Why Do We Test?

 [as seen on LinkedIn articles]

Testing might be seen as an afterthought and a something that can be done by anyone. For sure, almost anyone can do shallow testing to check basic functionality by clicking here and there while observing the product.

Why do we test then?

We live in a world where humans have limited abilities. We need products and services that will solve problems we are facing and to also make us more productive in carrying out our duties. Software products act as tools to solve our problems and help us where we are lacking in. If a product fails to help us in solving our problems, then it is not a quality product.

What is quality then? Jerry Weinberg states that quality is value to some person.

In this social world, one person can say that one product is a high-quality one whereas another perceives the same product as a low-quality one - this is because quality is subjective.

As testers, it is our mission to always be on the lookout for information. We are the providers of information. We also find different kinds of information for different stakeholders who want to make informed business decisions. The deeper we test, the more information we are to find.

Another reason we test is that most project managers, developers, etc. have a mindset to believe that the project will go well and this mindset makes them look for trouble less often. James Bach mentions that testing is an inherently skeptical process and Michael Bolton always encourages us to look for problems and have the faith that they exist in the product, this means that we find problems and report those problems so that they may be fixed sooner than later. The deeper we test, the more problems we are to also uncover.

What I love about testing is that as we carry out our work, we are continuously learning about: the products or services under test, the problems people might have had because of our products or a competitor's similar product. A tester is in the learning business, we are paid to learn. Lastly, the deeper we test, the more we will learn. We are in the learning business.

We test deeply to find information, uncover problems and to learn about the product and service under test.

This post is in its semi-final form. It is near complete yet there is still work to be done to get it there. This is something I learned from Pradeep Soundararajan, the founder of Moolya testing. Your input will be appreciated to get this post to its final version.