When somebody asks me what do I do for living I simply answer that I am a software tester. The next question/statement I hear is that I must have a lot of fun. That depends what somebody defines as fun. Maybe it’s a matter that apparently testing does not require any legit knowledge or is effortless? Wrong again. In a very general definition, a tester is a person that monitors and reports the state of software. He can use various tools for it starting with some open source solutions and ending with creating own tools (yes, here is where coding is usually involved hence legit knowledge). Is it effortless… well if you can day by day look at the same piece of software for the next few months checking for itsy bitsy bugs call effortless, then I am afraid what the real effort is.
What I described before is just a common image of tester. This is how my family and friends see my work (well my family already had an idea how important this job is, but they still see me as an overgrown kid). And there is nothing to blame on cause not all have to be IT professionals to understand the role of tests. Yet what bothers me is how certain companies treat testers and define their work.
Usually in many companies testers are treated as less qualified IT specialists that do not share the passion of the development. We get paid less even though we are mostly certified (unless we are coding testers). Barely anyone takes our opinion under consideration since we are professional pessimists. Well this comes with the territory, cause when all the management is obsessed with their product’s awesomeness, we sit in a corner saying “I have a bad feeling about this”. After years of taking corporate bull crap in terms of how my opinion is important to them, I’ve decided to simply do my work: monitor and report. If somebody asks for my opinion I just present the facts as they are and move along. And there comes this lovely moment when months of ignoring my reported defects takes its toll. The only thing I can do is just take a bag of popcorn, kick back and observe the mayhem. “I warned you, but you still don’t listen to me”. I know this is a bit rude of me, but at least this is a way to learn the management how tests are important and that it’s good to have a pessimist in the team
Enjoy your Monday!
Justyna