The New Gives and Takes in a testers role by Rajini Padmanabhan

1. The New Gives and
Takes in a Tester’s
Role
-Rajini Padmanaban

2. Slide 2
Spot The Difference!

3. Product Quality as it stands today…
Slide 3
Collective Ownership Need for domain knowledge
Drive to Understand
competition
Need to think beyond bounds
of core test team

4. Let’s take the case of Facebook
Anger mounts after Facebook’s ‘shadow
profiles’ leak in bug
Facebook 'bug' worse than reported; non-users
also affected
Here’s the email 6M Facebook users affected by
the network’s privacy flaw will receive
Slide 6

5. Let’s take the case of Facebook
Facebook does not have, need
testers. How testing is done?
1. Facebook has lot of automation not by
scope or coverage, by lines of test code
2. Everyone at facebook uses it and
reports issues
3. Aggregate error logs and user reports
help determine bugs
4. Major clients are forced to use it and
report bugs
5. Ex-facebook employees have
privileged channels to report issues
Why no QA discipline?
1. Not having QA makes it a more fun
place to work
2. It is a website and issues can be fixed
fast
3. Social networking isn’t critical to users
4. Facebook has a lot of momentum and
lock in
Post on Wired.com
Facebook Puts The
Brakes on the Hacker
Way
Facebook’s move toward
greater testing is a sign of
maturation at the
company
Slide 7

6. Did You Know – Facebook’s Bug Bounty
"India is home to the largest population of security researchers participating
in the Facebook bug bounty program since its inception in 2011. The
country also holds the top spot for most bounties paid," Adam Ruddermann,
Facebook’s technical program manager

7. Understanding a tester’s role at this time…
Slide 8

8. The cross-roads
Slide 8
Administrative
Tester
Technical Tester
Empathetic
Tester
Developer
User Expert Analytical Tester
Social Tester
Source: http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/893

9. Gives and Takes in a tester’s role
Striking the
right
balance
Slide 10

10. What can I give away?
• All together –
• Detailed
documentation and
test artifacts
creation
• Pure script based
testing approach
• Obsession on age-
old metrics that
don’t add value
Slide 10

11. What can I give ?
• To another team
member –
• BVTs to developers,
build engineers
• Sanity regression
tests to developers
• Early
troubleshooting
tests to operations
• Accountability for
quality to everyone
Slide 11
Retain Independence and
Exercise Caution as You Give
Away

12. What can I take ?
• Ownership to build a
professional testing culture
• Controlled freedom with
responsibility
• Competing product quality
evaluation
• Triage representation
• End user issue analysis
• Role of a quality ambassador
• Drive for continuous,
conscious and collaborative
qualitySlide 12

13. Determine to “thrive” not just “survive”
Slide 13
10 lessons to thrive as a tester
• Tailor test documentation, use modern technology
• Use test design techniques as a review technique
• Provide management with feedback on their
decisions
• Learn to be a weather person
• Test the tester’s tests
• Strengthen your test environment
• Stand out and be different
• Become a pioneer or explorer
• Believe in yourself
• Take time to sharpen your axe
Source: http://www.agileconnection.com/blog/beth-romanik/stareast-2013-keynote-surviving-or-thriving-top-ten-lessons-
professional-tester

14. Myself as a Tester
Niche
Holistic view into testing
Enhanced confidence
Empowerment to thrive
For my team
Better task load balancing
Improved collaboration
Enhanced respect for each
other’s role
For my product
Improved test coverage and
quality
Empowerment to meet
market dynamics
Increased market acceptance
For my users
A good quality feature rich
product on time
A WIN scenario for everyone!
Slide 17

15. The Hare and Tortoise Story
The Tortoise And
The Hare
Scenario 1
Moral: Slow and
steady wins the race

16. Why did
I lose the
race?
The Story Goes On – Scenario 2
Moral: Slow and steady is
good but fast and steady is
even better

17. There’s More – Scenario 3
How can
I can
win the
hare?
What
should
I do?
Moral: Identify and leverage core
competencies, explore newer playing
fields for growth and advancement

18. One Final Take – Scenario 4
Hi, buddy. How
about doing our last
race again?
Great! I think we
could do it much
better, if we two help
each other.

19. Teamwork is about situational leadership and
empowerment; letting the person with relevant core
competency for a situation take leadership and let
the group shine together
Moral Revisited!

20. Take-Aways
Slide 18
• Quality - a core attribute in
product success
• Identify new playing fields;
customize tester’s role
• Retain independence, harp
on collaboration
• Remember the new hare
and tortoise story!
Excited to share a book on “New
Software Testing Roles” –
published by CRC Press later in
2016
Workshop on Re-invent Testers –
by James Bach, in Dec, in Noida
(http://www.satisfice.com/reinve
ntingtesters.shtml)

21. Additional references
• http://www.zdnet.com/anger-mounts-after-facebooks-shadow-
profiles-leak-in-bug-7000017167/
• http://www.zdnet.com/firm-facebook-bug-worse-than-reported-non-
users-also-affected-7000017318/
• http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/06/22/heres-the-email-6m-
facebook-users-affected-by-the-networks-privacy-flaw-will-receive/
• http://www.wired.com/business/2013/08/slowing-the-hacker-way/
• http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/why-facebook-doesnt-have-or-
need-testers/7191
• http://pps-aseem.blogspot.in/2008/05/new-version-of-hare-tortoise-
story.html
• https://www.practitest.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/State_of_Testing_Survey_2015.pdf
Slide 21

22. Thank you
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Slide 22