Tuesday, August 29, 2006
If Software Testing Were Mechanical...
How many times have I heard from team members "I don't want to be on the testing team! It's just mechanical work."
I've always tried to convince them that they were wrong. That testing was as creative a process as software development itself. Most of the time, I could convince people that it was true, but not always.
In our discussions about our book "Beyond Agile," Hong came up with the perfect point on this.
"If testing were mechanical," Hong said yesterday, "Microsoft would have already won the battle against spyware, viruses and spam."
What is the definition of a computer virus? It's a program that "found a hole" in your software and exploited it.
If testing were mechanical, we would have an ironclad path to sealing up all the "holes" in software and there would be no virus problem. No spyware problem.
Even spam is just e-mail that evades the software filters that are built into our e-mail clients, exploiting one hole after another.
If software testing were mechanical, a fully-tested application would have no susceptibility to viruses, spyware or spam.
And it would have no bugs. Have you ever used an application that has NO BUGS? I certainly haven't.
No, testing is a highly creative, heroic job. Underappreciated in certain companies? Sure. But the job itself is every bit as challenging, as rewarding, as creative and as interesting as designing or creating code.
I've always tried to convince them that they were wrong. That testing was as creative a process as software development itself. Most of the time, I could convince people that it was true, but not always.
In our discussions about our book "Beyond Agile," Hong came up with the perfect point on this.
"If testing were mechanical," Hong said yesterday, "Microsoft would have already won the battle against spyware, viruses and spam."
What is the definition of a computer virus? It's a program that "found a hole" in your software and exploited it.
If testing were mechanical, we would have an ironclad path to sealing up all the "holes" in software and there would be no virus problem. No spyware problem.
Even spam is just e-mail that evades the software filters that are built into our e-mail clients, exploiting one hole after another.
If software testing were mechanical, a fully-tested application would have no susceptibility to viruses, spyware or spam.
And it would have no bugs. Have you ever used an application that has NO BUGS? I certainly haven't.
No, testing is a highly creative, heroic job. Underappreciated in certain companies? Sure. But the job itself is every bit as challenging, as rewarding, as creative and as interesting as designing or creating code.
