CAST 2016

Fear of uncertainty is natural and human. Few of us would be happy not knowing when we or our loved ones could eat again, or whether bombs might drop on us tonight.

Yet some people joyously embrace particular uncertain situations, seeing opportunities to exercise and hone their skills. Others detest all uncertainty and seek to deny it or will it away.

Many managers discourage behaviour that exposes uncertainty. They don’t want to hear about risks, and they don’t like people asking too many questions. In their minds, exploration promotes uncertainty because it’s unpredictable and uncontrollable. They prefer absolutes:

• Immovable delivery dates and fixed costs

• Mandated “best practices” and controlled processes that (they believe) produce predictable results

• Hard numbers that purport to tell them exactly what’s going on

Good testers know that uncertainty is inescapable in software development (as in life), and it is better to embrace it on our projects than to run away from it. There are no best practices, and the only responsible answer is usually, “It depends.” It’s our job to expose uncertainty, and to help reduce it when possible.

But testers are not immune to human feelings. We also can fall into denial and too-easy answers.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll do group exercises and debriefs to tackle the questions:

• How can we grow our own tolerance for uncertainty and learn to embrace it?

• How can we promote a healthy attitude to uncertainty on our software projects?