Comments on Test This Blog - Eric Jacobson's Software Testing Blog: Wear Your Tester Value on a Shirt

Eric, I regard absolute bug counts as horribly mis...

2009-05-15T04:40:00.000-04:00

Eric, I regard absolute bug counts as horribly misleading as there are so many bugs that are not entered into the tracking system and so many bugs that are not relevant to really count (spelling errors and the like).

Displaying the amount of bugs on a shirt is just terribly wrong in my eyes, I'd rather be proud about a successful release and have a party together with all the developers, sales people, account managers, marketing staff and bosses instead of boosting some obscure, irrelevant statistics on a t-shirt.

I think depiction of the number on the tee sounds ...

2009-04-25T01:23:00.000-04:00

I think depiction of the number on the tee sounds a touch crude.

Maybe you could go for different coloured t-shirts with relevant text as suggested below -
"Bug-finder Extraordinaire"; goes to tester of the month/quarter/project (visual: cartoon of person stooped with magnifying glass with a rising sun background)
"The elusive bug that did NOT escape ME!" for the tester who found the 'best' bug using creative/thinking/domain skills like no other (visual: a dead man-size bug cartoon with a tester his foot on the dead bug)
"Hallelujah! I befriended the {Devil-oper}" goes to the tester who collaborated excellently with developers & nominated by the dev team members. (visual: a human with fire-spouting red devil, crooked tail et al - Guess who's who :)
"The world is divided into people who do things--and people who get the credit. HEY BUT I AM BOTH!!" for the tester do-er, hard-working, with all the positives.

And there could be others for finding the most number of critical severe defects, fewest 'cancelled', tester who grasped the domain fastest, tester who went beyond the test cases (in the strict process-centric environment primarily driven by test cases - unlikely, not recommended but probable) & so on..

I think it's great! Great idea!!! I may do someth...

2009-04-23T16:13:00.000-04:00

I think it's great! Great idea!!!

I may do something like this with my team.

Thanks for the feedback, Ced. Which part is unpro...

2009-04-22T22:10:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the feedback, Ced. Which part is unprofessional? I assume you're not talking about t-shirts being unprofessional attire (we’re allowed to wear them at my office).

Do you think what testers do should be hidden from the users or are you worried about offending the devs? My devs were cool enough to see the humor in it and called me “1109” for a while. We kid each other all the time. That’s what makes our jobs fun.

And the truth is, when we went to prod, us testers may not have written the bits that shipped. But we sure did contribute in a significant way.

I don't find this particularly professional.

2009-04-22T16:46:00.000-04:00

I don't find this particularly professional.