Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester

As testers and test managers we often find ourselves struggling just to survive within our organization—sometimes with the possibility of job loss due to outsourcing looming. Often, we are told to become more “effective,” “efficient,” and do “more with less.” However, most testers and test managers are unsure of what those mandates actually mean. Today, it is not sufficient to just survive; we must take initiatives to thrive. Lloyd Roden shares ten valuable lessons on how you can become better at testing and thrive in your career. Lloyd's lessons include the importance of using modern technology in testing, using test design techniques when reviewing documentation, testing the testers with techniques such as bug seeding, reporting project waste, providing management with feedback on decisions that they made, becoming a pioneer or explorer rather than a settler or outlaw in your organization, and more. Lloyd’s advice is practical—and challenging—for all testers, test leads, and test managers.