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?
Author: Aaron Hodder
Hello Test World 
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.
Check out goat testers at the website link
Rabbit tester – timid, creates somewhat safe tests that then recursively spawn an overwhelming legion of evidence and artifacts.
Hermit Crabbe tester – good at climbing into different personae shells and feeling at home.
Butterfly tester – begins a project crawling along the ground scavenging and collecting material, builds a meticulous framework – in which she disappears for quite some time, later to emerge and spend the rest of the project flying high, able to see the paths she once tread laid out before her.
Raccoon tester – breaks into everything
Bull tester – stomps and snorts, but is a little overly occupied with red flags that are waving and may not notice the hidden gotchas that are his downfall.
Rooster tester – crows every morning
Cobra tester – potential here for a good, venomous definition. E.g. The initial bug reports were so alarming, then project was killed by management.
Boa constrictor tester – swallows a large body of knowledge. Spends a long period of time digesting the info.
Giraffe tester – focuses on high level issues. Heh.
Vulture testing – listens to other testers for interesting test case ideas, then files bugs before they can.
Sheep testers – nuff said