Beautiful Testing

Chapter 1. Was It Good for You?

Linda Wilkinson

Do you hear that group of people snickering in the corner? They just found out that the third-party consulting firm you hired tested their code in production and sent 14,000 form letters out to your customers with a return address of “Bertha Big Butt.” While the CEO and executive management team are sweating bullets and preparing mitigation strategies, your testing team is trying (without success) to stifle their guffaws.

Testers think differently than the rest of the IT team.

It’s not that they don’t appreciate the seriousness of the situation. They do.

It’s just that it’s…well…it’s FUNNY.

If you’re going to manage or work with testers, it stands to reason you have to understand testers. They march to the beat of a different drummer when compared to the rest of the IT staff.

Have you, or has anyone you know, ever associated with someone who works in a hospital emergency or operating room? You’ll see a similar phenomenon there. In order to cope with what is often difficult, stressful, and depressing work, the medical staff have a tendency to develop what would appear to be a somewhat macabre and bizarre sense of humor. And you want that kind of behavior. It’s infinitely better for your future health and well-being that your surgeon not be weeping copiously, hands shaking, into your internal organs….

Testers are trained to find and report problems. They view their contribution as helping the company, the development organization, and the customer ...