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Years ago, I wrote a post on 8 Alternate Careers For Software Testers. Not that I would ever encourage anyone to leave the testing space, but if they were so inclined, I wanted them to understand they could make it elsewhere. I must have been guidance counselor in a previous life.
Anyway, one of the roles I listed was that of a journalist (I actually was a small-time journalist in a previous life). I briefly explained how QA professionals were like journalists in that they “must ask tough questions, dive deep into complex issues and report them to the layman in a clear, concise and objective manner.”
Of course, the similarities go much deeper. Now that I’ve had a few years to think about it, I wanted to share some of those similarities for your reading pleasure. My intention is to revisit this type of comparison periodically, as I think it’s helpful to be able to explain what testers do using other professions as examples. So if you see a post comparing testers to hostage negotiators or tour guides, you’ll understand why.
So without further delay, here are a few ways that software testing is like journalism.
Investigation: As a journalist, the great stories don’t come gift-wrapped in the mail (mail bombing stories being the exception). They are generally incredibly hard to find and require keen investigative skills. The same is true of software testers. Sure, some issues are easy to find – 404 pages, pages that won’t load, graphical issues, etc. – but the real issues require some digging. They require a tester to adopt the mindset of someone else; to think of their motives. They must think as a user, as a customer, as an admin, as a hacker. Every testing project is an exercise in investigation.
Here’s a quote from Michael Bolton that could basically describe the role of an investigative reporter:
“Testing is something that we do with the motivation of finding new information. Testing is a process of exploration, discovery, investigation, and learning. When we configure, operate, and observe a product with the intention of evaluating it, or with the intention of recognizing a problem that we hadn’t anticipated, we’re testing. We’re testing when we’re trying to find out about the extents and limitations of the product and its design, and when we’re largely driven by questions that haven’t been answered or even asked before.”
Objectivity: Check your emotions at the door. Journalists are frequently cautioned against letting their own biases sneak into a story – and testers are expected to do the same. Often times, as with usability testing (or in the case of journalists, editorials), subjectivity is all well and good. But for the most part, a tester will need to remain objective.
Cite your Sources: Business owners are never expected to simply take a tester’s word for it – they need documentation and well-defined steps to reproduce. Just a s journalist is expected to cite their sources, so too are testers. (Side note: uTesters, if you want some pointers on this, be sure to check out our previous blog on How To Write the Perfect (uTest) Bug Report or 9 Tips for Creating an Awesome Bug Report.
Shooting the messenger: Journalists and testers suffer from the “shooting-the-messenger” syndrome in that they are generally the bearers of bad news. While reporters must often break tragic and/or uncomfortable stories, testers must report bugs in the products of their peers, which is not always a pleasant experience. As James Bach once remarked on our blog:
Seriously, it’s easy to see the dynamic. Anyone who creates a piece of work and submits it for judgment is going to feel judged. That’s not a pleasant feeling. And the problem is compounded by testers who glibly declare that this or that little nit or nat is a “defect,” as if anything they personally don’t like is a quality problem for everybody. It is further compounded when programmers and testers are separated by large distances or other communication barriers, not to mention the process barriers.
I’m sure there are a million other ways in which software testing is like journalism, but these were the first to come to mind.
I’ll close this post with a challenge: List a profession- any profession – in the comment section below and one of our esteemed bloggers will write an entire post comparing it to that of software testing.
As always, thanks for reading!