It’s been a snowy and icy winter here in Toronto and I walk 40m each day as part of my commute so I notice lots of people trekking their way the elements. I’ve realized there are two broad categories of person on the streets and sidewalks during this time of year: those who are confident, and those who are not.

Exposed ice is slippery, and snow can hide ice which could cause you to slip. But in my very unscientific sample of people I witness, those who are in the confident group do not fall (or come close to falling) as much as those in the non-confident group. The confident people also get where they are going faster.

Let’s take this idea to testing.

If you have confidence in yourself, you will have greater chance of finding more bugs more effectively. Why is this? A confident person is not going to take tiny baby steps, instead are going to take broad strides through the application. Greater distance will also be covered with each step.

Confidence is unfortunately a finicky thing. It is hard to get, and easy to lose.

I would guess that the people timidly making their way through the ice and snow have either been hurt or are prone to being hurt in the case of a fall. They might have been confident at some point, but something happened, and they haven’t get it back. And may never.

Part of a team lead’s role should be to spot who on their team is starting to be afraid of slipping and help them get their confidence back. And if you don’t have a lead which is going to help you it is up to you to recognize that you have lost it and do everything possible to get it back.

You will miss bugs in your software. Its a fact of life in testing. And in most cases, the consequences are not too bad. But even if they are, create your checklists, have them double checked, learn about new defect vectors, etc.

The most important thing to remember about ice and missing bugs though is that even if you do fall:

  • You learned something — the location of slippery ice or a whole in your bug strategy
  • You can stand back up and keep going. You might be bruised, but we heal