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The (business) value of testing is a much talked about subject – and rightfully so. If the only thing testers bring is the ability to check someone else’s work – then who in their right mind would pay for it? [Scott Barber, Let’s Test 2013] If testing is a sunk cost, then why do it. How can we convince our customers and our management, that testing is more than an investment but actually a value driver.
Secondly – what are our values in our testing work. Some seek the thrill to break stuff, … especially illusions. To tear things apart and see how they work. Others are driven by building and constructing – scripts, frameworks, templates and structures. Seeking order and truth. Sometimes the attitude is more to objectively, not give a damn, but seek facts, compliance, contradictions.
Please help me investigate the 1) value driver and 2) testing values of testing by answering with one short sentence each. You input will be forwarded to Anders Dinsen who is currently studying both the values and value of testing. .. as mentioned in a recent meetup in Copenhagen
Well, the questions are so hard…Let me give a try:
*Value of testing: It depends on who values the value of testing. It means that value of testing depends on the environment where the testing is performed and definition of testing.
“If the only thing testers bring is the ability o check someone else’s work – then who in their right mind would pay for it?”, well to be honest, there’s nothing wrong to have a independent view ( a tester in this case) on same issue. I see many organizations do that because they see values of testing
*My values: I love to break the system and find defects in the system under test. I also see the value of running happy path test to make sure basic functions works as expected. I’m totally fine to learn new tool to automate my regression suite to reduce regression time, etc. My values are what I do with belief of adding values to my team.Hi Jesper,
– The value of testing is much related to the context, but basically it can be considered an activity that can provide a safety net in the development process. Thus, the project team (especially developers) is much sure that during regression testing a bug will be discovered if something wrong is introduced into the code when changes are made.
An important purpose of testing is to find issues quickly and before delivering the product to customers. This is a key value of testing activities because the identified problems can be easier solved without any impact on customer’s side and may reduce costs related to time, money and company image. As @Thanh said, having an independent view is good.– My values as tester are defined by the focus on finding system’s vulnerabilities and the way to provide feedback to the team as soon as possible. Understanding the product very well and gathering as many information as possible is also an important aspect. Working as a tester I like also to analyze the requirements from the user’s perspective and try to find things that can affect usability and provide feedback to the team.
Another key value is the automation side especially to try automating all tests that mean repetitive work and provide information regarding issues quickly and with lees effort to developers. Improving your own automation skills can add a lot of value in your testing activity and reduce the gap between dev and test team.
Even if it has an independent view, I really like to consider the QA team as being part of the project team and all the members of the entire team have one common goal: to provide customers high quality products on a dynamic market.Regards,
Alin
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