"Thinking like a tester" workshop

As I have mentioned before, we have this round of workshops under the concept of Testing Tuesday. I have already covered two of the latest workshops as blogposts. This one is an attempt to cover the first of the seven, a workshop called "Thinking like a tester".

Why did we talk about thinking?

I like to think that there is no testing without thinking. If thinking isn't involved, it is not testing. Machine doesn't think, thus it just checks. Human challenges, observes, infers, models, etc. all the time while looking at a test object. A human tester thinks. That is why we need to practice different ways of thinking. It's like exercising a muscle, but the muscle is our brains.

There are number of different ways to think, many of them overlapping, and we should try to perfect those skills. It is valuable to recognize different patterns of thinking to be better able to solve problems. Testing is essentially problem solving, since we try to notice things and then afterwards try to figure out if this observation might be an issue. By having multiple tools in our tool box we don't have to rely on just one way of thinking ("When you have a hammer, all you see is nails.") and that makes solving the problem much easier.

My goal with this workshop was to introduce a few different mechanics of thinking to the audience and have them use that mechanic to perform an exercise.

What did we cover?

We were able to cover three exercises. The first two exercises were borrowed from improvisational theater. The first one was "reinvent the wheel".

I split people into groups and gave them the assignment to create a method for transportation. The only things given to them were the fact that the context in which they were supposed to solve the problem didn't have a wheel yet. They weren't supposed to create the wheel but create an alternative, as effective method of transportation. The thing was a bit difficult since I told them to start every sentence in their brainstorming with "Yes, but". This was an effort to make people challenge the already agreed.

People started to do the exercise but it seems that they didn't fully see the point of that exercise. My attempt was to make people challenge the assumptions and the ideas already on the table, thus making it an exercise in critical thinking. I might have missed the mark slightly, but people did have fun. I noticed that people required a leader in their group and some catalyst to provoke the challenging. I visited the groups and challenged their ideas by asking a question and then replying to their answer with a "yes, but" phrase. That stirred the pot slightly. I believe it became an exercise on team dynamics more than thinking patterns.

After 10 minutes we debriefed the ideas they came up with and moved on to the next task, "Reinvent storing".

Once again people worked in groups. The task was to invent a method to store things without using shelves or stacking things on top of each other. They once again had two facts about the context: There was no concept of shelves or stacking, and they had to begin an idea by saying "Yes, and". This was supposed to be an exercise on creative thinking, finding new ideas based on the old ideas, accepting what is already decided and building on that.

The task was more fluent than the first one and it spurred some crazy contraptions to store items, from pulley-operated platforms to portable black holes. There was certainly creativity in the air! Once again I felt that the exercise fell a bit short, and people did have questions on how they related to testing.

The third exercise was a bit shorter because it took so long a time to debrief the first two tasks. The third one was an exercise on lateral thinking. I explained it on a broad level, then I gave them a problem which they were to solve using lateral thinking.

The story was something like this: There is a merchant who owes money to an evil man who is in love with the merchant's daughter. The merchant can't pay the dept. The evil man proposes a wager. He puts a white and a black stone into a pouch. If he pulls out a white stone, the debt is forgotten. If he pulls out a black stone, the debt is paid in full AND the daughter is forced to marry the evil man. There seems to be a 50/50 chance. However, the evil man changes the white stone into another black one.

I asked the groups how would they solve the problem so that none of the participants lose their face (i.e. is revealed as a liar, is forced to marry, gets killed, etc.). The task was once again pretty difficult since the premise was so vague. I then had to answer a lot of clarifying questions about the problem before groups could actually start working on their solutions. They managed to think outside the box on many occasions. The ideas were quite feasible, I think.

What was the most valuable thing to me?

Having done three exercises on thinking, I realized that it was just a scratch of the surface. I thought I had time to do a "Thinking fast/slow" exercise but everything went by so fast. The essential thing might have been just having fun with my coworkers, making them do something out of the ordinary, promoting testing as a thinking activity as opposed to a technical task that creates test cases run on some virtual server.

The tasks were obviously quite difficult, but it gave a good ground work for the next workshops. The people were the essence, not me blabbering in the front (although I like that also). The more workshops I held, the more attendee driven it became. I facilitated, they provided the material.

What would I do next?

Since there will be another "tour" for the Testing Tuesday, I will refine this workshop. I will explain in more detail what the task is and arrange more time on people to explain what the connections to testing could be. Instead of making it a lecture I give the mic to the attendees on why would it be important to think. Maybe I'll try to add some other thinking exercises, like "Think like a freak" and the "Thinking fast/slow".

I am thinking on doing a blogpost on the lateral thinking, since I find it really important skill. I believe few of my community colleagues have already done that, so I might have to take a different approach on that. We'll see.

Anyhow, this was the workshop on Testing Thinking. If something wasn't clear or you have ideas how to make the workshop better, drop me a comment.

- Peksi

Doodling exercise

I was at the EuroSTAR conference 4th November in James Bach’s tutorial. I had not attended a full day training, talk or tutorial for a long time and my mind was still a bit rigid. I had a blast listening to James, but I noticed that from time to time my mind began to wonder. I started doodling on my note book. I didn’t pay attention. I was sitting between Laurent Bossavit (https://twitter.com/Morendil) and Kristoffer Nordström (http://contextdriven.blogspot.fi/). I know those guys are brilliant minds and I was actually a bit ashamed for doodling and losing my focus. So I doodled “in secret”.

At the coffee break I talked to Kristoffer about doodling and he explained it to me something like this: When listening to the talk and engaging one side of your brain, the other side starts to get bored. It begins shouting “Booooooring! I wanna do something creative!” and it makes you lose focus. Kristoffer told me to keep on doodling as part of keeping your focus. I did after that and I was able to keep my focus and come up with some more or less important ideas about testability and rapid test management – which was James’ topic on that day.

Kristoffer challenged me to write a blog post about doodling within one week, but I wasn’t able to tackle it before. Now I am, so I conducted an exercise. I tried to take notes on something that I have little or no interest in and tried to keep my focus on the job by trying to take notes and occasionally doodling. I did this by watching the most tedious video I can find from Youtube and I tried to summarize it using my doodles and notes. I chose “Intelligent Design and Creationism in the Classroom” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2qIAjtrNdY). It’s a 40 minute talk about something I try to stay away – religion and the teaching thereof. Here’s what I managed to do:

I started watching the video and thought there would be some fundamentalist talking about religion with such a zeal I couldn’t finish watching the video. Actually I couldn’t, because the video broke for some reason at 10:36. I did however rethought my previous attitude towards the video.

The beginning of the video was actually quite concise and gave things out in a quite unpassionate, to-the-point kind of analysis. I got a better understanding on why legislations on religion and marriage are the way they are. The context, I believe, requires some understanding of the government process and immigration policies. Also as a Finn, some of the things felt odd, like narrowing the gap between church and government.

