Canadian Business magazine had their Investor 500 issue recently which they bill as ‘a guide to the market’. The Editor’s Letter tackles head on the notion of its continued relevance in today’s information age.

…we are not in the information business, we’re in the insight business. Information is the 10-ton slab of coal. Cheap, ubiquitous and useful only to a point. Insight is the rough diamond trapped somewhere inside. We’re living in a world that is inundated with coal, which only serves to reinforce the value of the diamonds.

‘Information’ is one of the words I pick up on when going through articles since, as testers, our job is to provide quality related information. But is that really a good enough definition in light of the coal/diamond metaphor? I’m tempted to lean towards no and that we should be attempting to provide quality related insight to the stakeholders instead.

Anyone can provide information (bugs, crashes, feelings), but it takes training, dedication and experience to be able to provide insight.