Keynote: Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester
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Transcript of Keynote: Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester
KW2 Keynote
5/1/2013 10:00:00 AM
Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons
for the Professional Tester
Presented by:
Lloyd Roden
Lloyd Roden Consultancy
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com
Lloyd Roden
With more than twenty-eight years in the software industry, Lloyd Roden has worked as a developer, test analyst, and test manager for many different organizations. Lloyd was a consultant/partner with Grove Consultants for twelve years. In 2011 he created Lloyd Roden Consultancy, an independent UK-based training and consultancy company specializing in software testing. Lloyd’s passion is to enthuse, excite, and inspire people in the area of software testing. He has spoken at conferences worldwide including STAREAST, STARWEST, Better Software, EuroSTAR, AsiaSTAR, and Special Interest Groups in software testing in several countries. In 2004, he won the European Testing Excellence award.
Surviving or thriving: Top 10 lessons for a professional tester Keynote Presentation
Written by Lloyd Roden www.lloydrodenconsultancy.com Version 1_0 © Lloyd Roden
© Lloyd Roden Thriving120214
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Surviving or Thriving: Top 10 lessons for a professional tester
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Contents
Survive or Thrive? Top 10 lessons to thrive
Which one do you want to be?
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Surviving: what comes to mind?
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Surviving is mostly negative
! companies surviving the recession ! old people surviving the winter ! protect animals to enable them to survive
definition: to remain alive or in existence, to carry on despite
hardship or trauma…to persevere
is this what we are doing in testing today…to remain alive, carrying on despite hardships or trauma…to persevere?
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Thriving: what comes to mind?
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Thriving is positive
! in Greece�s sour economy some shops are thriving
! thriving companies in this economic climate ! thriving wildlife triggers hope for marine life
definition: to make good progress, to prosper, to grow vigorously…to
flourish, to succeed
shouldn’t we be like this in testing…to make good progress, to prosper, to grow vigorously…to flourish, to succeed
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Contents
Survive or Thrive? Top 10 lessons to thrive
Which one do you want to be?
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Thriving lesson #1: tailor your test documentation…. and use modern technology
don’t be boring make it exclusive
challenge quality and quantity of what is produced exploit modern
technology
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Thriving lesson #2: use test design techniques as a review technique
! example requirement:
by reading this requirement we may have a few questions, or we might think we understand what is required. However…
A thermostat displays the temperature of a greenhouse from 15oC to 35oC. If the temperature falls below 20oC then “too cold”
appears on the display and a blue light flashes. It the temperature exceeds 30oC then “too hot” appears and a red light
flashes.
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Review using test case design techniques
! sharpens our understanding ! generates tests ! finds more defects with requirements Tests for our example: Temperature Expected result
17oC, 15oC, Too Cold, blue light flash
20oC, 25oC, 30oC No display, no light?
32oC, 35oC Too hot: red light flash
10oC, 40oC ??? 2 lights or 1 light?
whole degrees?
up to and including…
where is the temperature taken…isolated or whole room? 10
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Thriving lesson #3: provide management with feedback on decisions that the make
! example: 4 weeks of testing:
! new data obtained:
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20
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0 1 2 3 4
Number of bugs
Actual
Management want to implement the software, but you suggest a
further week of exploratory testing and a final week of regression
testing due to the high number of bugs that have been found
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of bugs
Actual
25 new bugs found and fixed…full regression pack run
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Using data to report back
! cost of bugs to find and fix in test = 1000€ ! cost of bugs to find and fix in live = 3000€ ! 1st month of live operation customers find 10 bugs ! if the old date (4 weeks) was used
! assume 35 bugs found by customer ! DDP = 100/135 = 74% ! cost of fixing = 35 * 3000€ = 105,000€
! if the new date (6 weeks) was used ! DDP = 125/135 = 93% ! cost of fixing = 10 * 3000€ = 30,000€
+ 25 * 1000€ = 25,000€ = 55,000€
cost saving 50,000€
DDP increase 19% Therefore a good
decision by management "
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Thriving lesson #4: learn to be a weather person
weather people… ! predict what is likely to happen using
trends and forecasting ! understand statistics and probability ! use historical data to substantiate
their synopsis ! understand correlation between
systems ! are becoming more accurate ! don’t always get it right
! not always liked…but it is not their fault!
