Why I’m writing this strange blog ?

Thanks to Bloggers Club on the Ministry of Testing. There are regular challenges that aim to share community thoughts. This month, the challenge is to share the personal perspective about “Testing is like…”

But with what can we compare ‘TESTING’ ?

In my opinion, testing could be compared to many things that we face in our daily life.

I invite you to read the comparaison made by Elias, where he compared two things that I’m passionate about “Testing is like” … “COOKING”. I agree about this example but I wanted to share another challenge for more diversity .. (See PART 2 of the blog)

By the same occasion, I want to add more about Cooking before I move to the second part where I will compare testing with traveling.

PART 1 : Testing is like Cooking

Cooking in agile way can have a plan but not strictly defined at the beginning

Responding to change over following a plan

Agile Manifesto

For example, last week I started thinking about sautéed vegetable salad then, when cooking status is in progress, I remembred we have more ingredients and we can make it even fancier (equivalent of customer change request, but in this case it’s about family wish, preferences and available ingredients) !
I update it into Noodles format with prawns without loosing anything and here is the final result. (Don’t hesitate to ask me for the receipe)

  • Final Product: Noodles with sauteed vegetables
  • First Plan: Sauteed vegetables

So my message here as testers, we should adapt to change and design our tests to be maintainable.

Here some interesting automation best practices and tips:

  • Decide What Test Cases to Automate
  • Test Early and Test Often
  • Create Automated Tests That Are Resistant to Changes in the UI
  • Create Good, Quality Test Data
  • Divide Your Automated Testing Efforts
  • Select the Right Automated Testing Tool

What’s More ?

I invite all testers to share their thoughts and tell the community with what can we compare testing ?

PART 2: Testing is like Traveling

How I choose my comparaison strategy ?

I’m passionate about traveling, and I always try to find a common link with testing (when passion meets job)

So I’ll add this second part in the blog comparing TESTING to TRAVELING

Introduction

Usually, before I travel I prepare an initial plan for the country I’ll go so that I can have good list with best recommendations (adventures, places, tasty food…) via trip advisor and other platforms… Once there I follow part of my preparations, but I always discover more interesting things while exploring.

I try to do the best I can do in time available as if it’s my first and last time in that country and I shouldn’t miss any important thing (no critical bugs should stay in the software).

In next section, I summarized similarities in a table.

Comparaison Table

TestingTraveling
T…ingT…ing (the word itself is almost similar)
Have fun working with the whole team Have fun with different adventures and activities
Effectiveness in finding critical bugsEffectiveness in finding beautiful places
Discover “Bugs” and build quality into the softwareDiscover the “World beauty” and build the joy and fun to refresh your mind
Testing without a Map
Explore the software even without having all the details, using heuristics will help you on that.

“You don’t always need to wait for complete specifications to start your testing effort.” BY MICHAEL BOLTON		Traveling without a detailed plan and make real time discoveries to find hidden places instead of seeing just touristic places known by everyone

“The gladdest moment in human life is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton
Testing activities depends on the level of risk and our definition of doneTraveling activities depend on our budget and our duration of stay
Choose the right tools and framework before you start automation journey Prepare all necessary assets before your trip (plane ticket, valid passport, money …) and install recommended traveling apps
Track the progress of the teamTrack your TODO list and adjust your priorities to do the best you can do in time available
Testing help you learn more about the softwareTraveling help you learn more about different countries, culture and their tradition
Being obliged to follow a plan 100% won’t let you discover new things beyong the initial plan. It’s like testing in a stupid way without using your creativityGuided tour for beginners travelers help them discover touristic places that everyone can find with simple search, I call it “classic trip with high cost without the sens of adventure”
Use “testing-related” hashtags on twitter or linkedin to discover more about people tips and best practices use “traveling-related” hashtags on Instagram to disocver more about places, good food, best recommendations for better adventures
Testing Vs. Traveling in a Nutshell

It’s just a quick overview, I feel there are much more examples to talk about in relation with Testing IS LIKE Traveling.

I challenge you to find a common stories between Testing and anything else you imagine ! TESTING IS LIKE …

Let me know if you have any comment or feedback about my blog.

Discover more about my traveling adventures via emna__ayadi

References

“Testing from a traveler’s point of view” by Sergio Freire

This presentation was made at expoQA 2019 and provides a general introduction to testing concepts by using traveling as an analogy. Based on personal traveling experiences, you’ll also discover that testing and traveling have so much in common.
What, how and with whom you can travel? And what about testing? What is scripted testing? And “automated testing”? And exploratory testing?

Bloggers Club June/July 2020: Testing is like

This challenge has inspired many testers and here is the result by bloggers club community: