My friend recently changed his job. He is a Software Tester in Telecom domain with good knowledge of things (Domain & Technology) and more importantly he is willing to learn, for him learning has no limits. And this is precisely the reason why I thought about sharing his story with you, as it concerns us all.
As we all know that whenever one switches his/her company, s/he has to first adjust to new working environment, new colleagues, new processes etc. Same happened with my friend as well. My friend was given a project / application to work on. The project didn’t have this QA function earlier and there were no documents available for my friend either. So question was where to start?
Well, a meeting was called with all the Stake holders and it was decided that the new joiner should undergo some Knowledge Sharing (KT-Knowledge Transfer) sessions to get some more knowledge about the product he will be working on. KT completed just after a single one hour session and my friend was asked to start writing test cases. The irony was, the person who gave this KT to my friend was also a new joiner and was a developer. For most of the questions asked by my friend, he didn’t have any answer and what can be the better excuse than saying “I am also new like you.”
Then somehow Test Case started coming in and there were hour of reviews by different stakeholders to get it correct. (Actually no one knew what is correct, as told by my friend.)Later my friend came to know that the test cases he prepared are to be used by some other team. That team will use these test cases for preparing Automated Scripts.
My friend wondered as he never did automation straightaway without executing at least one cycle manually just to make sure that application is stable enough to for automation. To worsen the matters, he had to conduct reverse KTs for that so called Automation Team to make them understand the functional flow of the Application Under Test.
My friend proactively offered a solution to his manager saying he can do a lot better job if given an opportunity to work on his own with a definite timeline. Manager partly agreed and party disagreed. Manager said, “You should focus on preparing test cases, leave automation to concerned team.” But at the same time, manager was also concerned with deliverables that were getting delayed because my friend (who was asked to just write test cases) was not just writing test cases, he was also executing, logging defects, attending calls, feeding automation team and exploring application under test all at the same time and these things remains unsaid but he has to do it.
This whole process required a lot of time and the result was neither test cases could be completed by my friend (who is still exploring the product to learn more about it) nor the automation team could completely prepare their scripts.
So, Who is responsible for all this delay? NO NO I should rather say What is responsible for this delay? My friend who was a Star Performer in his previous organization (because of his gifted skills in Testing and his hunger for knowledge) is a worried guy these days.
I could think of few reasons, I would request you to put few points from your experience as well.
1) Stakeholders should not have directly jumped onto automation to get more coverage; they should have first allowed my friend (a tester by destiny) to understand the application thoroughly.
2) If it was pre-planned that automation will be done by some other team, that team should also have participated in KT session. This would have reduced the Learning curve.
3) Taking parallel approach for automation and manual testing makes sense only when one knows what should be automated and what not that too when application is stable but not otherwise.
My take, stakeholders should think in long terms, consider the broader view. What do you think?
My friend is in need of your guidance, please share your thoughts.
I am concerned about a number of things in this post and let me try detailing them. I must also let you know in advance that some of the things I'd be saying is no personal attack on you or your friend. I care for both and that's why I am spending my time trying to write what I think about it. I hope we three are open to learn from this.
ReplyDeleteAs we all know that whenever one switches his/her company, s/he has to first adjust to new working environment, new colleagues, new processes etc.
Embrace change should be the message and not about saying "Ah! New environment, it is challenging to change".
he project didn’t have this QA function earlier and there were no documents available for my friend either. So question was where to start?
You seem to suggest that documents are a way to start. I am wondering how someone started writing a document when they didn't have anything to start writing a document? Ah! There was a document that helped in writing this document?
The irony was, the person who gave this KT to my friend was also a new joiner and was a developer. For most of the questions asked by my friend, he didn’t have any answer and what can be the better excuse than saying “I am also new like you.”
Well, its fine. The person who joined earlier knows something more than the person who joined today. If your friend stopped asking those questions because the person supposed to KT didn't know an answer to it, I would be skeptical about his star performance in the first place. Someone must have an answer to it and it is wise looking for that person in the organization.
If no one in the organization knows it then it is very important for the organization to spend time knowing answers by maybe posing it to the customers or researching about them in partnership with the customers.
Then somehow Test Case started coming in and there were hour of reviews by different stakeholders to get it correct. (Actually no one knew what is correct, as told by my friend.)Later my friend came to know that the test cases he prepared are to be used by some other team. That team will use these test cases for preparing Automated Scripts.
Test cases came from where? From a human brain, right? When no one knew what was correct, why write documents that might end up being wasteful? Why invest time and money on something whose value is not known to anyone?
I would have saved thousands of dollars to the customer by not writing a test case document in such a context.
My friend wondered as he never did automation straightaway without executing at least one cycle manually just to make sure that application is stable enough to for automation.
