• Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
Once upon a time I was a tester… and I loved it. However the time came when I had nothing to do and was reading books and playing online (every tester has free time like that just before next product version delivery). So then I made quite a nice list of the things I found fun. Today I just accidentally found them and decided to share with you. Have some laugh!
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Important Note: Most of the quotes below is from some books and internet resources. None of them are mine! And for those without author you might suspect that it is Pradeep Soundararajan
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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” –Thomas Edison
Perhaps we should reframe the stock phrase “No user would ever do that” to, as James Bach says, “No user I can think of, who I like, would do that on purpose‚ and if he did, I’d hope that the system wouldn’t let him.”
“Testers don’t like to break things; they like to dispel the illusion that things work”
“Feature sets are like an onion because they tend to have many layers.”
“Tester job is to upset people.”
“Hate product before production but love it after”
“Two is not equal to three, not even for large values of two.”
“The best testers are often not very good at self-promotion”
“QA is still a challenge, still generally left to the end, and the staff is treated as second-class citizens”. — Rajesh Mathur
“The most engaging stories about testing I have heard have been stories about hunting a “white whale” sort of problem in an ocean of complexity.” — James Bach
“User’s bill of rights:
1. The user is always right. If there is a problem with the use of the system, the system is the problem, not the user.
2. The user has the right to easily install and uninstall software and hardware systems without negative consequences
3. The user has the right to a system that performs exactly as promised.
4. Th user has the right to easy-to-use instructions (user guides, online or contextual help, error messages) for understanding and utilizing a system to achieve desired goals and recover efficiently and gracefully from problem situations.
5. The user has the right to be in control of the system and to be able to get the system to respond to a request for attention.
6. The user has the right to a system that provides clear, understandable and accurate information regarding the task it is performing and the progress toward completion.
7. The user has the right to be clearly informed about all system requirements for successfully using software or hardware.
8. The user has right to know the limits of system’s capabilities.
9. The user has the right to communicate with the technology provider and receive a thoughtful and helpful response when raising concerns.
10. The user should be the master of software and hardware technolgy, not vica versa. Products should be natural and intuitive to use.”
In ancient China there was a family of healers, one of whom was known throughout the land and employed by the Emperor.
The healer was asked by the Emperor which of his family was the best healer. He replied,
“I tend to the sick and dying with drastic and dramatic treatments, and on occasion someone is cured; my name is known by the Emperor.”
“My elder brother cures sickness when it just begins to take root; he is known only in our village.”
“My eldest brother is able to sense the spirit of sickness and stop it taking form. His name is unknown outside our home.”
James Bach:
“I used to think that the role of testing is to find problems.
Today, I think the role of testing is to bring vital information to light in support of the grand mission of creating great products and running the business. That includes finding problems, assessing quality, analyzing risk, and in any other way helping the team to understand what’s going on.”
). However I received mail from them today about other tools that can help me do testing.