As an expatriate Australian living in England, the word “Test” carries a very unhappy association right now. My national team has lost the prized trophy of The Ashes, in the latest closely-fought contest between these two nations in Test Cricket.
Most days of the year, “the test” is an unemotional phrase, denoting a common work product. But for a few months every two years, “The Test” becomes a subject of extreme importance, as the state of the series is analysed ad infinitum in offices, pubs and village greens.
Most days of the year, “the test” is an unemotional phrase, denoting a common work product. But for a few months every two years, “The Test” becomes a subject of extreme importance, as the state of the series is analysed ad infinitum in offices, pubs and village greens.
With The Ashes now safely in English hands, and as Britain’s summer starts its inevitably early drift into a damp autumn, the significance of “the test” will start to revert to its everyday meaning, becoming something of interest to professional testers (and Australian team members plotting their revenge in a hotter, drier, louder contest on home soil). Developers will no longer pop up like meerkats when someone announces the latest news on the status of “the test”. The team will not analyse the results and argue performances in the pub. It will simply be assumed that someone is preparing the tests, someone is performing the tests, someone is recording the results of the tests somewhere. As long as there are professional testers with responsibility for these things, the tests don’t seem to muster a high profile amongst the non-testers in the rest of the team.
I don’t like this picture. I’d like the spirit of the cricket season to carry on at all times on our projects. Would it be right for The Ashes series to pass us non-players by as something with which only the professional cricketers in the Test team should concern themselves? Would it be enough that the results are meticulously recorded in Wisden, only to be looked upon as something necessary for the sake of historical completeness and due process?
Sadly, this is how we treat tests on most software development teams. Much like Americans who have given up trying to understand cricket (no offence intended to my American readers), we act as if they are products of some arcane sport which those outside the dedicated few really understand or care about. On a healthy development project, the tests should not only be of interest, but should be broadcast free-to-air so that all members can follow the fate of the team they’re committed to — their own.