I posted a topic at the start of the year on SpaceX and I’m a bit of a fan. I saw this quote on CNN today on the topic of SpaceX’s test flight and just thought, they still get it, they get what testing is all about and simply thought I’d share it here.
“SpaceX’s Dan Huot just warned: “Do not be surprised if this is not a very smooth flight on the way down.” He noted that SpaceX intentionally removed heat shield tiles at vulnerable parts of the Starship spacecraft. The idea here is to pinpoint exactly how and where the vehicle might fail — or if engineers will be surprised by Starship’s robustness. While smooth flights are ideal, SpaceX is emphasizing that, because these are tests, engineers want to identify failure points as well. Such data can be useful because it informs workers of what can or should be added or subtracted from Starship — a key consideration when every ounce of hardware affects the overall efficiency of the vehicle.”
What about you, what are you seeing across the globe and perhaps beyond that really resonates with your views on testing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51-gLL_MRM I picked this one only because its the most recent one I remember, but any physical engineering video about reproducing a situation to reduce failure states really hits that tester bug. On the more comical side of the spectrum, I think about this moment from American Dad where people send in scale models of their homes to light on fire. Sometimes we have to test to stress a situation and find the breaking points, and sometimes, we just want to watch the world burn.
@andrewkelly2555, I really appreciate this topic! I shared it on LinkedIn but I think I’m going to meditate on this a bit. Going to share this with my team as well to see if anyone has additional thoughts. Thanks for the question!
Some of the journalism I subscribe to resonates with my thoughts about testing.
There are investigative pieces. They question assumptions and their own biases yet don’t shy away from having an opinion alongside researched facts/observations.
I often think good testing and quality professionals are like good investigative journalists.
I know some game designers / developers which I see constantly trying out the actual state, seeing if it makes fun, and then drawing conclusions from what they observe. They want to test, because they want to create good art.