ReplyDeleteAgain you seem to suggest that your friend who is an ex star performer appears to think about test automation as converting manual tests to automated ones. I think it is in its core the worst idea about testing and automation.
You may want to consider reading: http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/58
To worsen the matters, he had to conduct reverse KTs for that so called Automation Team to make them understand the functional flow of the Application Under Test.
Teaching provides an opportunity to learn about it so where is the situation being worsen to your friend here?
Things do get worsen if your friend thinks about converting manual tests to automated ones and provides the same idea to test automation team.
My friend proactively offered a solution to his manager saying he can do a lot better job if given an opportunity to work on his own with a definite timeline.
Can you explain more on what that means?
Manager partly agreed and party disagreed. Manager said, “You should focus on preparing test cases, leave automation to concerned team.” But at the same time, manager was also concerned with deliverables that were getting delayed because my friend (who was asked to just write test cases) was not just writing test cases, he was also executing, logging defects, attending calls, feeding automation team and exploring application under test all at the same time and these things remains unsaid but he has to do it.
So, someone realized that testing doesnt just involve executing test cases but things that are beyond that. However, I suspect if they translated that lesson to work by re assessing their estimates for release planning and testing.
This whole process required a lot of time and the result was neither test cases could be completed by my friend (who is still exploring the product to learn more about it) nor the automation team could completely prepare their scripts.
Did that surprise you after reading the story so far? Not for me.
There was clearly a lack of mission focus.
1. While the manager suggested one mission ( test cases) your friend was exploring the other ( test automation idea )
2. While the manager had a time line in mind your friend proposed his own time line.
Based on what I read I conjecture that there was a lack of mission focus.
So, Who is responsible for all this delay? NO NO I should rather say What is responsible for this delay? My friend who was a Star Performer in his previous organization (because of his gifted skills in Testing and his hunger for knowledge) is a worried guy these days.
ReplyDeleteNo testing skills are gifted. Any skill has to be acquired through hard work, practice, dedication and open mindedness.
Are you suggesting that a man who was hungry about testing didn't explore about similar situations and experiences of people well in advance to be able to adapt to such situations?
Here are some of the things to think about: A hero of a movie that was successful is a super hero till his next movie flops. He may continue to be a super hero if the next movie does as good as the previous one. So the demand to perform in different kinds of roles and different kinds of environments exists for people in all fields of work. We testers are no excuse. I'd suggest you and your friend stop thinking about having been a Star Performer and move on in life taking responsibility of the failure to star perform again.
While I am not blaming your friend for the failure, I am concerned that he may benefit from taking responsibility of the failure to which he contributed in equal parts as others in the team.
Sachin Tendulkar is never worried about a new pitch or a new bowler. He is always worried about his skills to be able to manage any kind of a pitch and any kind of a bowler. I think we Indians need to learn a lot more from cricket than merely watching lots of it.
I could think of few reasons, I would request you to put few points from your experience as well.
Your recommendations suggest to me that you are biased about the situation. For instance, you never suspected your friend to be responsible for it.
2) If it was pre-planned that automation will be done by some other team, that team should also have participated in KT session. This would have reduced the Learning curve.
I wish the World War 3 is pre-planned so that every country has the time to accumulate the resources they need to fight it out.
Please be open to changing contexts and stop being worried about change. I hope you watch cricket, and let me ask you this: If everything was preplanned would you watch it anymore?
3) Taking parallel approach for automation and manual testing makes sense only when one knows what should be automated and what not that too when application is stable but not otherwise.
First, I suggest people to learn what testing actually means.
My take, stakeholders should think in long terms, consider the broader view. What do you think?
Broad to me could be narrow to you. Your friend was a stakeholder - did you know that?
My friend is in need of your guidance, please share your thoughts.
What according to you and your friend is a good testing? Who is a good tester? What kind of skills is he supposed to have? Can you demonstrate ( video record and publish ) your testing of any open source product?
Please also consider publishing the list of books you (and your friend of course) have read, the list of blogs you read and what you learnt from them the discussions you have participated in, the testers with whom you interact and argue,
Do not get carried away with awards given in organizations. Not all awards mean a lot. They are mostly for employee retention tricks.
I am skeptical that your friend's skill might be genuine and he might have been stuck in a bad environment but I need evidence to believe it.
A question to you Rahul: Do you really believe everything your friend said?
In matters of friendship it might make sense but not when he is talking about work with you. Be skeptical and ask a lot of questions before you believe him. Note: that's only for work related discussions :)
I am also skeptical about the way you presented the story narrated by your friend. I'd wish to have his version of the story unedited and published.
