This is part of my free testing course, focused on teaching you the fundamentals of testing 😉
🔎 Investigation
Testing uncovers information that enables better decisions.
- Noticing what everyone looks but no one sees.
- Looking for what is inconsistent or counter intuitive.
- Finding problems before they happen or become critical.
- Providing information that improves team’s decisions.
- Gathering examples or patterns before reporting a bug.
- Chasing some pattern which might be elusive or hard to understand.
- Going beyond optimism and actually trying it.
⛺️ Exploration
Testing uses creativity to discover assumptions and unexpected behaviours.
- Using the product like a well-behaved user would.
- Abusing the product like a ill-intentioned user would.
- Examining different aspects of the product to prevent surprises.
- Identifying the product’s subtleties and extremities.
- Studying the product beyond the formal requirements.
- Using questions to validate assumptions and prompt new scenarios.
- Exploring products imaginatively to find unexpected behaviours.
🤝 Empathy
Testing wears multiple hats to understand each stakeholders’ perspective.
- Defining personas for the product’s stakeholders.
- Applying different perspectives to the same situation.
- Identifying your team’s biases and assumptions.
- Speaking with different stakeholders to detect misunderstandings and misalignments.
- Showing the client the gap between what they want and what the users want.
- Thinking critically about features in order to evaluate their true value.
- Negotiating with the client a balance between “good”, “cheap” and “pretty”.
- Striving to deliver a reliable product that can be used with confidence.
💬 Communication
Testing democratises information and aids stakeholders talking to each other.
- Combining scattered data into relevant and accessible information.
- Sharing just the right information, at the right time, using the right format.
- Reporting bugs in a way that developers can fix them and clients prioritise them.
- Communicating clearly and helping others do the same, using questions and examples.
- Keeping discussions visual and people engaged and feeling heard.
- Using your “helicopter view” to onboard people and “flying down” to details when needed.
- Maintaining documentation and training users on how to use the product.
