What Is Your Testing Motivation?

Often I find articles these days that talk about ‘Less Testing, and more Quality initiatives like improving automation framework and coaching’. This makes me laugh because the whole point of you becoming a tester is to test. It is a fad to do less testing. It clearly shows that your priorities are messed up and you are not thinking for yourself about your priorities and instead working for an agenda that aims to take testing off the ‘pipeline’ and making you a tool support person and cease you from being a tester. If the developers want tool support, let them hire a TSE (in addition to an SDET). But, what is YOUR testing motivation?

Testing is not about the tools. Tools come and go. We have said that umpteen number of times, and we will say that again. Yesterday I wrote about how organisations, in their hurry for hiring, shortlist resumes based on tools keywords, which has made the industry, products, and even the tools weak. When two test professionals get together, the first thing they talk about is ‘What tools do you use’. It is unfortunate, but resumes are filled with keywords so that they get the eyeballs in order to get those jobs.

Why do you test? Why should you test? Why do you care if there is a defect or not? Do you have to find every ‘defect’? Are you in a quest for a ‘bug-free’ product? Testing is difficult. It is repetitive, and you got to cover the same paths that you had traversed. Yes, you make mistakes because of repetition and fatigue. Thinking about these will put you in the right track on deciding why you would want to be a tester at the first place and why you would want it as your career.

There is something that makes you a strong, confident, and skilled professional. There is something that would make you overcome all difficulties and stay put as a tester. There is something that you strive for and makes you get up in the morning and get to work as a tester. Have you thought about that?

To me, the testing motivation is the quest for knowing. It is about learning how the product works, and whether the product is a fit for what the industry/customer is looking for from it. My primary intention is not find all those bugs; it is important, but more than that, it is the quest to know. Oftentimes, this aligns with domain knowledge. When you make this as your priority and North Star, it makes you stay in a domain for a considerably long time (say four to five years) and master the know-how of how things work in that industry (not just about how your product works). The tools that you use would depend on the context, and they will change, but domain has a longer cycle than products and tools. It gives you the focus for a longer time, and makes you stronger in your expertise. Ask a person in telecom or banking industry, and you will know what I am talking about.

Make knowing your primary goal, and you will be a successful professional – it does not matter if you are a developer, a tester, a product manager, or a technical writer. Because it is knowledge that is the foundation for everything else like quality.

Feel free to chat with me on your testing career and testing motivation.