As testers and test managers we often find ourselves struggling just to survive within our organization—sometimes with the possibility of job loss due to outsourcing looming. Often, we are told to become more “effective,” “efficient,” and do “more with less.” However, most testers and test managers are unsure of what those mandates actually mean. Today, it is not sufficient to just survive; we must take initiatives to thrive. Lloyd Roden shares ten valuable lessons on how you can become better at testing and thrive in your career. Lloyd's lessons include the importance of using modern technology in testing, using test design techniques when reviewing documentation, testing the testers with techniques such as bug seeding, reporting project waste, providing management with feedback on decisions that they made, becoming a pioneer or explorer rather than a settler or outlaw in your organization, and more. Lloyd’s advice is practical—and challenging—for all testers, test leads, and test managers.

1. KW2
Keynote
5/1/2013 10:00:00 AM
Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons
for the Professional Tester
Presented by:
Lloyd Roden
Lloyd Roden Consultancy
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

2. Lloyd Roden
With more than twenty-eight years in the software industry, Lloyd Roden has worked as a developer, test
analyst, and test manager for many different organizations. Lloyd was a consultant/partner with Grove
Consultants for twelve years. In 2011 he created Lloyd Roden Consultancy, an independent UK-based
training and consultancy company specializing in software testing. Lloyd’s passion is to enthuse,
excite, and inspire people in the area of software testing. He has spoken at conferences worldwide
including STAREAST, STARWEST, Better Software, EuroSTAR, AsiaSTAR, and Special Interest Groups
in software testing in several countries. In 2004, he won the European Testing Excellence award.

3. Surviving or
thriving: Top 10
lessons for a
professional tester
Keynote Presentation
Written by
Lloyd Roden
www.lloydrodenconsultancy.com
Version 1_0
© Lloyd Roden

5. thriving-1
Surviving or Thriving: Top 10
lessons for a professional tester
1
Contents
Survive or Thrive?
Top 10 lessons to thrive
Which one do you want to be?
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© Lloyd Roden

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Surviving: what comes to mind?
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Surviving is mostly negative
! companies surviving the recession
! old people surviving the winter
! protect animals to enable them to survive
definition: to remain alive or in
existence, to carry on despite
hardship or trauma…to persevere
is this what we are doing in testing today…
to remain alive, carrying on despite
hardships or trauma…to persevere?
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© Lloyd Roden

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Thriving: what comes to mind?
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Thriving is positive
! in Greece s sour economy some
shops are thriving
! thriving companies in this economic climate
! thriving wildlife triggers hope for marine life
definition: to make good progress,
to prosper, to grow vigorously…to
flourish, to succeed
shouldn’t we be like this in testing…to
make good progress, to prosper, to grow
vigorously…to flourish, to succeed
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© Lloyd Roden

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Contents
Survive or Thrive?
Top 10 lessons to thrive
Which one do you want to be?
7
Thriving lesson #1: tailor your test
documentation…. and use modern technology
don’t be boring
make it exclusive
challenge quality and
quantity of what is
produced
exploit modern
technology
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© Lloyd Roden

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Thriving lesson #2: use test design techniques as
a review technique
! example requirement:
A thermostat displays the temperature of a greenhouse from
15oC to 35oC. If the temperature falls below 20oC then “too cold”
appears on the display and a blue light flashes. It the
temperature exceeds 30oC then “too hot” appears and a red light
flashes.
by reading this requirement we may have a few
questions, or we might think we understand what is
required. However…
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Review using test case design techniques
! sharpens our understanding
! generates tests
! finds more defects with requirements
Tests for our example:
Temperature
Expected result
17oC, 15oC,
Too Cold, blue light flash
20oC,
25oC,
32oC,
35oC
10oC, 40oC
30oC
No display, no light?
Too hot: red light flash
???
2 lights or 1 light?
whole degrees?
up to and including…
where is the temperature taken…isolated or whole room?
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Thriving lesson #3: provide management with
feedback on decisions that the make
! example: 4 weeks of testing:
Number of bugs
120
100
80
60
Actual
40
20
Management want to implement
the software, but you suggest a
further week of exploratory testing
and a final week of regression
testing due to the high number of
bugs that have been found
0
0
1
2
3
4
! new data obtained:
Number of bugs
140
25 new bugs found and fixed…full
regression pack run
120
100
80
Actual
60
40
20
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
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Using data to report back
! cost of bugs to find and fix in test = 1000€
! cost of bugs to find and fix in live = 3000€
! 1st month of live operation customers find 10 bugs
! if the old date (4 weeks) was used
! assume 35 bugs found by customer
! DDP = 100/135 = 74%
! cost of fixing = 35 * 3000€ = 105,000€
! if the new date (6 weeks) was used
! DDP = 125/135 = 93%
! cost of fixing = 10 * 3000€ = 30,000€
+ 25 * 1000€ = 25,000€
= 55,000€
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cost saving
50,000€
DDP increase 19%
Therefore a good
decision by
management "
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© Lloyd Roden

