1. The Curious Behaviour
Curiosity is something that I can attribute to having created some of the most
interesting moments in my life. It has led me to explore avenues that I may
have otherwise dismissed and it has brought about surprises that I might
otherwise never have experienced.
A curious mind is one that could be described as an active, engaged and
inquisitive mind. Such a mind frequently seeks out new information, enjoys
discovering what there is to discover and enjoys the process that comes along
with this goal. The drive to discover is in part driven by the mind’s desire to
gain answers and an understanding of the subject under focus. As a curious
mind is more engaged it also results in the person being more observant,
meaning that they are more likely to recognise new opportunities or new
aspects that emerge. As a result, a curious person is more likely to uncover
properties that might have otherwise remained hidden to other people.
There is a thought that has struck me, and it’s one that has come back to me on
a number of occasions. The thought is that there is a relationship between the
mindset of a tester who possesses lateral (and often critical) thinking skills and
that of a curious mind.
Whilst this relationship is not required for a person to become a tester, it is
this underlying nature of wanting to know more, wanting to explore further,
wanting to discover the unknown that shapes the behaviours of such a tester.
It drives the tester to uncover more about the system or product that they are
testing. This can be compared to someone who would be more than satisfied
with just following orders, or only covering that which they feel sufficiently
encompasses what is ‘necessary’ when working on a task.
A Curious Mind
There is a comparison that can be drawn between this mindset and that of a
child. A child’s mind is open, eager to learn, seeking to understand and ready
to embrace all that surrounds us. As we grow older we tend to subdue this part
of us, not entirely, but to a level that it no longer has the value or emphasis in
our minds it once held. Given that many education systems and businesses
WWW.MINISTRYOFTESTING.COM/2013/11/THE-
CURIOUS-BEHAVIOUR/
by Test Ninja, ministryoftesting.com
November 30th 2013
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2. frequently value compliance (and conformity) over utilising our curiosity or
imagination, this could be seen as being of little surprise.
Maybe it is those of us that have never really lost as much of this child-like
curiosity that have been driven in such a way, that it then facilitates us with
taking what we do to a greater level. This form of intrinsic motivation is also
what drives a love of travelling to new destinations, but can also be likened to a
passion for music, photography or various other creative fields, as like testing
we are driven to explore, to discover, to attempt to know and to try to
understand.
This behaviour, however, is not one that we can easily teach or craft and whilst
we can attempt to re-awaken this behaviour in those who have largely subdued
it, we cannot undo those experiences that go a large way to defining us.
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
Albert Einstein
Cracking Through Conformity
An increasingly popular school of thought utilised when seeking to remedy this
issue is one formed around the concept of ‘unlearning’. An attempt to
de-construct or undo the behaviours ingrained in people as taught to us by
society, or phrased differently, “unlearning is about moving away from
something rather than moving towards something” 1. Given the often
conditioned and rigid mindset that people hold, there is great value that can be
found through the unlearning process. It can bring about an important shift in
perspective that opens the person’s mind to different ways of thinking.
Creating a new mental framework that can alter perspectives is important, it
can open up a person’s mind and make them more receptive to new ideas; but
where there is the potential for even greater value is in facilitating an
experience that takes them beyond what the process of ‘unlearning’ alone can
provide. This is because swapping one collection of thoughts for another does
not in its own right translate to changes in behaviours (as opposed to changes
in practices or methodologies that they might observe), behaviours that are
then driven by the individual’s character.
Instead of merely seeking to ‘undo’ the habits and doctrine ingrained deeply
within people’s personalities and educating them on alternative approaches
that they can take within their roles, we can also look to re-ignite their
curiosity and hopefully spark a drive within them that had previously been
extinguished. This as much applies to those whose minds have become closed
to alternate approaches as it does to those with an open mind, as in both cases
it can still have a positive effect. The benefit however with the unlearning
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3. process is, that where it involves a tester who holds a more rigid mindset, it
can then better equip them for the contradiction that following their curiosity
can sometimes bring and can also result in them further embracing this
process.
If we facilitate an opportunity for the tester to explore based upon their own
ideas and challenge them to be as creative as possible whilst doing so, it can
enable the tester to experience a form of autonomy that is driven largely by
their imagination. It creates a chance for them to better embrace their devious
side, where their lateral thinking skills can then be developed as they discover
new and more creative ways of approaching such exploration. In addition to
this, from the sense of autonomy which the tester is provided with, it also
furthers their engagement with the exploration process.
Devious By Design
The award-winning British-American writer, Lesley Hazleton, said “All
exploration, physical or intellectual, is inevitably in some sense an act of
transgression, of crossing boundaries” 2. Given this belief, it would be
possible to draw a connection between the act of exploration based on ones
curiosity and a description of this behaviour as being a devious act.
