There is a popular punch line – “Shut off Google and developers will not be able to write code.” Developers do not commit a crime because they search for code in Google. They simply don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Developers, system administrators and other IT professionals share their knowledge online and many developers get help from these sites, blogs and forums to write their code or to make their code better.

Do we have a similar system for testing? How many of us write blogs and share our knowledge with online world? I am not saying there is no tester blogger or good forums from where we can get some knowledge on testing. But there aren’t enough of them. Can I do a Google search and get some solution for problem that I am facing in my testing project? Probably the answer is No.

There are testers who blog. Some teach testing. Few do workshops on testing. We need more of them. Testers that I have seen over the period of last 6-7 years working in organizations follow a career graph which somehow resembles like this – take some training from some institutes where the teachers do not have a testing job themselves (they have never tested a real time product) – get hired as a trainee – work (execute pre-written test cases, write some test cases, report some bugs) – get promoted as senior tester – get into management position – finally become someone who is not into testing anymore. In between, there will be job hopping and onsite travels. This seems to be a pre-scripted career path.

How many of us are ready to teach testing to somebody who wants to learn testing? Nobody can become a good tester by reading definition based books readily available in market today. What we need is more testing teachers who are experienced in testing real projects, more testing bloggers and more good testing forums where real knowledge is shared and discussed. Testing professionals should come forward and spare some time (weekends?) to teach testing to interested folks. Also I would request students/ enthusiasts who are reading this, and those who want to move to testing, to learn testing from somebody who is already working in software testing field. Do not learn from crap teachers who just teach definitions and wrong concepts, who actually never worked in a testing project.

Let us build a testing universe where there is ample scope for people to share and learn testing. Enjoy the 5th issue of Testing Circus. Jai Ho Testing!

– Ajoy Kumar Singha

Ajoy Kumar SinghaAjoy's EditorialsThere is a popular punch line – “Shut off Google and developers will not be able to write code.” Developers do not commit a crime because they search for code in Google. They simply don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Developers, system administrators and other IT professionals share their...