The Software Test Professionals Conference is quickly coming up Oct 19-21.

Have you registered yet?

If so, I look forward to seeing you there!

If not, what are you waiting for?!

Read on for 5 reasons to attend:

1) You are a Software Test Professional – if so, you need to be there! This conference is all about people like you who want to learn, improve themselves, connect with like-minded people, and grow themselves professionally. If any of these apply to you, sign up now!

• You are a tester, a manager of test teams, a project test lead, a programmer who tests, someone who manages beta testers or usability testers, or someone just interested in increasing the value of testing.
• You spend time improving your skill sets (or want to), and believe that continuous learning and challenging yourself is a necessary part of your job.
• You want to increase the value of testing in your organization.
• You are not interested in being a robot who blindly does what you are told, but finds ways to improve the way you do your own work so you can do your best work possible.  You also encourage this in others, by leading by example.

2) Learn by Doing, Not Listening in the Hands-On Testing Techniques Lab. The best way to learn new skills is to practice them hands-on while you are learning them. Come and challenge yourself with new methods in a safe environment with instructors and other students. This is a rare opportunity at any conference, so be sure to take advantage of the opportunity (and bring your laptop!).

3) Attend My Sessions & Talk With Me! There are many other great presenters to check out as well – but I know you’ll want to attend mine. ?

My pre-conference workshop, Test Management Clinic, will help you explore and learn techniques for solving real-life test management challenges. You may even leave with appropriate solutions to challenges you are currently experiencing. Register ASAP to reserve your seat now!

My session Explore Beyond the Obvious in the Hands-On Testing Techniques Lab will allow you to try different testing approaches to dig deeper into seemingly simple applications, and learn new information about products you test.

The panel I am speaking on about Reducing the Cost of Testing will help you gain ideas in reducing test costs, understand tradeoffs in doing so, and learn how to talk about testing costs with management in a reasoned, articulate manner.

4) Improve Your Career via the multitude of opportunities awaiting you. Network with people who are driving changes in the industry and understand their strategies so you can too. Connect with people around the globe who can help you with some of your challenges, and vice-versa. Learn leadership strategies to champion initiatives and changes in your workplace. Improve your skills in working with management, and making testing a valuable part of the organization.

5) STP Conference is in Las Vegas! Seriously, how much fun will that be? If you ever needed an excuse to get yourself to Vegas, this is it. Imagine – spending days learning to your hearts content and talking with fellow test professionals, then enjoying evenings in the fun of Las Vegas while connecting with fabulous testers from around the globe.

Register Now – The Early Bird Deadline ends this Friday August 20, which provides a $500 savings off the conference package.

See you in Vegas!

Note: I am not an advocate for McDonald’s, own no stock in the company, and would never ever step foot in one again if I can help it, due to a variety of reasons not relevant to these postings or this particular weblog.

One of the first things I learned working in the fast food industry was how important customers were. Customers are necessary for keeping a company operating, but are also important in shaping many business operations and decision points. Here are three things that stuck with me after working the daily grind at McD’s:

Customers keep the business running, and your job intact.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be in many companies. I bet you can quickly think of at least three bad customer service experiences you have had in the last three months. Sub-standard customer service, interactions, and expectations have become common place in today’s society.

The good news is that companies who make customers feel valued, listen to them, and actually improve their business based on customer suggestions are further ahead of the competition. Customers return when they have had great experiences.

While working at McDonald’s I focused on ensuring customers had a great experience. It all started with the first friendly and happy greeting, through to listening carefully to their requests, filling the request quickly and accurately, and finishing with a friendly good-bye. If anything happened to go wrong with an order, I quickly stepped in to compensate before they became frustrated and upset.

Customers also keep the business running and our jobs intact in the software industry.

Whether you are a programmer, a tester, a project manager, in operations, or in any other role, we need customers so we have a business. The customer may be an actual end-user of a product or service, another company who is purchasing a product or service for delivery to another customer, or even an internal user of the software.

Regardless of who they are, it is our job to provide a positive experience for that customer. That means:

• Understanding what problem they need solved
• Learning what they need to be happy with the product or service
• Determining how they will actually use it, and
• Ensuring every interaction is focused on the customers’ satisfaction and happiness.

Customers drive future products, if you listen to them.

