Testing "Software" Times

As a tester you may be asked this question… How long will the feature take to test? Recently I was asked this and I responded with something like this…. I can test it in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks or 5 years. Now I hate giving estimates. People tend to take estimates as gospel and hold you to them if you then have to say that the testing may take a little longer. As testers we can test a feature for 5 minutes but we could also test it for 5 years. Trying to get the balance right between having enough time to test the feature and satisfying someone who needs it to be delivered as quickly as possible can be difficult. However I think that we should not be asked how long something takes to test, I think as testers we should be asking a question instead.  Going back to answering the question “How Long will the feature take to test?”, lets take an example feature and describe what we could test for each of the estimates I gave above. Lets say the featur...

Should testers learn to code? This question has been discussed on twitter quite frequently, and to be honest is getting a little boring. If testers want to learn to code then they should. If they don't then that's fine as well. This post is my humble opinion on whether as testers we should learn to code. The reason for this blog post was because recently Trish Khoo‏ (@hogfish) asked the question: Should testers learn to code? She did a blog post on the results of the poll, which can be found here http://trishkhoo.com/2017/08/yes-all-testers-should-learn-how-to-code/ In my humble opinion testers should learn to code. For me it is a no brainer and something that isn't about keeping up with the industry trends or doing what is fashionable for testers, its about: Developing skills you may not know you possess Give you the chance to spend more time 'testing' (By this I mean exploratory testing) Making you a more valuable member of your team (Before anyone r...

Its been a while since I have last blogged, its been hectic for one reason or another but I find myself with a bit more time so I can finish this series of blog posts. In this post I will complete the set of posts on testers perception. This post will describe ways in which testers can change how they are interpreted. Testers can change how they are interpreted by showing how they add value by changing their behaviours. Below are a few ways we can change how we are perceived as testers,  1) Don't shout louder, improve your argument Shouting louder than anyone else does not necessarily always work. We've all been there, you get quite heated in a discussion about a subject that you feel passionate about and someone else does the same and it all ends in disagreements and potentially damaged relationships. You need to think smarter. If you feel passionately about something on a project then do some research. Come up for valid reasons why you want something to be dif...