More on the exercise. I tried to use doodling to keep me focused, but actually I had no trouble focusing. Taking notes was time consuming so I veered towards pictures to remind the topic that was talked about. It gave me something of an emotional attachment thus making the notes more understandable and clearer. The problem with this exercise was that it wasn’t authentic. I tried to make notes for the sake of note taking. I could formulate questions about the topics I doodled about, and in that sense I might have already felt that I must doodle about topics that I have some interest in already. I am keen to find out more about the “10 Commandments monument vs. non-Christian monument”.

As a conclusion, doodling is a good way to focus AND de-focus. I was able to shift my focus from the talk to the topics I got interested in. Also the doodles highlight the important stuff. Underscoring, circling, etc. make the text more dynamic and one can more easily find the areas of interest from the notes.

Thanks for challenging me, Kristoffer. It was a good thought exercise in addition to making me want to learn more about doodling. I still have a long way to go in note taking, but at least I know where to turn to get better exercises on note taking.

- Peksi

Note to self: read the following before going to the next meeting, session, conference or tutorial:
• http://sunnibrown.com/doodlerevolution/bootcamps/visual-notetaking-101/
• http://www.eurostarconferences.com/media/149386/alan-richardson_virtual-conference.pdf
• http://erik.brickarp.se/2012/10/practice-1-note-taking.html

Conference at a Glance, part II – My glance on the Tuesday AM tutorials

This is the second part of my series of posts about EuroSTAR 2013 conference. I apply the same method of evaluating as I did previously, so read the “My glance on the Monday tutorials” before this post, if you haven’t done that already.

Ian Rowland’s “Thinking Outside The Locks”

I have not heard of Ian Rowland, but I must say I’m intrigued. A magician? The biography in EuroSTAR page makes me want to know more about this fellow. In fact, I googled his name and got to his website. I’m really looking forward to see Ian do his stuff. I would guess that humor is involved in addition to mind blowing approach to thinking outside the box (or locks as he says).

To be honest, I think critical thinking, unconventional approaches, non-rational thinking are the tools of my trade. I would be able to use those both daily and they would make me become a better tester both short and long term.

I would recommend this to all my colleagues. In fact I’ve been thinking about a 30 minutes workshop on out-of-the-box thinking and using unconventional methods to solve a problem. If I get enough ideas for my workshop I might just do a workshop, and I hope Ian can help me generate ideas for it.

To be honest, I can’t think of anything to disagree from the summary of the tutorial, so I might not be able to challenge him. I’m curious to see how the methods he uses actually project to software testing. I might steal some of the details and trick he uses to my own work, like I mentioned before.

The tutorial seems very interesting as a light weight beginner for the conference (even better after a full day of Monday tutorial), but is this the best option out of the cast of many great speakers? I would be the one doing a half day tutorial on the subject, considering I don’t have that much experience in coaching out-of-the-box thinking.

After the smoke clears and the magician bows, I would like to see/hear/learn about implementing the skills and theories Ian shows to us. Theory is good and all but I would like to see results in testing craft to be happy with the tutorial.

On my Birdy scale, Ian Rowland’s “Thinking Outside The Locks” would scale as follows:

• Person-to-person: **
• Short time value: ***
• Long time value: **
• Steal-ability: *
• Challenge-ability: 
• Total: 8/15 stars

Prof Harry Collins and James Bach’s “Using Sociology To Examine Testing Expertise”

I think I said enough of James Bach on my previous blog post, so I will concentrate on Prof Collins. I find his resume quite impressive. He has (co-)written books that we testers should (I haven’t) be reading including the “Tacit and Explicit Knowledge” and “Rethinking Expertise”. I am eager to hear what he and James Bach have come up with. The duo of unschooled (but not untaught) and a University professor could spell doom to us mere mortals. I’m truly eager to hear their tutorial.

I am really eager to listen to stuff about meta-knowledge (or knowledge about knowledge). I do not, however, see a short term benefit from it. It will eventually develop my sense of self analysis. I’m very interested in any studies about testing and testing methodologies and this tutorial taps to that – using the tacit knowledge in addition to radiant expertise.

I don’t know straightaway how I could harness the tutorial for the benefit of my fellow testers. If the tutorial addresses social tacit knowledge, I could be able to make the company benefit from acknowledging that knowledge.

I am keen challenge the fact that there are skills that no person possesses but a group of people. Let’s say I invite a group of people to my house and I want to learn Chinese. None of these people know Chinese, but as a group we might be able to possess the skills to communicate in Chinese? Am I on the right path here? Or are we talking about more-than-sum-of-its-parts mentality, where we all would know just a little Chinese or a language close to Chinese?

I would refrain myself from teaching this. Maybe I could mention and guide people to seek for material appropriate to this experiment. I have no previous knowledge in this kind of study as I lack the university background.

Just like in Ian’s tutorial I would like to see/hear something that I could implement to my own work. What do I do with the information about what skillset does the teams have?

On my Birdy scale, Harry Collins and James Bach’s “Using Sociology To Examine Testing Expertise” would scale as follows:

• Person-to-person: ***
• Short time value: 
• Long time value: **
• Steal-ability: 
• Challenge-ability: **
• Total: 7/15 stars

Peter Zimmerer’s “Questioning Testability”

I begin to wonder what people think about me as a community member when I don’t know most of the people making presentations and more importantly tutorial speakers. This pre-analyzing the tutorials also helps me to familiarize myself with the people so I could recognize them at the event location in Gothenburg. I believe I have a lot to talk about with Zimmerer from all kind of things, but I believe we can make a conversation out of his topic also.

Testability is a freaky subject for me. I might be living in a bubble where we almost automatically plan our products with testability in mind. We aim to make the testing as fast and efficient as possible, so this tutorial might not give me too much in short term. I do believe that testability is one of the key things to enable efficient testing, so I more than recommend this tutorial to everyone!

I do believe that I could benefit from revolutionary points of view, which I hope Peter will provide. At some point when testability becomes more a worry for me, I might need the skills. Also the ability to promote testability could be important for me in this company. At some point the leading testability evangelists might leave the company, so we need as much tacit knowledge on testability as possible.

I’m expecting a lot of practical examples to be able to share myself (possibly after altering them to my own flavor). In that sense, the stealability is quite high in tutorial. I would focus mostly on practical appliances of testability, because testability as theory is quite trivial. People seem to have trouble in understanding how they can make stuff happen in practice.

When it comes to questioning, the words “step-by-step” rose a red flag. Is this method an omniscient, all-encompassing process? I hope this tutorial doesn’t turn into “do this and everything will be fine” but into “apply these skills where it’s reasonable”. If I am to join the tutorial, I will definitely challenge

On my Birdy scale, Peter Zimmerer’s “Questioning Testability” would scale as follows:

• Person-to-person: *
• Short time value: *
• Long time value: **
• Steal-ability: **
• Challenge-ability: ** 
• Total: 8/15 stars

Anne-Marie Charrett’s “Coaching Software Testers”

James has mentioned Anne-Marie a couple of time in our conversation and praised her coaching skills. Then again, I must admit that I have not made myself too familiar with her work. I’m looking forward to seeing her and possibly having a chat at some point. Hopefully she’ll be able to donate some of her time to me.

Actually the coaching method described here is something I have already done a few times. First James Bach coached me using the Socratic Questioning and then I used it to coach Erik Brickarp, Jari Laakso and Aleksis Tulonen among others. The amount learning on BOTH parties was phenomenal. I would love to gain more skills in this area to be able to continue my journey as a coach. This is something that both my colleagues and my fellow crafts(-wo-)men will benefit. I have some skills to begin with so I will employ them in future to the benefit of all, including me.

Having said that, I will try to steal as much as possible from this session and to mold it to my own. I recommend this session – yes, without having yet attended it, but having faith in it like in no other! Coaching skills are paramount on testers skill set if they ever want to become true professional.

I find it hard to challenge this on two reasons: I would consider myself as a member of coaching congregation and I would find it hard to challenge something I have unquestionable faith in. I am willing to try challenging for the sake of argument, but facing Socratic Questioning arguing for argument’s sake might be my downfall.

On my Birdy scale, Anne-Marie Charrett’s “Coaching Software Testers” would scale as follows:

• Person-to-person: *
• Short time value: **
• Long time value: ***
• Steal-ability: ***
• Challenge-ability:  *
• Total: 10/15 stars

James Christie’s “Questioning Auditors Questioning Testing”

James Christie (How many people called James are presenting in this conference?) is one of those that fall on the same category as Anne-Marie – I would love to talk to them for what I have heard from my fellow community members – but I have never delved into James’ work in-depth. Maybe I can sneak into his lunch table and steal a minute to talk about testing. ;)

In the past, I was working in a company where an audit was held. I was part of a group that coached the people getting audited to answer the questions correctly to appease the auditor. Wrong approach to audit – we do not always act according to the documented process but according to our best knowledge on the situation. The audit was about the documentation. The auditors were held in so high authoritarian position that they were not challenged – I was not allowed to talk to the auditors. ;)

I don’t see a short term benefit on this tutorial, however. I’m not currently in a position to be part of audits currently at F-secure. We do have security audits and the like, but I have yet to be invited to one such event. I might benefit James’ tutorial if I focus on questioning instead of auditing. If the scope wouldn’t be so narrow as to concern only audits, I would find it more beneficial to my current work.

If I could combine questioning to other areas, like specific levels of testing (unit, module, etc.) I could be able to teach or coach other testers and programmers to question their work more efficiently. So long term benefits could outweigh those of short term. More so, I don’t know where my life takes me so having some skills in challenging auditors might be my thing in the future.

I have such limited knowledge on auditing as such, so I find it difficult to disagree with questioning. Usually the person being questioned could benefit from the questioning too. I have been in a situation where I learned more by being challenged than by acquiring book knowledge on the subject. Like I said earlier, I would like to see tracks on more general questioning, arguing and challenging. This tutorial might answer some questions I have, but I’m not sure at this point.

On my Birdy scale, James Christie’s “Questioning Auditors Questioning Testing” would scale as follows:

• Person-to-person: **
• Short time value: 
• Long time value: **
• Steal-ability: *
• Challenge-ability:  *
• Total: 6/15 stars

Pradeep Soundararajan & Dhanasekar Subramaniam’s “Context Driven Mind Mapping”

I know Pradeep from tweeting with him and reading his blog. I also have followed the progress of Moolya for some time and I’m really impressed in their success. I’m also looking forward meeting Pradeep and Dhanasekar in Gothenburg to talk about mind mapping and all testing related stuff. I’m glad that Pradeep is hosting two sessions at the conference so I can join at least one of them.

I’m a bit of a mind map enthusiast myself so this tutorial is almost tailored for me. I find a lot of things here that are almost exactly from my workshop year ago from Nordic Testing Days 2012. I do believe that I have a lot to learn on both using the mind maps and hosting workshops. In short term, I would like to learn the most effortless way to utilize mind mapping. I tend to procrastinate during the testing, so if mind map can keep me focused, I would be on cloud nine. I also see mind maps as the tool of the future for it utilizes the brain instead of some arbitrary tool.

This tutorial would be worth stealing in its entirety and then I would go on promoting the ideas and practices to my company and to my peers in the community. In the long term, mind maps could help make exploratory testing both understandable and credible to stakeholders with minimum effort on documentation. I have already played around with the thought of decompiling the mind map into coverage charts by scripts, so this might even further automate the documentation of exploratory testing.

As for challenging, I know where I was stumbling in my workshop so I might tap into those subjects. First would be the content-switching during testing from the mind map to the software under test. If the mind map requires another window in addition to database browser, Unix log screens, browsers, standalone tools, etc. the content-switching becomes a burdening factor in the long run. Second would be the “free form” of the maps, which could result in inconsistent ways to report. I’m curious to see how Panda and Commander can tackle these. :)

I would recommend taking the Monday tutorial by James Lyndsay and combining it with this to make an awesome combo of exploratory testing and modeling. I haven’t yet decided which to attend, but if you, dear readers, should consider this combo really hard.

On my Birdy scale, Pradeep Soundararajan & Dhanasekar Subramaniam’s “Context Driven Mind Mapping” would scale as follows:

• Person-to-person: ***
• Short time value: **
• Long time value: **
• Steal-ability: **
• Challenge-ability:  **
• Total: 11/15 stars

Afterword

Once again I have not yet decided which to attend. There seems to be 2 top dogs right now, but I cannot yet say which to attend. I might even change my mind right before the session if other community members talk me to join a session other than what I would have chosen.

Anyway, I have quite a task ahead of me to plow though the conference tracks one by one. But be assured, I will go through as much as I can.

Also, I got interviewed to EuroSTAR community spotlight. I thank Emma Connor for the interview, and wish her and every tester out there a great summer!

- Peksi

How to get anyone to do anything!

This is how! Go ahead, read this post and you will find the keys to tapping into your or anyone's motivation. I will tell you how you can find motivation to do anything, or to motivate anyone to do anything! I will describe briefly the 6 steps that will make you find motivation to get things done, I will tell what is the force behind motivation and I will share some of my own experiences on success and “progress ongoing”.

Instant influence

I have written previously a post about what drives people to act. The Drive (written by Daniel Pink) has given many answers in how to motivate people in the modern society. For me, that lacked tangible examples, practical process and, odd enough, ways to motivate myself to be motivated.

I follow Daniel Pink on twitter and he posted a blogpost about something called Instant Influence. He just glanced the topic by asking two very powerful questions: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how willing are you to change?” and “Why didn’t you choose a lower number?” Immediately I started asking those questions on why I might want to do something. I began to defend the will to WANT to do something instead of finding excuses why I don’t want to do it.

The writer, Michael V. Pantalon has captured the essence of motivation in the book Instant Influence. It describes the process of asking questions from the “influencee” (he calls the participants of the motivation discussion “influencer” and “influencee”) and allowing her to find her own reasons to embark the road to change.

After I read the book I was in a motivational high and now I will share some of the secrets to you. I will urge you to grab a copy of the book and to read it yourself as this is but an excerpt from the book. The book has special ways to motivate yourself, change resistant people and coworkers, even strangers. There are ways to spot different kinds of indication of budding motivation on people that do not seem to be motivated. It’s quite quick to read and has plenty of practical examples on which to draw useful practices in real life.

The Instant Influence process is based on 3 cornerstones:

1. No one absolutely has to do anything; the choice is always yours
2. Everyone already has enough motivation
3. Focusing on any tiny bit of motivation works better than asking about resistance

Scare tactics don’t work! If you get bullied into doing something, you’re just as likely to choose not to do it. By saying things like “have to”, “should”, “must”, etc. just strengthen the barriers of resistance. Asking about “why might you choose to do it” is more important than telling the effects of not doing something.

6 steps to success

The book describes a process for finding the motivation. The process comprises of 6 steps. All individual steps are analyzed in the book and the power behind them is revealed for you to make the most use of the process. Every step has examples of different flavours on how to get the best out of the step with different people and situations. The process goes roughly like this:

1. Why might you change?
2. How willing are you to change?
3. Why aren’t you less willing to change?
4. Imagine you’ve changed. What positive might become of it?
5. Why are those reasons important to you?
6. What would be the next step, if any?

The first question is to allow the influencee to state the problem and to tell why she might want to commence the process of changing behavior. Asking “how might I change” may bring results but the reason behind the change could prove to be more important than thinking the actions. Trying to figure out how should one change can be overwhelming if not clear with the reasons behind the change.

When asking people “how willing they are to change” the question should be detailed to fit the situation. If I wanted to motivate myself to clean the apartment, I might ask myself: “How willing, on a scale on 1 to 10, might I be in clearing the living room table?” By breaking the task into smaller pieces and motivating oneself to do at least one of the smaller tasks, one can create a snowball effect and end up being motivated to clean the whole apartment and the garage! The number, which should be had in this question, is trivial but it creates a base for the next step.

Let’s say, I answered a “5” in the previous question. I might then ask, “Why didn’t I choose a 4 or a 3?” Then I will immediately start defending the reasons I MIGHT WANT to do the task at hand. This also gives you the opportunity to state the reasons, obvious or hidden, behind your budding motivation. Sometimes, questions 2 and 3 can give enough ground for the influencee to get motivated, but I always ask the influencee if she might be willing to answer more questions.

At the 4th step the influencee is allowed to imagine the world after the change. You can create a scenario where all the obstacles are cleared and the ultimate end result is reached, thus removing any negative influences that might arise at this stage. Focusing on the positive images might motivate the person to begin the journey to the destination, but remember to break the task into smaller goals to make the transition to being motivated easier. And I assure you, the smaller you make your goals on self motivation, the easier it is to start actually doing something.

When the influencee can identify the positive outcomes, she should be asked why those are important. Autonomy is the key here: “Why are these reasons important to *you*?” Drilling into the most deep and profound reasons might be intimidating, but after realizing that the deeper, most personal reasons are the ones that drive you to do things, you can get things done more easily and quicker.

The 6th step is important so that the influencee is clear on what she wants to do next in order to get gears turning. Again it is important to enforce the influencee’s autonomy and power to choose her actions. By asking “What might you do next?” instead of telling, can be the crucial element of finding the true motivation to do something. The action plan can be as simple as “I want to go to the living room and look at the coffee table.” or as detailed as necessary, verbal or written. But I encourage you to have an action plan. To make it even more powerful, state the reason why might you want to do it. “I want to clean the coffee table to make room for my coffee mug. I live my morning coffee when I watch the news and I don’t enjoy holding the cup on the sofa pillow.”

One thing to remember is to choose *active* actions in your action plan, that is to follow the “Dead man’s rule”: Never choose an action a dead man could do! “Don’t eat too much!” could be “Eat just enough to make you full but not too full.” “Don’t smoke!” could be “Smoke 2 cigarettes less a day for one single week.” Be active about the change, however small a change you’re aiming at.

Live exercise 

This is an example of me using the instant influence on myself. I will be bith the influencee and the influencer. I will ask the questions and I will answer what is the first thing that comes to my mind – no later editing, but I will add some notes in brackets afterwards. I have a task that I want to do: I want to write a column to a testing magazine here in Finland. The due date is approaching (or went past already) and my brains are refusing to provide input to the task.

Influencee me: "I want to write a column, but it seems too hard."
Influencer me: "Why it seems too hard?" (I don’t fully understand what makes the writing so hard.)
Influencee me: "I can’t find anything meaningful to say. The ideas I have feel crappy and incoherent. I wish I could find a thread which I could then follow through the column." (I’m frustrated by the situation.)
Influencer me: "Seems like you struggle with a problem that feels too big. What is the smallest thing that you can do to get started writing the column?" (I try to scale things a bit and try to find some spark of motivation.)
Influencee me: "The smallest thing would be to… well… open Word and start typing." (I try to dodge the responsibility.)

Influencer me: "Seems reasonable enough. Why might you want to do it?" (I try to enforce autonomy. I also fell into sarcasm there, which is not good as I could have been more objective about the situation as a whole.)
Influencee me: "Like you asked, I want to get the column written."

Influencer me: "On a scale of 1 to 10, where ‘1’ meaning “not ready at all” and ‘10’ meaning “as ready as possible”, how ready would you be to open Word and start typing?" (I could have tried to push on the “why” with the reasons I want to get the column written, but I thought that I can always ask more about the deep reasons later.)
Influencee me: "To be honest, I’d say about a 7. I like seven, because it’s quite high but not nearly the highest as it could be. Ok. To be totally honest, I’d say 5." (When I really started to think about how motivated I am, I realized that my motivation is alarmingly low. The impact of really thinking about the number was quite important to me. It may not be to others, but knowing about the process, it felt really important to me. The number is arbitrary and is there just to form a base for the next question, but can create surprising effects.)

Influencer me: "Why didn’t you choose a smaller number?"
Influencee me: "Well… I do want to write the column, as I have promised to do so. I also want to share the thoughts I have on the subject as I think many other people are struggling with that kind of issues. It is also a good way to get my name out there to be seen as a writer. On a 4, I would be saying that I don’t want some of those things, but I do." (I started to defend my reasons. By this point I was ready to increase my number to 7, but didn’t. I already had some thread for the column formulating in my head.)

Influencer me: "Let’s say you have written the column. What would be the positive outcome of that?" (I created a happy, sunshine scenario where there is no evil and all columns are done within deadline.)
Influencee me: "I would get the appreciation of my peers. They have worked hard on their papers, and by completing mine I have shown the same dedication towards creating a good testing magazine." (I reflect my actions against others’ but it feels like a shallow reason.)

