The headline of this article poses a simple question that all testers should be asking themselves.

Before starting to test an application, testers are required to gather complete information about multiple aspects such as technology stack, application architecture, hosting details, testing scope, testing process, types of testing to be conducted, tools to be used and so on. If testers lack any of these information then it makes their life miserable and adds unnecessary delays in the testing lifecycle. Often testers tend to jump into logging defects and consider that as the most important deliverable of testing. It’s important to understand that defects are essential however it is equally or highly important for testers to first understand the application under test and conduct detailed analysis before starting to test.

Testers hence need to ask themselves on whether you are testing the software? OR is the software testing you?. A good and well prepared start will help each tester to organise their efforts in the most effective manner. A marathon runner also starts in a crouch position but only to push himself / herself ahead and bullet ahead to take best start. If we (testers) start to test without complete information then we are allowing ambiguity, incomplete understanding, uncertainty and improper utilisation of time to step-in to our process. In such cases, it’s the software that is testing you as we ignore to focus on the testing aspect and only follow what the software provides us with. The application under test drives us rather than the testers driving the test efforts and fully control on what and how to be tested.

Bottomline is for testers to start only when they have invested enough time on analysis, information gathering and understanding of what needs to be tested. All the best.