17 September, 2009

Indian Testing Renaissance

I wanted to share some good news with you – my blog readers (both silent readers and commenters) who are taking time to read my blog and even go a step ahead by commenting about my work.

Firstly, James Bach talked about me and my work in one of his recent posts' titled New Voice: Parimala Shankaraiah. My blog now sits on James Bach’s blogroll. I am thrilled! Appreciation from James is very special because I have admired James Bach , Cem Kaner, Michael Bolton , Pradeep Soundararajan and many more great testers as my Role Models. With this appreciation comes an added responsibility on my shoulders to do more for the betterment of the tester in me and for the testing community as well. Thank You James!

Secondly, I won a Honorable Mention prize in the recently announced uTest Q3 2009 Bug Battle results.

These recognitions are special to me for 2 reasons:

1. Appreciation at the global level(not just for me, but for Indian Testers in general) – a few more people might get to know not just about Parimala Shankaraiah and her work, but Indian testers in general and the challenges they are facing. I am a little thirsty for more people to know us right now because I want more and more people to check out and critique our work in addition to all the self criticism that we do for our own good. I have seen this helping a lot. Just recently, It took me about 2 hours to reply to one of my blog reader's comments. In those 2 hours, I learned so many new things and got so many questions. It was a great lesson indeed.

2. The email sent by the uTest team sharing the results of Q3 2009 bug battle read ‘Congratulations! You are a winner in our Honorable Mention category for the latest Bug Battle! Although this was not a planned prize category, we want to recognize the quality of your bug reports and feedback'. Wow! I am not sure if they sent the same email to everyone who got a similar prize! No offense Meant!

My heart bleeds to see and hear bad things about Indian testers(including me) who are loathed for doing shabby testing, for blindly following test scripts for the fear of getting fired, not innovating on how better testing can be and many more. I do understand and respect the downside to bringing any changes in Indian Testing Organizations. Right now, while I am typing this, If I have to talk to my management about Exploratory testing and ask them to let go of those dirty and obsolete test scripts, I know how strongly I am going to be opposed and I know how difficult it is going to be doing this by myself all alone. One way to overcome this is to build more and more context driven testing groups in whatever small way each of us can and spreading the network (Never mind if it is slow and quiet as long as there is perserverance and no giving up!). This network will one day prove how better testing can get. I get goosebumps while I visualize that day. Dear Testers, Spread the word in your own small way!

Happy Networking,
Parimala Shankaraiah,
http://curioustester.blogspot.com

11 comments:

  1. @Sunjeet
    Can you also please share your experiences w.r.t bringing the revolution of ET to your organization ?


    I am yet to take that first baby step in my current organization. Will definitely share with you once I start off with it.

    Happy Testing,
    Parimala Shankaraiah
    http://curioustester.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Pari,
    Many congratulations on your recent accolades. Keep it up!

    Regards,
    Anuj

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Anuj

    Thanks for your Wishes.

    Happy Testing,
    Parimala Shankaraiah
    http://curioustester.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulation,
    I am fan of your blog. You write in different manner. Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Parimala,

    Congratulations on your award in our Q3 Bug Battle. This Bug Battle had a lot of great testers involved and bugs reported. This honor is well-deserved.

    Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing you in more releases at uTest!

    Best,

    Matt Johnston
    VP of Marketing & Community
    uTest

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Teja

    Thanks for your Wishes.


    @Matt

    Thanks for your Wishes Matt. I am looking forward to a lot more challenging stuff at uTest. I am glad to know you read my blog :-)

    Happy Testing,
    Parimala Shankaraiah
    http://curioustester.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. @[My heart bleeds to see and hear bad things about Indian testers(including me) who are loathed for doing shabby testing,]
    But the uTest Q3 2009 Bug Battle results has Our Tricolor flying high proudly

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Pari,
    Congratulations for the bug battle prize :) (I'm also among one :))
    Well said on the new post.. Testers are bound by limits in India.. And I'm glad that we kept the tri color flag flying :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Nandagopal

    Thanks for your Wishes. Congratulations to you too. Looking forward to some interesting conversations with you.

    Happy Testing,
    Parimala Shankaraiah
    http://curioustester.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Pari, I think you are amazing in what you do and I love your blog. I've been working as a software tester for about six months in Sweden and I too love testing! I also started a blog about testing (http://perdeytest.wordpress.com/).
    Keep up the good work! And for the record; you are my new super hero to look up to!
    /Linnéa

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  11. @Linnea

    I am glad to be your super hero :-)

    This is a lot more encouraging for me to do better work.

    Happy Testing
    Parimala Shankaraiah
    http://curioustester.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete