Is Tester|||Doctor?
I met with an accident one and a half week back, my shoulder was in pain. Guzzled some pain killers, applied Pain relievers on my right shoulder went to sleep, next day I could not move my shoulder.
Next day...
I called my Dad, to enquire if he knew a good orthopaedician. Got the details went to the hospital took an appointment and waited for 1.5 hrs to finally meet the doctor.
The doctor started testing
Doctor started with a set of questions
How did you meet with the accident?
Did you fall on the ground?
Previous troubles with the right shoulder?
Did you do some self medication?
And so on...
Later he examined the shoulder, confirmed where exactly the pain was. But asked me to get the x-ray, and handed a prescription for the X-ray.
After getting the x-ray, doctor looked at the x-ray confirmed that there is no fracture but a ligament tear and required at least 2 weeks of rest.
No it’s not the end it just got interesting
2 weeks no way doc is there a way I could start using my right shoulder in a week? It’s very hard to apply leave for so long? What about my anniversary plans? Who will answer my clients?
The Doc explained the later effects on the shoulder, the risks if required rest not provided. He later put the ball in my court.
After one and half weeks I am still at home resting my right shoulder and typing this blog with my left hand.
This made me wonder how testers and doctors are different. Well, according to me they are not but the way stakeholders acknowledge information from a tester is different to the information received by the doctor.
Or do we as testers miss to highlight the impact in the information we provide?
Comments guys
Disclaimer: All the blogs shared by me are my ideas, my thought, my understanding of the subject and does not represent any of my employer’s ideas, thought, plans or strategies.
Next day...
I called my Dad, to enquire if he knew a good orthopaedician. Got the details went to the hospital took an appointment and waited for 1.5 hrs to finally meet the doctor.
The doctor started testing
Doctor started with a set of questions
How did you meet with the accident?
Did you fall on the ground?
Previous troubles with the right shoulder?
Did you do some self medication?
And so on...
Later he examined the shoulder, confirmed where exactly the pain was. But asked me to get the x-ray, and handed a prescription for the X-ray.
After getting the x-ray, doctor looked at the x-ray confirmed that there is no fracture but a ligament tear and required at least 2 weeks of rest.
No it’s not the end it just got interesting
2 weeks no way doc is there a way I could start using my right shoulder in a week? It’s very hard to apply leave for so long? What about my anniversary plans? Who will answer my clients?
The Doc explained the later effects on the shoulder, the risks if required rest not provided. He later put the ball in my court.
After one and half weeks I am still at home resting my right shoulder and typing this blog with my left hand.
This made me wonder how testers and doctors are different. Well, according to me they are not but the way stakeholders acknowledge information from a tester is different to the information received by the doctor.
Or do we as testers miss to highlight the impact in the information we provide?
Comments guys
Disclaimer: All the blogs shared by me are my ideas, my thought, my understanding of the subject and does not represent any of my employer’s ideas, thought, plans or strategies.
Comments
Diagnosis of Human body can definitely be compared with Testing of any product [even literally it includes the same activities I believe].
When I have given a thought into it I felt it like….
As their professional responsibilities they are doing much more than the testers. They are testing the product [the deceased body], analyzing for all the possible fixes for the bug [decease / injury], prioritizing them based on the urgency and implementing the fixes on the product.
Hence, along with testing the product, Doctors are also fixing the bugs…. Somehow as our developers do in the bug fixing cycles. Here again doctors are a way ahead, as the bugs they are fixing were in most of the cases not produced by themselves!!!, but then also they have taken the challenge of fixing your bugs and make you bug free as early as possible.
But, from some specific aspect I found Testers are holding more Testing-stakes than doctors in Testing/diagnosis. As a tester the complete responsibility for the diagnosis of the product goes to you or your team of testers. Being a Tester you are soul responsible for any bug being leaked or wrongly diagnosed irrespective of any dependency.
If you look at the testing activities the doctors are performing, you will find the ownerships distributed among different heads. In medical diagnosis also so many automated test tools [X-Ray, ECG, Ultrasonograph etc.] are being used as it happens in industrial testing, but the ownerships belongs to some external departments and test reports are used to come to any conclusion before taking any decision on fixing the issues. Once the Reports are reached, Doctor has the soul responsibility to TAKE THE CALL FOR FIXING STRATEGY.
Therefore, I would like to conclude my opinion here as …..
Testers are to be TESTERS FROM EVERY ANGLE, holding higher stakes over doctors from testing point of view. At the End of the day Doctors are holding more stakes as developer in fixing the bugs than testing. My HATS OFF TO THE NOBLE PROFESSION as they keep CLEANING OTHER PEOPLE’S BUG without bothering about who created it and how.
Now, My question is…..
In Industrial testing if some bug is leaked or even Fixing is done wrong on any product, we always have a scope of going for Re-Testing cycle and Re-Fix it.
If the same scenario happens when the product is nothing but the Human body being tested and fixed by the whole medical team, then also CAN WE AFFORD THE SAME SCOPE OF RE-TESTING AND RE-FIXING IT ??????
Hence, along with testing the product, Doctors are also fixing the bugs
Do doctors really fix the bugs/injuries? I feel doctor provides information like testers to their patients on medication/rest/possible operation etc. Don't you feel it's up to the patient to either respect it or not. Like wise when tester shares information it's upto the stake holder to decide whether the bug should be fixed or product should be shipped or usability should be improved.
Being a Tester you are soul responsible for any bug being leaked or wrongly diagnosed irrespective of any dependency.
Don't you feel its a very narrow statement. I state that a product/program can never be bug free or could attain 0 zero defect standards. There are many attributes which we will not be able to consider during testing like time considerations, interrupts, all inputs, tempurature of the processor, etc...
In Industrial testing if some bug is leaked or even Fixing is done wrong on any product, we always have a scope of going for Re-Testing cycle and Re-Fix it.
If the same scenario happens when the product is nothing but the Human body being tested and fixed by the whole medical team, then also CAN WE AFFORD THE SAME SCOPE OF RE-TESTING AND RE-FIXING IT ??????
I feel it's very similar, if a tester makes a mistake of not achieving the objective set to him, bugs could leak in, which at the customer end could even take more human lives. Think of an example of a bug in the software at the nuclear power plant, if a report provide incorrect information, the impact could be terrible. Will not the company be sued against?
Some doctors, mean business and they pay little attention to the patient(as some testers test just for the sake of "testing")
"A few" others, do justice for whatever "consultation fees" that they take from the patient (just like a few testers, who test - and in the process "try" to do justice to their role)
"Few" other doctors are most often demi gods in their profession...just one consulation - and its total recovery for the patient(just like those "few" testers who sit not just to test, but to break the product in the process)
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The set of questions in the blog relate to the APPROACH followed by the author which might provide more or less information compared to that provided by another person. Again the Information perceived from an approach differs when people try to relate to it. Example in case - the doctor's way of questioning being one way of approach the issue and the way the author perceived the questions he would be asked by the doctor.
Therefore when it comes to testing, and with regard to this specific blog, I feel one among the key elements or a cause for concern should be the "APPROACH" taken as this helps not just understanding how testing might progress or how the results might be but finally aid in perceiving how testing could / should / will be done.
What do you think the "approach" doctor followed to diagonize me, and what is the "approach" a tester usually follows to test.
- Sharath.B