How to Become a Great Tester

I want you to think about butterflies. The beautiful feathery winged creatures that flit from one flower to another. The weather is warming up, and yesterday my son and I were marveling at the beauty of these little creatures.

Now, let’s go back a bit in the development life-cycle of a butterfly. Let’s go back to the moment a butterfly starts to emerge from the chrysalis. The story is that if you feel sorry for the butterfly and cut the chrysalis open, it won’t be able to open it’s wings.  The struggle is necessary for the blood flow. Now, as with most inspirational stories you hear, it is probably not strictly true, but I think there are still a few lessons that can be drawn from it about how to become a great tester.

Struggle is important for becoming good at your craft. You can really only learn some things through the struggle of trying to do them. Sometimes we can try to short circuit the pain of the learning process, but at the end of the day you aren’t going to be able to learn without some struggle.

This isn’t the only lesson to learn though. The other lesson we can glean comes from the fact that this story is probably not strictly true. A couple of quick google searches shows experts who say that as long as you are careful, there are ways to help a butterfly that is having trouble getting out of the cocoon. Struggle is good and helpful and shouldn’t be short circuited, but there is a time to get help.

So how do you become a great tester?

Do lots of testing and struggle through the pain of trying to figure it out. Don’t think you can just read a few blog posts and listen to few talks and then have what it takes to be a great tester. It will take time. Lots of time. It will take trying things and failing and trying again.  It will take getting stuck and getting frustrated. It will take pain and joy. It will take frustration and annoyance and aha! moments and a powerful sense of accomplishment. In the struggle you will slowly grow and become a better and better tester.

Embrace the struggle, but don’t get lost in the struggle. Don’t forget to ask for help. Find those voices that can speak to you on how to get through the struggles you face. Go to the conferences. Ask the questions. Pair up with the experienced tester. Read the books. Take the course. Get help.

Becoming a great tester takes time and persistence. It also takes help and encouragement.

Happy testing!

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash