CRAIC SOURCERERS: How to Test Like a Tester

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Yes, you read that right.  CRAIC SOURCERERS.  As in, “what’s the craic”?  It’s a mnemonic I came up with while trying to think of ways to help people test like a tester – like this tester, at least.  Whether you’re preparing for your resident testing specialist to be out of office, wondering how your tester colleagues find so many bugs, or just looking for ways that you can test best better, CRAIC SOURCERERS has your back.  So what is testing in the CRAIC SOURCERERS way?

 

C – Curious

• A healthy curiosity is one of your greatest assets when it comes to testing
• Good testers ask a lot of questions, seek out information, and get to the root of “why”

R – Risk-Based

• A big part of testing and why we test is about uncovering and managing risks
• It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to test everything, so prioritise your testing based on the potential risks you want to uncover and mitigate

A – Alert

• Keep your eyes open, and expect the unexpected
• It’s pretty common that I’ll be testing for one thing, only to spot something that leads to another – follow the trail and find out where it leads

I – Investigative

• Assessing quality and uncovering risks can be like solving a mystery
• Learn to develop good instincts and trust your gut, especially when it comes to UX or things which are technically correct, but wrong or inappropriate from a user perspective

C – Complementary

• A tester’s job is not to criticise; it’s to uncover and assess
• If your assessment of a thing is positive, don’t forget to share complementary feedback as well highlighting any issues

 

S – Systematic

• When testing a particular implementation or requirement, start by being very systematic – go through each acceptance criteria one by one, keeping the user story / motivation / goal in mind, and don’t forget to check for additional requirements in other ticket fields, as well as considering implicit requirements
• Keep yourself organised by mapping out combinations / paths / scenarios so you don’t get lost in all the possibilities

O – Obvious

• As a curious cat, it’s very tempting to jump right into the more “interesting” scenarios, but doing this might mean missing basic or obvious issues
• Start with the basics, things which should obviously function a certain way, positive scenarios, common flows, etc.

U – Unusual

• Once the basic functionality is covered, start taking different paths, using different data, thinking about negative and stress cases, that one thing that one user did that one time, and so on
• If you see or sense something unusual or suspect, run towards those anomalies and hunches

R – Realistic

• To uncover issues before your users do, think about real user journeys and contexts that your system would be used in – how does this task fit into that workflow; how will this feature help users achieve that goal?
• Think about the impact a behaviour of the system would have in a real-world scenario; is it acceptable?

C – Creative

• Good testing is creative, so don’t limit yourself or hold back in imagining different scenarios or combinations – if a user can do it, they probably will
• Take inspiration from real users, user personas, past issues, even your mischievous side, and share your ideas for testing scenarios, improvements, and optimisations

E – Exploratory

• One of the fun things about testing is that it’s a journey of discovery and learning; even if you don’t know how a system should behave, you can still start exploring and find out how it does behave, whether that’s acceptable, and what an alternative or improvement might look like
• Immerse yourself in the world of your system under test, and even explore other, similar worlds for inspiration

R – Resourceful

• Good testers are very resourceful – you’ll rarely have all the information or tools you need, so find ways to get the information you need, adapt tools to fit your purpose, and connect with people who can help you find the missing piece
• Do your research, and make use of the various resources available online, such as guides, heuristics, cheat sheets, and communities

E – Experimental

• Good testing is a series of little experiments and discoveries, so don’t be afraid to try things out and see what happens
• Let your learnings from one experiment inform the next; you don’t have to have it all figured out before you start

R – Repeatable

• Take good notes as you test; this will help you record, recreate, and retest any issues
• If you’re unable to reliably reproduce a behaviour, you can systematically vary and repeat a test until you pinpoint the right (or wrong) conditions

S – Scientific

• Good testing is scientific in nature – we don’t just want to confirm a hypothesis, we want to really put things to the test and discover the outcome of our experiments, whatever they might be
• Couple careful observation with rigorous skepticism, ask the right questions, and back up claims with evidence

 

 

What do you think of the CRAIC SOURCERERS mnemonic for testing like a tester?  It certainly doesn’t cover all elements of how good testers test, but hopefully it’s a useful starting point.  What else would you include?  Share your thoughts in the comments.