Unsaid Skill embedded in the Code and Tests - Questioning

 

I read this question from Balaji Santhanagopalan in the Telegram group of The Test Chat.  This question is also on Linkedin, here.

A question to my fellow testers. How you are sharpening your questioning skills?

I see the first is to know the need for it.  And the ability to identify the question first.  In this blog post, I'm sharing how I cross through it.

I'm attempting to open my thoughts on questioning in different facets that I see:

1. Philosophical
2. Problem Learning and Identification
3. Binary and Questions
4. Pausing and Stopping with Questioning
5. Persuasion and Communication

I understand the word "skill" as:

• how do I make use of or apply what I practice, what I have or know in learning and solving a problem

Philosophical or Meta Layer Thoughts

1. When did we not use a question?
2. To better the questioning skills, we will have to identify the questions first.
3. How do we identify the questions?

How do we identify the questions?

• When I communicate
• When I communicate by showing I belong there and also do not belong there, I identify the questions. 
• And eventually, I will be identified in it

Decisions and Questions

• Everything and anything we do is by making a decision
• To decide, did we make use of the question(s)?  
• We keep making thousands of decisions every day, and 
• Each decision will have at least one question to it

For example, the last time you unlocked and locked your mobile screen, you had a question.  But that question went unnoticed.  It was at a subconscious level; it was not noticed by you consciously.  

At times what helped your subconsciousness could be a contextual question, and sometimes it can be a context-free question.  The combination of both is also possible.

Problem Identification, Learning, Understanding, and Solving Thoughts

While I use the questioning to learn, I will have to cross these challenges:

1. Keeping the questions in conscious order so that I can classify them
2. Classifying them to record it better in a contextual and context-free section
3. Will the questions annoy the one at receiving end and how to persuade so I receive a response that helps me?
4. Keeping the questions aligned with the objective yet we have context-free ones

Using the persuading skills with question and questioning will help much.  Consistently develop self-confidence and courage.

Technical Layers - Binary and Questioning

Binary - true or false.  You see that is a decision.  When I have a decision, I have a question.  The binary execution uses the conditions, states, events, data, and controls at the granular level with all interactions we have with it.

For example,

1. What happens when you unlock your screen with the fingerprint?
2. When you sign in to your email, what happens?
3. Here, internally software executes the set of conditions and the assertions by switching the controls, state, data, and events.

What are contextual questions and context-free questions in this case?  When you have a condition and an assertion in execution, you see a question?

In other words,

• the execution is an outcome of a question be it in binary or in a human

Internally the software works by asking questions and deciding what to do.  Now, what should my tests do?  Should it ask questions?

We engineers, we work with questions day in and out.  And, we do not know it consciously. 

Pausing and Stopping with Questioning

Have you come across the question

When the testing will be complete?

  

Can the testing be complete?

We would have paused the testing. Or, we would have stopped the testing.  But we never complete or completed the testing.  Testing can go and go on.  But it has to find a stop.  So is the questioning.  The questioning has to find a stop.  It can't go on and on.

When to stop questioning?  Ask when you want to stop or pause the testing.  It is important to know when to stop it.

Questions (tests) keep coming up and they may not be heard by the interfaces or people.  Learning to deal with it is a needed skill.

Art of Persuasion

When I communicate, how I persuade plays a role.  It also applies to questions I ask.

• Questioning is also communication
• Practicing the skill of persuasion will help as I continue to question

How to persuade using a question to a binary and human?  I work on this skill to assist my communication and questioning skills.

My Experiences and I

The below is missed to see on the floor by people who interact with the engineers and by the engineers.

1. A programmer has questions in the code via conditions, states, events, data, and controls.
• The product responds to do what it is supposed to do with help of these questions.
• Do you see any contextual and context-free questions here?
2. A tester has questions in the form of the tests.
• The question of testers will be to the
• code, 
• product, 
• data, 
• programmer, 
• infrastructure, 
• system, and 
• anyone who adds value to the product
• Do you see any contextual and context-free questions here?

Identifying the questions (code and tests) and their layers is one of activity I do in my practice.  I try to understand and identify myself here so we communicate.  

For example, I have to test if the host serves requests coming from the client which is not on TLS v1.2.  What are the layers and their intermediates here?  What questions do I have in my tests here?  When I look into these layers, I see the questions (code) logically?  To question the logic what is my test (question).  Here is the start!

Further, to hone or better the questioning skills, I will identify the questions in the below mentioned:

• system,
• design
• code,
• product, 
• business, 
• technology, 
• people, 
• self, and
• what you are not aware
• what you know

I will classify the questions into contextual and context-free.  

I persuade my communication and questions by making use of Test Strategy, Test Design, and Testing Techniques to drive me towards value adding questions in the context of testing. 

I will work to develop my skills, self-confidence, and courage to test, communicate, and question.  I will break my ego and hesitation and step up. I initiate the communication.  I will acknowledge the feedback. I review and refine my questions.

To start, I will start first and the rest follows.