Can you describe what testing is?

[Ronan Healy]

@huibschoots wrote recently in a blog post about the importance of being able to describe what testers actually do

Huib argues that for management, etc to take testers seriously, testers have to be able to explain simply what they are doing.

What do you think? Should testers be able what they are currently doing easily? Is Huib right, do you think most testers would struggle to explain their current activity to someone who is not familiar with testing?

[Krister]

Unfortunately, we still need to explain what we are doing and why we are needed. Each new generation of project managers and project sponsors are keen on cutting down on test hours. One way of coping with this is to collect metrics over test coverage and trouble reports, especially found bugs.

Rgds.
Krister

[Devanathan Ram]

It isn’t a tough job answering what a tester’s current activity. I’ve seen instances when a simple requirement (simple per the agile development) needs a very minor change which has approximately 1 hour capacity. The testers has to do an impact analysis on all areas and has to do an end-to-end testing including regression to certify the sprint. This is one minor instance and isn’t it easy enough to convey?

[Archana]

For an experienced tester, I do not believe that it is difficult to describe what testing is or explain a tester’s activity. What could be difficult is to convince the management team why testing is required.

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