Are you really passionate about testing? Do you consider testing as an intellectual activity? I must agree that, the perception of Software Testing is changing in a positive way; but still there is a long way to go. I must argue that Software Testing is a career in its own right. But different people have different opinions. Some may even laugh if I say 'philosophy' has lot to do with software testing. But if a Testing GURU like James Bach says this, then perhaps people may take it seriously. Recently, I came across an interesting and thought provoking article (Philosophy and software testing) by James Bach. It’s very nice to see how James correlates philosophy and testing. This article is yet another ‘Gem’ from James.
James has tried to bring out the importance of “questioning” in testing. Any good tester should learn to ask ‘why’. Because, this is one question, capable of unearthing a whole lot of information. You might have noticed kids using this question (why) to explore about new things (I keep wondering, why as ‘grown ups’ do we stop asking ‘why’?). In testing, our main focus should be to explore more about the product, while we are testing (Sounds like Exploratory Testing, Huh?). So keep asking ‘why’. By asking ‘why’ we show our “curiosity to develop further knowledge of the world”, and that is exactly what “Philosophy” is !
As a tester, we should consider us as being our own philosopher. We should try to search for our own answers, hoping to find what seems right and not always taking people’s word as standard. In fact, at some point of time or the other, every one of us thinks like a philosopher. So the need of the hour is to hone our philosophical skills, to improve our testing abilities.
Happy Testing …
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