From Testing to Managing, that's been one BIG Project!

Without exaggeration, my SCJP certification and allocation to a QA project happened almost simultaneously. While the former was planned and lovely, the latter was unexpected, and not pleasant at first. For someone from a generation that aspired to be programmers, Java biggies, coders, innovators, miracle workers and the likes, being allocated to a QA – a ‘Testing’ project- was akin to water poured over a well crafted document. All destroyed.

As it turned out, the SCJP exam was literally my last brush with any kind of coding or development work. Once you get assigned to a project, that’s all that you work on, and that’s where things progress. To begin with, testing seemed very difficult. The whole concept of thinking of scenarios, situations around how to ‘break’ an application (there were no ‘social’ or ‘web’ applications then, that lend themselves to testing) seemed new and difficult at the beginning.

From then to now, I have spawned multiple roles- QA, Onsite Coordinator, Project Lead, and finally, Project Manager. From then to now, I truly believe that being allocated to that project was an amazing thing that happened. Starting out as a Tester, I believe, has laid the foundation for me becoming a very effective PM, and here’s why: 

1)      Test Planning: A tester has to create a test plan and draft test cases. This alone induces discipline in going about thing- break the application down to testable modules, prepare test data, define logical sequences, coverage and scope etc

2)      Test Scenarios: Possibly the most value adding activity for a tester. This makes a tester think and think more. He has to look at the application from all ends, inside out and forces him to imagine situations that even the developer may not have thought of. Essentially, this step means a tester has to GAIN KNOWLEDGE of the application as much as possible.

3)      Regression Testing: While not entirely different from module testing, regression testing reminds a Tester that things that worked well in the past still need attention. New things may tinker a bit with what’s working, and you have to be careful.

4)      Reporting: Test reports often run into multiple excel sheets. Each sheet has a carefully crafted detail about the following: Test Cases executed, re-executed, defects logged, defects re-tested, pending items and so on.

In essence, testing induces a feeling of discomfort in a tester, keeping him on toes at all times. The discomfort of missing a defect that raises its head in production, of raising a duplicate, of missing a scenario, reporting incorrectly etc. This is the most essential attribute of a good PM too- being uncomfortable so he cares about the project all the time.