The New Gives and Takes in a Tester’s Role

-Rajini Padmanaban

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Spot The Difference!

Product Quality as it stands today…

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Collective Ownership Need for domain knowledge

Drive to Understand competitionNeed to think beyond bounds of

core test team

Let’s take the case of Facebook

Anger mounts after Facebook’s

‘shadow profiles’ leak in bug

Facebook 'bug' worse than reported;

non-users also affected

Here’s the email 6M Facebook users

affected by the network’s privacy flaw

will receive

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Let’s take the case of Facebook

Facebook does not have, need testers. How testing is done?

1. Facebook has lot of automation not by scope or coverage, by lines

of test code

2. Everyone at facebook uses it and reports issues

3. Aggregate error logs and user reports help determine bugs

4. Major clients are forced to use it and report bugs

5. Ex-facebook employees have privileged channels to report issues

Why no QA discipline?

6. Not having QA makes it a more fun place to work

7. It is a website and issues can be fixed fast

8. Social networking isn’t critical to users

9. Facebook has a lot of momentum and lock in

Post on Wired.com

Facebook Puts The Brakes on the Hacker

Way

Facebook’s move toward greater testing is a

sign of maturation at the company

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Did You Know – Facebook’s Bug Bounty

"India is home to the largest population of security researchers participating in the

Facebook bug bounty program since its inception in 2011. The country also holds the

top spot for most bounties paid," Adam Ruddermann, Facebook’s technical program

manager

Understanding a tester’s role at this time…

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The cross-roads

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Administrative

TesterTechnical TesterEmpathetic Tester

Developer

User Expert Analytical Tester

Social Tester

Source: http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/893

Gives and Takes in a tester’s role

Striking the

right balance

Slide 10

What can I give away?

• All together –

• Detailed documentation and test

artifacts creation

• Pure script based testing approach

• Obsession on age-old metrics that

don’t add value

Slide 10

What can I give ?

• To another team member –

• BVTs to developers, build

engineers

• Sanity regression tests to

developers

• Early troubleshooting tests to

operations

• Accountability for quality to

everyone

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Retain Independence and Exercise

Caution as You Give Away

What can I take ?

• Ownership to build a professional testing culture

• Controlled freedom with responsibility

• Competing product quality evaluation

• Triage representation

• End user issue analysis

• Role of a quality ambassador

• Drive for continuous, conscious and collaborative

quality

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Determine to “thrive” not just “survive”

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10 lessons to thrive as a tester• Tailor test documentation, use modern technology

• Use test design techniques as a review technique

• Provide management with feedback on their decisions

• Learn to be a weather person

• Test the tester’s tests

• Strengthen your test environment

• Stand out and be different

• Become a pioneer or explorer

• Believe in yourself

• Take time to sharpen your axe

Source: http://www.agileconnection.com/blog/beth-romanik/stareast-2013-keynote-surviving-or-thriving-top-ten-lessons-professional-tester

Myself as a Tester

Niche

Holistic view into testing

Enhanced confidence

Empowerment to thrive

For my team

Better task load balancing

Improved collaboration

Enhanced respect for each other’s

role

For my product

Improved test coverage and quality

Empowerment to meet market

dynamics

Increased market acceptance

For my users

A good quality feature rich product

on time

A WIN scenario for everyone!

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The Hare and Tortoise Story

The Tortoise And

The Hare

Scenario 1

Moral: Slow and steady wins the

race

Why did I

lose the

race?

The Story Goes On – Scenario 2

Moral: Slow and steady is good but fast and steady is

even better

There’s More – Scenario 3

How can

I can win

the hare?

What

should I

do?

Moral: Identify and leverage core competencies, explore newer

playing fields for growth and advancement

One Final Take – Scenario 4

Hi, buddy. How

about doing our last

race again?Great! I think we could

do it much better, if we

two help each other.

Teamwork is about situational leadership and empowerment; letting the person with

relevant core competency for a situation take leadership and let the group shine together

Moral Revisited!

Take-Aways

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• Quality - a core attribute in product success

• Identify new playing fields; customize tester’s role

• Retain independence, harp on collaboration

• Remember the new hare and tortoise story!

Excited to share a book on “New Software Testing Roles” –

published by CRC Press later in 2016

Workshop on Re-invent Testers – by James Bach, in Dec, in

Noida

(http://www.satisfice.com/reinventingtesters.shtml)

Additional references

• http://www.zdnet.com/anger-mounts-after-facebooks-shadow-profiles-leak-in-bug-7000017167/

• http://www.zdnet.com/firm-facebook-bug-worse-than-reported-non-users-also-affected-7000017318/

• http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/06/22/heres-the-email-6m-facebook-users-affected-by-the-networks-privacy-flaw

-will-receive

/

• http://www.wired.com/business/2013/08/slowing-the-hacker-way/

• http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/why-facebook-doesnt-have-or-need-testers/7191

• http://pps-aseem.blogspot.in/2008/05/new-version-of-hare-tortoise-story.html

• https://www.practitest.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/State_of_Testing_Survey_2015.pdf

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Thank you

For more information, please:

• Contact us at info@qainfotech.com

• Visit us at www.qainfotech.com

• Read our blogs at www.qainfotech.com/blog

• Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/qainfotech

USA

Office

International

Headquarters

Noida

Uttar Pradesh, India

Phone: +91-120-4292222

(Three additional testing facilities in India)

Farmington Hills

Michigan, U.S.A.

Phone: +1-248-719-3409

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