I am a professional tester – are you?

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I am a professional tester

This post is a response to Gil Zilberfeld’s post Why Tester Are Losing The ISO 29119 Battle which I actually think was a great post describing Gil’s experience from working in an ISO certified company.  It also gives me more reasons to reject the ISO 29119 standard.

What actually triggered me to write this post was the following piece:

“The uproar against traditional ISO standards is not new. When we decided that code reviews is needed, we had to document them, just so we can meet the standard. I needed to sneak in “documentable” features and tweak the form to pass an inspection. And all I wanted is an abstract framework for doing code reviews, where people pair and inspect the code for problems, not the location , of braces. But that’s life. I had to compromise.

There’s a whole system out there that works fine for most people. A vocal minority won’t change that.”

I believe by not accepting the system that Gil describes, by raising my voice and not hiding the fact that ISO 29119 is a fundamental threat to the skillful performance of software testing, is one step towards winning. I believe though this battle has been ongoing for ages( perhaps under more quiet forms) we still must continue to fight. The fact that an objection comes from a vocal minority does not invalidate the objection. I won’t let that stand in my way. We lose if we stay quiet!

That is why I raise my voice through this post. That is why I chose to sign the following petitions:

http://www.professionaltestersmanifesto.org/

http://www.commonsensetesting.org/news/files/PetitionISO29119.html

Karen Johnson has described her thoughts on the manifesto in a way that almost mirrors my own opinions and experiences. There is one big difference. In my early years as a tester I was certified. I do not regret this. I am not proud of it. But for this reason I also know how useless it is.

I believe it is up to you to make your own judgement by taking part of the discussions/information. You can decide to ignore it if you wish to. Personally I can’t choose to ignore it since it has a potentially devastating impact on my profession!

 

 

For more information on the matter:

For more information from voices opposing the petitions:

 

 

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