Testing Challenges - Teach More Than Quality

We will look at a number of obstacles during this season.  The testing challenges that are part of quality assurance can be daunting for developers.  However, there are invaluable lessons learned.  We will see how testing teaches us about our solution and goes beyond its promise of quality improvements.  You might even find a new product based on what testing teaches.

A New View

One of the most valuable outcomes from these testing challenges is a new view of our solution.  When we test we are forced to go beyond the "happy path" that we normally take.  Developers can get very myopic in their view of the solution and how to use it.  This is not a knock against developers.  We just create a sort of muscle memory from testing short streaks of steps many times to verify and validate what they have written.  This process is in the weeds by definition and can often miss big picture processes, procedures, and general usability.

The UX Thing

I have mentioned that developers can be lazy.  We automate things because we want to make our lives easier.  This desire can be a boon to UX when developers are forced to use their tools.  The steps they take often will be given shortcuts or might even be completely re-written.  That is also why end users are the best testers.  Instead of testing how the application is designed to work, they test how it "should" work.  A developer may even be led to a completely new product from their desire to make things a little easier to use.

A Comprehensive Learning Approach

The act of testing software is an incredible learning experience.  It may feel tedious and demanding because that is what is required for success.  We have to think about how a user will perform a task, how a computer will likely handle the requests, and balance that against the required outcomes.  There are multiple players we have to relate to for QA and that requires us to learn the solution to a deeper level than most.

Episode Challenge: Review your latest testing experience.  What did you learn from that experience?

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