A Menagerie of Testers
At KWST Brian Osman coined a term: “Possum testers”.
And that got us thinking… what other testing animals make up the testing profession zoo?
- Possum testing – Playing dead in the headlights of process. aka pathetic compliance
- Leopard testing – “Leopards are agile and stealthy predators” – Wikipedia. The stealthy tester is well camouflaged and appears possum-like to the untrained eye. But quietly, the leopard is an agile hunter and will do valuable testing unseen and below the radar.
- Peacock testing – A deliberate attempt to wow via a magnificent display of extravagant test cases and scripts
- Meerkat testing: Always sticking your head up and being receptive to new information. First to stand when overhearing a BA talk to a developer and go “wait, what was that?”
- Ostrich testing: Testing with your head in the sand. If it ain’t in the requirements document, I don’t want to know about it. It doesn’t exist until it’s written down.
- Penguin Testing: Testing in a tuxedo. Black Tie testing. Or Formal Testing.
- Blue Whale Tester: Big ‘fish’ but all blubber. Has to stay near the surface lest it gets out of its depth.
- Manatee Tester: Noone really knows what they do or what they are. They just seem to sit there
Noone knows what they actually do
Have you spotted any other testing animals in the wild?
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Monkey Tester: Throws s**t at it until something sticks – They’re not entirely sure what they’re doing, but boy if they aren’t going to try.
Giraffe Tester: Can’t see the small details, but has the perfect view for of the overarching situation.
Hare Tester: Strong, confident, capable.
Turtle Tester: Disappears into their shell, doesn’t seem to be doing much, then suddenly produces amazing results when the Hare overestimates their own abilities.
I wonder what animal is the ‘cover your ass tester’. I know plenty of Factory shoppers, who are also predominantly concerned with a focused CYA approach to testing.
Hey thats goota be a Hedgehog Tester – when it all looks bad, curl up and home the spines you have in place (email trails, and meeting minutes) will protect your ass.
Ant-eater Tester – They break off a wee part of the mound and sample the internals again and again and again and again and again. They spend hours at the mound and make a number of intrusions. When they are done they leave completely satisfied – but dont seem to have had much effect and know very little about what is really going on in the mound.