What is What is Professional Testing?

WHAT IS WHAT IS PROFESSIONAL TESTING?James Thomas@qahiccupps, qahiccupps.blogspot.co.uk

MEWT #5. 9th April 2016

A professional tester should be alert to nuances of meaning.

A professional tester should accept that

sometimes there won’t be an explicit definition.

When I say Professional Testing it means just what I choose it to mean — neither

more nor less.

Profession“A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain”

A professional tester should be alert to blocking manoeuvres. What is the motive?

A professional tester should be prepared to go against the instructions of the stakeholders.

Mission

What do they hope to achieve by asking the question?

Who is asking this question?

The organisers, on behalf of the testing community.

What prompted them to ask the question?

Find some heuristics and principles that can be utilised to increase the profile of testing

Because we needed a topic to discuss at MEWT.

A professional tester would want to understand their mission.

Meta Testing

Well played. Are you in senior management? ;-)

Cost/benefit analysis suggested spending less than 5 minutes of my time and giving you my most honest response would probably suffice. If you actually do

need more info, let me know.

A professional tester might now choose to restate the mission.

A professional tester might now test the

relationship.

Mission

• Non-specific problem to investigate• Non-specific client to solve it for• Questions of definition are in the story

• But what else is in the story?

A professional tester should have tools at their disposal to help them

gather data.

OPPOSITION

Amateur

The professional network

the world's largest open community that exists to advance and promote the software testing professionA professional tester might

ask whether professional testing must be performed

by professional testers.

Unprofessional

A professional tester might observe a difference between being professional and

acting professionally.

EXEMPLARS

professional ethical standards

The Association for Software Testing is ... focused on supporting the development of professionalism in software testing

I will ... strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work.

A professional tester might note that this means a

professional could do an unprofessional job

Professional Testing is hard to define but I know it when I

see it.

A professional tester ought to be able to do better than

that, right?

What is Professional Testing?• Professional testing is testing

• … by someone in a testing role, for a client• … at some time, for some project

• which might • … include specified practices• … involve people nominated as professional testers• … involve acting professionally

• and which is • … unlikely to be amenable to tight definition• … but might accept an envelope like the AST’s• … and so have the client’s interests foremost• … but offers no guarantees about outcome

•Was any ofWhat is What is

Professional Testing? professional testing?

Selected References• http://wordyenglish.com/alice/i/lg2/lg_29.png• http://www.clker.com/cliparts/6/S/W/2/g/t/transparent-red-no-circle-md.png• http://www.catersnews.com/stories/art-tech/museum-of-bad-art/• https://www.carthrottle.com/post/jeremy-clarkson-s-fracas-has-cost-him-100-000-

in-racial-discrimination-claim/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it• http://www.briansolis.com/category/contextmatters/• https://

thetomatos.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/open-book-cover-clip-art-clipart-free-clipart-images-1.jpg

• http://cdn2.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/autoexpressuk/files/header_toolbox-5423.jpg• http://

www.vertextools.com/media/catalog/product/cache/12/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/o/combination_spanner_43.jpg

• http://www.jimbodetools.com/images/products/194579.jpg• https://

blog.playbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/playbuzz-batman-pondering.gif• http://www.niemanlab.org/images/question-marks-cc-1280x457.jpg