Add new comment

[textile]Mike, In this one entry, you have made several points that I think have the potential to grow into articles or blog-entries in their own right.

Common terminology for one... I spend a sizeable chunk of my time with new clients finding a common language for testing related terms ("QA & Testing being just one pair of terms":http://www.testingreflections.com/node/view/827 as a case in point).

One message in here that leaps out at me from your article, however, is not letting "Agility" become the constraining factor... Where people dogmatically adhere to something they call an "Agile Processe" without being truely agile.

I think that first and foremost, agility is a mind-set. One has to train one's mind to think outside the box...

I think that flexible standards that set boundaries and a common framework are a good thing and that is where agility can deliver on its promises...

I believe, however, many testers have been trained to be rigid and inflexible... so much so that even if they worked in an agile environment they would still try to find the absolute metric of conformance... and probably fail. It takes a strong mind to "unlearn what you have learned" (yeah - I know Yoda said that).

I hope that rigid, "absolutionist" testers that are out there read your article above and consider whether they want to stay wrapped up in their security blankets or venture into the exhilarating world of applied creative thinking...

Anyone that does should understand that they will make mistakes... but they should only see it as a 'mistake' if they don't learn from it... that is when a mistake matures into a 'lesson'...

Preach brother, preach!

Antony Marcano