Does finding a bug disgust you?
Submitted by Charlie Audritsh on Mon, 14/08/2006 - 21:34.
general software testing
While responding to one of the briefest of Mike Kelly's posts, I came up with something that seemed worth repeating in my own blog:
With each defect we find, do we long for some ideal software that has no bugs anyone can seem to find and performs really well right off the bat -- an ideal of software that really just does not exist?
Why should the fact that software needs to be tested and that defects are inevitable, be a source of disgust to the very people whose bread the work of testing butters? I think many testers I've worked with in my career hold this contradictory opinion. They fervently believe in testing, and may even enjoy their jobs, yet feel on some level like their work should not even be necessary. I'm peeking up over the edge of the foxhole that I've been entrenched in for so long and questioning whether this is the correct view... In other words, I'm looking up and finding one of my holy icons has been smashed. The one called "software just plain sucks period".
Software will inevitably have bugs, if for no other reason than no one is perfect. Our job as testers is to do our best to find as many as we can. It's not good or bad, it's just a reality of the world we live in. So finding a defect should not cause a tester irritation, disgust, anger, or even righteous indignation. It should cause some happiness, or satisfaction, or at worst, indifference. When the garbage collectors find a trash bag for them on the curb, do they feel irritation, disgust, anger, or righteous indignation? No, not even surprise. They just pick it up and throw it in the truck. Perhaps this is the view we should hold as we test.
With each defect we find, do we long for some ideal software that has no bugs anyone can seem to find and performs really well right off the bat -- an ideal of software that really just does not exist?
Why should the fact that software needs to be tested and that defects are inevitable, be a source of disgust to the very people whose bread the work of testing butters? I think many testers I've worked with in my career hold this contradictory opinion. They fervently believe in testing, and may even enjoy their jobs, yet feel on some level like their work should not even be necessary. I'm peeking up over the edge of the foxhole that I've been entrenched in for so long and questioning whether this is the correct view... In other words, I'm looking up and finding one of my holy icons has been smashed. The one called "software just plain sucks period".
Software will inevitably have bugs, if for no other reason than no one is perfect. Our job as testers is to do our best to find as many as we can. It's not good or bad, it's just a reality of the world we live in. So finding a defect should not cause a tester irritation, disgust, anger, or even righteous indignation. It should cause some happiness, or satisfaction, or at worst, indifference. When the garbage collectors find a trash bag for them on the curb, do they feel irritation, disgust, anger, or righteous indignation? No, not even surprise. They just pick it up and throw it in the truck. Perhaps this is the view we should hold as we test.