Testing Buzzwords Decoded
|
Phrase |
Possible Meaning |
|
World Class Quality |
We have no idea what quality is |
|
Standardize |
We are even willing to lower quality, as long as it is cheap and we can outsource it or simplify it |
|
Modern tools |
Try to automate our way out of this mess we created using magic |
|
Best practices |
Copy other companies |
|
Global economy/global concerns |
Outsourcing will save us money and give us tax shelters |
|
Measurable progress |
More Micromanagement will make us feel like we are making progress. |
|
Increased Efficiency |
Mandated Unpaid Overtime where we break the law, but pretend we don't |
|
Measurable Goals |
Limit ourselves to what we can easily measure |
So, should you find yourself in a situation where you are being assaulted by buzzwords, here are some ways to help yourself take these in without despair. Often, you’ll find that a well-intended person who simply isn’t experienced in quality has been slightly tricked. They’ve been convinced either by success with engineering groups, or by reading books that leading a quality group is exactly the same as leading a group of programmers. That simply isn’t the case.
I’ve found I really enjoy working for teams where those in charge of quality leadership have not only done excellent testing, but have successfully led testing for projects before, and importantly, were well liked and recommended by those doing the work as well as the managers they were reporting to. Too often, managing up well is prioritized over managing your direct reports, and their direct reports. If you can skip several levels and interview both levels up and levels down in an organization and get a consistent picture of the performance and it is good? That person is a true excellent leader. If the person in charge is polarizing, and either everyone above or below doesn’t believe in the competence of the leader, that is a huge risk.
I hope that this translation guide can help you along with how I answer the question: "Should I stay or should I go now?" Are you protected enough from the larger corporate problems to perform your day to day work to the best of your ability? If you are, you may want to stay. Every company has issues, and every job has pros and cons. The question in software isn’t, “Can’t I do this for the rest of my life?” The better question is, “For the next 6 months, what are my plans?” Things change pretty fast. Even 6 months may be too long to wait to evaluate. If you are in a buzzword heavy situation, try this translation chart, and see if it helps you write your own.
| Corporate Phrase | Edited Meaning |
| World Class Quality | Our team needs to define what meaningful quality is before someone does it for us! |
| Standardize | Even if we need a limited set of "supported tools", we'd better protect the future and make sure each team can use the tools that work and we aren't limited so much that we can't use new tools are they are available. |
|
Modern tools |
Money to use for sustainable, well designed, helpful automation that applies in our context. Protect this money so it isn't wasted. |
|
Global economy/global concerns |
We understand the needs of our global customers and have our testing scaled to support all regions that apply now and in the future. |
|
Measurable progress |
We must decide what progress we really need, find a way to measure it, and make sure it’s agreed upon by our management or they could do this for us. |
|
Increased Efficiency |
Iterative improvement as measured by meeting team goals. |
|
Measurable Goals |
Agree on goals that matter, understand how they will be measured, make sure that the data isn’t abused or unfairly manipulated. |
If there are other buzzwords, terms, or worse yet “Mandates”, try to think about what you can do to make them positive for your team and protect what is working to get the job done.You may think I'm picking on one particular company or client, but I assure you, if these seem familiar, it is only because I've seen them in no less than 3 places, and they are commonly used in anything from "quality improvements", "testing plans", "long term goals", and "engineering excellence" as well as "corporate initiatives". It isn't enough to point out the lack of details or flaws within them, as that will just target you as being a "trouble maker". Unfortunately, the majority of the people willing to use this corporate speak will not understand that you questioning them is meant to make them better, or is helpful feedback. If they truly understood testing, they would know to choose better words than these. Words with meaning. Better yet, words that don't alienate testers. This isn't the sort of fight best won with bluntness and confrontation. It is likely that you'll be seen as disloyal to your company if you approach these buzzwords with disdain.
Instead, do your best to reinterpret these goals and make them useful. Assume that they just don't know better, and the intent really is to improve quality, and help them improve quality, even if they can't express a good plan for doing so. If it isn't possible to help influence the buzzword party for good, at least protect what is good about your teams to help you best cope and limit the harm they can do. Test through it, just keep testing, keep learning, and long after the nonsense goals have passed, you'll have useful testing experience to share. Also, keep in mind that it isn't always like this. There are small unstable start-ups where even the executives, all the way up to the CEO are doers. They are the people writing the code. They often don't do much testing or hire many testers, but there is far less time for writing buzzword heavy documents at some small companies. There are also some amazing large companies being led by amazingly smart and capable testers (nod to Jon Bach from Ebay as a prime example), so there is even more hope on the horizon for better understanding of what makes testing good, and what good testing looks like. Whatever happens, don't spread these nonsense words yourself. When you refuse to leverage the synergy, and instead put it into simple terms that make sense, we all win.