Influencer me: "Why is the appreciation important to you?"
Influencee me: "I feel that the status of testing professional needs constant visibility to the public and to the community. The appreciation feels like a materialization of the reputation in the community." (Here it started to get personal. I was thinking about stopping writing, because I had no idea where this talk would lead me.)
Influencer me: "Why is the reputation and more so the good reputation in the community important?" (Drilling into the most important reason.)
Influencee me: "Well… to be honest. I might feel that because I have no doctoral degree or the like to boast around, I must constantly prove myself to be worthy of the status I have achieved in the community. Or I think I have achieved it." (I’m constantly saying “to be honest”. I’m trying as hard as I can to be. As much as I want to succeed in the exercise and make it as authentic as possible, I want to get the column done in time.)
Influencer me: "Why do you feel that the status is important to you?"
Influencee me: "It makes me feel like I’m worthy."
Influencer me: "So, you might want to write the column because it might make you feel appreciated and worthy. Is that correct?" (Here I reflect what has been said and formulate them into a single sentence motivation statement. I also try to enforce the autonomy by checking that it is correct.)
Influencee me: "I guess so, yes - to feel worthy of the perceived good reputation."

Influencer me: "So what could be the next step that you’re willing to take, if any?" (I leave room for choosing not to perform any actions.)
Influencee me: "I guess I will reserve a 90 minutes brainstorming session using a mindmap to clear out my thoughts and to create a plan for the column. I will do it while in train to work as I have plenty of time then, but I will make a calendar appointment so I can remember it. That will help me to find the thread and inspiration for the column. I might even finish the text while I’m at it. If I can’t find a thread while doing so, I will write about not finding thread." (I made a plan that has a specific action, a reason to do it, and a situation to amplify the action. I also mention a next step, which I didn’t even thought I was planning. In addition to all that, I made a plan B if my initial effort fails to give results.)

Now we just have to see if I was able to finish the column in time. :)

---

PS. If you feel like trying this in real life, contact me through Skype and we can try to motivate you to do something that seems too hard for you to do.

Testgasm

This is a blogpost to describe what was going on in the Rapid Software Testing class held by James Bach. This is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis on what happened or the lessons I learned but few highlights and hindsight analysis on what happened.

The dice game

...this is just a few of what we had...

Those that have been attending the dice game know that the initial exercise is hard. When one gets the idea on how the algorithm goes it’s easier to play variations on the game by group of friends or colleagues (not to say these are necessarily different). I (thanks to Michael Bolton’s course), Henri Hannuniemi and Sami Lehtonen (thanks to Antti Niittyviita) had played the game earlier and so we were grouped together and given a different algorithm than the others. I was so thrilled by the idea that I could use all the skills that I had learned to crack that nut open.

The game started and we were given a bunch of dice: a handful of regular, different colour/size dice; few D20 dice; few D10 hand drawn dice; a die that was in a transparent die; some “poker dice”, etc. We had so many variables that we became a bit confused. I started a list of different things that we could be analyzing. The size, the colour, dots or numbers, amount of dice, type of dice, arranging of dice, “zero is not zero” etc. We then arranged them so that there were different D6 coloured dice stacked together in different ways, five groups of five. James came to the table, we said “2” as a guess for every single dice pile and James replied “0”.

We had the miscellaneous dice lying in the stack nearby and I thought I ask a reply on that also. I said it “2” also and James replied “1”. A one? We had a huge number of different types of dice lying there. What could it be?

We proceeded to arrange the dice in a fashion that there were 2 or 3 special dice and regular dice bundled up so that all special dice were in use. All but one group ended up in a “0”. The one that was the “1” had the die where there was a dice within a dice. A frantic math calculation ensued. We tried to sum up the two dices together, but the result was always a “1”. So I took the die in hand and turned it so that James could see only “1” and a “2”, and we thought it was a “1”. The answer was “2”. Frustration!

Testgasm

We then analyzed the steps we took to get to that “2”. We had a couple of theories, but when the die was on the table, it was always a “1”. Heureka! We took five dice off the table and said “5”. And a five it was!

The thought process took 3 persons 20-25 minutes. The sparring between the team enabled us to try different even crazy-sounding ideas to good extent without exhausting our innovation. We simplified the data and made it more complex. We tried to look for changes in the output by varying the input. We used the different models of problem solving from our lives to figure out the pattern. We also solved a pattern composing of vocal input pattern (I save that for one of my exercise in the company) and one with a difficult mathematical pattern composing of differently grouped dice.

"Give me your hardest problem!"

Like James said, we were doing testing Kung-fu! Solving problems like matrial artists! Bonk! Blam! Thwaak! Zlott! Swoorsh! Phatam! Ka-pow! Like Batman fighting crime, we fought problems! (I’m getting a bit excited here, if you can’t read it from between the lines.) We all felt like we were invincible and we had the tools to crack every problem in the world! “Give me your hardest problem and I will solve it for you!”

The high after testgasm

After we got all the patterns solved we were all ecstatic about what we had done. We were in a problem-solving high! The word to describe the feeling would be “testgasm”. And truth be told, after a serious testing session where you find something awesome, something really important; you will get a testgasm. I’m not sure if other that testers understand the rush after a successful testing session; it is hard to explain. The joy of completing a hard task and feeling joyous about it in ways you never thought you could be. That feeling is something that testers all around are looking for when they test. Your face may light up and you yell “Yes! I got it!” and other people in the cubicle stare at you like you’re deranged.

Focus/Defocus

I had heard the concept of focusing/defocusing in Michael Bolton’s class before but I never truly understood the meaning behind it. ("If focusing is focusing, defocusing is the opposite of that") I tried to look for material online, but it was all vague and didn’t make an impact. The way that James described the method was simple: “When confused, focus; when frustrated, defocus.” Wow! When testing one sometimes loses momentum and struggles with a single piece of data for long time. Using input patterns that don’t find the problem may lead into frustration. I felt exactly that during an exercise about systematic testing.

James had us testing a piece of software that had a bug in it. We were asked to find the bug and then try to figure out why it fails. The input was a valid IP address. You know what I figured out? I have so strong built in mental models about meaningful number combinations that I was grinding my teeth and sweating to break that pattern. I had tried a pattern by testing the high and low numbers, duplicate numbers, you name it. Could I just be blind to the bug? Then James said “Look into your data. Can you see a pattern?” Yes I did. And lots of them! “Now try to find an input that is as different as possible from previous data.” And guess what IP address I used? “1.2.3.4” That’s right! I broke my pattern by trying “1.2.3.4”! What was I thinking?!?!

James was like “Dude! What the hell?” and I sat there frustrated and confused. Then I realized what he had meant. If I had drawn a line to represent my test data, it would have been like this:

I just needed to break the pattern and be more random and use data from between my clustered data pattern. And with first random IP address I put in, I found the bug. Later James explained why the program behaves like that, but I can’t remember the true root-cause of the bug, but I did learn a lot about focusing and defocusing.