Thanks for the time you have put in. We are honoured to have your comments on the situation. You asked a good number of questions and each one of these requires sometime to reply.
ReplyDeleteGive us a day, we will come up with all the replies. Also, you asked, what kind of books I (and my friend) read and whose blog we refer to and what we have learnt so far with demonstrations. Well answer is gonna be quite long. I'll publish the list very soon.
Thanks again for helping us with your thoughts.
Regards,
Rahul Gupta
I must also let you know in advance that some of the things I'd be saying is no personal attack on you or your friend.
ReplyDeleteWe all are here to learn so sentiments don't come into play.
Embrace change should be the message..
Embracing change....yes my friend is embracing change. He is committed to his work. Also, change is challenging and the extent of challenge varies with degree of flexibility one has. And my friend is quite flexible.
You seem to suggest that documents are a way to start.
No we are not (by any means) suggesting that documents are way to start. All we are saying, documents are one of the ways to start.
The person who joined earlier knows something more than the person who joined today.
Not always. In this case certainly not.Agree with your point on "Looking for that knowledgeable person".
I would have saved thousands of dollars to the customer by not writing a test case document in such a context.
You didn't mention how you would have saved thousands dollars? And why its not fruitful to write test cases.
Again you seem to suggest that your friend who is an ex star performer appears to think about test automation as converting manual tests to automated ones.
ReplyDeletePradeep, you would be surprised to know that someone already saw this point coming and that too from you. I read the post by James which you mentioned. http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/58
In this post, he compared Human Brain with Computer not manual testing with automation.
No computer in this world can replace Human Brain but automation is not just about converting manual tests to automated ones its something more than that.
More on this will be published in a separate post. Thanks for giving an idea about a new post.
Teaching provides an opportunity to learn about it so where is the situation being worsen to your friend here?
Agree with first point but one should have enough knowledge to feed someone else. Situation worsen when someone is not so sure/confident about things and it takes some time to gain that confidence.
Things do get worsen if your friend thinks about converting manual tests to automated ones and provides the same idea to test automation team.
Disagree, there is nothing wrong in explaining the functional flow of the application and pointing out the observations to the Automation and this was exactly my friend did. Also, your views are almost similar to what James had written in his post of 2006.
And as I said earlier, I'll dedicate a separate post on the subject.
So, someone realized that testing doesnt just involve executing test cases but things that are beyond that. However, I suspect if they translated that lesson to work by re assessing their estimates for release planning and testing.
Yes they revised their timelines.
There was clearly a lack of mission focus.
1. While the manager suggested one mission ( test cases) your friend was exploring the other ( test automation idea )
My friend was not exploring the test automation idea. I never said that in my post. Though my friend was exploring product under test and there is nothing wrong in it.
2. While the manager had a time line in mind your friend proposed his own time line.
My friend did not propose a new timeline, you grossly misunderstood. All he was saying "he can do a lot better job if given an opportunity to work on his own with a definite timeline. "
@Pradeep, earlier you said this now I am gonna say nothing personal. We are here to learn.
ReplyDeleteNo testing skills are gifted. Any skill has to be acquired through hard work, practice, dedication and open mindedness.
Did you learn to breathe with hard work, dedication, practice and open mindedness.
Are you suggesting that a man who was hungry about testing didn't explore about similar situations and experiences of people well in advance to be able to adapt to such situations?
No one knows what future has in store. Do you know someone who can tell the future of an application without looking at and knowing about it?
While I am not blaming your friend for the failure, I am concerned that he may benefit from taking responsibility of the failure to which he contributed in equal parts as others in the team.
Thanks for this thought. My friend said that he has already taken his share of responsibility, though I would say he is not completely responsible.
Sachin Tendulkar is never worried about a new pitch or a new bowler. He is always worried about his skills to be able to manage any kind of a pitch and any kind of a bowler. I think we Indians need to learn a lot more from cricket than merely watching lots of it.
Sachin Tendulkar: "A Noun became Adjective : 20 years of sheer determination and hard work" "My own thought, not copied :)"
There is only one of its kind. No matter how desperately someone wants to, no one will ever become Sachin Tendulkar. And why to draw analogies from fields where HEIGHT is getting defined everyday.
Software Testing field is yet to find its Sachin Tendulkar.
Your recommendations suggest to me that you are biased about the situation. For instance, you never suspected your friend to be responsible for it.
I did suspect and I questioned my friend a lot on this. That QnA session is not a part of this post.
I wish the World War 3 is pre-planned so that every country has the time to accumulate the resources they need to fight it out.
Please be open to changing contexts and stop being worried about change. I hope you watch cricket, and let me ask you this: If everything was preplanned would you watch it anymore?
