fear the psychology of testing rik marselis

Techtalk with Capgemini

Wroclaw, 7 December 2016

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Techtalk with Capgemini 7 December 2016



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Programme Techtalk Wroclaw 7 dec. 2017

18:00 Opening

18:10 FEAR: The Psychology of Software Testing

19:10 coffee break

19:25 Exploring software; combine experience,structure and techniques

20:15 Questions, Answers and Discussion

20:30 End



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F.E.A.R.: Psychology

of software testing

7 December 2016

Wroclaw, Poland

Rik Marselis

© Sogeti 2011 / 2016



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1980

Introducing: Rik Marselis

@rikmarselis

2007 2012 20122008

Workgroup

-member

20142009



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Who are you?

• Any psychologists in the audience?

• Any testers in the audience?

• Have you ever been afraid?

• If so, why / of what?

• If not, are you sure?

• Who thinks software testing is a “technological business”?

• Who thinks software testing is a “people business”?



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Contents of this presentation

• Test process

• Emotions

• Problems caused by psychological factors

• Solutions for these problems

• Conclusion: how to cope with FEAR



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A good process guarantees …



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People & Process

+ =

People Process Result

+

+

+

=

=

=



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• lazy

• scared / afraid

• impatient

• emotional (not rational)

• unsure / uncertain

Common sentiments of people



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Thomas Crum; F.E.A.R.

•We are consumed with anxious thoughts about a future possibility, based on something from the past (real or imagined).

•F.E.A.R.: "Fantasy Experienced As Reality".

Source: Gerald M. Weinberg: “Perfect Software and other illusions about testing”



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Scared / afraid

“I don’t report those bugs so the developer won’t be angry at me”

Talk about the mutual expectations and how

you can help each other.

(important lesson for scared IT-people ;-)



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Emotion: Graph of testers happiness

o

Based on: Erik van Veenendaal

Think ahead of what information the people

involved really need to become happy.

(important lesson for emotional IT-people ;-)



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Emotional: Bug reporting example

Compare these test summary reports:

There are

100

defect reports

We have executed 10.000 test cases

9.900 test cases were successful

There were 100 defect reports

Thereof 50 defects have been solved

27 defects are low-priority and

deferred to the next release

For 16 defects a work-around is in place

The remaining 7 defects can be solved

in the remaining project time



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Lazyness: Postponing

Requirements stage Design stage Construction stage Testing stage Live stage



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Balance the efforts

(wrong) (good)

Early reviews are a much better way to save time and effort

than postponing activities to the end of the project!

(important lesson for lazy IT-people ;-)



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Impatient: Point of disillusionment

o

o

x

Total effort for testing including test process improvement

Current costs

Expected

costs

Observed

costs



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Examples of TPI NEXT® preventing this

• Actively gather relevant information

• Identify information that needs to be shared with stakeholders

• Communication is a means of team building

• Metrics provide objectivityby quantifying observations

Source: TPI NEXT®, Business Driven Test Process Improvement, 2009

Setting attainable targets and consistenly gathering and

presenting information about status and progress prevent

stakeholders from reaching the point of disillusionment!

(important lesson for impatient IT-people ;-)



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About “sprinting” in Agile

• You can’t sprint all the time !!

• One of the Agile principles is: “… maintain a constant pace indefinitely” (prevent having a team-burnout; implement the Agile principles in a proper way!)

• And remember: Agile is NOT the latest excuse to work in an unstructured manner !!

Marathon record 120 minutes

100 meter sprint 10 seconds

42 kilometer sprints 70 minutes



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Seven habits of highly effective testers

1. Be proactive

2. Begin with the end in mind

3. Put first things first

4. Think Win/Win

5. First understandthen be understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the saw

Source: Stephen R. Covey:

Seven habits of highly effective people

Dependence (You)

Independence (I)

Interdependence (We)



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Example: Begin with the end in mind

• What is the most important result of testing?

• The report for the stakeholder(that he uses for the go/nogo decision)

• So…− You don’t start by making a plan…

− You start by making the report-template, this defines what information the testing process should deliver,

− And that’s the basis for the plan.



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Did you know there’s more?

• The 8th habit:From effectiveness to greatness

• Find your own voice, use it, and inspire others to find theirs …

• … and get the most creativeness, power and results

• So it’s all about being uniqueand using this to your, and yourorganizations, advantage!



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Conclusion: how to cope with FEAR

Tomorrow back at work you:

• Discuss what others expect of you and relate your work to this

• Report in a way that gives a complete picture, instead of giving unnecessarybad feelings

• Act as soon as possible

• Set clear and attainable goals and report based on measurements

• Begin with the end in mind…



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