The previous two questions helped you to find why testing is necessary, what information you need to answer the first question (business value) and which test ideas help you deliver meaningful and relevant information. This post now extends this to areas that help you identify the circumstances in which you will have to do your work. It ends with a little advice that you should not take things for granted especially if you do not understand them.
DID-A-TEST
Originally called Jean-Paul’s test this mnemonic represents a set of surveying questions that helps you identify working conditions. Once you have the answers to these questions you should check if and if so how this influences your ability to test and the ability to give more or less rich information to your stakeholders. You can use these questions to identify boundaries and constraints to your testing possibilities and address them or at least be and make others aware of them. These questions are by no means exhaustive, but in my opinion they form a good starting point in exploring your test context.
Are the Developers available?
Developers are physically close of far from you. They are more or less available in time or more or less organizationally accessible to testers. The ability or inability to work together with development can influence your risk assessments, your insight into risk areas, your knowledge about development solutions and what is or is not covered by development testing activities. Additionally when addressing developers it is good to know the preferences and willingness of each developer with regard to working with testers.
How soon do you have access to Information?
Of course you can use the FEW HICCUPPS mnemonic (James Bach, Michael Bolton) to improve and expand your test ideas, but gathering information about the intended product or solution is a main starting point and important reference to work with. So getting access to the sources of information or even better being involved in the information gathering should start as soon as possible.
Do you control the test Data?
My interpretation of test data here is wide in the sense that I do not only mean the ability to enter different types of inputs, in different variations and quantities. I also mean the ability to set up and load data sets creating test scenarios. And the ability to set or remove states in the software. Being able to control the data is beneficial in speeding up test execution, creating typical test situations and helps to quickly repeat the test case if necessary.
Having control of the test data is only one side of the story. The other side of the story is that you need to find the right ‘Trigger Data‘ to use. Trigger Data is any data item, set of data or data state specifically created and used to invoke, enable or execute your test case (scenario).
Are the Analysts available?
Like the developers the availability, both physical and in time, of the (business) analysts has an impact on the way you can interact with them. And like the developers analysts will have preferences and are more or less willing to work with testers. The impact of this might however be larger as analysts are often the first source of information about the products intended functionality and its means of satisfying the stakeholders needs and wants. They are often also a sort of gate(keepers) in communicating to business stakeholders. In that sense they can make a testers live more or less easy. Especially if testers are not expected to go outside of the projects boundaries.
Are the (other) Testers available?
In my experience working as the only tester on a project has an impact both on the way you work and to some extend to the quality of your work. Being able to pair, share thoughts or just have a chat with another tester can help you reconsider your work and develop new or different test ideas. The tester doesn’t necessarily have to be in your team to have this effect. Having other testers in your team brings both the benefit (and sometimes burden) of being able to divide work, get fast feedback on test ideas or test results and the possibility to focus or divert away from your strengths and weaknesses as a tester.
Do you have a quiet work Environment?
This question addresses two different aspects. The first aspect is the infrastructure. Do you know what it’s components are? Do you have a separated test environment? And if so are you its only user? Do you know how to get access to it? Are you allowed to change it yourself or do you need others to do it for your? Is your test environment similar to the real production environment?
Secondly it addresses the circumstances of your workplace. Do you work in isolation, in cubicles, or in a large office garden? Is your work uninterrupted or are you (in)voluntarily involved into other work processes and activities? Does that influence your performance and well-being? What the influences are obviously depends on you as person and the real circumstances. But it is wise to take note and consider possible consequences. There are many studies into this field. Here are few articles that might trigger your interest: “Designing the work environment for worker health and productivity” by Jacqueline C. Vischer; ”Interrupt Mood” by Brian Tarbox or “Where does all that time go” by Michael Bolton.
Are the Stakeholders (that matter) available?
Stakeholders come in many forms and shapes, but they have one thing in common. They are in someway involved in the creation and/or use of the software solution. That not only means they need to be informed about the product that also means that they have expectations and opinions about the product itself, what it is used for, and what the products needs to able to do to make it valuable to them. As a tester you should identify these expectations and opinions and tailor your information about the product so that it is meaningful to them.
In theory the effort you put into gathering, tailoring and presenting that information is based on how much the stakeholders matters to the product, the project and to some extend to you the tester. I say in theory because to do so in practice the stakeholders need to be available and accessible. If they are not or if it is difficult you should take the extra time and effort into account of your testing and test reporting.
Is there (mandatory) Tooling?
There are many types of tools available in the market to capture requirements, store test cases, log test execution or manage bugs. And likewise there are many tools available to use during testing. As a tester you need to find out which tools there are, which tools you are allowed to use, and which tools are mandatory to use. You will might not know all the tools you are faced with or are unable to use a tool that you already know and like. In that case you will have to get used to the ‘new’ tooling and learn to use it. Additionally many tools have inbuilt workflows and processes that take away time from actual testing. As a tester you should be aware of this and take this into account when testing.
Poutsma principle
Whenever I start on a new test assignment or pick up a new work item I need to search and find its purpose, its meaning and I need to understand how the chosen requirements offer a solution to the problem that is solved. Sometimes that is really easy.
Say you visit the 36th International Carrot Conference before going to CAST 2013. You come home and decide to sell carrots for hungry rabbits online and you want to vary the amount of carrots or differentiate the type of carrot for different breeds of rabbits. You will need something like drop down list or input field to identify the different rabbit breeds. And except for the sudden urge to sell carrots this is fairly easy to understand and test.
If however you are asked to test the software implementation of calculating results for a new Credit Risk Model used by an international bank you will have a lot more to understand. If so I remind myself of the Poutsma Principle:
If something is too complex to understand, it must be wrong.
I use this principle to remind myself to keep asking questions until I either understand it or except the argumentation of it as proof. In either case it helps me to break down requirements to a level that makes me confident enough to start testing and daring enough so that I can also use my personal addition to the principle
And it is your job (as a tester) to proof it wrong.
If you want to know more about the Poutsma Principle you can follow this link.
