Is Testing, a boredom?

I am writing this blog because I’ve been dragged by a post in the Google testing blog that has this same topic. I believe I am the right person to write this because I currently pass through the phase what the blog discusses on with a 2+ years of budding experience in the software testing field.

June 4, 2007 – The corporate world gave me a red carpet welcome and I was honored as an IT professional by my current employer. After a week of rigorous training on process and products the firm holds, the day that decided my destiny came. I was given the choice of red and blue pill as Neo had it. I was asked to choose my path in the whole SDLC cycle by my HR, though they clearly knew, the first two phases in it required a lot of domain and technical expertise relatively. I chose the red pill – testing and am here before you writing the experiences in these two years of my choice.

Software testing is always a fantasy for me as I loved spotting faults in others works. Yes, I just loved them like a gambler in Vegas trying to hit a jackpot by counting cards! But then I realized it was not about finding faults but finding facts. Testing is something I chose for my career. Thank god! I atleast had that option open for my life. I was put into product testing when I first entered the job where I had the greatest guru of all my time to teach me what and what not in testing and sometimes in real life too. I’ve been an enthusiastic tester then, trying to figure out what is the purpose behind my choice. Almost a year passed by, on just thinking about the choice I made. I literally felt “Testing is boring”, may be this is not my cup of tea. Hence I tried learning development and satisfied my entire quest to do more and do new. But still it is testing I chose and I am not a guy who want to move away from the choice that I made though I regret for what I’ve taken.

March 6, 2008 - This is the time where I had a call for Automation testing. Automation seemed to be an oasis for me in a dry desert of repeating the same process of preparing test plans to fight with developers on Sev1 issues. All these recurring events passed through the dawns and dusks of my life and now I feel like I am reincarnated to do something that is new and something that could persuade my point of holding my choice. I was like a kid who got his first bicycle on his 7^th birthday (I think I got mine then!). I took this bicycle out, learnt cycling after so many bruises and became a master, that I drove it leaving hands one day.

During this golden period of my era in Automation testing, I was ruled by a king whom I admired a lot. He is the one who molded out a mature mind in me. “I was like a crazy dog running behind cars” then. He made me to stabilize and focus in what I need. He is the one for whom I dedicate all my articles even this one and he is the one who wanted me to write.That’s the man I just want to become and I always wanted to be with. As they say “Every dog has its day!” and as the saying goes, the dark day came. He was plugged out of the organization and now am alone in this world of miseries.This is where I got my enlightenment of my path with all his words still with me. Passing all those happenings in my corporate life for two years I realized the fact that “Testing is not truly boring!” It is the simple psychology of human to consider something boredom if it becomes a routine in his life. I just made it up to change my routine and I understood it’s not that I have to change the whole job, but it’s that I need to change the routine am in. Like a rejuvenated knight, am back on track to do this job and I still love my choice.

After all it is my call and I believe I’ll live it up to the moment to see and write “Testing – My choice and My life!!!”

Is it my fault to be in Bench?

I should’ve posted a different topic here today. But an incident drove me here to write this. No wonder I should be writing it here as this is for one special reason though and for a special person who will find it when he reads it. I don’t mean to say that this is a special note to a person rather this is just a scribbling from a miniature’s mind about the globally occurring trend in software industries.

We would’ve noticed people around us enjoying their time mostly, gazing all through the internet, reading the tabloids, making things which is far beyond our imaginations and some of us even would’ve experienced it. The management calls them people in bench and I believe them as people having potential to craft their own path. What is a bench really? 

“Bench, is an inventory in waiting to meet Business demand, it is part of any Organization supply chain not just limited to IT Industry (in the form of material in other industries).” 

– This is how a saga (friend) of mine expressed his view. Seems more technical uh? So lez juz come down to a layman’s definition of what a bench is. Bench is commonly referred to a group of resources whom are the backup for any organization’s needs when a series of deals is in pipeline. So what happens when the pipeline is broken? There starts the chaos. Every organization deals it in its own way and there is one common term which is referred to it called “Lay Off”. 

My intention is not to speak on “Lay off” or something related to it. The reason behind this blog is to discuss that do I really deserve it? If so why me? This I believe is the unsolved maze in everyone's mind. Let us come out of what the topic says. It is not about finding fault for one’s state but to analyze what can be done in that state. When one is at the mid of the chaos happening around, he / she should realize that it’s not him / her who is responsible for it. He / She should also understand the fact that the organization has spotted no other way to tackle the situation. 

I hope that a person in bench has a lot more capability to create than others in the routine. Every single person has their own uniqueness but many fail to express them or don’t know when and where to express them. So start expressing them in a way that it serves the organization and let us pat on their head and say we don’t deserve it. It is a boon and not a bane to be in when we really identify ourselves in it. Being dejected is not the end to all. Begin and progress the way that the management should turn back at you and say atleast a sorry for not identifying the potential that created this outbreak.