Is manual testing very easy? A comparison…

Lately there was a question on LinkedIn, is manual testing very easy?

My answer in short was that it depends on you and your skills.

Inspired by the blog from Michael Bolton about “Counting the wagons”, I came to a an analogy that might be fitting here.

Testing is like moving a vehicle. It depends on your skills if it is easy, challenging or impossible.

The software is the vehicle, so imagine everything from skateboard, bicycle, motorcycle, cars, transporters, trucks, helicopter, plane, boat, cruise ship to a spaceship. To bring in some variance, old models, contemporary models, completely new designs, from broken to running fine.

The test assignment can be anything from check if its running, check some particular functionality, like breaks, running errands with or without a shopping list, driving from A to B, with or without a map, discover new spaces.

The environment for your software is anything from prototype to mass-software, so from first tests in the simulator, driving on a test or empty race track to driving downtown Beijing in rush-hour.

For reporting your drive-out you might have only your brain, a co-pilot who tracks things on a map, a black box, onboard video, radar.

If the damn thing breaks down, do you hand it over to the mechanic/engineer, “this is broken”, do you look under the hood and tell him, you think that something with the turbo is wrong, when you go from 80 to 100, or you deconstruct the thing to tell him, where the issue is.

For coaching/managing do you have a co-pilot, an instructor, a fleet manager, a customer (e.g. taxi), or simply a boss telling you to get the job done. Or are you working on your own, just for fun. Driving around with some friends.

So if testing is easy for you depends on your skills, your experience and how fast you learn and adapt.

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