Testing Outside The Black Box

Much of what we focus on as quality engineers is determining the quality of a given application. Software testers test software, but software is not all that software companies produce. Companies also produce web sites, demo applications, marketing material, and more. Who is responsible for the quality of this stuff?

Hopefully the teams that create these things have systems in place to ensure their quality. Realistically, you might as we that all bugs will fix themselves, the company stock will triple every year, and there will be pizza and chocolate cake every day. It could happen, but don't count on it.

As an example, my company just launched a book widget gallery. The purpose of this blog is to showcase our SmartLink widgets for books by a set of authors. The hope is that these authors and their fans will see these widgets, love them, and put them on their own sites. It uses our technology, but it is not one of our products. It would be an easy thing for test team (aka me) to say, "Well, that is a marketing thing, so we don't need to worry about it." The problem is, it is the testers that have the mad bug finding skills, so who better to do testing, even of stuff that is outside our "responsibilities". As such, I went ahead and did some testing on the gallery, and continue to keep my eyes on it.

So, ask yourself, where else in your company can things go wrong? For everywhere you identify, then ask yourself what you can do about it. This may mean venturing into areas that testers have never been, but any wise person in your company will appreciate your insights into how to make things better. Think of yourself as a missionary of quality.