Love x QA

The second step comes to practicing the theory. The mastery of theory and mastery of practice combined eventually leads to intuition, which is the successful essence of mastering any art, says Fromm. In the book, Fromm asserts that in learning an art, there is an essential third element: “the mastery of the art must be a matter of ultimate concern; there must be nothing else in the world more important than the art.” Strikingly enough this fits the ideations of great software testers who never give up striving for excellence despite the underlying monotony in their jobs per se.

A higher, idyllic and innate reason for software testing often follows a genuinely passionate QA tester. It is through software testing that the latent ability to make a difference manifests. A higher goal carries meaning that makes one not want to give up doing what they love the most. This is the enthusiasm and energy that drives testers to strive for greatness in their fields almost at all times. Without a higher goal, it’s possible to reach a level of field expertise but retard to stagnancy being unable to learn anything inhibiting the novelty and curiosity to be able to learn new things. Asking a QA tester for a higher goal beyond software testing can judge their passions. And believe us the answer is surely going to be a surprise.

Undoubtedly, a love of testing is the unchallenged foundation of greatness. A software tester who’s passionate about software testing has a higher goal and ideal attached to it outside of mere work. The two basic elements of learning software testing include lifelong learning and practice. The emphasis here is on the art of continuous practice. It takes more than a focused unwavering mind and a constant, active work process to master the monotony in software testing. Putting in efforts beyond the basic skill sets and overcoming that burden with daily deliberate practice holds the keys to success in the world of QA.

“Software testing is really an art in itself when you start loving it – Anonymous “

If love is the practice of art, then software testing is definitely a form of art where testers are genuinely passionate about their works. Software testing can be dubbed as the art of thinking, oftentimes thinking of potential things that no one else has thought of. Having to think about the perspectives of the product owners, software engineers, and UI/UX experts that might not have been thought about while creating and developing a new feature. Thinking about preventing future software defect scenarios, and re-imagining tests to prevent future failures. The QA tester has to be a sort of disciple of questions. It is the art of questioning in itself that is transgressing the uncharted territories of QA cause a great software tester naturally sustains an inner drive or instinct gathered from years of experience to identify that which might not be visible to the eyes – the often invisible parts of the software!

The Art of Loving shows how a great software tester is different from a mere QA tester while the former has a strong inner goal in regards to software testing in their personal life and values skills outside the arena of paid work. This gives that necessary enthusiastic energy to devote an unhindered complete attention to the profession for learning and practicing that itself starts manifesting as an artistic leisurely activity. It is up to the tester to determine what type of art software testing is. For instance, it can be the art of touching every DOM element with sensitivity and consideration. In other words, feeling in individual HTML elements on the page – and figuring out how to test them, and thoughtfully protect them from potential defects and errors from creeping in. Even considering every hidden element from the page – the learnings from that could make testing efforts more effective or prevent the software from future errors affirmatively.

Lastly, achieving greatness in QA and software testing is possible when looking at it as an artistic activity, with meticulously following and practicing every innate skill required to master an art in itself…
(Added with a whole lotta love this season.)