Hung over (from learning)

It has now been two weeks since the course. After the class I was in a high that lasted through the weekend. I thought about giving a thorough analysis about the course but I see no need for that. I had the time to let the learning infuse to my spine and now I feel that the stuff I learned make even more difference. I did have an information hangover after the class and it was hard to get back to grips with non-testing work again. I was glad, however, that I could attend the Intensive course the next week so I wasn’t that bummed.

I recommend the class for everyone willing to improve their critical thinking, testing skills and/or argumentation skills. The exercises were good and to the point. The hot seat treatment James gave to some of us gave us experience to stand pressure and perform well when in a stressful situation. I also learned a lot about myself and the way I learn. It was also cool to hang out with great testers like Samuli Elomaa and Aleksis Tulonen.

I still have a long way to go and a lot of learning to do. (After James mentioned it) I began to think myself as a constant student, always learning. I promise James (and I will talk about this to Mr. Bolton) that I will try to compare the classes done by him and Michael. That way both of them could learn what could be done better or differently. That however will have to wait a few days (i.e. weeks) as I have a growing backlog of blog posts.

Are you part of the faceless masses?

I was on my way home the other day when I happened to talk to a woman who works in HR in some consultancy company. We were talking about how to get oneself hired to a company and how to be one step ahead of the other applicants. With recent discussions with James Bach in my pocket I became challenging her claims about employing oneself and best practices thereof.

What she suggested was that by certifying one can have an advantage in the job market. If one is not certified there is no knowing what the person can or can’t do, right? Certification is the first gateway to rule out incompetent testers, right? I had some thoughts about this prior to talking to James but some of the arguments that I had been using were lacking momentum. James gave me some golden thoughts in how to be one step ahead of the cattle of unskilled certified testers (I believe that if skilled they will see that the certification will not get them employed).

Certified terminology

Certification by name certifies a certain characteristic of a person, object or organization. It is not comprehensive but directed to a specific area. It can be achieved by passing an audit, an examination, a course of some kind, to name a few. Certification is not to certify the skill of doing something but the knowledge of some fashion. It can be of terminology, syntax, operating system details, etc. None of these, however, point toward the skill of doing something.

The certification where you get certified by defining a set of terms is quite usual. You get the information from books and then you take the test, usually multiple-choice examination to ease the assessment process. You can basically get a certification by guessing the right row of answers, having a list of those answers achieved by cheating, or by memorizing a set of terms. Because the test doesn’t aim to assess the understanding of those terms the value of it is quite minimal.

As terminology changes from company to company, from context to context, we do not need to memorize a set of terms and apply them by force. We need to understand the meaning behind the terms we use and to explain them. Then, if conflicting with the other terms within that context, the use of terms must be adjusted. If you say “testing” and mean “systematic evaluation of the quality of the system using various techniques applicable to the context”, and the organization uses “uggabugga” for that same meaning and “testing” for coffee tasting, it might be good to adjust the use of terminology for that context. If you just keep using the term taught to you by some book somewhere, you will drive yourself unto a cul-de-sac of misunderstanding.

Proving skills and standing out

The testing certification provided by ISTQB is a good example on how certify a tester without any skills to actually test. It is a book examination, essentially. More so, there is a course aiming to pass the test. I’m not going to talk about the syllabus at all, but about the skills taught at the course, or the lack thereof. The certification doesn’t aim in proving skills of the tester. A tester with no experience in testing can go to the certification examination and pass before doing any testing at all.

A recruiter going through applications for a job look for something that might look for certifications as a proof of skill. When confronted by a certification that by nature does not measure skills but the knowledge of terminology (which obviously is the wrong way to go) the recruiter might confuse the person having skills. This is not to say that the applicant doesn’t have skills, they might very well have a huge set of skills, but they are not the characteristics that get you to the interview.

“If you don’t get to the interview then you cannot show your skills. That is why I use the certification to get to interviews!” I hear you. Read more.

Rising over the masses

The recruiters have a hard decision in determining who to call to interviews and who not. They look for something that stands out! You might think that a certification gets you the interview. Stop there for a moment. How many other applicants you think do the same thing? How many of the 500 applicants to a Test Engineer job have the exact thought of having a certification as a ticket to interview? 50? 100? 450? This obviously depends, but think this: The certification makes you part of a mass of people. By using a generic way to stand out, you’re “massifying” yourself – you become part of a gray mass that doesn’t stand out in any way.

Like I asked in the beginning, “Certification is the first gateway to rule out incompetent testers, right?” it actually is so. But it not a gateway only to rule out incompetent testers, it is there to rule out incompetent recruiters. A person without proper testing knowledge, skills and passion does not know how to recruit a good tester. He may know a little and thus relies on the magic of certification, at least a little. Even the most unqualified recruiter is looking for SOMETHING to make the call who to call to the interview. By having 90% of the applications look the same, they have a hard time deciding. The gateway works so that it rules out the certified testers and leaves those that have the spark, the passion and the skill. Do you want to be the one getting the interview or be ruled out because “you don’t have the spark”?

First thing recruiters see is the application. We are force-fed the template from recruitment agencies and we use that. We are afraid to be different and difference is what you should be aiming for! Instead of creating a dull list of what you can do and schools you’ve been to, do something else! Write a bug report where you describe your behavior and characteristics. Do an interview of yourself and post it like a newspaper column. Send them a video of you testing a product while explaining what you’re doing. I could go on and on! Be outrageous, but professional. The point is to make a statement. Send a filled template and you’re doomed.

Conclusions

When I had explained myself to the HR person on my way home, she said: “Well you’re obviously a guru, so you don’t need a certification.” That is not correct, although I briefly basked in admiration. I’m not a guru any more than the next guy. I have passion and I’m not afraid to show it! I have goals and I’m not afraid to tell them! I have a hard built reputation as a tester and I'm not afraid to promote it! (Maaret might say “He’s cute when he rambles.”)

Every single tester can be a professional, and they should. Every single tester can apply to a place where they want to work and get employed, and they should. Be ambitious, be excited, be passionate. And show it. Don’t fall into marketing trap and be part of the mass – be you!

And get refining that CV right now!

Porridge is bad for you!

"What?! What is he talking about?" This blog post is about challenging one's criticism and trying to make it more effective using simple methods. This post is about moving away from unhealthy criticism into constructive critique and feedback. This is about finding the right mind-set.

Why do people criticize?

"You're doing it all wrong!" "Your tie is hideous." You've seen it. You've heard it. Probably you've even done it. I know I have. And in most occasions I have let my self-criticism be clouded by someone else’s opinion about the same subject. By not having a concrete opinion of one's own it's easy to adapt to criticism of someone else.