In a testing workshop this year I was awarded the title of ‘Most Devious
Tester’. In this instance, even though the actions were not what I felt to be all
that devious in nature, what drove me to making the choices I did was my
curiosity, having a desire to discover what the outcome might be when I
attempted different actions. It is this same form of motivation that also drives
people like grey and white hat hackers to see what will happen when they
experiment with a system.
“The prize is in the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery,
the observation when other people use it” 4
Richard Feynman (The Fantastic Mr Feynman)
This form of curiosity even drove people like Nobel Prize winning theoretical
physicist Richard Feynman to make various scientific discoveries, such as
working out a system for using pictorial representations of complex
mathematical equations. He operated within the context of wanting to
understand things that needed to be better understood and found enjoyment
with every new discovery that he made throughout this process. As someone
who was motivated by his curiosity he never tired of experimentation and had
once described in a lecture that all theories were guesses that had stood up to
testing4.
The common intention across all of the above examples is a desire to discover
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4. what is possible and what the outcomes might be when taking these different
actions. So the focus is not on the act itself, but the knowledge (and to some
degree experience) gained from the outcome of that act.
“I’m always looking, like a child, for the wonders I know I’m going to
find—maybe not every time, but every once in a while” 5
Richard Feynman (The Making of a Scientist)
Re-Awakening the Explorer
The renowned professor of psychology Todd Kashdan cited that when we
combine the activities of exploration with curiosity, it tends to have a positive
impact on our well-being, through this deeper form of engagement3.
As is the case with children6, when we make and then share discoveries found
through this exploratory process, a process guided by our curiosity, it provides
us with a sense of mastery, a sense of achievement. The act of sharing these
discoveries also allows us to receive recognition for these achievements. By
creating this positive association between the discovery processes and the
rewards they can bring, it can create an association within the tester that they
will then be more likely to draw upon for future experiences.
The same kinds of stimuli that drive people to immerse themselves in new
information could then also be derived here, as we learn about the systems or
products that we are testing. We could create the same kinds of rewards in our
brains that we get when we are performing other forms of discovery and
learning.
If we re-ignite this desire to explore and re-create a passion for this behaviour
by designing a system that gives the tester a sense of reward, it then aids in
developing their confidence when applying these skills later. This confidence
can result in them being more open to exploring the unknown, asking about
the unspoken and taking a greater level of interest in more than just the ideas
presented to them. It can encourage them into adopting this as something that
they choose to do and has the potential to become a valued asset that they can
tap into whilst testing.
“Curiosity demands that we ask questions, that we try to put things together
and try to understand this multitude of aspects as perhaps resulting from the
action of a relatively small number of elemental things and forces acting in
an infinite variety of combinations”
Richard Feynman (The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vols 1-2)
A Positive Focus
To focus on creating a positive association with the discovery process rather
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5. than just attempting to undo the past may provide us with a better chance of
making the kinds of changes to behaviour, even if only minor, that have the
potential to benefit the testing world as a whole by creating more interested
and more passionate testers. This is because experiences that are associated
with rewards-based learning are ones that the amygdala within our brain is
more likely to firmly implant within our long-term memories7, and much like
with other emotional experiences this can result in transformations occurring.
Anette Prehn, a social scientist, author and award-winning leadership trainer
points out…
“The brain actually has a hard time ‘getting’ our away-from intentions.
Instead it needs a towards intention” 8
So by creating a renewed interest in following their curiosity, it provides the
person with a new focus to reach towards.
Discovery in Action
Examples of how positive experiences can help further ignite this passion can
be witnessed in the Test Labs present at various testing conferences, where the
act of testing is performed within a social context, with testers broken up into
different teams and with rewards on offer, so as to drive those teams to
discover as much as possible.
In this informal environment it encourages testers to approach what they are
testing in a more lateral way, and hopefully in the process also top the other
teams they are competing against. The more informal and socially competitive
nature of this process, even though it contains an element of competition,
provides an important space for the tester to be able to have fun.
The enjoyment experienced from participating in this process is key to then
creating a positive association with the discovery process. It is this positive
environment that can hopefully assist with pacifying the fears that some may
have with embracing their curiosity, and through repeat positive experiences
they can also build up their confidence in this area. The confidence this brings
then also has the benefit of making people more comfortable with utilising
their imagination, potentially then sparking their curiosity to go on to explore
other avenues that they might have otherwise never conceived of.
The Weekend Testing sessions provide another example of an informal
environment that encourages testers to really flex their minds and discover
rewards in the process of discovery. These sessions demonstrate that even
without the need to ‘unlearn’ a tester can still create a positive experience with
the discovery process, one that can be born out of following their own curiosity
and having the chance to experience the rewards that this process can bring.
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6. The benefits of instilling this behaviour into testers can also then extend
beyond their roles as testers and into their lives as well, potentially igniting
other curiosities that they may have but might have otherwise never explored.
