Yesterday’s challenge was to listen to a testing podcast. So I went to iTunes Store, which is the de facto standard when it come to podcasts, at least in my books. In fact, the sole reason for me using iPhone, to be honest. Otherwise I don’t care (not any more) which manufacturer or OS my phone has. After testing Symbian (Nokia & SonyEricsson used that OS in their phones) and using Android & iOS, I’m getting more and more aware that most of them have their good and bad downsides (yes, that’s what I meant).

I do have, sometimes irritating, tendency to get lost while babbling. And that is precisely what happened up there. Now I gather myself and get back to the track.

So, I found the podcast. It is Joe Colantonio’s Test Talk. A series of podcasts on testing and test automation. Since the subject is somewhat intriguing, I ended up subscribing to that, too. Seems to be long enough episodes to listen during the way to work, whether I ride my bike or the subway.

I ended up listening the episode where Rosie Sherry was attending as guest. And I was positively surprised. Not to mean that I was expecting something lousy, but the thing is that the episode made me think. Which is always a good thing. Regardless on what I said yesterday.

She was talking the importance of testing instead of testing tools, and I found myself agreeing. Even though this blog has been about the tools, I realised that my main focus has been telling that regardless of the tools, the skill of testing is what matters. Or at least that is what I should’ve been saying; for that is what I actually mean about the blunt instruments. They are just tools we use, tools in order to help us provide the knowledge about the behaviour (sometimes even vision of quality) of the software we’re testing. At least I think I should be pushing my writing to that one.

What I mean here is that subconsciously I have thought the same way (Now I hope I got it right, too), but not being completely aware of that. It’s not the tools, it’s the way you use them.

Funny thing is that the other day, few days ago, I got a question in Twitter from a former colleague about what SW test automation books he should be reading. And all I could say was  ‘How Google Tests Software’, ‘ATDD by Example’ & ‘Lessons learned in Software Testing’. To be honest, I don’t know much more. I’ve been using the tools, not reading about them. And that has always been my approach in life, in general. Experiment, fix on the run, read when you need. I don’t read the manuals, not before I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I read them too late, maybe too shallowly, and skip some important stuff. I just don’t seem to get myself working the other way. I am an experimental tester, as it seems.

Besides the tools, Joe lifted up also the communities Rosie has been founding: The Ministry Of Testing, Testing Dojo & Software Testing Club. And immediately (after getting to work) I found myself browsing more information about the Dojo and the TestBash happenings etc. I was hooked, there’s a community of testers! Seems to be I’ve been living in my own man -cave for few years now. Let’s see what the communities and the future brings up. At least now I feel excited 😀

So, thanks for Rosie & Joe for showing me one more door to the world of testing !