I have some questions for you testers out there who like using test cases. To be clear, I’m talking about detailed, stepwise instructions written in order to guide testing and be executed manually.

I have never enjoyed using them and I want to know why you do. Really. I don’t get why test cases are ‘all that’. If there’s anyone out there that loves using test cases, please clue me in as to why. I don’t get it. Help me understand.

When I started out in testing, I spent a lot of time thinking about an appropriate title to put on my business card. Nowadays, I can’t imagine why anyone would waste their time doing that. After all, it’s only a title, it doesn’t communicate what your skills are in a very effective manner. Don’t agree? Well, if I told you I was a “Test Manager”, would you have a clear view of what to expect from me if you put me on a project? Ok, maybe you would have, but would it be the same view as your colleague sitting next to you has? Probably not, right?

Sure, if your job includes tasks and responsibilities associated with test and management, and if you need to communicate with others around you about those tasks, then maybe it would make sense to call yourself a “Test Manager” in that context. But when I came across an e-mail a while back that was being sent from someone who signed it with his name and the title: ”ISTQB certified Senior Test Manager”, I got a queasy feeling deep down in my stomach.

Do we as software testers need to have programming skills? This question is not new. It has been discussed back and forth for some years now. I don’t know if we as a community are heading toward any sort of consensus on this, but I’m going to throw my opinion out there all the same.

The short answer is ‘No, we don’t need to, but it sure can help’. There are plenty of reasons I can think of to have at least a rudimentary ability to cut code and no real arguments against (If you can think of any, I’d love to hear them).

I’m not one who necessarily thinks we need common terminology for everything we do or say that’s connected to testing, so I usually embrace new terminology and names if they make it easier to spread better understanding of our practices, old and new. But there’s this one emerging term has got me a bit confused lately: “Automated Exploratory Testing”.

There’s also another name for this approach in use, which is maybe slightly better: “Exploratory Test Automation”. But with either name it still appears to me that there’s a lot of confusion going on about this concept. What does this approach to exploratory testing really mean? Or wait… is it an approach to test automation… or maybe both? What is this… thing?

Software Config Management has been, in my experience, one of those nebulous practices that defies definition until you realize that you need it. It’s probably something you can get away without having if your setup is small enough and your developers, testers and system technomancers all communicate clearly, effectively and frequently (I’ll just wait for the snickering up the back to subside, shall I?). Dedicated config management personnel seem to happen to a company when it reaches a certain size of personnel rather than a certain system complexity. I sometimes wonder if that isn’t a bit like shutting the proverbial gate as hoofbeats fade into the distance.

The Rat Pack is a group of experienced, passionate software testers from around the world. The group formed at the Conference of the Association for Software Testing in Toronto, 2008. We continue to share our experiences and challenge each other about what it is to be a software tester today.