The Role of Emotions in Software Testing

Over a workday lunch of Macaroni & Cheese a few days ago, my "colleague" (our 6 year old daughter), asked me a question out of the blue which both surprised and delighted me: "I've always wondered... how is it that you test computers anyway?" I paused, grateful for her curiosity and filled with overwhelming joy that she wanted to know more about the work that I do.

"Well," I started, "how would you feel if a game you liked playing wasn't working the way it was supposed to? Or if your regular video call with grandma kept freezing and crashing? Remember recently when we tried to watch the Zoo livestream but the sound wasn't working? How did that make you feel?"

"Mad. Frustrated. Confused."

I explained further, "My job is to help make sure those things don't happen. As I use the application, I ask a LOT of questions. Like - what happens when I click this button? Is what I'm seeing correct? Does what I'm seeing make sense? Is the page missing anything that should be there? Also, I think about how using different parts of it make me feel. If I'm confused or frustrated, chances are others will be too! I help find these things and discuss them with others on my team who offer feedback or fix them. Then I confirm if they were fixed and look for other problems that might make it hard for someone to use our application."

She thought a moment, then as quickly as the question arose, she changed topics (kids!).

However, this got me thinking further about the important role emotion plays in what I do. Testing is an activity that is driven by curiosity and emotion. The difficulty comes in putting yourself in the seat of the user, interacting with the application in ways they might consider and being in tune with your thoughts and feelings as you browse the application.

Feelings of frustration, confusion, annoyance, and even boredom all can point out potential bugs, bad workflows, and performance issues.

Remember the adage, where there's smoke, there's fire? More often than not, the emotions experienced while testing have pointed to problems that have needed to be addressed.

In sum, being aware of what you are feeling as you test and using that productively as a way to look for problems in the application will help you become a better tester. Additionally, it offers another way for testers to explore and learn about the application supported through raising questions or concerns to others on the development team. In turn, this knowledge helps build their bank of what they know about the product and enables them the ability to provide more thorough testing.