When I was offered a Product Analyst role, one of the first things that I did was to write a list of books.
New reads that should improve my knowledge about what and how and why and when about Product Management / Analysis / Owning / Whatever.
For some reason, this book resonated and I decided to give it a try, so here is my short overview.
This book was written by Alan Cooper in 1998, the same year that Microsoft released Windows 98, Valve released Half-Life and Blizzard released their first Starcraft.
So, given it was released three years before the Agile Manifesto, and the whole evolution that we had in software, I found myself following my curiosity about what has changed and what remains the same in 2018 while reading it.
Cooper was right in certain things, that the next revolution in software would be the usability revolution, 9 years before the first iPhone ever made.
He explains how the development process, (and the developers) are guiding the design of the user interface, and the reasons for this to be wrong.
The book explains why you should work on the design of the user interface before the coding starts, and why you should define your user personas before thinking in what the solution will be.
Yes, the examples are getting outdated, people don't really buy scanners anymore to scan pictures, but the problems of bad user interaction design, of making our users feel stupid and miserable, of believing users will understand something just because you can understand it, all those problems remain nowadays.
Last month the company I work for offered me to try something new, to become a Product Analyst!
So, after being the Fellow Tester for almost 7 years, now I start a new aventure as the Product Sherpa.
What a Product Sherpa does, I'll tell you when I get anything done, but I can write about where I start from.
Here are my principles, my beliefs, my commitment, whatever you call this:
- I will understand where we want to go, how many we are going, and how long it might take to get there.
- I will offer my advice about the route, equipment, food supply and weather conditions.
- I will walk this path along with my stakeholders.
- I will bring my load all along the way, and help with the basecamp tasks.
- I won't go alone very far from the basecamp, and if I have to, I'll explain why and where I'm going.
- I will speak your language, or I will learn your language to the point that we are able to communicate.
- I don't expect to arrive the first to the mountain top, nor to arrive last.
- If we make it to our target, we'll celebrate, if not, we'll learn.
Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita (Photo: Jon Mancuso)
As we go, I have updated the title of this blog, added some books to my reading list, started following some interesting people in twitter and figuring out how we are going to get the first problem fixed.
If you would like to know more about Sherpa people, check this article where I got the picture out from.
I like reading books. I can't tell if I read many, but I do spend more time reading than watching TV.
Yesterday, at #testbash Brighton, when Vernon said that it was time for a 99 seconds talk, I though about trying to inspire somebody to read at least one book about Software Testing.
So, my short list of books as for March 2018 goes like this:
In this book Katrina is able to explain how the infrastructure of a 2018 web business looks like. She does it without using plain words, avoiding any lingo hard to understand. She goes throug technology, methodology and includes a lot of references to continue down the rabbit hole if you feel like.
Ben Kelly talks about how to remain employable, how you should shape your social media, how you should write your CV and how to step into a job interview.
This book is great both if you are looking for new opportunities or if you are doing fine in your current role and you want to keep a updated profile that might help you in a future day.
This book might be more philosophical, but if you are into testing, and you think this is important, you might want to understand why, what is there behind the concept of quality and why does it matter. Beside, if you have a motorcycle it will be easy to get hooked by the story.
This book is about the folklore we have in software engineering. Why do we believe certain things are true, just because others tell us so. Laurent displays a exercise fo critical thinking applied to many of the myths you see over and over.
This is more than a book. It's a conversation with a honest wise man, with somebody who is willing to help you succeed in your career, to understand where you are going, how you are influencing others and hw are others influencing you.
This book made me start a diary, this diary is helping me reflect on my work, on what I have achieved and what options do I have ahead.
So, there are more books you could read, many of them very good ones. But if you are looking for somewhere to start this might be a good list.
And if you are already into reading, you might have a huge pile of pending books, so why not stack one of them.
We learned about Exploratory testing, about webpagetest, Dan gave a very interesting introduction to Security Testing, and we got to know people from Barcelona. Conferences are to confer, and this one was a nice chance for that.
MC got a ticket thanks to a Whiteboard Testing video contest, and I gave a talk explaining how our winter peak had been.
Fiona Charles gave a very interesting workshop about leadership, at least for me, since I had been involved on the hiring process for the last months, and I felt like I had a lot to learn there.
Some months after this, it became clear that the company didn't want me for a leadership role, but these learnings remain in your bag and you never know what the future will be like.
Since flywire is getting bigger every year, we though that it would be nice to hang out all flymates together, so we went to Marrakesh for an all-company gathering.
In March, we flew to London with the kids, a chance to stroll down the streets of the City, visit the British Museum and the HMS Belfast.
I had to skip TestBash Brighton, but that wasn't that bad since Tomislav went there and explained to all of us how it went on our TestNight.
After reading Becoming a Technical Leader from Jerry Weinberg, I recorded a video about where ideas come from.
I went to Stockholm for the final edition of Let's Test.
