I come from a graphic design background and recently started taking up electronics as a hobby. When I first started in the design field, while in school, felt like everyone around me was more skilled and more creative than I was. I started really cracking down thinking that perhaps being more technically skilled might help to compensate where my creativity was lacking. But now that I am working in a successful design career, I realize that improving your technical skills in parallel can improve your creativity.
Everyone can learn to be creative, just like everything else, it takes practice.
omega supreme:
Which is more important? Finding bugs or running test procedures? I’ve tried end user and ad hoc testing and I can’t seem to find any bugs. Can I be an automaton just running test procedures? Will I get fired or laid off by just being strictly a procedure tester?
Either way you still have to run procedures. If you find a bug, how will someone replicate it if you don’t tell them exactly what you did? (one of my pet peeves about some testers I’ve worked with) How will anyone know after 5 years of changes if the bug has been reintroduced if there aren’t regression procedures to run?
neildarlow is correct in that there are two main tasks of testing and two very different personality types that excel at each.
You are really not being very clear about what you do!
What does “I just take logs” mean? If you are a tester, then what did you do to find a defect? Are you following a process or just randomly poking around? Finding bugs isn’t very useful unless you can tell someone how to recreate the bug.
lyndon:
You are really not being very clear about what you do!
What does “I just take logs” mean? If you are a tester, then what did you do to find a defect? Are you following a process or just randomly poking around? Finding bugs isn’t very useful unless you can tell someone how to recreate the bug.
I test software. I run procedures that others create. If some bug occurs randomly I can capture logs built into the code and include it in my problem report. If I didn't write once issues (ie. with no steps to reproduce) I would have a zero bug count. Bug count is the main performance metric. I'm known for pushing test progress but I run the same procedures over and over again, the ones I feel comfortable with and can get done fast. I stay away from the new feature, complex tests. I have a bad reputation for cherry picking the short, easy tests to inflate my test count. How can I grow to become more than just a monkey tester, automaton?
Honestly, it sounds like you are working for a company who doesn’t respect you, if what you say is true, this seems like a high stress environment which in and of itself would prevent creativity.
In any case to become creative (it can definitely be done) you need to dig into WHY the procedures are what they are. You need to develop a working model in your mind for cause and effects of the thing that you are testing. Why does it work like that, does it make sense? Think about the customers, put yourself in their shoes what they would do and think. Ask your boss for career development opportunities, if they value you as a employee, they will invest in making you more effective.
I am sorry for being the one that’s negative, but if you have to ask what to read/study, then you will always be the “Monkey.” Why not just read/study everything you can?
I can’t remember anything so it’s not possible for me to learn everything. I need to be selective. I apologize if it sounds like I’m making excuses, which are tools of the incompetent.
STOP putting yourself down this way. Talking like that (with negative absolutes) you are seeding more thoughts in yourself that will become self-fulfilling prophesies. You fail at something because you can’t see it any other way. Thinking negative makes you act negative, which in turn makes you feel negative. And that gives all the reasons to think negative again. It truly is a vicious circle. Please, take some time and read through your posts in this thread again, to reflect on it.
Honestly, been there, done that, … still doing it, but less. (Yes, I’m being a hypocrite now. It seems work for me as a self-healing method. Inducing an honest look at myself) No matter where you work, or precisely what you do for an occupation, this is unhealthy. It kills creativity! Surely you have good qualities also. Even if they are hard to come up with right now. They might be hidden under a thick dark blanket because you seem to have made this thinking into a long standing habit. So it will take some time, energy and effort (tears even) to become aware of those. Maybe it also needs professional counselling to get there. A job counsellor, psychologist or maybe even psychiatrist. At least talk about this with your doctor. I sure did need them about 12 years ago. It took a while, but I’m starting to see the benefits now of why my brain is wired as it is, right next to the drawbacks I have with it. Once you start to appreciate the good and the bad about yourself the thinking machine kicks in again and creativity will come back again. No doubt about it.
If I build circuits in a electronics lab kit, just following the breadboard instruction without really knowing what’s going on, will I eventually learn through osmosis?
Or am I better off just reading and studying electronics books?
What’s the most efficient way to learn, understand, digest, master and memorize a ton of specs, old and new. Should I be focusing more on the white papers, user experience specs, requirements, or test procedures.