10 Testing Myths in an Age of Misinformation.

1. 10 Testing Myths
in an Age of
Misinformation
Conor Fitzgerald
Quality Week 2022
Colombo Quality Camp

2. Misinformation
Misinformation
Misleading information created or shared without
a deliberate intent to cause harm.
Disinformation
False information that’s created and shared to
deliberately cause harm.
Fake news
News or stories on the internet that are not true.
They may be in the form of disinformation or misinformation.
Source: https://www.internetmatters.org/issues/fake-news-and-misinformation-advice-hub/learn-about-fake-news-
to-support-children/#what_is_fake_news

3. The Psychology of Fake News
"Effective interventions can nudge social media users to
think about accuracy and can leverage crowdsourced
veracity ratings to improve social media ranking
algorithms."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661321000516

4. 1. The Myth
of Binary Testers
Testers must Identify as "Manual"
or "Automation"

5. The Myth
of Binary Testers
"I am just a Manual Tester" "I am an Automation Tester"

6. The Truth
Source: https://janetgregory.ca/testing-from-a-holistic-point-of-view/
Testers with a
balanced skill set
are better suited to
holistic and
continuous testing.

7. 2. The Myth
of Automation
Software testing can simply be
replaced by "Automation"

8. The Truth
"Automation" and
"Exploratory" Testing
are complementary
approaches.
Source: Dan Ashby

9. The Truth
"Automation" and
"Exploratory" Testing
support continuous
testing
Source: state-of-devops-2018
2 quotes on the topic of Continuous Testing
"Our measure of automated testing includes
fast, reliable suites of automated tests that are
primarily created and maintained by
developers."
"Performing manual test activities such as
exploratory testing, usability testing, and
acceptance testing throughout the delivery
process."

10. 3. The Myth
of Testing is an
Interim Career
• Software testing is for failed
developers/those who can't
code.

11. The Truth
Source: https://www.practitest.com/resource/state-of-testing-report-2021/
"The average experience of
testers is growing - pointing at
more professionals who see
testing as their career and not
only a stepping stone in their
technical professional path."

12. 4. The Myth of
Testing is Boring
• Software Testing is easy
• Software Testing is repetitive

13. The Truth
Testing is creative and challenging.
Being a tester is seen as one of the
happiest jobs in the based on CareerBliss
Data.

14. 5. The Myth of
Testing in
Production
• Testing in production is Risky
• Software can be fully tested
before release to Production
• Release as infrequently as
possible so as not break
production

15. The Truth
Testing in production when done safely
can bring benefits.
Using approaches such as feature
toggles and canary releases.
Frequent releases reduce risk.
You see what the customer sees
Actual data, configurations and
infrastructure, which may not be
the case in test environment
Real customer load
Opportunity for feedback and
engagement with real users

16. 6. The Myth of
Representing the
Customer
• A Software Tester is a
representative of the Customer

17. The Truth
Source:
“The Customer is the only
one that knows whether or
not the product is solving
their problem.”
Brent Jensen
https://testastic.wordpress.com
Be a customer advocate, learn all you
can but you’re not the customer.
Focus on testing key quality
characteristics such as performance,
security and accessibility.

18. 7. The Myth of 1
dimensional Quality
• Quality is ..

19. The Truth
Source: Dan Ashby
Quality is multi-dimensional

20. 8. The Myth
of Developers
Developers don’t care about quality
and cannot test
Developers cannot deliver quality
software without a tester

21. The Truth
The T-shaped Model can help us
understand.
Tester and Developer collaboration
is key.
"Allowing testers to work alongside developers throughout
the software development and delivery process"
Source: state-of-devops-2018

22. 9. The Myth
of Breaking Software
• A Software tester's purpose is to break
software
• A Software tester's purpose is to find bugs
Source: cartoontester

23. The Truth
Testers help others make software
unbreakable and focus on bug
prevention

24. 10. The Myth of
Qualifications
• Testers must have Qualifications such
as ISTQB
• Testers grow by being focused on just
testing content.

25. The Truth
Qualifications are useful but are
often prescriptive, whereas
testing is a creative role.
Consider workshops as a
complementary learning
approach.

26. Questions

27. References
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/lessons/myths-and-legends-of-software-testing-vernon-richards
https://www.browserstack.com/blog/change-in-the-world-of-testing/
https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/debunking-10-software-testing-myths-that-you-need-to-stop-believing
https://www.coderskitchen.com/top-10-popular-software-testing-myths/
https://www.browserstack.com/blog/change-in-the-world-of-testing/