Probing is deep questioning to gain clarity and preempt/uncover potential issues. Unlike traditional code validation, it goes beyond mere confirmation, focusing on proactive discovery and prevention of risks. Rapid generation of questions, suggestions, observations, and ideas is integral to illuminating uncertainties and uncovering latent problems.

At its core, probing fosters curiosity to understand well and unravel issues. It moves away from conventional test practices such as being limited by plans, scenarios that focus on “how-to”. It emphasises a flexible and adaptive mindset not limited by templates to a broader & deeper spirit of inquiry.

Process is a set of activities we do, normally agreed upon by stakeholders in an organisation. Process is great in enabling overall discipline but the “individual habits” of good practice are vital to being effective and rapid.

Practice on the other hand is how we do these activities, largely driven by individual brilliance. It is about how we breakdown problems, ideate solutions and rapidly implement them. It is about techniques, principles, guidelines(heuristics) that one uses to solve problems.

The shift has been to make processes light so that they are nimble and responsive. Process is like route map whilst Practice are driver skills to get to the destination quickly and safely. Equipping an individual with good method(s) that when practiced continually enables one to deliver great work, the outcome of ‘practice’. Mere processes don’t cut it; however when good individual practices become common place, they get converted to “Best/Good practice” becoming part of the process.

Testing is more than assessing whether something is correct or incorrect. It is an exploration into the unknown, of discovering interesting stuff that demands an intelligent human. Testing is not always postcode-based; it is about doing earlier to detect, prevent, or to enhance clarity.

Figuring out test approach, understanding behaviour and identifying the conditions, understanding the human psyche, the environment in which they use it, and the constraints, expectations, and potential mistakes that one might make are things that require human intelligence.

If we can do faster using a machine, then do so. If some things can be observed, perturbed, or exercised by using a tool or technology, then it is ‘smart’ to exploit it to do so. But understanding, figuring out questions, connecting various parts to see the big picture and using that to evaluate requires human intelligence.

It is necessary to exploit human intelligence, as testing is not merely a notion of evaluation at the end. It demands a systems-thinking approach to “look at individual trees but also understand the larger context of the forest”. Human intelligence plays a definitive role, and today it is aided by the intelligent tools that are more supplemental than replacement.

Repetition of tests and probing that is hard to be done by a human are those that demand tools/technology i.e., machine intelligence, that we state as automated testing. A harmonious mixture of machine intelligence and human intelligence helps deliver clean code.

Testing is not a mere compliance-driven activity to validate if meets specification/needs, rather it is probing to understand well and see out potential interesting issues.

It is about questioning, embracing uncertainties, and discovering scenarios in not explicitly stated in specifications. It’s a human-powered exploration, not always scripted, which leads to intriguing observations or potential issues. These observations might not always yield a binary outcome but prompt further consideration based on their significance to the project.

Testing delves beyond specifications, akin to evaluating system wellness rather than just compliance. It necessitates human intelligence due to its probing nature, although some observations might be automated for subsequent checking.

Domain experience seems to be play a pivotal role to be able to detect issues. Is that good enough? What if we do not have a very deep domain experience? That is where the science & engineering of testing becomes necessary, the METHOD.

Experience is indeed very useful and necessary but not sufficient.The act of bounding the system user test, the ability to go beyond the stated boundary to seeing clarity, hypothesising probable issues and devising means to preempt/detect them is where the METHOD becomes paramount.

Testing is more often seen as an intense activity of evaluation. Is it just about executing or running? Not really. It requires good preparatory work before the act of evaluation, to understand the big picture, ask interesting questions about who, where, what, why, what-if and so on and in the process find missing information, seek clarifications, discover potential issues, jot down observations, and come up with suggestions too. Not just viewing testing as an act of evaluation, but pulling it forward. This process helps clarify things and preempt issues.

Validation is not a physical act of execution; it is intellectual, an invisible process that goes on in one’s brain to figure out possibilities and probabilities of what may go wrong, what may happen that is not yet spec’d out, and come up with interesting questions to answer to preempt, to assure. Just like for good health, activity or exercise is good for the body, but rest and sleep are equally important.

Testing is not always an intense activity, it is silent thinking, quietly exploring in the mind’s eye too, to visualise correct flows and see issues too, to pre empt.

In today’s world, there is an extreme focus on speed, the need to test quickly, to test frequently so that build/release is not compromised. The focus is on automation to accomplish this. Is this good enough?

It is not about doing more, and more quickly it is about doing smart QA to do less to accomplish more. It is about :
– don’t do at all (prevent) – sensitive to probable & pre empt.
– do early – detect issues early so that they do not fester & become a pain later.
– do optimally – regress smartly, test just enough.
– do less – delete via smart automation.