LISTEN TO A TESTING PODCAST
I have never listened to a testing podcast before, so this was my first one ever -testing challenge is already yielding results in teaching me new things.
Not knowing where to start, I created a Google search with “testing podcasts”. One of the first results was a list of Software Testing Podcasts made by Ministry of Testing. I do trust this resource, so without further hesitation, I gave a go to #1 on the list – TestCast. The only problem with the list is that it’s pretty old – dating back to 2011.
I was looking for an interesting title for the first time podcaster and chose Testing is Dead. It is around 30 minutes discussion made by Bruce McLeod and Trish Khoo.
In the very start, they talk about some big names in the industry which claim that testing is dead. For example, Google or Facebook often would give examples in industry where testers are not present and developers do their own testing. Trish and Bruce gave some valid points that giant companies like that can give distorted view to other companies and it should be rather presented as their own way of looking at things and it does not mean that no testers approach would work for each company.
The way Google or Facebook can “reassure” their quality is users. They can be their first testers. If Google search does not work – a user may rather blame her own connection than the service itself. Nevertheless, Google can release their produt to one demographic only (let’s say a few thousands of users) and monitor the change. This approach may not work in other companies where pre-testing and quality is very important.
Later Trish and Bruce moved towards the fact that in many companies people don’t understand what testers are supposed to do. If management just wants a “safe net” because they feel that testing should be a part of the better quality, but they don’t really know what testing is, it may lead to test script writing, amount of work done estimated by checkmarks and actually, not testing, but checking.
To sum up my first podcast experience: it was a bit strange just to listen without seeing the presenters, it could have benefits of doing other task, but I am pretty bad at multitasking. Talking about the content, even if it’s back from 2011, but definitely we have same problems in 2016. Awareness of testing and what testers are supposed to do is a big problem and the approach to work with or without testers is just a choice. So far, testing is not dead and does not seem to be dying.
Let Me Try Software Testing! 