I worked for one of the mobile app project. After completing
the testing activities, the app gone for release. So, after the release I was
eagerly waiting for the users’ feedback. Because I was asked to do a UX. On one
way to approach the UX, I stated collecting all the feedback (rating) till date
from the app store. Most of the people have given a 5 and 4 star ratings. But some
people has shared 1, 2, 3 star ratings. This made me to think what went wrong.
Why people has given such low ratings. I
believe that rating might help the team to trace out the problem to some extent.
But it won’t help to solve the problems to great extend. Because those poor
rating could also be given by the competitors itself. Anyhow, I collected all
those poor rating to know what are the common problems among the people are. I
grouped 1, 2, 3, poor rating into one; I saw 50 percentages of people have
complained about the UI. Some people said, please rollback the older one. But by
this, the decision cannot be made. Because there are people around 60 percentages
(4 and 5 star), have said that the UI was good. So, UI is a common problem
within the poor rating circle but not on the overall product level.
Now I started questioning myself .Okay. How to investigate these
problems? These questions paid a way for some more questions. Still I am
working for finding the answer for all those questions asked by myself.
One day, while I was learning about the design guidelines,
suddenly a question sparked into my mind. Am I responsible for any kind of
issues that happens over the product after the release? If people are not happy
with the design, Should I need to be answerable for it?
I believe whether it is a product success/failure, an
individual should not be claimed/Blamed for that. If it is a team then the
entire team takes those responsibilities.
I started discussing this with my colleagues, before I take this to my
teacher. Over all I feel that as a tester
it is important to learn about the product.
It made me to realize that tester needs to walk around all
the phases of SDLC. Getting struck up at the testing phases will not help to a
great extend. I realized what my teacher said about practicing by comparing
with the sports people as an example.
Even a legend go for a practice before playing a real game, then as a
tester what practices I should do to work for a project which goes to the real
world and that might be used by a billions of people.
But again it is tough
for me to know how and when to start practicing. I will be taking this to my
teacher and my lead to get clarity on this
In my organization if people ask me what’s your role I can
easily give my answers to them. But, when it comes to a project, I am really
confused to say my roles and responsibilities and the limitations. I learnt
testers job in not about to share pass/Fail status. There are many things
beyond that. Communicating with the people doesn't mean that we have walked out
through the entire phase of SDLC. Working with individual teams (design,
development, BA, etc) before the release and listening to the end users after
the release and rework on it if needed is also a part of testers
responsibility. So, I call a testers are connecting dots for the product. But
it cannot be prolonged. There need a boundary line in case of claims and blames.
When product fails people may raise their finger toward tester. When it succeeds
in the market people may take the crown to their head. So, I want to know to
what extend I can be blamed. When I say product failure it doesn't mean that
some quality criteria have failed. It can be a user’s interest too. If people
don’t show the interest on product scope, the product fails even it has met all
the quality criteria. We can say this as requirement mismatch with people
interest.
Now I am learning about the design so that I can have a better
understanding about the product design what is needed for a client (product
owner/ may not be needed for an end users. So, when working as a tester it is
also important to understand the needs at both sides. But it is something
tricky one.
There are so many heuristic that could help us to work on
it. But what is needed for that context and choosing or identifying by your own
matters a lot.
My journey has just started. Hoping for the better one, not the safe
one J
