Software Testing: Some Definitions

Perhaps we need to embrace Tester Pride and let the world know about the contributions we make. Do your friends and neighbors know what you do for a living? Do they know of the contributions you make? Probably not. As far as I know, the only tester in the world who advertises his profession to total strangers on the street is James Bach with his well-known "TESTER" license plate.

James's license plate got me thinking. What can we say about our work that would fit comfortably on the fender of a car? Here are my suggestions for bumper stickers that just might rock the industry.

We could start by hijacking existing bumper sticker mottos:

Ask me about my latest bug.

Honk if you love to crash software.

My other car is a bug.

Have you hugged your software tester today?

But those seem too lame and tame. How about emphasizing the unique mental attitudes of testers?

Software Testers: Always looking for trouble.

Software Testing is Like Fishing, But You Get Paid.

Software Testers: "Depraved minds...Usefully employed." ~Rex Black

Software Testing: Where failure is always an option.

Or, we could emphasize the often-unnoted contributions testers make:

Software Testing: When Your System Actually Has to Work

Software Quality: Don't ship without it.

I don't make software; I make software better.

Improving the world one bug at a time.

We could even support both sides of the "making and breaking" question:

Software Testing: You make it, we break it.

Software Testers don't break software; it's broken when we get it.

Software Testers: We break it because we care.

Not bad for a start, but perhaps we'd like to get in a few digs at development while we are at it:

To err is human; to find the errors requires a tester.

If developers are so smart, why do testers have such job security?

My software can beat up your software.

A good tester has the heart of a developer...in a jar on the desk.

But maybe that is too hard on our poor developers, and we are all in this together. What I'd like to see is developers' cars sporting the following:

Test is my copilot.

If your software works, thank a tester.

Or, we could even support positions within our own testing community. I work with test automation and spec-based test generation most of the time, so how about these:

Old Model-Based Testers Never Die; They Just Transition to a Higher State.

Life is too short for manual testing.

Friends don't let friends do capture-replay.

Support spec-based testing: Be code-dependent no more!

People should think and machines should test.

Test never sleeps.

There can be lofty sentiments for those idealists among us:

Visualize Great Software

And some not-so-lofty sentiments for those whose ideals have taken a beating:

Trust, But Verify.

Truthfully, though, I am a tester because that is what I have always been, even when I was a kid. I have always asked awkward questions that I felt needed to be asked. I always looked for answers I could be satisfied with. So, the bumper sticker that sums it up for me would be:

Pertempto ergo sum – I test, therefore I am.