55 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
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# What Is A Tester
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Last time, we talked about what a test is, and what sort of skills would be necessary to craft and execute effective tests. This time, we'll be discussing how this skillset is embodied. Namely, what constitutes a tester?
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There seems to be three different senses in which we can consider this question:
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1. What sort of person is a tester? What kind of character does he have? What is his psychology?
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2. What kind of role does a tester have within the organization of the software development team? What differentiates her functionally, from her development, design, and product colleagues?
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3. What activities does a tester engage in, and what skills are required for those activities?
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The third sense is the sense I referred to in the previous post (What is a Test?). .
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## Tester Mindset
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How the tester sees himself, and how he interacts with the world around him, is a complicated question. Depending on the context and circumstances, the effective tester is any one of six different people.
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### The Scientist
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* Anthropologist, Psychologist, Technician
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* Hypotheses & Experiments
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* Inference / Induction are the main mental tools.
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### The Explorer
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* Tracker, Surveyer, Investigator
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* Synthesis from disparate and varied information channels
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* Intuition / Heuristics
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### The Skeptic
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* The Mythbuster
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* Analysis of claims
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* Deductive / Reductive
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* Cognitive bias and logical errors
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* Trust but verify
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* Listen, but always compare it with reality.
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### The Reporter
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* What kind of information: Quality
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* Context
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* Currency
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* Consequences
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* Relevance
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* How much information: Quantity
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* What is "enough"?
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* What is "too much"?
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* What is "too little"?
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* Narrative as a selection tool
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* Bias influences
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### Advocate
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* Product Advocacy
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* When Bias Is Useful
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* Customer Advocacy
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* Testers as users
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### The Engineer
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* The Continuous Improvement of testing
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* Automation, and its uses
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* Tester as software vendor
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