Adam White

So here’s the thing. I’m on vacation for a month. My boss told me to disconnect from work completely – no emails, no blackberry, no nothing. So I did. I’ve been trying not chat with team members on msn. etc, etc, etc. And I’ve been successful at that (for the most part).

I failed at one thing though. I can’t disconnect from testing. It’s in my blood. It’s like a drug. I crave it. I get a rush when I’m learning, when I get in that tester mindset, and I’m interact with intellectually stimulating people.  People who think differently and don’t follow the herd.  Those who say wait a minute let’s look at what’s going on here. Testing is so much a part of what I do and what I’m so passionate about.

Ok Boss I can disconnect from day to day project demands and release schedules – Fine. But disconnect from testing? Forget it!! I can’t. Even with our new house I’m being a tester all the time if you take Weinberg’s definition “A tester is someone who knows things can be different”. House ownership has definitely taught me that things can be different.

Here are some examples of how I can’t get away from testing and i’m learning how things can be different.

I spent most of yesterday reading “The Gift of Time”. Then I spent some time thinking about James Bach’s

recent post on Quality is Dead. Do I agree with him or not? At first yes – but then no.  Still deciding. I can argue it either way. Maybe there is a blog post there for me.

Last night I had dinner with Rob Sabourin who is in town teaching his course for a client. If you ever need someone to get you pumped about testing just give Rob a shout! Having dinner with Rob is just so damn interesting. I know the conversation is interesting and valuable when I’ve started taking notes on the table. It’s even more interesting when I tear that paper off and bring it home with me for later reference.  Who else do you know of that can link software testing to Dr. Seuss. Who else can stand up on a stage and do a presentation called “What baseball taught me about software testing” or “What the the looney tunes taught me about software testing”. Rob can! He inspired me to write about Curious George as a tester. I got rejected by a magazine so I gave up on it.  I’m going to dust that piece off and put it on my blog.

Last year I was telling Rob about the link between my training at second city improv and testing. He told me I should write about it – which I did. I wrote up some thoughts but my inner critic got in my way and I didn’t put any more effort into it. I think it’s time to kick that critic in the ass – thanks Rob!

The energy Rob brings to the testing community is great. I’ve had the priviledge of attending his JIT (Just in Time testing) course as an auditor and also to bring him in to my company to do work on visual modeling. Great stuff. If you want to give your testers a kick of energy – have them do visual modeling with Rob. I promise they won’t look at things the same way afterwards.  My team definitely did not.

I found Michele Smith’s blog  from a link on James’ site. I liked what I saw so I read her recent posts. I found a link to pre-order Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar, James’ new book from Amazon.  So I put that in my basket. Thanks Michele!

From her site I also found Michael Bolton ‘s article/presentation called “T he Two Futures Of Software Testing“.  I spent the whole morning devouring it, thinking about what he is saying.  I know Michael is at Novell this week at their Quality Summit 2009 and teaching RST afterwards. I hope it’s going well for him. 

I’ve been dusting off my testing skills with the help of Rypple and TinEye.

I’m having lunch tomorrow with a bunch of testers in Toronto. I love these conversations!!!

I’m so pumped about testing or should I say knowing things can be different. I often get this way when I’m at conferences where I can think about testing without day to day project demands.  I’ve got the better part of a whole month left to work on my testing skills! I feel like I am in a very fortunate place