A Fear of Curiosity
The reliance on a person’s curiosity to drive the direction of some of the testing
within an organisation is one that can leave certain managers and other senior
staff on edge. The reason being, curiosity comes with no certainties. There are
no guarantees, no metrics, no measurable that can be premeditated from
people following their curiosity. This does not mean however that there is no
value.
If the lack of certainties, a fear of dead ends or time wasted existed within the
scientific community then there would be no such thing as scientific
experiments, because if all exercises performed had to be ones that they knew
would produce results, it could no longer be called an experiment. If such a
mentality had existed with the astronomers who decided to point the Hubble
telescope into an area in space that had no visible stars or planets, then they
might have missed out on capturing what was declared the most important
image of space ever captured9. Instead they took a chance and embraced their
curiosity.
Like the scientific world12, the craft of testing has two forms of unknowns,
known unknowns and unknown unknowns. So when the tester is following a
path and discovers that it does not provide the answer they were looking for, it
actually takes them one step closer to finding that answer. As such, the
absence of an answer is in its own right still a result. Likewise, an exercise
where the result actually provides disconfirmation also increases knowledge
about the product too.
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong then you’ll never come up with anything
original” 10
Ken Robinson (How Schools Kill Creativity)
This does not mean that following our curiosity is an exercise where we do so
in a reckless and untamed manner. As with other approaches to testing we can
utilise product knowledge, historical knowledge and past experiences to help
guide where we choose to embrace our curiosity and where or when it is less
appropriate to do so. In addition to this, where we give ourselves free rein with
our curiosity we can still time box such exercises so as to ensure that it does
not negatively impact other testing we wish to carry out. The ability to know
when to stop following your curiosity can be just as important a skill as your
ability to embrace it.
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7. As a means to providing greater structure and discipline, one approach that we
can use in addition to time boxing is to also define a focus around an area that
we wish to explore. The important thing to be mindful of here is that the more
restrictive the focus is, the more restricted the person’s imagination (and
subsequently their curiosity) can be.
Structure and Curiosity – A Balancing Act
At the Let’s Test Conference this year, members of Atlassian’s QA team made a
case in a presentation11 for how a predefined focus can bias our curiosity and
subsequently what we also discover. They expressed that using requirements
or documentation as a base for exploratory testing sessions actually reduces
the tester’s chances of finding issues that relate to areas such as implicit
requirements, incorrect documentation or expectations that end users might
have as to how the product should behave. Given this, any focus that is defined
would need to strike a balance in this regard.
The bias created by having a predefined focus however can also be used to
positive effect when we are dealing with an area with known unknowns. Whilst
this means that we are restricting our curiosity to the constructs of a defined
area, we can also hope to use this focus to uncover as much as possible about
that chosen area. So this bias can be used to positive effect, but the focus even
here should still remain as broad as is relevant, as the more defined the focus
is, the more significantly it will bias what is discovered.
In addition to the other positive applications of focus, another benefit of
having a focus is that it may also assist those who are less experienced with
approaching testing in this manner, as it can reduce their feelings of being too
overwhelmed by the choices available to them.
The use of focus and time boxing can then hopefully mitigate some of the
concerns that a business might have with integrating such activities into the
testing that is performed, particularly so where we define a focus which relates
to an area of the product or system with known unknowns.
The discoveries that can be made possible through embracing our curiosity in
an appropriate manner can offer us a profound understanding of the
properties of what we are testing. It can reveal implicit aspects that might have
otherwise never made it into any test documentation, it can divulge patterns
and help unearth the root cause for an issue that was otherwise not apparent
and it can expose behaviours of a system or a product that can transform our
views as to how the system actually works.
The drive that we can gain from embracing our curiosity, the satisfaction we
can experience from our achievements by behaving in this more engaged
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8. manner, all assist in providing us with a greater sense of enjoyment out of the
discoveries that we subsequently make and through this new drive and
increased satisfaction, we can then find the inspiration to take our craft to a
new level.
Thanks to both John Stevenson and Peter Langford for their feedback on this
article and for further sparking my own curiosity!
References:
About the Author
Guy Mason has been involved with technology since a very young age.
Throughout his lifetime he has created and run web sites, written for and
assisted with the running of computer publications, been a hobbyist
programmer and assisted with running computer related events. As a tester he
started in his first testing role back in 2000 and has since worked across many
of the leading Digital Agencies throughout London and assisted various of
them with formulating test strategies to use in their business, in addition to
also holding various other roles in Digital Media and Software as a Service
companies.
Guy’s love of technology is married with his love of testing and he has a great
passion for assisting with quality improvements for projects he works on
where possible. You can contact him on Twitter (@TestingQA) or via his blog
(testingqablog.blogspot.co.uk).
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