This week, I shared an epic win around an epic fail with women in testing slack community, as we have a channel dedicated for brag and appreciate - sharing stuff in more words than on twitter, knowing your positive enforcement of awesome things won't be taken against you. My epic win was around case of being heard on something important, where not being heard and not fighting the case was the epic fail.
On top of thinking a lot around the ways of how I make my case to get feedback reacted on, like bringing in real customer voice, the person I adore the most in the world of testing twitter tweeted just on the topic.
I got excited, thoughts rushing through my head on the ways of presenting evidence, and making both the objectively and emotionally appealing case. And it is so true, it is a big part of what I do - what we do in testing.Testing is much more like being a good lawyer than it is like coding, at least for me. Collecting & presenting evidence is a huge part of it— Lanette Creamer (@lanettecream) September 9, 2017
As great people come, another great one in twitterverse tweeted in response:
This stopped me to think a little more. What if I did not have to fight, as a tester, to get my concerns addressed? What if the first assumption wasn't that the problem isn't relevant (it is clearly relevant to me, why would I talk about it otherwise?) and that burden of evidence is on me? What if we listened, believed, trusted? What if we did not need to spend us much time on the evidence as testers, what if hunch of evidence was enough and we could collaborate on getting just enough to do the right things as response?What if the burden of proof wasn't on those who report it? What if we simply believed it?— Josh Grant (@joshin4colours) September 9, 2017
Wouldn't the world this way be more wonderful? And what is really stopping us from changing the assumed role of a tester from being one with the burden of evidence to someone helping identify what research we would need to be conducting on the practical implications of quality?
Creating evidence takes time. We need some level of evidence in the projects to make right decisions. But I, as a tester, often need more evidence than the project really needs just to be heard and believed. And a big part of my core skillset is navigating the world in a way where when there's a will, there's a way: I get heard. It just takes work. Lots of it.
