Is Testing Last in Line?
First published 09/12/2009
A post on the Software Testing Club, Is Testing Last in Line? seems oh so familiar to complaints (if that that is they are) heard for as long as I've been in software (and I'm in my 29th year).
I think all of the responses to the blog are reasonable – but the underlying assumption in all (most) of them is that the tester is responsible for getting:
a) involved early b) involved heavily
Now of course, there are arguments that we have all had drummed into us since the 1970s that can be used to support both of these aims. But they tend to exclude the viewpoint of the stakeholder. (To me a stakeholder is anyone who is interested in the outcome of testing).
Why were we not automatically involved earlier, if it is so self-evident we should be?
Was no one interested in what we could tell them (given access to whatever products were being produced) at the time? Do stakeholders think we produce so little of interest?
Why don't we get the time, budget, people and resources to test as much as we could?
The same challenges apply. And the conclusions are uncomfortable.
By and large our stakeholders are not stupid. If it is self-evident to us that we should be involved earlier, more and more often, why isn't it obvious to them? Howling at the moon won't help us.
Surely we need to engage with stakeholders:
What exactly do they want from us? When? In what format? How frequently? How flexibly? How thoroughly? and so on.
Testing is 'last in line' with good reason. We dont engage, we don't articulate what we do well enough, we provide data, not information, we provide it late (self-fulfilling prophecy time here), we focus on bugs rather than business goals, we write documents when we need to deliver intelligence, we find bugs, when we need to provide evidence of success, we refuse to judge and give our stakeholders nothing when they need our support most etc. etc.
Every ten years or so, I get depressed when the next “big thing” arrives and it appears that, well... it's the same old same old with a different label. New technologies offer new opportunities I guess and after reading a text book or two I get on board.
But for as long as I can remember, testers have been complaining that testing is 'last in line' and they BLAME OTHERS. Surely it's time to look at how WE behave as testers? Surely, we should look at what we are doing wrong rather than blame others?
Tags: #prioritisation #lastinline
Paul Gerrard My linkedin profile is here My Mastodon Account