Testing is like drawing an owl.
Courses, literature, seminars, and blogs all share great tips on handling software testing the right way. All of us ‘besserwissers’ are plagued by a problem, however. Our instructions look like this.
Most people can draw those two circles, but they never are the key to success. Drawing an owl requires thousands of tiny decisions, which all answer one question.
What does the owl truly look like?
It is not possible to draw the owl if you cannot see it through your mind’s eye.
The same rings true for testing. The world is full of tips and teachings on how we should do it.
Draw two circles.
Before any instruction works, however, you first need to see in your mind how professional testing looks and feels.
But, how then, does one learn to see it? How do we learn to draw the damn owl?
Like with all things in life. You start with a circle, and then you draw, erase, redraw, erase a little, then draw some more.
There is no shortcut to learning.