Every customer is going to have some sort of feedback about the product or service they obtained. It may be positive in identifying how well it works for them, recommendations for improvements to improve it’s usefulness for them, or even complaints about how it doesn’t satisfy their need at all.

Running a business comes down to understanding what customers need and why they will buy something. If you don’t provide something they need and will purchase, you’ll quickly be out of business. This makes sense, but how often do you take customer feedback into account?

Context: Restaurants located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.

In the early 90′s there were several products that McDonald’s offered that I really liked. Salads and pizza. For whatever reason, neither product sold well enough to keep them on the menu. Corporate listened to the customer feedback (which was represented in sales numbers, and in surveys and feedback forms) and removed both of them from the menu. While I was disappointed, customers were happy when new burger selections appeared on the menu to replace them.

Flash forward to early years in the new millennium, and you may remember that salads made a comeback and were added back to the menu as customers became more health conscious in their dietary habits. Additionally, as consumers became more environmentally conscious, most of the styrofoam packaging was done away with and replaced with paper and cardboard products.

Customers should also drive product evolution and new product creation in the software industry.

I have worked in organizations where someone internal to the company came up with ‘the next big thing’, developed it, and it flopped. Why? Because customers didn’t need it, want it, or it didn’t satisfy all their needs appropriately.

Learning customer needs and wants is critical for developing successful products.

• Product Owners/Managers need this information to devise user stories/requirements that will actually satisfy customers and make profits.
• Programmers need this information to ensure they program a solution that satisfies customer requests, wants, and needs.
• Testers need this information to confirm that what is developed not only fulfills a need and desire, but is actually usable for the customer in the way they will use it, continues to evolve per customer feedback, and satisfies many non-spoken product/service requirements.

This requires time to research, learn, and understand customer desires.

Customers evolve company image and business direction.

Most companies are in business to make money. To make money, businesses need customers. To get customers, they need to know how to attract their target market(s). Understanding the desired customer base, their lifestyles, and their interests is paramount for promoting an image and devising a marketing strategy that attracts, and keeps, the people wanted as customers.

Context: Restaurants located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.

Do you remember the marketing strategy that McDonald’s used in the 80’s and early 90’s? They targeted most of their efforts at children. If children desperately wanted to go to their restaurant, parents would take them. From now-classic characters such as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and the Fry Guys, through to the bright and bubbly in-store decor and family-sized booths, the company image was all about the kids. Some stores even had train cabooses that were used to host birthday parties, much to the delight of many children.

In the mid-to-late 90’s, McDonald’s changed their target to be less child-focused and more adult and family-focused. In-store decor evolved to be more subdued to attract a new customer base, Children’s Play Places were added so parents could have a break from their kids while knowing they were safe and having fun while in the restaurant, the Monopoly game was introduced to collect pieces and win prizes, and the infamous characters were fading away. McDonald’s was growing up.

From there McDonald’s further evolved to focus predominantly on the adult and teenage market. The company image and direction shifted to obtain customers outside of the established children-and-family market. They became more trendy, hip, and grown-up by introducing the “I’m Lovin’ It” commercials, advertisements and commercials focused on the working professional, and updated decor reminiscent of upscale cafe’s. McDonald’s touted a cool and adult-friendly image.

Consider whether customers influence the image and business operations of your organization.

• Does your company evolve its image as the target customer base evolves?
• Do marketing strategies change to acquire new target markets?
• Does the company consider customer lifestyles and interests into how it promotes itself?

Customers aren’t just the people who make a purchase for an end product or service, but are also internal to a company.

• Does your internal organization modify and adapt it’s image as other organizations in the company evolve and change?
• Do you know how to appeal to them so that working relationships remain strong over time?
• Does your organization evolve as your internal customers evolve?

Let’s go one step further. 

Suppose you have an external customer who likes to be heavily involved in defining a project, makes many changes, and likes to have flexibility in what the final end-product is.

• Does your organization evolve to use more agile practices that can work with this customer more effectively?
• Or does it stick with heavy-documentation, everything-is-planned-upfront, and nothing-can-change approaches? Guess how well that customer relationship will work out.

This isn’t just about company image and branding.

