Testing, Test Engineering, Quality Assurance?
A couple of months ago, a colleague of mine and I hijacked a regular sales conference call. So one moment we're talking about open sales leads and client situations and the next moment, the conversation veered around to how we needed to revamp our Test Maturity Assessment offering.
That's when we started to argue whether or not our existing service offering (built around Test Process Improvement - TPI®) should be rebranded as the Quality Blueprint. This is no innocuous discussion, because in effect, we were debating whether it was Software Testing or Quality Improvement we offered our customers.
Now I should possibly go fully disclosure and admit that I'm from the engineering side of the house, having spent over 13 years in this profession. Sure, I engage with clients all the time and sell them services I genuinely believe are going to improve the overall reliability of their business systems. But I can't see myself as someone only from the sales side of the house. My colleague, on the other hand, was more of a marketing maven. Arguably, he was more wedded to how we'd be perceived by the market. Two individuals, two perspectives.
I don't see software testing as anything but another engineering discipline. Quality improvement and assurance is more to do with the classical "process + people" doctrine. Software testing does not improve quality, it is merely a lag indicator of deeper issues within development and deployment. I see it merely as a harbinger of tidings, good or bad. One viewpoint is around how Quality Control tries to achieve the same thing as Software Testing. History tells us that QC is a means of oversight and stories about of how King John of England employed William Wrotham to surpervise workmanship during the contruction of the English fleet. That's oversight, not engineering. What we do in Software Testing has to do with the design of tests, which, with the advent of complex technologies has become an engineering discipline in it's own right.
I'd assumed that pretty much a consensus of sorts had developed around this subject. After all, what one should call oneself pretty important. Professionals need to be able to define their profession and explain in simple layman's terms to their 6-year-olds exactly what it is that daddy does at work.
I know what I am. I'm a Test Engineer.
That's when we started to argue whether or not our existing service offering (built around Test Process Improvement - TPI®) should be rebranded as the Quality Blueprint. This is no innocuous discussion, because in effect, we were debating whether it was Software Testing or Quality Improvement we offered our customers.
Now I should possibly go fully disclosure and admit that I'm from the engineering side of the house, having spent over 13 years in this profession. Sure, I engage with clients all the time and sell them services I genuinely believe are going to improve the overall reliability of their business systems. But I can't see myself as someone only from the sales side of the house. My colleague, on the other hand, was more of a marketing maven. Arguably, he was more wedded to how we'd be perceived by the market. Two individuals, two perspectives.
I don't see software testing as anything but another engineering discipline. Quality improvement and assurance is more to do with the classical "process + people" doctrine. Software testing does not improve quality, it is merely a lag indicator of deeper issues within development and deployment. I see it merely as a harbinger of tidings, good or bad. One viewpoint is around how Quality Control tries to achieve the same thing as Software Testing. History tells us that QC is a means of oversight and stories about of how King John of England employed William Wrotham to surpervise workmanship during the contruction of the English fleet. That's oversight, not engineering. What we do in Software Testing has to do with the design of tests, which, with the advent of complex technologies has become an engineering discipline in it's own right.
I'd assumed that pretty much a consensus of sorts had developed around this subject. After all, what one should call oneself pretty important. Professionals need to be able to define their profession and explain in simple layman's terms to their 6-year-olds exactly what it is that daddy does at work.
I know what I am. I'm a Test Engineer.






Suresh,
A discussion on Test process maturity models at Test Republic - would be an interesting stuff to read for you.
http://www.testrepublic.com/forum
(this might require a simple registeration. BTW, as might be ware, testrepublic is a hang out place for software testers and becoming popular among indian software testing community)
BTW, let me invite you visit my blog
http://shrinik.blogspot.com
It seems that we both share a common love and passion for this craft of software testing ...
You can drop mail to me too...
Shrini Kulkarni
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Suresh how about this ...
I am a software Tester (not mere Engineer) - I am systems thinker, a social scientist (testing involves great bit of study on social behaviours).
Have you read Gerald Weignberg's "Introduction to General Systems thinking" .... A must book for testers.
Thinking of testing as mere engineering - to me appears as "over simplification" - There is more to it to - I sure you understand.
Can you go and share how do you explain a 6 year old kid about software testing? In layman's terms?
That would be an interesting sequel to this blog post..
Shrini
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To explain to a six year old your job as a software tester, please google "Robert Sabourin" who has written, with the assistance of his child's artwork, a very clear book on this subject.
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Do you enjoy Sunbaked Treetop Figs more than Dried Figs? Reality is so harsh I have stopped thinking of using fancy ideas as an aid to my testing prowess. And anyway a fig is a fig. So I would prefer honest heads down testing to Edward deBono testing.
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Greeting Mr. Suresh.
This is Denis Mello from Brazil. I have been reading some of articles of yours and I'm enjoying the quality of the materials issued. Your blog's content is also great. I'd like to know one information from you. In one of your articles, you explain about the approach of Effort Estimation using Use Case Points. There, you mention the convertion factor for some types of testing, in this case COM/DCOM. My question is: Where can I find the convertion factor for other tecnologies? I'd be grateful if you help me out.
Take care.
I am look to hearing from you soon.
Denis
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Good afternoon. You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.
I am from Qatar and too poorly know English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "Our customers with cheap plane tickets, cheap international airfare and some of bargain fares for unsold airline tickets."
Thanks
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Good Day. There is an applause superior to that of the multitudes: one's own.
I am from Sweden and also am speaking English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "Com for discount airfare and lowest prices airline tickets."
Thanks for the help :o, Baldwin.
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Hi. You wrote an interesting article
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