Thoughts on “Buddha In Testing” a great book by Pradeep Soundararajan
During times like these when people have slowed down from the daily chaotic life, our mind starts thinking of thoughts that can improve our personal/professional life. Mind throws a lot of questions and most rational beings start looking for the answers. In search of my answers, I picked up a book called “Buddha in Testing” by Pradeep Soundararajan founder of Moolya(You see my questions were more on the professional side since I belong to the testing world).
The book talks about the fundamental problems in the testing industry and how to attain peace while tackling those problems. The author shares his rich experience and how he has sailed through the fundamental issues, giving practical ideas on how to improve our professional life.
All the software products are built to solve a certain problem and testing is the feedback loop to ensure that the software does what it was intended to do. This is the fundamental reason for the existence of the testing industry. Testing is basically a multi-dimensional activity, the author rightly describes testing with the following equation:-
Testing is the feedback loop and Feedback = The product doesn’t work as per requirements + The product requirements could be wrong + The product violates user agreements + The product is inconsistent with claims + so on.
The author also talks about automation testing, how it cannot be considered as a replacement for testing. In the chase of automating everything to reduce the cost of functional testers how companies can incur huge costs of maintenance. Automation should be done looking at the testing pyramid and not jump to user interface(UI) automation directly.
Testing is a function of communication and collaboration amongst the team to get the job done as it is rightly said that quality is everyone’s responsibility and days are gone when testers were blamed for defects in production.
My favorite part is when the author talks about how testing can be impacted due to the organization’s culture and big shots who are on a run by VCs to launch their product ahead of everyone. The book speaks in length about the developer's role in testing and how unit testing is so important and should be a practice at the organization level.
In the last few pages, you’ll find a career analysis tool. I recommend everyone make use of this tool by answering all the questions and you’ll get a nice intriguing report in your email which will surely help you to find answers you were looking for.
Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone who is in the IT industry, this book has triggered a lot of intriguing thoughts and I am still looking for answers.
