What does being brave mean to you in a general sense?
It is very simple, if you have the courage to stand up for what you feel is right or attempting something new that may or may not work out- you are brave! Similarly to be a brave tester is no star signs, you should just be ready to take risks and stay stern on your gut feeling of testing. If you are a brave tester, you will definitely get a thrust towards new opportunities, experiences and dimensions.
Let us explore in this blog, few ways to be titled as a ‘brave tester’.
Delve into things that don’t come easily to you.
Don’t be afraid of being called foolish or naive; be confident to ask anything you are unsure of. It is always better to speak up than to sit on a mute mode. Being brave enough to admit that you need more knowledge on a topic to other team members and peers is an important trait to have as a tester. It’s essential to comprehend our tasks in details. This will lead to efficiency and accuracy in our assignments. And often the results may be surprising.
Communication always helps in all domains. Talk! Interact with peers in different domains; this will increase your knowledge and clarity in any doubts.
Analyse your positives & negatives
It is very obvious that evaluating your own skills and taking action to improvise them will benefit your work and career in several ways. It is a very interesting finding that if you lay down your cans and cant’s at the initial stage of a project; others will definitely come to assist you teaching you the valuable stuff. And this in turn will aid you in your regular form of testing.
This is also an act of bravery to accept what you can do and where you have hitches. Don’t look to support your actions if you are not good at something, rather accept and learn. Take criticism and grow out of it!
Be determined and confident
There have been many discussions around standing up for yourself especially when it comes to ethics and testing. Huib Schoot’s talk on context driven testing and agile at TestBash 2014 touched on testing ethics. He said that he ‘refuse[d] to do bad work.’
Many testers feel that by rejecting to do bad work; will lead him to be a reason of conflict in the team. However the fact is refusing to do bad work doesn’t have to be a negative thing and it certainly doesn’t mean you do no work at all! True, there may be disagreements in the team, but if you have a firm belief in your say, then have the courage to speak up.
Ways you could refuse to do bad work:
- Bug advocacy. Using Oracles to justify and explain why a bug is important.
- Reviewing your work or other testers’ work. Have you and your team done enough testing, have you cut corners?
- Identifying areas for improvement during retrospectives and pushing for change.
Take risks in your career
Risk comes as a mandate factor in your career where you have many opportunities as a tester to meet new people, learn new ideas and gain support in what you are doing. But alas, you have to be brave enough to take up that opportunity to do something innovative by keeping the risk that it might cost you a lot, wasting your time or maybe even embarrassing yourself and instead jump at the opportunities that arise.
The rewards of the risks we take can counterbalance the initial fears but definitely there is no way of finding this out without taking them in the first place. So, go ahead be brave and take risks.
We hope the article motivates you to be a ‘brave tester’, to let go off your fears, to stand up for something that you believe in firmly. If you want to be an achiever, take risks and take opportunities. You are not just a tester but a ‘brave tester’. Aim for it!
Referral: neotys.com
