Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing: A People-Oriented Approach

Chapter One. How Testing Tests Testers

The word test has multiple meanings and is interpreted in different ways by different people. It can be defined as a method or process, or as “an inquiry into the value or nature of something.” This book embraces yet another definition, that a test is “an event or situation that tries a person’s qualities.” In other words, when we put a person, or something a person has developed—such as software—to the test, we try that person’s qualities. Testing tries such qualities as patience, fairness, self-esteem, ambition, credibility, capability, and competitiveness.

Many testers find themselves in a dilemma. Their job is challenging enough in itself, but when coupled with office politics and interpersonal conflict, ...