Tester vs Acceptance Criteria Checker

Tester	Acceptance Criteria Checker
Requirements
A tester knows that even if the product meets the requirement to the T, the product could totally suck. So, they do not rely too much on the requirement to measure product quality.	A checker is heavily reliant on showing the acceptance criteria is met. They won’t go into testing without a document.
Test Cases
A tester writes product based test cases. They ensure test case longevity with data set up and tear down info for fast execution	A checker checks the acceptance criteria. They do not know they need to plan for the future, they focus on the bare minimum.
BUGS
A tester works to find issues that wont show on the surface	A checker works to find issues inside and within the acceptance criteria.
Purpose
A tester explores the product and understands what it does and how is does it.	A checker checks the surface and within the boundaries of the requirements.
Focus
A tester contributes to making a product better	A checker tries to find where the product is broken
Product vs Project
A testers job never ends. A tester feels responsible to support the product through its life	A checkers job ends with the project
Test Data
A tester works to create, edit and maintain the data required for testing	A checker is dependent on the developer or the business to provide the data
Ex – Sign Off
A tester relies on product and architecture knowledge to understand the state and stability of the product and little on the regression tests	A checker relied on the PASS and FAIL test results.
Ex – Superman vs Clark Kent
A tester will go deep into what superman is all about, who are his parents, what is his real identify and all that jazz. They understand that Clark Kent and superman are the same person so focusing on clothes is literally scratching the surface.	A checker will only observe that obvious differences of the superman costume. Clark Kent – wears his underwear inside Super man – wears his underwear outside
Ex – Menus or drop-down lists options
A Tester will explore where this data is stored (in the database or hard coded into UI)	A checker will make sure the list of items shows up as listed in the requirements.
Ex - Authentication of the user
A Tester will find out where the registered user information is saved and make sure the passwords are salted too. A tester will also find out how the user session is authenticated and terminated in the browser	A checker will make sure the registered user is authenticated with valid credentials.

Can SCRUM save Shark projects

I just watched a movie called Shark Exorcist (It is a real movie, someone wrote a story and spent money on making it - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3120314/). I was thinking about what could have made the movie better since a team of people worked on it, they must have had hopes for it. I mean when we make dinner, we want it to be really tasty! When we put on makeup, we want to look pretty! So, what could have been done to make this movie better?

Answer: Obviously, Not make the movie at all. 

I got to thinking - if the makers used the waterfall methodology to make this movie they may not have had a chance to look at the whole product till the very end, so they may not have known about the lameness of the movie. If they had used SCRUM methodology in the movie making, they might have realized they were just wasting money and might have scraped the project in its initial stages and my 5 minutes would have been used on another terrible shark movie. (watched in Fast Forward)

But is that how SCRUM teams work in real life?

I have personally never worked on a SCRUM team where a project was scraped off because the vision was so terrible (although SCRUM implies that you can catch issues early on). Because let’s face it, if the team actively acknowledged the vision was poor suggested to scrape the project, their jobs would be at stake. We will have less job security. 

So, we silently groom, point, develop, code review, test, release and do tasks without challenging the vision.

I have worked on SCRUM projects where all my team mates and I trusted each other (that takes time and bad ass people to self align themselves), and pushed back features and changed features drastically to make the product better or less defective. But that did not happen just by calling a methodology SCRUM. We were really a team and we were focused on the product not just what the business wanted.

For a project to be noteworthy or successful the vision is the most important thing. So, do not get hung up on methodology or its certification (I too spent money on the certification). Because the methodology does not make a project successful on its own. It is the people and their insight into the project that makes a great product and successful project.

Diapers and User Stories

Once upon a time disposable diapers just were invented for people as a substitute to washable

diapers. They added convenience for unplanned outings and emergencies. But when they were understood as the norm and taken for granted, the result was more landfills occupied with junk that takes more than 500 years to decompose.

Advantage – anyone could take care of the child and people were not tied to the child.

Disadvantage – babies who used to be potty-trained by 18 months take 36 + months now.

Once upon a time user stories were suggested in agile methodology for unplanned needs about which much was unclear but there was a need, an unplanned need, but a valid need. This enabled anyone to be able to write requirements and put them through the backlog. But when they were understood by the upper management as norm and taken for granted, the result is lots of user stories (most of them poorly written) that look the same and take longer to understand and implement and result in half-baked products that constantly break other logic.

Advantage - the business teams can pile up on wants with user stories in bits and pieces.

Disadvantages – Art of writing fully vetted technical requirements is forgotten leaving a lot to be improvised by the developer on the fly.

Diapers and User stories were meant for good purposes, but misuse and overuse made kids and IT inefficient. They both deal with a lot of Shit!!