For Christmas, one of my presents was the excellent book "Dear Evil Tester" (well, excellent so far, as I've not finished it yet). When I opened it a relative asked me what it was, and when I explained it was a book about software testing they replied "Oh, they write about that do they?".
It was as though they had never considered the possibility of there being books on the subject, almost as if it was too trivial or lacking in depth for that to even be a possibility. What I should have done at that point was stand on the table and declare to everyone "I am a tester and I'm not ashamed to say it!" but fortunately for the others present it was quite early on in the proceedings and I was designated driver so I was lacking in the necessary Dutch courage. Instead I mumbled something like "Err... yes they do" and moved on without exploring the subject further.
The thought nagged away at me though - why does software testing have such a low profile? Without thinking too hard, a few possible reasons are:
It was as though they had never considered the possibility of there being books on the subject, almost as if it was too trivial or lacking in depth for that to even be a possibility. What I should have done at that point was stand on the table and declare to everyone "I am a tester and I'm not ashamed to say it!" but fortunately for the others present it was quite early on in the proceedings and I was designated driver so I was lacking in the necessary Dutch courage. Instead I mumbled something like "Err... yes they do" and moved on without exploring the subject further.
The thought nagged away at me though - why does software testing have such a low profile? Without thinking too hard, a few possible reasons are:
- testing is not as obviously creative as development, i.e. it doesn't result in a tangible end product; asking a developer to show you what sites they have built seems normal compared with asking someone to show you someone else's work that they checked was working correctly (and didn't even fix any errors they did find themselves)
- lots of people don't even realise that software testers are needed ("Doesn't that just mean the developers are no good?")
- very few people opt for testing as a profession; how many times have you heard the backstory "Oh, I just fell into it"?
- by nature, most testers are not outgoing and forthright; partly I guess from being used to taking a non-dominant position in a project team so as not to be seen to criticise (see Diplomatic Baggage for more discussion on this)
So I've added a resolution to my list for next year - not to shy away from promoting my profession as skilled, worthwhile and necessary. A colleague once described testing as "the glue that holds the company together" - in 2019 I'm determined to make that description stick.
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