Let's take an example of a guru that has strict criticism against one subject - a porridge (seems like a neutral enough). We all know that porridge is good for us, right? What if a nutrition guru says that porridge is bad? What do we do? If we have huge respect on that guru's thoughts and doings, might we blind our own judgment with the upward gaze towards the guru? We might just take the guru's opinion granted and start proclaiming that porridge is bad for you.

One way out of this bad equation is to step back and challenge one’s own critique. Is it justified? Are you making an assumption? (Great blog post about defeating assumptions by Ilari Henrik Aegerter) What if the guru was wrong? After making sense of what do YOU think, then you should back the critique up with facts, not opinions. By finding the facts, you might be looking for biased facts, but at least you have something to back it up. It's obvious (to some) that a biased opinion should stay as an opinion, but they rarely do. Instead of being opinions they become statements supported by chosen facts.

Doing basic critique, source checking, challenging, context projecting, you can find the root cause of the guru's opinion about the porridge. Does he (our guru is a he today) have an agenda of his own? Are there hidden meanings in the critique itself? Does it provoke thinking instead of criticizing the product?

How do people criticize?

"When giving feedback, do it like so: Always give good feedback in public and be precise about what was done well. Always give negative feedback in private and be precise. Try to find the solution instead of the one to blame." This was said by my father who has decades of experience in management and leading people. I have always thought this as the fundamental guideline of critique. I think most people know this and agree with this, but how come most people don't act accordingly?

Let's say that the guru had discovered some facts that "Ye olde bran porridge" has all sort of chemicals in it that disable some growth hormones on a child. Obviously that's a statement to be told to the public, right? And as we hold the guru in high regard, he is mandated to present his opinion (possibly supported by facts) in some public media. There are channels in which you can present a complaint about food (health inspector or some kind of an agency) and they will take the necessary precautions to tell the public that "porridge is bad for you". Possibly they have first discussed with the porridge company, who might have taken the product off the market.

The guru might give criticism about porridge in public and have the wrath of the porridge company on his shoulders. He might not care as he's a nutrition guru and has an agenda of his own (hoes he?). Is the guru doing the right thing expressing his opinion so loudly in public? Is the guru promoting himself instead of giving critique?  Was the bad thing in the porridge, in the chemical, or in the company making the porridge?

Where's the difference in the approach between the two models of critique? Was the guru able to achieve the goal of his criticism through a public channel (which ever the goal might have been)? Was the "behind closed doors" critique more efficient than the "in your face" critique? They all depend on the context, obviously. What was the goal of the critique?

Feed-forward

Some people think critique is feedback. Well it kinda is in some extent. Feedback however can be constructive even when the feedback is negative. Feedback is given when someone asks for it; critique is given when ever. Feedback is not trying to make one feel happy/sad but to make them improve; critique is about making a statement. When giving feedback don't sugarcoat it, instead say what YOU like and you'd like to see improved. "I liked the taste of porridge and how my stomach feels afterwards. To make it even more healthy I would not put in the chemicals that prohibit my growth."

As the feedback is a kind of a thing to be asked for, critique is the kind of a thing you just blurb out. Feedback has a purpose and it is meant to improve the one receiving the feedback. Critique has the tendency to provoke something. Conversation, debate, hatred, etc. Challenging can be more effective a way than critique. Challenging the critique itself can become the most valuable feedback there is!

Is the content self-justifying or do we need to empathize to support the critique?

There are tons of guides in how to give feedback without being critical. I know a dozen occasions where I have let my judgment be clouded by numerous things that have lead into bad critique and undesired results. Here's one:

I try to promote intelligent testing and intelligent approach to quality in general. I also believe that certifications that focus on the certificate itself are no good. A certificate that focuses on skills in a field that requires skills is a good thing; artificial certificate concentrating on a narrow view about best-practices (and only knowledge thereof) is a bad thing. This is what I thought and still think. I was having a discussion with people I think highly of about “what is your opinion about ISTQB-provided series of certificates”. By making a comment that the certificate looks good on paper (with some unflattering spices), I provoked a series of questions about “how do I back up my statement” and "do you even know what you're speaking of".

The questions stuck home and I started to think of how I really thought about the issue. The fundamental thought behind the issue remains the same, but as I have not delved deep enough into the syllabus, the history thereof, the initial goal behind the syllabus. Am I eligible to make claims about the issue? Was I repeating what the other people were saying and them making myself feel important about myself by making a rash claim? Does my opinion really matter in this case and could I do some good without being so loud about it? Is there a possibility to raise conversation about the issue within the certificate organization without sounding like a zealot?

With the comment I made (which was criticism at its worst) I thought the content of the comment was self-justifying. "Obviously all the people were thinking the same so I just said it out loud." Even though some of them were, they rightfully challenged my comment and forced me to think about it. What was my goal when stating something like that? What was the desired outcome? Praises to me? More Twitter followers? To raise conversation? To sound like a dumb-ass?

What I did achieve with the comment was for me to be able to criticize my own behavior and claims. I once claimed (in Finnish) that one way to achieve the best quality of an end-product is to "Murder you darlings" - by finding the most direct route from the current point into the desired point. By removing all the excess and self-promotion from the content. To go directly towards results. In making the comment I a was focusing on "sounding cool" instead of trying to use the words as a tool to achieve a goal (which apparently was shrouded).

Did I hurt someone in the process? Can't tell. Not directly, I assume (Pekka, you're assuming things).

Did I achieve the goal? Can't tell. I wasn't aware that there was a goal.

Did I learn something? Oh boy, did I!? ;)

I don't know

What's this post about?

I don't know. That's right; it's about "not knowing".

I spend the two days at a coaching course by TNM Coaching and we had a great time there. There were really good conversations about topics regarding coaching and I will delve more deeply into the ones that had most impact on me. Before I go deeper I will share some insights that I learned at the course about questions and the answer "I don't know".

The fact of not knowing

We all get asked questions that we may not have the answer. Some questions are just too complex for us to understand or we may not have the skills to answer that question. For example someone asks you about the amount of stars on the Northern sky, so you'll probably answer "I don't know". In this case you may not have acquired the necessary knowledge base on the topic and thus lack the ability to know the answer.

Could you answer differently?

When we answer by saying "I don't know" we subconsciously diminish ourselves. We give ourselves the impression that the knowledge is required to be "something" and by lacking the knowledge we are lacking as humans. It's a human behavior thingy of some kind, I think, and it comes naturally if we don't have the answer thought up.

If we could spend some time to think about the answer we might be able to avoid the "not knowing -trap". A difficult question requires a bit of analyzing. Do I need that knowledge right now? Could I check it up somewhere? Is there a reason why I have now acquired the required knowledge to answer this question? Do I possess the knowledge already but effectively forgotten it? By answering a question with a question (be it mental or verbal) you may find a better answer than "I don't know".

I don't know if I want to answer this question

There are different situations where you answer a question with an "I don't know". Sometimes the answer is to avoid answering truthfully. In a coaching session when another person asks questions and helps you solve your problem the answer "I don't know" may come in up. This poses interesting issue with the coach as there may be answers behind the "I don't know".

