What Type of Tester are You? – A Poem

If like myself you’ve enjoyed a pretty long career in professional software testing, you will by now have recognised just what a diverse group of people testers are. After reflecting on the various individuals I’ve worked with over the years, I thought it would be a great idea to write about some of their qualities. So here’s “What Type of Tester are You?”, a poem , yes a poem! to sum it all up…

What Type of Tester are You?

Man, Woman, Old and Young.
Every nationality under the sun.
High school educated or a masters degree.
I’ve met a couple of testers who have PhDs.
Ex-military, school teachers, actors,
I had a colleague who’d worked in the pits until Thatcher.
And then there are those from other IT roles,
Developers who wrote code, Support Guys who solved.
Some testers have chosen testing jobs from day one,
They’ve mastered their art, close to home and far flung.

From techie to socialite, introverted, gregarious.
Some are boring as hell, some are totally hilarious.
When it comes to finding bugs and raising new faults,
Some are really prolific, some will rarely report.
There are those who use tact and diplomacy,
And some don’t give a damn, they just say what they see.
Some go by the book and test only requirements,
But explorers look in every nook of the system’s entirement.
And leave no stone unturned and no path untraversed.
Then are either valued and respected or hated and cursed.

Testers can be passive and take what they’re given,
Or totally domineering, ambitious and driven,
Creative and open or stuck in their ways,
“It ain’t broke so don’t fix it”, a friend of mine says.
You’ve got hands and eyes testers,
But some love to write scripts.
Some like results in a table or a chart’s peaks and it’s dips.

I’ve seen it all now, I’ve been testing so long,
I’ve seen in done rightly and have seen it go wrong.
I’ve experienced success and I’ve learned from the best,
I’ve worked in the East, the North, South and the West.
But today I can tell you, seen again and again,
That no two testers are ever the same.
Similar perhaps, but unique through and through,
Now I’ll ask the question –

– What type of tester are you?

By H. Williams 2013