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Thriving lesson #4: learn to be a weather person
weather people…
! predict what is likely to happen using
trends and forecasting
! understand statistics and probability
! use historical data to substantiate
their synopsis
! understand correlation between
systems
! are becoming more accurate
however…
! don’t always get it right
! not always liked…but it is not their
fault!
! but we still use them to plan and
implement our activities
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Learn to predict the “projects” weather
250
! to predict what is likely to happen
at an early stage
! to use basic statistics and
probability
! to gather and analyse historical
data
! understand the correlation
between graphs
! to become more accurate
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
50
40
30
20
10
0
BUT: you wont always get it right, you wont always
be liked, but it’s not your fault
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Thriving lesson #5: Test the testers/tests
testing is quality control on development
BUT…how good are your tester/tests? Who is performing
quality control on the testers?
developers bug seed, plant 100 bugs and see how many are
found
provide an application for new testers with known bugs and see
how good they are at finding them
we deserve the best…mediocracy is not an option
15
Areas where this idea can be used
! testing your regression tests
! manual or automated
! discover how effective they are
! testing the outsourced teams
! let’s wake up!
! discover whether they are cost effective
! testing new testers wanting to join the team
! aim to recruit the best
! quality gate into testing
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Thriving lesson #6: make your test environment
the strongest link
! often the test environment becomes
the weakest link
! concentrate too much on test cases and
test scripts
! we believe the environment will happen
! often difficult to set up well
! reliant on other people
! make it the strongest link
! constantly think about your environment
! make it a priority prior to test execution
! learn to recognise environmental issues
and raise these with your managers
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Bad environments
if your environment is wrong, out-of-date, volatile, not
representative, or messy then testing cannot succeed
ignore your test environment and the bugs will breed
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© Lloyd Roden

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Be environmentally friendly
without a good testing environment testing
will not succeed
! recycle your tests
! need to re-use tests as much as possible
! improve efficiency
! to conserve human energy
! do not neglect the “data-layer”
! data is an integral part of the environment
! offset your manual footprint
! automate as much as possible
! grow your own experts
! become independent and autonomous
manual
experts
investing in the testing environment will be an
investment for the testing’s future
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Thriving lesson #7: stand out and be different
what have these stores
got in common?
what have these stores
got in common?
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© Lloyd Roden

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Create a unique selling point…
! what makes you/your team
different from others…
! that are cheaper?
! that are faster?
! your USP is so that you thrive…not just survive
! example USPs
! recognising and eliminating waste
! being able to find those “nasty” bugs quickly
! measuring and reporting the value of testing
! having a positive attitude at work
! collaborating always
! constantly improving efficiency
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Thriving lesson #8: become a pioneer (or
explorer)…not a settler or outlaw
! four permanent attitudes to consider
Pioneers
Explorers
Settlers
Outlaws
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Pioneers and Explorers
!
!
!
!
!
!
Pioneering Attitude
ideas
creative
breaking new ground
early adopters
R & D - mostly R
often seen as crazy
!
!
!
!
!
Exploring Attitude
explore/test ideas
produced by pioneers
highly analytical
R & D - mostly D
enjoy challenges
often finish and
implement ideas
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Settlers and Outlaws
!
!
!
!
!
Settling Attitude
majority
will follow the status
quo rather than lead
allow others to develop
infrastructure
reliant on Pioneers and
Explorers
difficult to motivate
!
!
!
!
!
!
Outlaw Attitude
critical
pessimistic & negative
can be destructive
often historical
management overhead
often failed pioneers
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© Lloyd Roden

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Thriving lesson #9: believe in yourself
…and your abilities
practice looking in the mirror
each morning and saying…
“I am great!”
! low self-esteem is one of the main
contributors to lacking drive and enthusiasm:
! reignite your passion
! fan the flame before it goes out
! see change as an opportunity rather than a threat
! create good habits
! 66 days to create a good habit
! set yourself daily goals and achieve them
! John, Susan, Nora and George
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Thriving lesson #10: take time to sharpen your axe
complacency is only
one step ahead of
apathy
make it your mission to become the
best at what you do
don’t procrastinate
create tools and utilities to make testing more efficient
share your ideas with others
understand new methodologies and technologies and how
they will affect you (keeping one step ahead)
! measure your own effectiveness and improve
! try something new
! create ‘me’ time
!
!
!
!
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© Lloyd Roden

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Contents
Survive or Thrive?
Top 10 lessons to thrive
Which one do you want to be?
27
Are you just a survivor
… or a thriver
Mediocracy is not an option
if you want to thrive
! #1: Tailor test
documentation
! #2: use test case design
techniques as a review
technique
! #3: provide
management with
feedback
! #4: learn to predict
! #5: test the testers/tests
! #6: make your
environment the
strongest link
! #7: stand out and create
a USP
! #8: become a pioneer or
explorer
! #9: believe in yourself
and your abilities
! #10: sharpen your axe
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© Lloyd Roden

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Summary
! surviving has many
negative associations
! to thrive in the society we
find ourselves in today we
must be different and better
than others
! adopting some/all of these
thriving lessons will help
us stand out from the
crowd
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© Lloyd Roden