Each time you leverage the intrinsic skills driving passionate innovation in the instant mobile world of the web 2.0 social media strategy, embracing world class quality at a company known for class leading technology, a kitten dies. Save the kittens. Down with buzzwords.
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So true and so sad at the same time. Too many times have I been invited to a 'Come to Jesus meeting' because Test is over performing (ie: finding too many bugs) and undervalued (ie: we were supposed to wave magic wands and prevent the problems) where the same buzzwords are floated about as if they are a magical solution.
Good to see I am not alone in the pain and misery at times, although I really hate that it is so accepted that enough people will understand and be nodding their heads, knowing exactly what you meant.
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Hi Rob,
My goal here is to point out that we have a choice to make things better and take these words as a sign that up the chain, someone really doesn't understand testing. It can be up to us to keep morale better, and help educate them before they do harm to a team that is functioning well. At the very least, I hope someone will read this list and think about what these words COULD mean, both good and bad, and maybe see a way to help their team.
Also, it doesn't have to be this way. It is often like this at large corporate places, but not all of them.
Thanks for the comment. I really hope some people reading this have no idea what I'm talking about.
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I wouldn't limit the use of these buzz phrases to a testing context. I've yet to work anywhere where these phrases were used organization wide by managers who don't know how to be managers. From my experience, people I've run into that use these phrases know they need to measure something yet have no idea what is it, why they want to do it or how to do it. Unfortunately people who become managers, in my experience anyway, are managers because they were the 'expert' at their non-manager role or they're in the way so they get promoted.
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You are right. These can be used in many contexts. I have noticed that testing as a profession isn't well understood by most business people. Unfortunately, I think more programmers have even a worse situation, because they think they know more about it than they do. Because they write the code, they think that testing is simply "trying out the code they write", and that is one small portion of what testing is. That part is the easiest to automate and the most straightforward portion, functional tests. The main part of the job taking skill and creativity lies beyond function test, and even beyond the scope of the code. I've seen so much damage done by managers who come from engineering, and only know testing from that perspective, that I often forget that lots of damage is done by other folks as well! And I'm sure also by some managers that come from testing, and assume what they know transfers over directly (even to programmers), when in reality, they are different professions.
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Yet another great post! The first box of corporate phrases although accurate ticked me off. As I read on and saw box two of phrases. I see hope!
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Did you notice in the first table the heading is "possible meaning"? My point is that when first hearing the words, many of us will assume the worst. Especially if we have prior experience where the buzzword actually did mean the worst case scenario.
Glad you read on to see the point. It can seem like we are powerless, but a team is made up of many individuals, and we all have a voice. I believe that we all have the ability to help a company change for the better, no matter what our official title is.
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Hi Lanette,
I enjoyed reading your last post
A thought:
Can't there be "good buzzwords" too?
Words like "continuous improvement" and "gathering knowledge" are things that I value as a tester... but probably won't be heard by the management, because of "not buzzy".
I've worked in a company where mgmt was all about buzz words. They seemed to
do their utmost to invent new ones every week. The sad thing was that there was no real meaning or value behind them.
* What would you do?
Would you invent some of your own (with value and meaning) and try to "sell" them to the mgmt?
Greetings
PS: I love the cat-pictures
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Well, I consider buzzwords to be words that people no longer believe in, or words mis-used so often that they have now lost any meaning. I suppose there are other sorts of buzzwords though.
I would try my best to make quality and testing useful, no matter what words the management used. I'd try my best to get management to understand the value provided, what our process not only is, but is evolving to become. They need to know that the programmers and testers, and POs and business all are working together for the good of the end user, and for the good of the company. No matter where that comes from, the success that happens in the company will be noticed.
i love cat photos too.
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Hi Lanette!
For some odd reason I experienced a strange sense of deja vu while reading the first box.
Meredith
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Hi Meredith,
Good point about just learning things. I know for awhile I would get stuck on a few terms and maybe use a few buzz phrases like "covering our bases" and "acceptance automation". I really like automated acceptance tests, but it easily sounds like a buzzword to someone who isn't familiar with it.
I'm excited to find ways to speak simply about ideas without relying on meaningless buzzwords. I have to start by recognizing when I'm using them first.
Thanks,
Lanette
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