Hello sweetheart. What did you eat today? I could not believe what I was hearing. Was the number right? It was. Was the timing right? It was. I had dialed into a US conference call number and I heard some love talk. Apparently, someone from my office was using (more of mis-using) these official numbers provided for some personal stuff. Last time I checked, such examples could be found all over the place. The husband is placed in a project in the US and is provided with a number for his official conferences, and guess who he uses it to talk to. Does it happen in your company?

Anyway, this month, our training departments sent us a circular. They were reaching out to us to understand what are the various soft skills that a tester would need, so that they can include it in their training program.

Here’s my top 5

1) Un-learning

Ever wonder why most of us don’t learn a lot? It’s because we belong to the category of “Iknowitall” and refuse to learn.  If only we had a training program to help us un-learn what we already know, would it not speed up our learning as well?

2) Curiosity

Can you teach anyone curiosity? For most of those, the concept of gravity was initiated by the thought of Curiosity in Sir Isaac Newton’s mind. Would not there be better testers if we could teach them curiosity? Would it be possible to teach someone about “Curiosity as a soft skill” and how it can be implemented to do a deep dive into the product to flush out bugs? Can someone teach me to be more “inquisitive”?

3) Eye for Detail

Well, being a tester, one very good quality that we need to imbibe is to have an “eye for detail”. For example, you would need to look at all parts of the screen to flush out that small bitmap image which does not fit into the screen; you might want to look closer for the JavaScript error messages that keep appearing out of nowhere; you would need to look more closely at audio-visual synchronization if you are involved in testing multimedia products. Would it be possible to have a training program that grades me on my current level of “eye for detailing” and that which helps me in improving it?

4) Identify mis-guides

Well, there are so many guides and mentors available in this world. But how will you know if it you are being mis-guided? How will you identify if you are being mis-mentored? Can a training program be designed so that I can identify when I am being mis-guided and I can stop myself?

5) The importance of networking

Networking is very important. Why? Well, would that not be your network of people that you turn to when you hit a road-blocker? The person sitting right next to you in your cab may be a whiz kid in your area. The old man sitting next to you in the company bus might be a Senior VP, after all. The person that you have lunch with at the client location might be another project manager who might be thinking about whether they need to give you your next project or not. Can a training program be designed to improve your “networking” quotience? Can a training program be designed so that you get better networking skills and start networking more and more?

And you know what happened… none of them happened. My email remains in the archives of the training department. They are still having their soft-skills focused on how to eat a pizza, theoretical skills of negotiation, etc.  So sad! What do you think? Do you think if these programs make any kind of sense?

 

Fake Software TesterA Fake Tester's DiaryFake Tester,Fake Tester's DiaryHello sweetheart. What did you eat today? I could not believe what I was hearing. Was the number right? It was. Was the timing right? It was. I had dialed into a US conference call number and I heard some love talk. Apparently, someone from my office was using...