What three testing activities would say you do if a person with no testing experience asked?
We shared this on Twitter and LinkedIn and had lots of answers, from finding actual problems and asking the right questions to make mistakes on purpose. How do you explain your role?
Here’s my same answer as in Twitter, but with a little more depth.
By “learn”, I mean learning about a product, how you can use or abuse it, and give feedback in order to hopefully make it better, in some context. I have used this line almost exactly in interviews, while being surprised at how many people hire for testing roles knowing nothing about testing. (Side note: it usually gets very positive feedback from interviewers)
“Making mistakes… on purpose” is my light hearted answer to casual conversation, especially right after I mess something up. “That’s my job!” Then if someone asks for more, I explain that a part of what I do is to think about what people will do wrong with my system and do it myself before they have the chance to do it.
“Program” is what I typically tell people when they ask what I do and I don’t want to explain the use of testing. It isn’t technically wrong, since my current job is as a tool-smith and test automation “expert”.
Great question!
I facilitate testing conversations. At the start of projects, the team may identify testing challenges. During our conversation, we explore the challenge and solutions for both testing and improving testing.
I advocate for testability. Most during design meetings I offer suggestions to improve testability (e.g., logging, configuration variables to control behaviors).
I learn how to use tools to support testing. This includes development tools (Visual Studio, Eclipse) and testing tools (Excel, Postman). In my opinion, learning about the capabilities of these tools can help me support testing (testing by testers as well as testing by developers) better.
Joe