You know you are a tester when…

[Daragh]

So how did you come to the realisation that you are a tester? As many testers learn the trade in a different way, what happened to you to make you realise that you are now a proper tester?

[Mark Kiernan]

I love the idea of refining a product to near perfection. It is nice to be part of the process, to see something continually improve, to be an important element in its production. I started out in localization but then moved into tesMting. My philosophy is that everything can be done, and if we just keep trying and trying we will succeed and this includes testing.

[Wayne]

I started to question everything thats my definition of a tester they ask the right questions of a product, developer or customer.

[JerryWeinberg]

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t realize I was a tester. Apparently, I’ve always had two essentials characteristics that all testers must have:

1. I look at the way things are and see “this doesn’t have to be this way.” (see Errors)

2. I find someone who can do something about (1) and convince them that they should change things. (see Perfect Software)

Of course, though I was always inclined to do those two things, I wasn’t always very good at them. Over my career, I’ve worked and studied anything I could to make me a better tester. I’m still working on them. (See The Tester’s Library)

[Daragh]

Hi @jerryweinberg,

In your opinion, has the role of the tester changed since your early years of testing? Today it seems like the gap between developers and testers is getting smaller and smaller.

[JerryWeinberg]

Hi Daragh,
What an interesting question! Thanks.

Back in the earliest days (probably before most of the readers here were born, around 1958., there was no distinction between testers and developers. They were all called programmers, and the best of them were chosen for our test group (ours, on Project Mercury, was the first test group that I know of).

Our test group was copied for a number of IBM Federal Systems projects, but over the years, people started having a different sort of test group. These groups were not made up of programmers, but were largely chosen because they would be cheaper than programmers. It was widely believed that any idiot could do testing. Many times I heard managers say they could train monkeys to sit around banging on keys.

Since that time, gradually over the years, more managers have come (ever so slowly) to realize that testing is a specialty that requires special people with special training and talent. We still have many “monkey-managers,” and for those managers, the role of testers has not changed much. But where professional testing is valued for itself, yes, the roles of tester and developer have become more similar (though not identical).

BTW, the role of monkeys hasn’t changed much, but, then, some developers play that role very well.

(see also, Perfect Software)

[Ronan Healy]

I thought this was a less serious answer to this question:

[Archana]

Ronan Healy wrote:

I thought this was a less serious answer to this question:

Nice one. That is definitely a sign that you are a tester 🙂

 

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