21Jul/10Off
Unlearning for testers
Today I want to present a non-technical advice: unlearning.
The traditional definition* of unlearning stands for giving up present habits and/or knowledge:
–verb (used with object)
1. to forget or lose knowledge of.
2. to discard or put aside certain knowledge as being false or binding: to unlearn preconceptions.
–verb (used without object)
3. to lose or discard knowledge.
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* -Taken from Dictionary.com
As we can see from this definition, there are negative and positive sides of unlearning.
How to benefit from unlearning?
- Use it as a brainstorming tool
- Use it as a problem-solving tool
- Use it for retrospective analysis and learning
As an example, below I put a few core assumptions about software development and testing that have already been unlearnt or currently being unlearnt in the industry.
- One needs requirements and test cases to do testing
- Testing can only be conducted after a build is deployed on test environment
- Verification tests passed -> no bugs
- A role of written documentation is critically important in software quality assurance
- Software quality can be unambiguously defined by requirements
- No bugs found -> no bugs in software
- No bugs in software -> customer satisfaction
- Programmers do programming, testers do testing
- Years of experience with tools, or techniques, or technologies is the most important hiring criteria