It is also about the processes and methodologies you use to appeal to, work with, and satisfy the customer. That extends from sales and marketing, product management, programming and testing organizations, operations, and customer support. If your organization isn’t adapting how it operates in order to keep up with the customer needs, you will soon be left in the dust.

What’s Next?

Take a moment and consider whether you, your organization, and your company really value your customers.

• Are customers welcomed, appreciated, and treated as a valuable part of the company/organization?
• Is customer feedback gathered and regularly used to adapt in product creation and evolution?
• Does the company image and business direction evolve according to the needs of the target market?
• Do methodologies and approaches adapt to work seamlessly with customer needs and methods of interaction?

Watch for the next part in the Food Service Lessons series, Lesson #2: Teamwork.

Having been a black box software tester for a few years already, I still knew there was a lot I could learn from this course specifically. Hands-on courses with exercises requiring active observation, critical thinking, and collaboration with peers were in short supply back then. I relished the opportunity to challenge myself and to learn, so I was hooked.

Oh, and it was free. That made it easy to get approval from my manager to take the course (ha! Free = no approval necessary!).

Unfortunately, I consistently had obligations that kept me away from the course. Excuses? No. That’s just how it was.  Starting and raising a family while moving up the ranks in responsibility at work took priority.

Fast-forward five years.

The Black-Box Software Testing Foundations course was moved to be offered and taught through the Association for Software Testing. Cem is actively involved with the AST, as are many other bright, active, and thinking testers who do a lot to contribute to, and further, the craft of software testing.The BBST Foundations course is offered for free to all AST members. There are subsequent courses offered as well, with a nominal fee for both members and non-members.

All course material is still available on the Center for Software Testing Education & Research website, so you can take it on your own time, though you won’t benefit from the peer and instructor interactions (which are a BIG piece of the learning throughout the course).

In March I finally found the time to register for the May 2010 offering of the BBST Foundations course, as I had a lighter workload than usual in May. I admit that I was somewhat nervous as I had not actively applied my skills at a “doer” level in quite some time, due to numerous roles at management, project/program management, and other similar, levels.

Without giving away pertinent course details that will require course instructors/designers to have to devise new materials to evaluate student comprehension, I can say that I enjoyed the BBST Foundations course immensely.

Reflections on BBST Foundations

The course was advertised to be about 8 hours of work, per week. While that seemed like a fair amount, I was quite surprised to find myself spending 20-25 hours on course work per week. It was well worth it though.

Highlights of my experiences during the BBST Foundations course include:

• Online course experience. I found this difficult at first, as I prefer to work with people in person to observe body language, and to form bonds. It is more challenging to do via email and forum posts, but possible with a concerted effort. This experience gave me hope for future online learning experiences. The course designers encouraged a lot of peer interaction to promote and facilitate learning, which did wonders for everyone’s learning.

• I met phenomenal testers, both new to the field, and many years experienced; both instructors, and students; located here in Canada, North America, Europe, and Asia. I appreciate the learning I obtained and experienced with all of them.

• I learned, a lot! Having been in the software field for 10 years, I wondered how much I would learn from an introductory black box software testing course. I discovered that there was a lot to learn still. Without providing specific details, I can tell you that whether you are new to testing, a small number of years in, or a decade or more, this course will get you thinking critically, and from different perspectives.

• I still don’t like multiple choice tests. Yes, there are multiple choice quizzes in the course. These are intended to help you think critically while reading text to correctly understand intent and respond with the appropriate answer. Sometimes only small nuances make the difference between a correct and incorrect answer. I have never been very good at multiple choice, and discovered I still am not. That said, the exercises certainly helped me slow down and try to think the through questions using different approaches.

• The assignments were incredibly valuable to explore the concepts of oracles and heuristics. For whatever reason, I have often struggled with the terms ‘oracle’ and ‘heuristic’, despite that I can use them appropriately in context. Regardless, the exercises really nailed home these terms and improved my application of them in practice.

• The exam has a study guide, which is a series of questions that you are able to attempt and discuss with fellow students. What an idea! Imagine: Time to think through questions and improve upon answers based on peer comments before the actual exam. This really helped me better understand the questions and provide more context-appropriate answers.

So, a lot of work?

Absolutely.

Well worth it?

Yes.

