Question with sprinkle of humility on the side

Michael Bolton tweeted yesterday:

Testers: let’s not obsess over trying to be influential, and work on being helpful. And let’s be careful to offer—not inflict—help. #testing

— Michael Bolton (@michaelbolton) October 16, 2013

Why do testers insist on trying to be influential? I suspect part of the reason is that part of a tester’s job is to recognise problems. Too often , testers see that the *real* problem is not the software itself, but the process behind the software and go into bug prevention mode. That sort of change requires influence.

Often though, we simply don’t have the authority or the influence to do make change. We may moan and tear our hair out in frustration, but at the end of the day, without the mandate to make change and the influence to implement it, there’s little we can do to change an organisations culture or process.

Trying do do so regardless, can lead to a sense of helplessness and even slowly, over time, a sense of powerlessness. I suspect most of us at one time or another have felt like this. It’s not a great position to be in.

I know I’ve been there. I tried to change the culture of a company (company no less!) that had some  negative ideas about testing and teamwork in general. (I’m talking about this at Eurostar this year). As a consultant, I probably should have known better, but I argued (to myself) that the culture was affecting the tester’s ability to perform their job. It needed to change!

We  testers are gifted with keen observation skills and the nature of our role sometimes means we get to see and recognise problems that perhaps others don’t. But lets not get away with ourselves. Without a mandate for change, we become close to the schoolyard tale tattler, dobbing in on everyone and despised by all (including often the teacher). I failed to recognise that I hadn’t the authority or the influence to make these sorts of changes. I fell into a classic consultants trap. I really should have known better.

It’s not that we *should* or *should not* ignore these problems. Often these challenges are too complex to be solved with simple answers and probably need to be dealt with on a case by case basis. But I think adopting the tone of helper (or servant) goes a long way to contributing to an answer. In some cases a question sprinkled with a little humility can be more helpful than smothering the problem with large doses of  tester sauce.

I hope I’ll remember that next time!