At this moment comes a point where the situation needs to be evaluated. Is it reasonable to try to find the answer behind the dodge or is it better to let it be. If you decide to let the issue untouched it should be stated. You may agree to speak of the topic at later times.

If you however mutually agree to go deeper behind the dodge, one good way is to eliminate the psychic lock (a Jedi Mind trick) by a simple question: "If you knew the answer, what would it be?" or "If a situation presents itself, what would you or someone else do to solve the situation?" The wording reaches behind the barrier and encourages the person to use the capabilities he or she has and start seeing the solutions. This may not however work always, but it is one part of the probing and facilitating the coachee to be able to verbalize his or hers issues and find the solutions.

More coaching stuff coming up!

This is my insight onto the subject of "not knowing". I got the inspiration to this from the coaching coach Vivienne Ladommatou who spent two days with us at F-secure to help us be better coaches. I really admire her wisdom about Genuine Interest and I think that could be the next post regarding the coaching.

I will be making at least some kind of a blog post series about coaching, especially the things that matter to me the most in coaching. I will do some practicing to hone my skills so if someone is interested to help me with my quest to become a better coach, feel free to contact me and we'll figure out some time slot and issue that we start discussing about using the coaching process.

So just tweet or Skype me, or comment under here, and I'll arrange a coaching session that best suits the context. When will be a good time to coach? Well... I don't know. ;)

In the face of failure - part 2

Sometimes we fail to achieve what we have set our minds to achieve. That is not always a bad thing as we might learn something about the process of failing. The failure itself may require us to change our perspective or approach to the task at hand. In the first part I covered what happens when a test fails. In the second part I look into people's failure in effort to do something. All along I try to offer insight and learning possibilities to the subjects.

When a person fails (or doesn’t fail)…

Tests can fail. They reveal information when they do so. Even a passed test may reveal new information. Same thing basically apply to human failures. Why did my effort fail? What are the critical points that lead into the failure? Is there a possibility that the failure was evident and there was nothing that could be done to prevent it? If not, how can I see the critical points in the future?

Are we the cause of failure?

There are hundreds of self flagellation books that motivate you not to fail. If we are to attain a critical mind and keep it, we need to realize that we are fallible. We make mistakes, ok? There's nothing you can do to rid yourself of all failures. By keeping in mind that you are allowed to fail, you may prioritize with more precision, plan important thing more carefully, and learn from events that may lead into the failure.

The worst enemy of a person (who fails or succeeds) is ignorance. The ignorance itself may be the cause of failure, but by ignoring the root cause for a failure prevents all learning. Ignorance leading to failure is the worst cause, but still a person can learn from ignoring as much as from anything else. A person may have a reason to ignore something due to scheduling, required effort/skill/resources, insufficient knowledge, or a memory lapse. This is a kind of benign ignorance, as the ignorance is used as a tool towards the goal. If a person chooses to neglect, belittle, condescend either other people directly or indirectly, it is malign ignorance. A person failing to deliver on time because of procrastination or lack of interest in the subject falls to the same malign category.

People can learn from ignorance, more easily from benign ignorance than from malign. You can always choose to take note on the thing you previously ignored and decrease the risk to fail. Even attitude of ignoring can be changed, but it could require huge effort to do so. It is encouraged that people rid themselves of ignorance to important matters. They may prioritize some things lower than others and thus they do not ignore them completely. Asking "am I ignoring important things?" could result in fewer failures. If a failure occurs, what was ignored and why?

We may fail also because of choosing the wrong tools, approach or methods. For example making a presentation about some scientific thingy and structuring it poorly, may result in failure. Choosing wrong viewpoints (or too few) can result in biased view and thus result in failure. We may even choose the right tool and fail because of lack of skills to use it. If I don't have the sufficient skills to do this, who has? Can I utilize that person’s skills in this task? Do I have to adjust my views to reach a better result or to suit the given task?

We may make a efficient contribution towards succeeding in the task but it may still fail. We may have overlooked some important information that could drastically change the outcome of our task, or we could have made the wrong interpretation. The material or the baseline itself on which we built our effort upon may be faulty. Have we enough information to successfully complete the task? How do we determine that? Is the opinion I have conclusive enough to lead into success?

"It's their fault!" ;)

All things leading into failure are not reliant upon the person doing the task. The task mey require effort from multiple people or organizations and all cannot be controlled. To succeed in a multi-person, multi-venue task we need to establish a knowledge which person is holding what information / is responsible of which deliverance / responsible form which sub-task. If keys to our success lie in another person's hands, we need to make sure those keys open the doors for us.

It could be that the venue where you were to hold the presentation is accidentally overbooked and your effort fails. They may have suffered from a Force Majeure or something completely irrelevant to the task at hand but preventing from succeeding in it. There are some cases where one can find learning opportunities regarding the Force Majeure incidents. Can I prevent the task from failing due to unexpected events? Does a failure due to those events cause failure to retry? Can I take precautionary actions to prevent those things affecting my task?

If the environment and the nature (a stampeding elephant horde is considered a force of nature. "Jumanji!") don't cause a failure you still have take into account the audience of your task. This may include the people taking part to a presentation, the stakeholders of a software project, etc. The person doing the task has little power to effect the audience. The stakeholders may have beliefs, reasons, attitudes, etc. that may hinder the successful execution of a task. Audience may choose to ignore your topic and perform a no-show (or have more important thing to do at the time). What can I do to ensure that the task fulfills the goals regarding the audience/stakeholders? Do I need to adjust my approach so that the stakeholders don't have to struggle to relate to me or my topic? Do I need to do research on the receiving end of my task?

By asking important questions about the task and the surroundings can drastically decrease the possibility of a failure. And even if you fail, you will have a solid base for learning from your observations and the information received from the analysis of a failure. Accepting that you are fallible increases the ability to think critically. By anchoring ourselves to the opinion that we can't fail, makes us vulnerable to being biased and blind to important details and information.

Don’t think failing as a bad thing...

As we know, we all fail at something. There's nothing wrong with that. Succeeding might result in fewer learning opportunities than failing in the same task. Still, we can use the same techniques we use to analyze failures to apply to analyzing success. Did I prioritize efficiently my time and tasks? Was there a pit that I fell into thus decreasing my chances of succeeding? How can I remove that deficiency in my future doings?

Attitude towards failure is one of the biggest obstacles towards success, as we think it makes us losers or bad people (at least some people do that). Every attempt is a learning opportunity, pass or fail. Inquisitive mind is the best tool to enable learning in failure as in success.

If you found this piece of blog post inspirational, please comment that it was inspirational. If not, then comment that it wasn't. What ever the response, tell me why. If we (failing or succeeding in our doings) do not get feedback on from our effort, we cannot tell whether it is a success or not. By saying so, I don't encourage people to praise without justification or mock unnecessarily. The task for commenting is to succeed in commenting. Would you rather fail or succeed in that?