I love to learn, and apply learned skills, to add more value to a business (and subsequently), more value to my immediate organization. I found this BBST Foundations course to be challenging, educational, and appropriately balanced in introductory concepts and applications.

I highly recommend the BBST Foundations course to all levels and experiences of software tests (heck, even non-software testers).

Be sure to sign up for upcoming BBST course offerings on the AST website.

.. and hey, I passed the BBST Foundations course! Yay!

My first experience at the Conference of the Association for Software Testing (CAST) was in Toronto in July 2008.

I heard about CAST from a colleague who attended the conference the previous year in Seattle, and was hooked on what he said about it. Determined to go to the next one regardless of the location, my bank account was pleased when Toronto was confirmed (which is a mere one hour drive for me).  It was time to see what all the buzz was about.

While attending a pre-conference tutorial on the first day, I quickly felt and understood what my colleague was referring to.  It felt like a homecoming, with all my favourite testing relatives in attendance.  Many long-lost cousins, relatives I didn’t know I had, and even close family members who I often stayed in touch with. Relatively speaking, of course.  :)

Over the course of the conference, I found many things to love about CAST:

The attendees. People from around the world attended.  Everyone I met was excited, passionate, interactive, intent on helping one another, and all around friendly.  This may come as a surprise to those who know me, but I have often struggled to meet and talk with new people in large group settings.  It did not take long for me to jump in though!  And did I mention?  These people were smart and interesting!  The quality of the people that attend CAST are bar-none.

The session formats. One cool thing about CAST is that sessions are structured so that 2/3 of the time is alloted for the speaker to do their thing, and the other 1/3 is for attendees to ask questions.  The coolest part is how the question period is done.  It is moderated so discussion topics become threads that are followed through to completion before another topic is started.  You use different coloured cards to signal your intent to speak up, and a very talented moderator will add you to the appropriate place in the queue.  This makes for very interactive sessions.

The speakers. AST does a phenomenal job of selecting the speakers for the conference, providing a variety of presentation formats and topics.  You might find traditional presentations with powerpoint slides, a session with musical props, an interactive experiential exercise, or even some improv. Topics range from the technical, techniques, soft-skills, management focus, and even life experiences tied to testing. There is something for everyone’s tastes.

The organizers. Organizing a conference is hard work, and the folks that step up to do CAST do a great job. I have been fortunate to get to know many of the organizers for the last two conferences, and the upcoming one, fairly well. Every one of them is brilliant, down-to-earth, great to talk and debate with, fun to hang out with, and inspirational in what you can achieve when you set your mind to it. I applaud their contributions to the testing community.

The connections. I made a lot of wonderful connections with people, learned a lot during the sessions, and in conversations outside the sessions.  Many people I met at my first CAST in 2008 have become colleagues I communicate with throughout the year, and many of those, good friends too.  How cool is it to have a network of colleagues and friends in your line of work who live around the world?

I enjoyed my first CAST experience so much that I committed to attending the next one.

It was enticing to know it was in Colorado Springs, but better yet, to know that another reunion would occur in a year.  I ended up submitting a proposal and presenting at CAST 2009 (well, I facilitated an interactive session that was a lot of fun).  My experiences there were just as wonderful, as I solidified relationships, formed new ones, learned from colleagues, and just plain had fun.

Now CAST 2010 beckons in the town of Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 2-4, 2010.

CAST has become one of my must-attend conferences of any year, so I was pleased when I heard it was in Michigan.  A mere 5 hour drive from home, I could carpool with others and save on flight costs.  I am pleased to share that I am speaking at CAST this year, not for just one session, but two! I’m not sure what the organizers were thinking when they made that decision, but I’m happy to take it.  :)  Check out all the sessions here.

So, am I going to see you at CAST this year?

What are you waiting for?!

Isn’t learning and collaboration important for your professional and personal growth?

Get yourself signed up ASAP, because the early bird deadline ends tomorrow!

You are going to love your experience at CAST!

I look forward to meeting you there!

- Selena

• Work out a deal with your boss so you can show its value within X amount of time after returning.
• See if the conference organizers could use your help in exchange for a discount. Disclaimer:  I don’t know if this is feasible for CAST, but I have done that for other conferences I really wanted to go to.
• Ask for training time off.  So, pay for the conference & travel, but don’t lose vacation time.
• Attend anyway.  Yes, paying out of pocket sucks, and so does using vacation time.  My learning and growth are more important to me though, so I cut back on other expenses and save up to attend things that are good for me.
• Trust me, this conference is that good.

