'What's a head in 2011'.

I was lucky enough to finish by break by attending the K.J. Ross & Associates 2011 Staff Summer School. The summer school brings together the extended KJRA family from around the country for a 3 day sabbatical. Consultants flew in from Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra to join our colleagues in Brisbane at the University of Queensland.

The courses tort at Summer School cover our own CSTP Foundation; Leadership, Negotiation and Customer Service sessions presented by Rohan Toll. And for those with a technical bent, almost 24 hours of sessions covering various software testing tools (Microsoft VS2010, TOSCA and Silk Performance Tester). The technical stream contained a mixture of technical briefings and hands on training.

Finally I am excited about the program we are putting together for the ACS Testing and KJRA Test Managers Special Interest Groups. I am super excited to be able to announce the following presentation topic to be covered in 2011 (schedule to be confirmed):

• Dr Tafline Murane will deliver her Eurostar 2010 presentation The Carrot or the Whip - What Motivates Testers?; and
• Dr Mark Pedersen will present a Microsoft VS2010 un-boxing and master class; and
• The award winning DIaC Performance Testing team will take us through the journey 'Performance Testing Improvement Through Application Performance Management'.

And this is only the beginning!