! but we still use them to plan and implement our activities
however…
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Learn to predict the “projects” weather
! to predict what is likely to happen at an early stage
! to use basic statistics and probability
! to gather and analyse historical data
! understand the correlation between graphs
! to become more accurate
BUT: you wont always get it right, you wont always be liked, but it’s not your fault
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Thriving lesson #5: Test the testers/tests
testing is quality control on development
BUT…how good are your tester/tests? Who is performing quality control on the testers?
developers bug seed, plant 100 bugs and see how many are found
provide an application for new testers with known bugs and see how good they are at finding them
we deserve the best…mediocracy is not an option 15
Areas where this idea can be used
! testing your regression tests ! manual or automated ! discover how effective they are
! testing the outsourced teams ! let’s wake up! ! discover whether they are cost effective
! testing new testers wanting to join the team ! aim to recruit the best ! quality gate into testing
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Thriving lesson #6: make your test environment the strongest link ! often the test environment becomes
the weakest link ! concentrate too much on test cases and
test scripts ! we believe the environment will happen ! often difficult to set up well ! reliant on other people
! make it the strongest link ! constantly think about your environment ! make it a priority prior to test execution ! learn to recognise environmental issues
and raise these with your managers
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Bad environments
if your environment is wrong, out-of-date, volatile, not representative, or messy then testing cannot succeed
ignore your test environment and the bugs will breed
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Be environmentally friendly
without a good testing environment testing will not succeed
! recycle your tests ! need to re-use tests as much as possible
! improve efficiency ! to conserve human energy
! do not neglect the “data-layer” ! data is an integral part of the environment
! offset your manual footprint ! automate as much as possible
! grow your own experts ! become independent and autonomous
manual
experts
investing in the testing environment will be an investment for the testing’s future 19
Thriving lesson #7: stand out and be different
what have these stores got in common?
what have these stores got in common?
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Create a unique selling point…
! what makes you/your team different from others… ! that are cheaper? ! that are faster?
! your USP is so that you thrive…not just survive ! example USPs
! recognising and eliminating waste ! being able to find those “nasty” bugs quickly ! measuring and reporting the value of testing ! having a positive attitude at work ! collaborating always ! constantly improving efficiency
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Thriving lesson #8: become a pioneer (or explorer)…not a settler or outlaw
! four permanent attitudes to consider
Pioneers Explorers Settlers Outlaws 22
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Pioneers and Explorers
Pioneering Attitude ! ideas ! creative ! breaking new ground ! “early adopters” ! R & D - mostly “R” ! often seen as “crazy”
Exploring Attitude ! explore/test ideas
produced by pioneers ! highly analytical ! R & D - mostly “D” ! enjoy challenges ! often “finish” and
implement ideas
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Settlers and Outlaws
Settling Attitude ! majority ! will follow the status
quo rather than lead ! allow others to develop
infrastructure ! reliant on Pioneers and
Explorers ! difficult to motivate
Outlaw Attitude ! critical ! pessimistic & negative ! can be destructive ! often ‘historical’ ! management overhead ! often failed pioneers
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Thriving lesson #9: believe in yourself …and your abilities
! low self-esteem is one of the main
contributors to lacking drive and enthusiasm: ! reignite your passion
! fan the flame before it goes out ! see change as an opportunity rather than a threat ! create good habits
! 66 days to create a good habit ! set yourself daily goals and achieve them
! John, Susan, Nora and George
practice looking in the mirror each morning and saying…
“I am great!”
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Thriving lesson #10: take time to sharpen your axe
! don’t procrastinate ! create tools and utilities to make testing more efficient ! share your ideas with others ! understand new methodologies and technologies and how
they will affect you (keeping one step ahead) ! measure your own effectiveness and improve ! try something new ! create ‘me’ time
complacency is only one step ahead of
apathy make it your mission to become the
best at what you do
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Contents
Survive or Thrive? Top 10 lessons to thrive
Which one do you want to be?
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Are you just a �survivor� … or a �thriver�
! #1: Tailor test documentation
! #2: use test case design techniques as a review technique
! #3: provide management with feedback
! #4: learn to predict ! #5: test the testers/tests
! #6: make your environment the strongest link
! #7: stand out and create a USP
! #8: become a pioneer or explorer
! #9: believe in yourself and your abilities
! #10: sharpen your axe
Mediocracy is not an option if you want to thrive
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Summary
! surviving has many negative associations
! to thrive in the society we find ourselves in today we must be different and better than others
! adopting some/all of these �thriving� lessons will help us stand out from the crowd
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