A musing post

Some readers might wonder about the fact that I tweeted Lisa. Yes, the Lisa from the testing books. And yes, Janet was the other author.

Was this a typical case about courage? Nope.

If you would ask me, that I would use Twitter 5 years ago, then my answer would be: “No way”.

Today Twitter is my way to get updates from the testing community.

I want to stress that my tweet to Lisa is not about ‘Don’t fear your peer’.

I just grew.

Is it possible to find new ways of testing in a tester infected country like the Netherlands? Sure.
But there are already so many test methodologies and specialists.
So what?

Hark! The testing muses sing
[On the melody of ‘Hark! The Herald angels sing’ ]

An artist gets her or his inspiration from a muse. Some readers might think about a person, whose mere presence brings music or words in her or his mind.

For testing there are other muses. Do they sing Mozart? I do not know.

A muse like Lisa tweets. She writes.

Hark! The testing muses write
[On the melody of ‘Hark! The Herald angels sing’ ]

At this moment one muse Katrina is writing a book. The announcement led to great excitement in the testing community. And she blogs.

Read the stuff the muses wrote
[On the melody of ‘Hark! The Herald angels sing’ ]

I read posts from Maaret, a rather influential one. I read posts and books from Elisabeth, Alan, and Jerry.

I just grew.

An Appendix to Visual Testing

Last weeks I read some blogs, which I will incorporate in my workshop at TestBash NL. As you might have read, it is about visual testing.

I combined my thoughts and experiences with the ideas from blogs of my testing muses.

Now I am in the editing phase for my workshop: figuring out some logic in my slides, creating mind maps for structure, and using insights from sketchnotes.

It was and is a wonderful journey. (Hark! The muses co-create.)
Thanks for the invitation, Rosie and Huib. Other testing muses indeed.

I just grew.

Finding courage

After more than 10 minutes of discussion the work item was clear to the developers and the product owner. Then the standard question was posed: “Are there any more questions?”

As a tester I had digested the information. I was not sure about the solution, so I raised my hand. Everyone looked at me.

What’s Up, Doc?

Currently I am the only tester in my team. If something has impact on testing or a quality related attribute, then I talk about it. It is something some people take for granted.

In the past people started rolling their eyes, if I questioned something. Until the main stakeholder supported me. Look who’s talking?

A few years ago I heard about a demo for a certain project. I tried to invite myself. My project leader objected with: “There is nothing to test.”

I persisted and attended the demo. Every now and then I posed a question. After the demo I heard no more objections about my presence.

Invitations for the remaining demos were even sent to me. The stakeholders obviously valued my input. Look who’s listening?

No harm intended

Last month the Skype rehearsal was not that successful. I had one month left to improve the exercises. They were crucial for my workshop at TestBash NL.

During the session I zoomed in on some exercises. In hindsight they were too big to handle in 1 go. Agile people might call them epic.

By breaking them down I got digestible mini exercises. I liked the idea.

Fast feedback for me and you.
[On the melody of Tea for two]

Some exercises had the complexity of my daily work. Using simple tests I might overlook edge cases. So let me complicate things please.

At the beginning of this section I wrote that the exercises were not that successful. I expected that the exercises went more smoothly than experienced.

Luckily there was useful feedback to improve the exercises. I had something to act upon. Things could only improve now. Also by writing down my thoughts and actions in this post.

During the preparation of every talk or workshop of mine there is a moment I think: “I cannot tell this.” And then the presentation is getting better. These experiences form my word of comfort.

The Skype rehearsal reminded me of #30daysoftesting: Lisa Crispin had doodled about experimenting. She was struggling, how to fit it in.

I tweeted her:
“There is no failure. There can’t be, if your only mission was to “see what happens”. ”
@sivers