When I was 6 years old, I went bluegill fishing with my uncle Kevin in Wisconsin. Uncle Kev knew how to catch bluegill and every time he got a bite, he handed me his fishing pole and said, “Tug the line!” then “Reel it in, I think you got one!”
I’ve been coaching a member of our support staff on a testing assignment. When she completed her testing, I ran some follow-up tests of my own and found a bug. Rather than logging the bug, I gave her some suggested things to try and hinted that there may be a bug. She found it! What a thrill! She also got to log it. Cool!
What’s the lesson?
- As with fishing, testing without catching bugs can get boring. It’s important to let newbies catch some bugs.
- When someone finds a bug you missed, it’s humiliating. When the tables turn and you find the missed bug, maybe it’s time to set your ego aside and put your coaching hat on.
Could not agree more. That was an issue for me in my first test lead role.
ReplyDeleteI could not let go of my need to find defects for a long time.
When I finally realised that it was disheartening for them to find stuff and then realise it had been already logged, I let go.
It was wonderful to see how motivating it was for the team to show me what they had found. Within little or no time, they were finding stuff I had missed as they got the confidence to apply their wealth of their experience to testing the product.
I agree with your post. I am a fresher and my lead did the same thing to me. He encourages me to find more bugs.
ReplyDelete