Cross posted from the Xenodochion
The last week has been very full on. I was one of the attendees at the first ever ISTQB(1) Advanced Test Analyst course held here in Wellington. This is the highest professional qualification currently available in my field. To put this in context the course had about 34 hours of teaching time over 5 days. I have over 2000 pages of printouts/mock exam questions/example exercise and text books to read and master prior to my exam in June.

If I pass the exam I will be one of the first people in the world with this qualification. Possibly, if I am extraordinarily luck, the first person in the world to obtain the qualification (2).

I just spent 5 days cramming for what will one day probably be an honours paper. And all that with a head cold.

So I am knackered. My brain is full.

I can tell you how to equivalence partition your daily activities and to boundary test to ensure the partitions are effective. I can complete a decision table and/or cause effect graph on how you drive your car. I can wax lyrical about the importance of pairwise testing to ensure all your combinations are covered and much, much more.

Joking aside the course was fantastic. It really showed me where I need to up my game. And where I am doing well (more of the former than the latter). It will help me to mentor my team and improve the standard of testing in this organisation.

Of the 5 day course 3 days were fully set aside to diving deep into the various analytic and reactive test analysis techniques that are out there. Looking at each from the point of view of best practice. Learning about them, trying them out, being tested on them. Learning how to blend them together to create a more full approach to a particular project.

And, to be honest, I love this stuff. I love exercising my brain in this way. I love it that a job I am doing “just for the money” is something I can relish and enjoy. I have thought to myself for the past 2 years: “I’d rather be teaching”, but, truth be known, listening to all the teachers I know, I am not sure that’s true any more. It has taken me 7 years but I have come to a realistic assessment of my career’s place in the world and my place in it.

I think I have finally gotten to the sweet spot as well. In terms of the things I don’t like about being a test analyst I don’t have to do much of them. And in terms of the things I do like, my day is full of them. Managing the team is about as difficult as I thought it would be but quite a lot more fun than I was expecting. I have a long way to go to be half the test manager that my previous boss was, but it’s good to have somewhere to aim for.

The biggest problem is that it is getting really busy. Last week I got home much later than usual each night, and most nights had things on, so I barely saw the kids. I missed them terribly and it’s clear they missed me too. By the time the weekend came I was so tired (and snuffly from my head cold) I pretty much checked out for much of it.

The year ahead promises to be really full on, what with the new job, the church plant and planning a short term missions trip to India next Jan. I need to make sure that the kids and Natalya don’t lose out in the bargin.

Point of Fashion: My sense of accomplishment
Current Obsession: Software test analysis and biblical models of leadership
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(1)ISTQB = International Software Testing Qualifications Board
(2) Assuming that a, no other national board creates and implements the exam prior to the ANZTQB doing so (which seems unlikely) and b, my exam being the first one marked out of the 12 they get (1 in 12 is okay oddswise) and c, I actually pass the exam (this seems least likely of the three).