Beautiful Testing

Evaluating the Ineffable

If we fully accept that software development is a fundamentally creative process, we are free to apply analytical and critical tools not from engineering and manufacturing but from the liberal arts. Elsewhere I have written the beginning of some scholarly analysis on the subject, but this book is not for scholars: this book is to inspire practitioners.

Now and then I am a professional writer. Once I was working on a really difficult software testing project, but I had found a fantastic and unique approach to the situation, and I had committed myself to writing a feature article on the subject. But I couldn’t make the article work. The software project itself was not yet complete, and my personal situation was extremely stressful at the time. My editor saved the article. He guided my thinking, suggested an outline, suggested a path to the conclusion, and it turned out to be one of the best articles of my career as a writer.

As a software tester, I want to help the project in the same way that editor helped me. I want to help the project go forward smoothly, and I want to make sure it goes smoothly in the future. If the problem consists of small things, I help fix them, and if the project is having a problem even seeing how to get to the end, I want to help guide it there. As a software tester, it is not my part to criticize the subject or focus of the work; it is my job to facilitate the work in the way that a good editor does. Again, it is hard to describe ...