Again you are drawing analogies :) with something which certainly not have any connection with Software Testing (except defense research and related products)
Well to answer your point, an activity can be planned if it is known in advance and I don't see "any changing context here".
Yes I watch cricket. By its very nature, I don't think it is supposed to be pre-planned but you are missing something here.
Weather, pitch, moist, humidity all these things are known in advance, and team management does consider these things before announcing the playing XI and making their mind on what to do after winning the toss.
Isn't it pre-planned?
Now map this to testing, not everything but few things can be planned.
First, I suggest people to learn what testing actually means.
I agree to that because everyone (including both of us) have their own thought process. There is nothing wrong in that. People come up with their definitions and based on that decide other's skill level.
What according to you and your friend is a good testing? Who is a good tester? What kind of skills is he supposed to have? Can you demonstrate ( video record and publish ) your testing of any open source product?
We will definitely do this. We both (my friend and myself) are agreed to showcase our skills but it will take sometime as we have a full time job also, i hope you would understand that we all have 24 hours a day and I am replying to your post at 2:31AM IST with my friend sitting just beside me.
@Pradeep
ReplyDeletePlease also consider publishing the list of books you (and your friend of course) have read, the list of blogs you read and what you learnt from them the discussions you have participated in, the testers with whom you interact and argue
List of books, do you mean books on testing? or anything. If later is the case then this blog is a small place to list all the books I have read in last few years. Allow me to prepare the list first, I will definitely publish it. few are listed on my LinkedIn account http://in.linkedin.com/in/merahulgupta
The blogs I follow are listed in my profile section, I participated in few discussions on LinkedIn and I have been arguing with you and I started with you, just to learn thats the intention and I planned it to be that way.
A question to you Rahul: Do you really believe everything your friend said?
Yes, I wrote only things I believed. I know my friend in question for last 8.5 years and thats a good enough time to understand people thoroughly.
I am also skeptical about the way you presented the story narrated by your friend. I'd wish to have his version of the story unedited and published.
My friend doesn't like to write blogs like others. But if you have any specific question for him, I would be more than happy to convey the same to him.
Thanks for your time Pradeep. The questions which remained unanswered will be covered in next few days.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDid you learn to breathe with hard work, dedication, practice and open mindedness.
ReplyDelete@BugMagnet
A thought came into me.
Do you know or did you see, how you took your first breath when you came to earth?
Do not compare others breath for yours when she or he came to world, if you had seen that.
There may be instances where one did not breath well when came into world from mothers womb, but later mastered it. Similarly, there may be others who breathed well when came to world, later did not continue that.
Few others are mastering the breath and able to stay for their potential minutes without breathing. Can a kid do that immediately coming out from mother's womb?
If one's breathing is testing, then "No testing skills are gifted. Any skill has to be acquired through hard work, practice, dedication and open mindedness."
@Learning
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, there may be others who breathed well when came to world, later did not continue that.
This post is nothing but a story of my close friend. And as you agreed, In the above statement
that there are people who start breathing well when they came to this world so my friend in question is one such a person.
I know that this example of breathing is not relevant but to answer some irrelevant thing I had to follow irrelevant ways.
Thanks for your time.
Regards,
Rahul
One more thing @Learning do you write blogs or something on these lines? At least share your profile.
ReplyDeletePeople like me may be interested in knowing this as we may get an opportunity to learn something from your experiences.
My sole aim of Blogging has been learning and nothing else.
Thanks,
Rahul
@BugMagnate
ReplyDeleteSorry! I had written BugMagnet earlier.
Thanks for replying.
....And as you agreed, In the above statement
that there are people who start breathing well when they came to this world so my friend in question is one such a person.
I did not agree on that.
I said: "Similarly, there may be others who breathed well when came to world, later did not continue that."
All you see is not what you saw and all you saw is very little of which you did not see.
Also read this way too: All we see is not what we saw and all we saw is very little of which we did not see.
What you are seeing may be not what you are seeing.
Also, I worry where you may miss stuffs which can be valuables for you or your friend or both.
I respect your values for your friend. At the same time don't get one-sided or biased, if did so. Plenty of lessons from first three comments and your answers for them as comments. No doubt your comments are also lessons.
Question yourself and with your friends in all possible views with all those first 8 comments or lessons in this blog post. And learn again, if able to identify anything from those comments.
@Learning,
ReplyDeleteGood insight. Though I have already read first 8 comments many a time but i'll still once again read it on your recommendations. I am not the person who will trust someone blindly especially if it is related to work (QA). I do question myself on a regular basis to understand and to look beyond the obivious.
I repeatedly mention that I am here to learn the "stuff" and would like to keep it that way.
Thanks again for another thought provoking comment.
Regards,
Rahul