My QA Playbook
QA done right.
Learning never stops.
Hence, a QA doc is a living doc.
Epistemological QA Flow
My documentation is a screenshot, my back-up and a reference.
Because Information overload is not a myth.
There are times when my brain is so caught up in the thinking of the details,
while having the bigger complexer picture in the back of my mind,
I loose either the bigger picture or a crucial detail.
My therapist explained to me that I shouldn’t waste time with
the guilt trip my backstabbing colleagues gave me (Look at him, he made a mistake!).
- Only who dares can make mistakes.
- Solutions require free thinking.
Divide Et Impera
A computer has multiple instances in which information gets stored or processed.
In psychology, I learned that the brain has short term, long term memory, muscle memory and so on.
To navigate/prevent information overload I simply divide load of information in:
- knowledge that I can store (i.e GitHub)
- knowledge that is long term in my brain
- knowledge that is process in my short term memory
- knowledge that my finger muscle memorized by typing all day.
I call the flow of information and experience that accumulated over time to a knowledgebase - my 'Epistemological QA Flow'.
Learning for the new
QA documentation keeps onboarding civil.
Learning for the everyday
- The knowledge base grows because with every feature, with every update and optimization, QA learns new challenges and of course new skills.
- Cognitively it is more efficient and therefore reasonable to outsource some knowledge in a living doc and keep the link to that doc in the brain’s memory.
- I know where to find the knowledge when I need it but for now I can forget and focus on the here and now.
Learning in retro syllogism
Assumption#1: QA documentation instantiates each learning iteration.
Assumption#2: Only in retro we can capture the instantiation.
Conclusion: documentation is a epistemological flow.
Documentation is in essence not only a description of the processes but also a dependable source of knowledge about what worked and how - what I am justified to have confidence in. Documentation becomes a flow of knowledge since the knowledge is re-instantiated with each iteration.
Take away
- Living doc is an aid to build my own QA knowledgebase.
- A compact reference in time of need.
- To ask for review (nobody needs to be perfect).
- Gathering information and experience to get me on the level where I generate new testing ideas.
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