Testing is an attitude

Over the last few years, the testing profession has evolved thoroughly. Initially, it was considered to be a necessary evil as many referred to it as a set of cost-related tasks at the end of the development chain which are required to ensure the go-live of the software. However, nowadays, we witness an evolution towards the testing profession as one of the biggest cost savers for IT projects. It now emerges in the whole software development life cycle (SDLC) including at stages such as requirements writing, development and analysis for example. How come?

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From cautious to supportive test ninjas
Software testing is a profession that is performed by many types of persons. If you look at the DISC quadrant or other variants, we can easily place test professionals in all four fields. When looking any further, it is more likely to divide specific testing profiles into a specific field of the quadrant. A test automation engineer has in most cases other characteristics than a test manager. 
 
Technical and non-technical curiosity
We can describe the testing attitude as a combination of different characteristics, completely unrelated to the acquired technical knowledge. One of the most prominent features is curiosity. Technical curiosity results in wanting to know how systems work and loving to interact in order to make the correct test plans, designs and cases. Curiosity towards the non-technical side of things is as important as test ninjas will start asking critical questions like: “Is this requirement ambiguous?”, “Did this work before?”  and “What does <fast> mean to the end user?”. 
 
Although <looking at the bigger picture> isn’t a typical characteristic of testers, it does play a big role in the quality of the delivered product. Questions like “Are we building the right thing?”, “Are we building the thing accurately?” and “Is this an important feature to the customer?” will help to detect problems before the go-live. 

"Are we building the right thing?”, “Are we building the thing accurately?” and “Is this an important feature to the customer?”

Secret ingredients: curiosity mixed with proactivity and audacity
If you combine this testing curiosity with proactivity, you’ve got a rock-solid testing attitude. Finding the problems early on, before the development phase takes off, should be the ultimate goal. Proactively searching for problems and preventing defects is the way forward.  
 
Add some audacity in the mix, and you can call yourself a real test ninja! Asking questions in all kind of circumstances - even questioning established values or processes - isn’t always easy, but it’s primordial to take advantage of the knowledge, ideas or questions resulting from the testing attitude. 

Testing is an attitude

Testing is an attitude

Author
Jurgen David

Jurgen David

Attitude is key - It cuts costs
These characteristics prevent defects, rather than detecting them. Preventing problems is much cheaper than having to do some rework to solve them after they have been developed. So, this is exactly why test ninjas are cost savers. Only if they adopt the right attitude, obviously!
 
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