Friday, August 26, 2011

A tester all life... 7 Questions and no answers!!!

Question 1 - If you ever say the words, "I want to be a tester all my life" to your management, what do you think would happen?

Question 2 - Would they be happy with your above decision because you have long term career focus?

Question 3 - Would they treat you as a visionary because you have a very clear idea of what you want to do in life?

Questions 4 & 5 - Or, would they term you a loser since you have no ambition to grow up the career chain? And advise you on becoming a test architect or manager?

And if you don't have a blog, you are not participative in newsgroups and online forums, you don't market yourself, you are "uncertified", you don't read blogs and magazines, you refuse to use test tools because you don't trust those tools...  and you are a tester for the last 12 years, and an expert one at that.....

Question 6 - Would your management recognise your potential?

Question 7 - Or are you branded as a resource who's not grown up the ladder and gets you replaced?

Well, as the title says, there are only questions... no answers. Only "test cases"... no "expected behavior". At least I don't have them. If you do, please share.....

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Hello World Again!!! Getting rid of Procrastination...

hello world again!!! I'd disappeared for long. I don't think I've updated my blog since Last November. What was I doing? Where was I? Well, most of you know... but for those who don't , I've been here all along. I'd started writing for Testing circus since Jan and they've been kind enough to publish my writings as a regular feature. Other than that, let's just say that I've been trying to change the world. And succeeded in parts... and failed in parts.

Why did I not write? Because I was busy perfecting the art of procrastination. Every day, I told myself that I'd write "tomorrow"... "next week", "after a few days", etc. etc. etc... Having mastered the art of procrastination, i've decided to try and master "how to de-procrastinate". I decided to help myself by not reading a single page of those 1000+ self-help books that are available. Decided to fight the journey myself and came up with this idea ----- "When I see myself procrastinating, I won't feed myself till I complete whatever it was that I'd procrastinated".  And when I get rid of all my other bad habits, I think I'd have enough material to write a book about :)!!!

Does starving yourself until you de-procrastiate work? Well, it did for me... I wrote this blog post :) !!! Helped me with other things in life too...

Does it work for you? If it does, do let me know... then I can become a "de-procrastination guru of sorts", quit my job, travel the world offering advice on correcting yourself :)!!!

NOTE:- By the way, I never said "don't drink coffee"; just don't eat till you complete what you set out to do.... that's all!!!