Building Your Credibility as a Tester

Post by "ted", 12-29-2006, 10:34
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Building Your Credibility as a Tester
By Randall W. Rice, CSQA, CST, CSTM

Ata recent session of my “How to Become a Better Tester” workshop, oneperson asked a very insightful question, “How do you rebuildcredibility as a tester?” Since I didn’t have a trusty PowerPoint slidewith 5 bullets and cute clip art on that topic, I had to take a stepback and reflect for about seven seconds to formulate an answer. Forthose of you who train, you know these kinds of questions are both achallenge and an opportunity to reflect and explore. Going through theexperience in front of people makes it even more exciting.

BeforeI could answer the question of rebuilding credibility, I had to discusswhat credibility is. This led me to write three articles – this one,the one next month on “How to Destroy Your Credibility as a Tester,”and finally “How to Rebuild Your Credibility as a Tester.”

The Nature of Credibility

In some ways, credibility is like quality. At first thought, it may be hard to define exactly, but you know it when you see it.

Itend to see credibility as a multi-faceted attribute that includesreliability, knowledge, consistency, reputation, trust, attitude,caring, and attention to detail. We will explore each of these in aminute, but first let’s take a real-world example to see the importanceof credibility.

Regardlessof your political views, I think most people would agree that theongoing debate about the presence or absence of weapons of massdestruction in Iraq speaks to the point of credibility. When a case ismade strongly for something and then the underlying assumptions appearto be incorrect, the main thing that is lost is the credibility ofthose who made the message.

Thisreal-world case points out some interesting things that may soundfamiliar to testers. The information in question came from an imperfectprocess performed over a period of time, the information was largelyexternal in nature, and the administrations of both the U.S. and theU.K. relied heavily on intelligence to make their case for war. Thisinformation was obtained over a period of time in which things change.It is possible that the intelligence was correct at one time, but inthe final months before the start of the war the weapons were moved.Only time will tell the true story.

Anotherrecent example was that of Jayson Blair and his confession that many ofthe stories he wrote for the NY times had been fabricated. Alsointeresting was that he has now written a book about his experiences. Aquick query at Amazon.com shows sales rank of 66,469 with an averagereview of three stars. (Good grief! My little book co-written withWilliam E. Perry is at 34,282.) It seems that people won't buy a bookwritten by someone they don't believe.

Thepoint is that when you lose credibility, you have lost a lot. I telltesters all the time that credibility is their most importantattribute. Without credibility, testers have great difficulty infinding a voice in their organization and are their findings are oftendistrusted.

Principles of Credibility

Thetitle of this article is very intentional in using the word “build.”Credibility is not instant, but rather must be built by a proven trackrecord over time. I don’t know how much time it takes, since thatdepends on the people involved, but I know everyone goes through aproving time in every job. That includes testers.

Themost striking thing to me is that is may take years to buildcredibility, but it can be lost in five seconds. To rebuild lostcredibility may take much longer than it took to build it in the firstplace. Credibility is a fragile thing.

Credibility Factors

Inmy observation and experience, the following things factor intocredibility. If you observe credible people, you will see many, if notall, of the following:

Knowledge

Othersmust feel comfortable that you know what you are talking about.Knowledge can be demonstrated in many ways, with language andexperience being two of the best.

You may have all types of degrees and/or certifications but the real test is real-world application of the knowledge.

Caring

Allthe knowledge in the world is worthless if people don’t feel that youvalue them. If you come across as a “prima donna” or “hot shot”, yourcredibility will suffer.

I like what John Maxwell says. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Attitude

Likecaring, your attitude is another factor that must be in place forknowledge. Great knowledge with a bad attitude will make you anunpopular team member.

Objectivity

Asa tester, people expect you to convey impartial and meaningfulinformation. If the information becomes overly optimistic or overlypessimistic the information is skewed and unreliable. Process isimportant to test reporting because it helps define the evaluationcriteria and keeps the politics and emotions out of the message.

Accuracy

Personally,if I find something of interest that could be indicative of a defect, Irecreate the situation and perform the test again. I do this to makesure that what I am reporting is accurate and reproducible. Once atester reports inaccurate information, a little credibility is lost.Future test reports may be doubted.

Testersare often trusted to provide specific accurate information about whereproblems are observed, when they are observed, the context andsituation under which the testing was performed among other details.Developers rely on this information to re-create and resolve defects.When accuracy is missing, little can be trusted.

Ioften tell testers that since they can’t test everything and are notresponsible for the quality of software, the main way a tester can failis to fail to report accurately a defect they have observed.

Trust

Themore people can rely on you to know things and to be a valuable teammember, the more credible you will be in their eyes. Like credibilityitself, trust is also earned over time.

Congruency

This means that you "walk the talk." You do things that are consistent with the words you say.

Attention to Detail

Crediblepeople tend to pay attention to details. They know that largersuccesses depend on the success or failure of smaller things. Acredible person will review something several times to make sure theircredibility is not diminished by a careless mistake.

Nobodyis perfect and we will always make mistakes. The key is to do your bestand to learn from your mistakes. It’s when you don’t care about yourmistakes that credibility suffers.

How to Build Credibility as a Tester

Although there is no perfect way to build credibility, here is a roadmap that may help.

Step 1 – Take a personal and team inventory

Youneed to take an honest look at yourself and the people you work with tosee how credible you are currently. Some questions to ask may include:

For individuals

How often do people seek my advice?
After you have given advice, do people seek second opinions?
Do people show confidence in your opinions?
Do you have a plan for building your skills and knowledge?
How many books on testing have you read in the past year?
Do you speak at testing conferences?
Do you participate in online testing forums?
Do you have a reputation for caring?
Are you a positive person?

For teams

How do other people in the organization view your team?
Do people trust the information provided by your team?
Do the people on your team keep their knowledge current?

Step 2 – Identify your strengths and weaknesses

Assessyourself and your team to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Youwant to focus on your strengths and find ways to compensate for yourweaknesses. If you try to improve a weakness, you may get a littlebetter, but at best you will likely be average. It’s good enough toknow what you are best at doing and let others do what they are best atdoing. There is wisdom in knowing when to defer to others to answerquestions outside of your strengths.

Step 3 – Build good relationships

Peoplesee competency at the relationship level. It is possible to havecredibility from a distance, such as being an author or minor testingcelebrity. However, to really know how good someone is, you need tospend some time with them.

Step 4 – Demonstrate competency

This happens on a case-by-case basis over a period of time.

Step 5 – Be willing to admit mistakes

If you do mess up, admit it and go on. Don’t blame or deny, just be human and humble.

Step 6 – Re-assess and adjust

Astime goes on, keep asking questions and making adjustments. Before youknow it, you and your team’s credibility will rise in the organization.

Conclusion

Credibilityis the key to being an effective voice for quality in an organization.It takes a time to build your credibility, but it can be lost in aninstant. There are several factors involved in building credibility.Paying attention to these factors and understanding your own strengthsand weaknesses can put you on the road to building your credibility inyour organization.