The mood of the conference was a bit low, since it was the last happening of this event, but we did have some fine workshops, Specially the one about code refactoring from Katrina Clokie and the one about web page testing by Alan Richardson
We did a weekend trip to Canfranc, probably Europe's most awesome train station. I can not imagine how well this masterpiece of architecture would have been preserved if it was built in France or England. Sadly in Spain we prefer to invest in Calatrava rather than preserve our heritage.
Before summer, we realised that with three testers we weren't enough for testing everything, so we opened a job offer...
The Engineering team did a public speaking workshop, and even that I wasn't delivering any talk, I managed to join by recording the talks and taking some pictures.
And since everybody was in the talk delivery mode, I recorded a talk (In Spanish) explaining what you get out from Exploratory Testing and Automated Tests, what is the difference and why you should care about both.
Another trip to the Pyrenees, and this time my kids wanted to test the boundary about being in just one country at the time. Here they stand with their left feet in Spain, while their right one is in France!
Starting Summer, we rented a second bike, and went our for a ride. Valencia - Utiel - Ademuz - Salvacañete - Teruel - Valencia. More than 400 km of wineyards, forests, rocky mountains... pure awesomeness.
Finally, after searching for the next tester to join the team, we found Juan Verdú, right out of Texas! Or Juan found us, you never know for sure...
I went back to London for the Tester Gathering Workshops. This time I learnt about Cynefin, How to tell stories, What Blockchain is all about and what is Amazon web services, what Lambdas, Buckets, S3, SNS, SQS, SWF... and all this SRE lingo stands for.
Yes, and the Pubs in England, those places with centuries of history, where bucaneers, sailors, traders, pirates and Software Testers sit together to tell stories and make plans about the future.
The summer holidays were spent on a Family roadtrip from Valencia all the way up to Denmark. Two weeks across France and Germany so that we would have plenty of time to walk and discover the places where we were stopping for the night.
Back to work, Tomislav and I we went back to Denmark for the Copenhagen Context Conference. We delivered a talk about how we are creating a testing community out of nothing in Valencia, what worked and what didn't work. Also, helping Morten Hougaard with his conference was a great pleasure since this conference has been a turning point for the career of both of us.
We went to the local testing conference VLC Testing. And apart of observing how well the testing community is growing in Valencia, we got the chance to listen to Claudia Badell explaining their approach to Testing.
I recorded a short video introducing the Cynefin framework (In Spanish) just for the fun of it.
And for closing the year, after one of those weeks where you live in the office, I decided to get some family points back and we went to Karlsruhe (Germany) to a Music festival, to see Hammerfall perform live.
I started this blog back in 2012, after a post by Pradeep about why a tester should blog, and for my very first post I used a phrase from Joacim Cans, the singer of the band, that he said back in 2003.
The band has evolved in these 15 years, their presence on stage is more mature, more coordinated, more powerful, and at the same time they keep interacting with the audience and having fun.
It was nice to see them again, it was nice to be there with my wife, we should repeat this from time to time.
2017 has been a great year, let's see what we get out of 2018.
You know when you listen to a song, and suddenly everything makes sense with whatever you are doing?
Here is a song from the British band Madness:
It goes like this...
Communication is a skill you must acquire, it will help you through your life, it is essential
It's not just a matter of knowing how to perform your tests, and understand how the system under test is meant to run, or designed. You also need to report the findings in a way that people can make informed decisions.
And if you think I'm only talking about passing test cases, then it is because you can't imagine how powerful a simple testers feedback can be, if he knows how to deliver it, to who and when. Believe me, we can change things, we know things can be different.
You have to walk into this world with your head held high, be fluid child, don't become crystalline, you're gonna have to swim with the molecules
You need to perform your testing in a way that makes you feel proud, you need to understand changing conditions, business needs, priorities, peoples life impacting their and your work, for good and bad.
How can I tell you, you have to open up your heart How can I tell you, be honest from the very start How I feel, make a stand for what is true Try to be decent in all that you do.
See, as a tester, all you have is your ethics and your reputation. Without that, nobody will trust you, nobody will understand when you are sure of something, or when you are lost and need help.
How can I tell you, you've got to give to get support How can I tell you, a little effort & a lot more thought How I feel, check the wonder in all that you see You've got to get loving unconditionally.
Love your users, love your company, love your coworkers, respect people who is different from you, in minds, ideas about life, sexual preferences, ideas, religion, race, family, football team...
You're gonna have to walk that road, you're gonna bear some heavy loads You'll make mistakes & you'll come close You're gonna get hurt by the one you love most
Sometimes you'll have to get grunt, and do whatever it takes to get your information, sometimes you'll find yourself learning stuff late at night when all the family is sleeping, sometimes you'll provide feedback in the wrong way, hurting peoples feelings, and sometimes this will happen to you.
You're gonna have to take some pain, accept the loss to live again Forgive yourself as you'll be free, there's more to love than just loving you see.
