determinedTester's Journey

  Observation: How it has helped me as a tester? In one of the chapters of her book, "Explore IT," Elizabeth Hendrickson discusses observation and how it is crucial for exploratory testing. Checking logs for surprises is one technique to observe during testing. I was brought back to my days as a mid-level test engineer while reading it. On the user's side, the product appeared to be relatively straightforward, but it actually had a sophisticated architecture and a lot of moving components. For this product, there were very few user interactions; everything took place in the background, and logs were essential for troubleshooting. When I first discovered a bug, I would gather proof—reproducing steps, error logs—most often grep 'error' log files—and screenshots—and be prepared to report the issue. My manager would ping me with questions like, "Did you try to reproduce the bug in another test combination?" and "Did you check that?" and “Did you tr