Last night I told Craig about a bug I was glad to have found doing exploratory testing and how per the usual it makes me sad that it is undervalued as a test methodology. I told him I would try again to at least tell my boss that we are still finding quite important bugs with it.

Craig asked, "So, are these different people you are trying to convince that it is important, or the same ones?"

Me, "Oh. Yeah. Still the same ones."

I proceeded to think about it with a disappointed look. I've tried to not care about it, and it isn't that I disagree with using a variety of good quality practices at all, including well planned automation, using existing tools, and even creating tools sometimes. In fact, I'm involved in many parts of quality planning and execution. I just don't understand why having talent for exploratory testing isn't valued as one skill among many. It makes me sad because I'm not mediocre at it. I'm really fantastic at it and I love doing it sometimes.In fact, I quite enjoy doing other things as well. I just don't understand why the ROI on exploratory testing is so often ignored, considered too costly, or just skipped as being "the past", just as the ROI is inflated on automated testing when it is still missing so many bugs of critical importance and it is still so often sucking in the areas of sustainability and cost of adapting the automation to a changing product under test.

Reality. How much does it change when your perception of it does? According to "the Secret" all of it.

I'm planning to head over to see Harry Robinson speak tonight if my pain level is conducive to me sitting for that much of the day. There is no reservation status for "Living in a cage of pain. If walking with only a slight limp I'll be there, if grimacing and walking with severe limp signs point to no."

UPDATE: I drove over there and was so confused about why no one was there. Ummm DUH--It's September 9th!! Guess I hope that's a decent pain day because I'm excited about it.

I'd like to thank the good Dr. K and my wonderful and patient boss that I'm still employed at this time. I care very much about the success of the products I work on and the overall quality they produce. I put my talents to work in any way I can to reach the overall goals.

Talking about having good results with exploratory testing is sort of like talking about the importance of still testing what customers are using. It may be true, but it isn't an interesting story that people want to invest in. It doesn't sound good and no one wants to talk about it who has any power to finance more of it. It is something just taken for granted, like dinner being ready when you get home, where you don't comment on it or really notice until one day the suitcase is packed and you are eating takeout on the floor wondering why you didn't notice sooner that you had it pretty good. Because "it is being tested" no longer means anyone human is looking at it. It doesn't mean anyone has USED it or even evaluated it in a real scenario. I met an engineer I really respect in the lunch room yesterday who told me off the record about his concern that test coverage is so thin in terms of anyone looking at it with testing intent or even using the software anymore and he was commiserating with me mostly just worried about the end result. He isn't a lazy developer like some who just check in crappy code. He's one of the guys who even in the early days wasn't the cause of breaking the build even with complex changes. So, why is he sharing this concern with me in the lunchroom in near silence to all peers and higherups?

Because, exploratory testing needs to get back in the kitchen where it belongs so we can ignore it and take it for granted. We've got new exciting and unproven test methodologies to go on tumultuous first dates with. Only in desperation at the last minute when our new methods have failed to show up for us will we come back to the old and unexciting exploratory testing which has served us well in the past. There it is, our unstated backup plan. We call it, what worked before. It's our sure thing. Break out in case of emergency. There are a few of us here who are really good at that sort of thing and also can do other things. What about the day when there is no backup left? Perhaps I am no good because I don't move forward with wild abandon and easily forget about what worked in the past. I have an uncommon and strange sense of loyalty to my product, my customers, my team, and also to what has worked in the past. Moving forward for me means learning and adapting but only dropping the past entirely when it is no longer needed, not before. It has to be annoying though for a person who's already moved on to hear again from Testy Redhead, "Hello? This is still needed. Let's give Old Faithful another look?"

Guess I'll head to the kitchen now.