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shared by Gurvinder Singh Chhatwal
Success, undoubtedly the most important thing in
life we all look for in our professional career. But, how do you achieve it, and maintain it? How do we create
a sustained performance?
The Answer is People. We the people make Success.
Do we know that each one of us makes a huge difference by being a part of a family, an organization and a country?
Our contribution from the smallest to the largest deed has an impact. It is therefore of utmost importance that
we blend in ourselves a combination of quality thoughts that is progressive and growth oriented.
Today's mantra of Success is "Continuous Growth of the Mind, Body and Spirit. If you don't grow, you Decay
!!!"
To sustain continuous Success in this competitive industry each one of us has a role to play and not just a normal
role but a role that is Effective. Stephen Covey in his book of "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"
lists some fundamental principles of human effectiveness. He talks about how small changes in our routines can
be effective to shape our Successes. So what do you think are the seven habits of "Highly effective Testers"?
What are those seven habits of a Tester that would make him highly Effective? Put your brains to work. Ok. Now
stop racking your brains and read below. These are the few ones that I have tried to list them from my experience:
1. Be Self-Motivated
A tester needs to have a high degree of self-motivation. It is tremendously difficult to measure a tester's work
efficiency. Is the quantum of defects a measure? How do you measure the quality of a defect? Do you have the capacity
or a tool to measure this? It is a big task if organizations try this and if at all they do the results are misleading.
On top of it such an activity involves overhead costs. A product is best tested when the tester has the self-motivation
to pluck out the defects.
2. Manage your Time
A tester needs to manage his time well. It's not new for us in this industry to come across situations when the
testing time is well treated as the buffer time for development. Deadlines don't change and when the product is
not ready the load is pushed on the testers to compromise on the testing. A tester needs to manage time in such
situations. He needs to figure out the weak areas and the strong areas of the product and devote more time where
he sees that things are breaking. This is best practiced when the tester manages his time well in what ever he
does. At work or away from it.
3. Presence of the Feel Good Factor
A tester needs to have a feel good factor while he is testing. Testing is all about positive criticism and unless
you feel good, criticism cannot be positive. It will be more for the heck of it. How many times do we test because
we just ought to? Because we know that we have to find a defect for a developer who spoke rudely in the team meeting?
How many times we just avoid testing when we don't feel good? It happens and to be honest it is natural. But the
way to get over it is to avoid testing when you are not feeling good. Quality testing is a result of the feel good
factor.
4. Read, Write & Speak Efficaciously
A tester needs to have a habit to read, write and speak. A poorly communicated good defect, fails to qualify as
a good defect. The only way a defect is well appreciated is if it conveys what it is supposed to convey. We come
across situations when developers fire back defects that they are not able to reproduce just because it was not
nicely documented. Reading improves communication skills and the habit implicitly brings quality in the way we
report defects. Writing short notes, articles improve written skills that are essential for a quality tester. Giving
presentations, seminars, sharpens verbal communication.
5. Be Creative
Solve puzzles, create a collage, think different. Routine shall only help to pull out routine defects. Testers
need to be creative. This is an evolving process. Be inquisitive, eager and do things differently. A famous proverb
says, "Great men don't do different things, they do things differently". Many a times we discuss about
testing being an Art. It needs the imagination, the thought process. The tester needs to cultivate the habit of
being creative.
6. Your Thinking Tank
Let not a thought be converted to an action. This might have confused! But yes, its vital to note that our actions
must be a result of immense thought that goes into any action. Look at a thing from various angles. A thing in
one situation may be the best solution and may not work at all when the environment changes. Hallmark created one
of the first cards that had pre-printed notes and that made a Success. Whenever the cards are put on sale it seldom
matters what they look like but what really matters is what is written in them. This Success was a disaster in
Norway because they just preferred to have a blank card, as Norwegians didn't like the idea of having pre-printed
thoughts. The tester needs to think here. He needs to be sure he tests a product for all the environments it would
need to work. He should not be limited to the boundaries and must think of all possible road links to ensure things
work the way they are supposed to work.
7. Choose your Fellowship
Our environment plays an important role in defining the way we work, the way we think, the way we approach day
to day issues; almost everything. Are we careful in selecting our fellowship? Do we constructively analyze the
people we work with, the people we stay with and the people we interact with? Are we in a team of destructive testers?
A tester needs to be aware of the fellowship he/she is affiliated to and needs to be accustomed to be in the right
fellowship. It matters and it matters a lot.
Getting and keeping competitive advantage depends on us, executing our strategies, putting our best in serving
our clients, improving results, achieving goals and in one word making "SUCCESS". Do we have the right
"HABITS"?
 Share your thoughts on Making Success a Habit: a Testers
Perspective in SQAtester Group.
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