Viddler

Great testing stories from India ( Created by NOT following any "Best Practices" )
Pradeep Soundararajan, Satisfice Inc., India

When I was 4 years old, I used to eat sand (not because my mother didn't like me eating sand nor for the reason of poverty but as a child, I think, I liked exploring sand as another food option for me) . It was my mother who helped me know my act of eating sand during child hood and referred to me as 'naughty' during childhood.I could eat sand without knowing it was called 'sand' and I could be naughty without knowing I was called 'naughty'.When I started my career as a tester and found the first few bugs, I was told by a senior to do more such "negative testing" to find more such bugs. I asked him, "What is negative testing?" and he replied, "Whatever you did to find these bugs is negative testing".I could do negative testing without knowing that someone refers to what I am doing as 'negative testing'.Years later, I blogged that I still didn't understand what negative testing means but ideas of what it could be.It took me a couple of years to learn that I do many things without knowing how someone calls it and then learned from others how some parts of the community I live in calls it.All these stories indicate that we might be doing great things without knowing it. What is important to us is doing great things and not necessarily knowing the names but it is good to know the names of the great things we do when we intend to communicate with other people.Anything that works great for me could make you fail badly. For instance, I can live a 100 years eating curd rice and pickle but you may die falling sick of it OR what medicines that could save me from a headache could kill you because although the common problem we might have is headache the actual root cause is different .If you disagree to it, 'best practices' fit you well.If you agree to it, then I am sure you understand why doctors prescribe different medicines for