Thinking like a Tester
The Business Minded Tester
How would you categorize this defect?
Which logo is correct?
What is the goal of a company?
- Profit
- Profit
- Profit
But Quality is important! Right?
Why?
The truth is unless quality leads to the gaining of profit it isn't
Let's think about McDonald's
- What kind of business is McDonald's in?
- To really learn this we have to look at their value proposition
Ray Kroc: McDonald's stands for "friendliness, cleanliness, consistency, and convenience."
- Understand your business
- Understand your market
- Understand the business value
Understand your business
- Core Values - Have to know these!
- How does our company earn money?
- Distinctive competence (what is your brand based around?)
- Competitive advantage? Why are we doing what we are doing?
Understand your market
- Market position (Market leader, low cost solution, challenger ...)
- Competition
- Importance of time to market
- Buyer personas - Who actually makes the purchase Example of phone for seniors... The children will buy the phone they are the buyer...
- Target audience personas - Who uses the product the senior.
Understand the business value of the product under test
- What is the problem the product should solve? - For whom?
- Quantify the impact
- How does the company earn profit from the product?
The Technical Tester
It is natural to want to protect and defend what you build.
Ask "What if .."
Rather than "No one would ever do that" is the first step in thinking like a tester
4 Vices of Testing
- Why would anyone do X?
- But the user isn't supposed to do X.
- But it works on my computer.
- If they do that, it's their problem.
As a developer how much testing is acceptable?
Thinking like a Tester
By Butch Mayhew