Attend CAST 2010

The 5th annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing

August 2-4, 2010, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

“Skills in Testing”

About CAST

CAST reflects the AST’s core mission: to build community amongst scholars, practitioners, and students for the advancement of the practice of software testing. In 2010, CAST aims to leverage peer collaboration to build an enhanced understanding of how various skills influence tester effectiveness.

CAST offers a unique opportunity to learn and confer with others that simply isn’t found at other conferences. Each scheduled session allocates time for facilitated “open season” discussions that encourage participants to question and challenge the presentation. What takes place in the hallways, at receptions, and during meals and lightning talks truly sets CAST apart; for many attendees, the greatest value is derived from the opportunity to discuss and delve into the topics that matter to them.

Space is limited Register Today!

More information and Registration: www.CAST2010.org

Full Conference Pricing (non-member)
$630 by May 15th, 2010 ($280 savings)

We can’t wait to see you in Grand Rapids!

The target? A simple calculator to estimate parking costs at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport (see the Parking Calculator). The participants? Testers on Twitter.  The result? Much fun, lots of learning, and many bugs found.

I had planned to do other work in my backlog this morning, but a testing challenge can’t often be ignored (by me, anyway).  As I work from home between gigs, I can afford a little leeway in my schedule some days.  :)

While I have actively managed and coached on testing over the last number of years, I haven’t actively tested anything in a while.  So this was a chance to see just how rusty my testing skills were.  And do it live with testing colleagues around the globe.  No pressure.

If you haven’t yet, go click on that link above and try out your testing prowess before you read further!

Highlights from my Session
My eye was immediately drawn to finding ways to find the boundaries in the date and time fields, check valid/invalid data, and max out the cost estimate.  After playing with it for a couple of minutes, I was able to obtain a $6.75 million charge for 1 day of short term parking.

A little bit odd, right?

Some more attempts saw my cost estimate creeping upwards to $2,500,000,000,000,041.00, by simply pushing a limit in the Leave Time field, as seen below.  Notice that I was given a parking duration of an exponential day?  Stranger yet.

From there, I started my attempts to max all of the data entry in an attempt to drive the cost higher still.

Some of the interesting things I observed along the way:

• No limit on amount of data that could be entered in Date and Time fields.
• No restriction on amount of time that Short-Term Parking applied to.
• In some situations, when Leave Date increased a large amount beyond Start Date, Cost decreased (while all other variables remained the same).
• When entering large numbers (around 10 digits & higher), data in Time fields had a larger impact on Cost than did data in date fields.
• Can enter negative numbers into Date and Time fields, and Cost is calculated.
• Can enter letters into Date and Time fields, and Cost is calculated.
• Can enter symbols into Date and Time fields, and Cost is calculated.
• I suspect you could enter php script into fields and do something interesting (possible security issue?), but my php skills are non-existent these days.
• Found a sort of boundary in each data entry points in Date & Time fields.  For each point X in (X:X, X/X/X) an additional digit added resulted in calculator producing an error, and then an additional digit beyond that resulted in a lower Cost than two attempts ago.
• Can get free parking over course of a day, provided Start Date = Leave Date, and Start Time > Leave Time where:  Start <=11:59, Leave >= 0:59 (both am, or both pm).  This reports negative days parked.

My maximum Cost? $5,014,609,699,998,504.00 (for 2.08942070833E+14 Days, 14 Hours, 47.4666666667 Minutes)

This was a quick session, so there was much more to be found that I didn’t attempt.  To see other experiences, check out the conversations and results reported on Twitter via the #parkcalc hashtag.

I was particularly impressed with the findings of James Bach, who followed Dave Liebreich’s lead, and used exponentials to achieve a higher estimate (why didn’t I think of that?!).  Try as I might, I couldn’t play off of his data to achieve a higher one yet.

And then Markus Gartner really wowed me.  He achieved highest (reported) cost using specific numbers in the year field, that I can’t for the life of me figure out why they were special to achieve that result.  Altering his data didn’t achieve anything higher either.