Sometimes you will be wrong, or confused, sometimes those features you though where full of bugs will hit production, and all you have left is start tracking complains from your users impacted by decisions that weren't yours.
And yet, the very next day you will start filling bug reports, and looking for ways to get those bugs fixed, now that we met that deadline, and we shipped, and we still have a long way to go.
How can I tell you, the laughter on a crowded bus How can I tell you, making space when you're being crushed How I feel, a letter I receive from you A hug & a kiss when you're feeling blue
Some days, the best part of the day is when somebody gets you a coffee and a cookie, tell a joke or remember something funny to break the tension.
Or just stops by and quietly asks if everything is all right.
hmm, we don't really hug and kiss that much in our place, but we are nice with each other and it feels okay that way.
How can I tell you, the last chocolate in the box How can I tell you, a pair of mittens & some cotton socks How I feel, I'll make a fire when you are cold
Help other testers succeed, help your developers and product managers succeed, help your CEO succeed... there is no other way of making things right. Also, since we live in Valencia, it's not that cold usually, but it can be very hot. A trip to the supermarket and get ice cream for everyone can fix the whole team mood for the afternoon.
Don't worry darling I'll love you when you grow old
How can I tell you, 6 candles on your birthday cake How can I tell you, a Christmas card that I helped you make
Write your test reports in a way that you will like to read again years from now, in a way that will help you remember what was going on when you where testing this feature, how the test environment was doing, what was the context like back then, this is the way you'll love what you are doing now when you get old.
How I feel, when you ran in your first race The time I stuck an ice cream in your face How can I tell you, the last chocolate in the box
Software development is not a job that is performed by people alone, it's a teamwork, and this means having a kind of relation with everybody in your company and the users that will make your company worth something.
Respect what you do, respect the ones you work with, respect yourself.
I just finished reading "Snake Pilot, Flying the Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam" by Randy R. Zahn.
This is the story of Mr. Zahn about the year he spent in Vietnam war flying the Cobra attack helicopter. As he was deployed he wrote letters and recorded audio tapes and sent them home, and years after he managed to put all this log together and write a interesting story about his experience.
In his unit, they were three type of teams.
Team Red flying a OH-6 Loach, a small, light and fast helicopter.
Team White flying the AH-1 Cobra, a attack helicopter.
Team Blue would fly the UH-1 Huey, the transport helicopter carrying a platoon of soldiers.
Early in the morning, they would get a mission, some area to recon, something to look after, and they would take off.
Once they got to the area of operations, the Loach would descend to tree-top level, and start doing clockwise turns, getting slower and lower as the pilot would spot anything interesting, anything related to enemy activity such as tire marks, water puddles, wood fires... or direct fire!. The crew of the Loach had a short range radio, no maps, no navigation instruments, a rifle and a machine gun, but the deadliest thing they could throw away was a smoke grenade.
In the meantime, the Cobra would be orbiting hight around the Loach, making wide anti-clockwise turns in order to keep in sight the Loach while staying away for small arms fire, and if the Loach got into trouble, the Cobra would turn in, build speed out of altitude and engage with everything they could fire to the spot marked by the smoke signal.
The pilot of the Loach was responsible of exploring and finding information, the pilot of the Cobra was there to protect the Loach, to navigate from the base to the operations area and back, to use the long range radio and ask for artillery support, call for a airstrike, coordinate with gound troops and any other airborne unit.
At some point they would need somebody down in the ground, to investigate something, talk to people, evacuate a downed crew, support friendly troops operating in the area... then they would call the blues. The Blues were airborne infantry specialized on the job of getting on and off from the helicopter as fast as possible.
They were proud of the job they did, they were proud of the unit they belonged to, they had the Stetson hat as a distinctive of their uniform, they were elite troops.
Trying to get an analogy with software testing is a bit difficult. After all, when I am testing issues, nobody wants to kill me with a AK-47, my chopper won't fall apart because of bad maintenance, I won't fly into any area where artillery is about to hit, and I don't want to kill nobody either, so it doesn't matter how stressful it might get, there is no way to compare with that.
But we do share the technique. When we do pair testing, one tester is carefully using the software under test, doing wide circles first learning about the features, and stopping when he finds something unexpected and reporting it. The other tester is navigating, helping the first to not get lost, adding information when required and calling for help if the situation goes wrong.
We do like to have a target, to know what we are looking after, instead of doing a "just test everything" kind of mission, also we do get proud of the work we do.
We don't wear a Calvary hat, but Ministry of Testing stickers on our laptops, so when we meet unknown people at the lounge of an airport, checking his laptop with the sticker, we know how to salute and engage a conversation, we have something in common.
The book also has some interesting stories relating to stressful situations, war stories and leadership management, so if you got reading this far, and think you would like to know more, go and buy Mr Zahn a beer and ask him to tell you a story.
If you are not living in Alaska, where I think he lives now, you can always buy his book, that would also make it.
