Have you had this experience when someone is testing you? Does your partner tend to ask that trick question and realize that they were testing you?
Testing is part of our human survival and evolution, testing is at the heart of discovery and innovation. Babies know not to touch that hot kettle because they got hurt touching it once. In technology, we know that the best practices are extracted from hundreds of permutations to come up with best practices. Through testing, we find the most efficient ways of doing things.
Testing fulfils our curiosity and pushes the envelope to pass that next step in evolution. In this day and age, we now know the impact of harmful emissions. In a certain respect, we could say we tested it and now we know...
Today we enjoy the innovative automobile. You tend to survive those critical crashes due to years and years of testing and innovation cycles. Testing opens a problem set not only for engineers but for everyone including financiers and the government. Engineers will re-think design and come up with solutions, financiers will acknowledge that better products mean better profit, while the government can impose regulations to keep the public safe. This is all the result of findings from testing activities. Testing encapsulates everything from your partner testing you, to medical research, rocketry, environmental research, and avionics... all the way to software development.
Testing gives way to datasets, datasets to findings, and findings result into re-learning new approaches new diets, new workouts, and new mechanics. As an avid basketball enthusiast, I’ve been observing that players of newer generations do perform better with better shooting mechanics while doing it safely. Back in the 90s basketball was 'barbaric' in that it has been tested and understood that those approaches can result in injuries. Basketball regulations nowadays are safer with players having next-level performance and so it’s fun to watch. Lastly, basketball shoes nowadays have evolved so far that all details from traction, support, and cushioning are far more advanced.
Meet Graham, a guy who can survive a car crash, due to extensive testing. Graham is a customized human who can survive those deadly crashes. It’s your choice, to get a car with a top-notch safety rating or have attributes similar to Graham’s.
"Guarantees customer satisfaction"... yes, this sounds like another mattress sales guy, but the reason for this is that a test case is a series of steps to satisfy use cases and uses cases come from user story. And user stories are what customers want. Making sure that test cases were written and executed at the right time in the correct environment can guarantee customer acceptance.
To honour my predecessor as a tester, to those who put themselves as a test subject. I salute you, sir ❤️
Fast forward to today, I think my job as a test subject to one of those kiosks in YVR is much much easier.