So What’s The Point?
The point wasn’t to find ways to maximize the parking cost estimate.  Nor to just find really weird bugs in the application.  The point also wasn’t to say whether the application Gerald R. Ford International Airport put on their website was of poor quality (Note: Data is being collected to send to them as a result of this exercise, so they can fix things if they choose to).

The point was simply to practice some testing skills, learn from other testers, and have some fun.

And I did!  I had a blast.  Thanks to all my fellow tweeps for the engaging exercise and 140-character limit conversations!

Stay tuned for highlights from the Debrief that will occur among some of the testers that got involved.

It has been very busy the last few months, and  though activities kept me from writing, I discovered some valuable things about myself.   Some insights are new, and some have been strongly reinforced.  While this post is off the grain for what I intended this particular blog for, I am going to open up and share them with you.  This is a big window into who I am.

I love to help people

While I have known this from a very young age, I have finally come to accept that as okay.  There was a period in my life when I allowed myself to feel guilty about this; I was told my happiness shouldn’t rest on my ability to help others.  Okay, that makes sense.  It is still a huge feel-good rush when I’ve been able to help somebody in some way.  This is part of who I am.  I am unable to not help people.  This year in particular has been big in supporting and helping others for me.  Looking back, I’m astonished at what I took on.

I am passionate about facilitating learning in others

I do not believe that the educational system as a whole is helping people learn in the best way possible.  I enjoy creating experiences that people can learn in, and extract the learning that is most valuable to them from those experiences.  The next ‘aha!’ was that I am pretty good at it.  I have set up and facilitated a number of workshops this year in the testing, software, and people-skills domains.  I also allowed myself the opportunity to learn from the best in creating experiential workshops at a workshop in June with Jerry Weinberg and Esther Derby.  Now that was a learning experience!

I am a coach and a mentor

I realized that I have been for years! I thought for a while that I was simply working my way towards being those things, but upon reflection discovered that I already am.  One of my strengths is working with people to help enable their success.  I am filled with energy in doing this.  My best days at work are those in which I spend the majority of my time facilitating learning experiences, coaching, and mentoring.

I enjoy helping people, teams, and organizations be successful

Currently this is specific to software and software testing domains, as that is the field I work in.  I would enjoy doing this in most fields I believe though.  This year I have focused a lot of time and effort into helping an organization make the transition to Agile, and through the ongoing adoption.   It has been quite a learning experience, and a lot of fun.  I also engage in improving testers skills in testing software more effectively and comprehensively, organizational processes, and software engineering practices.

I am passionate about health & wellness

I have a wealth of information in this domain.  Due to my own health problems, I have researched in many domains, and tried a lot of things.  I have been coaching others in health & wellness, and am thrilled when that has helped others find better balance and health.  This year I have slowly started building a side-business in this field, so I can better share and support others in their journeys to better health.  Part of that involved becoming a certified personal trainer, and becoming better-educated in nutrition.

It’s all about balance, and experiences!

“Work hard, play hard” has been my motto for years.  This applies to work, projects, family, personal interests, hobbies, and more.  We are here to enjoy what life has to offer… for me that means doing the things I love as much as possible.  I spend time reading a variety of topics, with family, with friends, creating new recipes, attending conferences and workshops, learning, traveling, gardening, photography, educating, coaching, mentoring, supporting, exercising, volunteering, laughing, and living.

What’s next? Keep an eye out for new blog posts to come more frequently on some of the topics above.  For other topics, you’ll have to find your way to one of my other blogs sometime.

To life’s experiences!

Bob had a -2 prescription.

“That’s nothing!”, I said.  ”I have -5 and -6!”.

A little jaw-dropping ensued, with comments around how seriously compressed my lenses were.  And yes, that combined with a bad astigmatism means my glasses cost a small fortune.

Needless to say, I was surprised when Mark piped in with “My prescription is -10!”. He wears contacts though, which cost half what I have to pay.  Horrible eyesight, but somehow easier on the wallet.

We quickly start to share experiences with optometrists, and then what can we see without our glasses or contacts on.  There were a number of comparison points to which we all had different results, such as:

• How far away can you ready something like font 36 text?
• How close do you hold a book to read it?
• How abstract a painting would you create without wearing glasses/contacts?
• How long does it take for your eyes to focus on something together?

The answers and differences aren’t particularly important here.  They did lead to some information though:  Our perspectives, as a result of our eyesight, were different.   Well, we already knew that our perspectives were different, so this wasn’t earth shattering by any means. It was an interesting reframing and reminder though.

Having had a good connecting conversation over similarities and differences, we move to get back to work. Then Mark commented, “I used to tell my optometrist that if I look through only my left eye vs. only my right eye, I see a different colour cast over objects.  He said that wasn’t possible.  No one has that.”

I whip my head around, and exclaim “No way!  Me too!”.

It turns out he has been thinking he’s a weirdo in some way, as per the optometrist his experience with the difference in colour-cast is something that isn’t possible.  He feels much better that there is someone else who experiences the same thing.

As for me, I thought all these years that this was normal, so I never brought it up with anyone before. Now I wonder why I didn’t.

As we are both experienced software testers, this is a bit amusing to us.  I was able to derive a few important reminders for things to do (and not to do) as software testers based on this conversation.

Learning #1:  If you know something is true, don’t let anyone convince you it isn’t.  Depending on the situation, find ways to convince them, or let it go (here is a great discussion point on when to do which).

• Mark was told that something he saw was not possible.
• He knew it was not true, but thought maybe it was just him.
• After a little insistence, he didn’t do much more with it.

Software testers experience this a lot!  How many times have you seen an unusual software defect that no one else can reproduce or see?  And then you were told that you didn’t really see it, you must have imagined it!  Knowing that you really did see that defect, what do you do?!

a)  Just leave it alone – you don’t want to upset anyone.  Maybe they were right.

b) Agree to disagree, but vow that you will do further investigation to prove that the defect is real.

c) Discuss the defect with the developer, show them the information you have to support your claim, and agree that you will work together to nail this issue down and get it resolved.  Getting to this point means that the developer trusts you – this is a very good thing!

I hope you pick option c in most situations.  It is important as testers that we are able to gain developers’ trust so they take the defects we report as valid issues, and work together to nail down those elusive ones.  You are a team after all!

Learning #2: Never assume that what you see is seen by everyone else – you may have experienced something unusual that is important.

• I assumed that something I saw was expected, even though I thought it was odd.
• I assumed that most everyone saw the same thing.
• So, I never told anyone about what I saw.

a) It doesn’t seem worth reporting on – so don’t!  Reasons:  It must already be logged, it must be a known issue as it’s so obvious, my expectations are incorrect so it must not be an issue, nobody ever fixes the bugs I report anyway, and so on,…

b) Discuss what you saw with a team member or developer to confirm whether it is a bug or not.

c) Report the bug straight away, every time!

In this case, option b is the better choice in most situations.  Checking with someone who may have more information than you about the feature, or building consensus with others as to whether something is a bug are quite valuable mechanisms for making this decision.  Work as a team to save time and effort on bug processes!

Learning #3:  Two or more people that seem to have experienced the same thing, didn’t.  Every experience is unique, and each person has different information to share about it.

• Mark sees different colour-casts looking through each eye separately.
• I see different colour-casts looking through each eye separately.
• We must see the same thing!

a) Compare and contrast your experiences, and see how they line up… are all characteristics for the experience in the ‘same’ column, or are there differences?

b) Reproduce the issue on the software together, at the same time, on the same system.  In other words, paired testing!

c) Assume that the experience was the same end-to-end, and report the issue jointly.

In my experience, I would suggest option b.  It is important to try to reproduce the issue together to ensure the same steps were taken, with the same inputs, which resulted in the same outputs, and watching the same screen/hardware, at the same time.  The only caveat is that even by doing this, you still won’t have the same experience!  Everyone’s brains work differently and will notice different things (which is one of the reasons why paired testing can be valuable).  It is still a valuable approach regardless.

…

Now here is your chance to think up other alternatives for the learnings above – I know they are out there!  You do see things differently than I, after all.  :)  Another good thought-exercise is what other learnings could come from the conversation noted above?  In any situation, a multitude of learnings can be derived for every person exposed to it.  I could think of a few more off the top of my head, but I won’t.  Take this as an opportunity to see what other ways you could view the experiences.  I would love to hear what you come up with!