Getting started in software testing... for the reluctant tester...

[textile]So, you have never done software testing before and the project manager says to you - "here, test this..." What do you do now? First, don't assume that what you think you know about testing is all-encompassing... Phil Crosby likened this to s-e-x! (errrm... I love testing - but not that much...) Phil said that Quality is like s-e-x because:

Everyone is for it. (Under certain conditions of, course.) Everyone feels they understand it. (Even though they wouldn't want to explain it.) Everyone thinks execution is only a matter of following natural inclinations. (After all, we do get along somehow.) And, of course, most people feel that all problems in these areas are caused by other people. (If only they would take time to do things right.) In a world where half the marriages end in divorce or separation, such assumptions are open to question. "Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain" Philip B Crosby (1926-2001) Copyright McGraw Hill

You can read more about that here: "http://www.etest-associates.com/newsletter/articles/qualityandsex.htm":http://www.etest-associates.com/newsletter/articles/qualityandsex.htm Arm yourself with knowledge... at least get a basic understanding of what you are letting yourself in for... Have a read of the "FAQs on SoftwareQATest.com":http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatfaq1.html to get a better idea of what software testing is about... especially read the definition of "Software Quality Assurance":http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatfaq1.html#FAQ1_1 and "Software Testing":http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatfaq1.html#FAQ1_2 - so you understand that what you are about to do is Software Testing and not QA... (don't get me started on Testing and QA and why they are often incorrectly used as synonyms... that is a whole different topic)... Be under no illusions about what you can realistically achieve... If 10 developers worked on the system over 3 months, did no testing whatsoever, and you have the next few days to 'test' it... all you can really promise to do is, perhaps, find a some bugs... make sure this is clear - the project manager may need to have some risk-management strategy in place, if he/she hasn't done so already... At this point, they may still be "following natural inclinations" so you may need to highlight that you aren't a tester... There are many types of software testing... and many levels at which it is performed... some think that 'having a play' is all there is to it... Well... there is testing and there is Testing... ...just like there is development and there is Development... If I record a VBA macro, edit the code to loop around 5 times, is that development? Am I a 'Developer'? Recording a simple VBA macro is in no way comparable to building a multi-layered object-oriented system that performs many complex functions... so, although the macro-hacker might be called a developer by some... they aren't perceived in the same way as the sort of person that would normally carry the title of 'Developer'... The person that knows only how to have a play, or makes up some arbitrary tests with no idea of why (I am not talking about exploratory testing) may be called a 'tester' but this is the equivalent of the macro-hacker calling themselves a developer... My point is... it is all about context... Sometimes, it is acceptable to let someone have a play, because it really makes no difference to the business whether it works or not... and sometimes it doesn't... but how many of us work on systems that have little or no impact on our customers' business? Don't try to impose rigid controls - be agile... Understand that there are techniques burried in "Best Practices" that can be useful to you - but don't constrain yourself with the safety-blanket of a rigid methodology... Keep the "Agile Manifesto":http://www.agilemanifesto.org/ in your mind and accept that context should affect your choices... so apply the relevant principles from the "Context Driven School":http://www.context-driven-testing.com/ I hope that this is a useful start for you... Best of luck on your first day as the reluctant software tester...