Testing is like : Living a Life

Somewhere in 2016 I had twitted

“Are you testing or checking? ” seems to have the same importance as the question “Are you Living or Breathing?

I used to think in the past that anybody can test, and why not? After all everybody tests something knowingly or unknowingly in their daily lives. But after spending a lot of years in testing, today I realize that it is not at all true.

‘Testing’ and ‘living a life’ is like two sides of the coin. Though breathing can keep you alive, it is far from living and feeling alive. We all know how many of us feel alive all the time, and as they say if breathing did not happen automatically many of us would have died years ago. To feel alive and living it right, we have to keep observing ourselves. Just by observing and without reacting to anything that is happening outside and inside us, we learn a lot about ourselves. It help us in being better at living a meaningful life. If we don’t live right, we might spend and waste 100 years on earth without learning what we really are. 

Testing without observation is nothing. If we do not observe what we are testing and why, we get nothing out of it. Purpose of testing is to get the information which really helps make a better and meaningful product. When we say something does not work, we present our findings, and evidences to get it fixed. It is with practice that we understand what to observe and to what extent. We do not have to react to bugs and as a tester just observe and know what is happening in the product. We note them down and move on to observe something new in the product.  

As in life, we cannot expect everything going right and the way we want, in testing also we have to respect other stakeholders and the decisions they make. Like a body which carries all of its internal organs and body parts even when a part of it hurts, we have to let go and ship a product without waiting to fix it all. 

As observing a breath can make us feel alive, observing a product’s behavior and experience it gives, will keep the flow of new information coming and keep our testing skills alive