Chapter 5 is about Energy. Following on from the last blog’s commentary let me pick up a theme I sort of touched on, which was brought out in the comments, testing in a passive or active manner. Think of that as energy. You have potential (stored) and kinetic (moving) energy; you also have inactive (observation) and active (participatory) testing. When performing test-y duties they can be done in a manner where you are actively using code or by having it run and checking results, or the environment, without any real interaction with the test scripts. I am not advocating one over the other, at times I have run scenarios in either way depending on what I was testing. While in this chapter there is a lot of discussion about men and moving them into battle, I am going for the spirit of the idea and while I may refer to men in the quotes, I will not talk about them as it won’t really relate; unless I wanted to talk all about managing. Which I could, but maybe another time, I’m going to be jumping around in regards to expenditures of energy but relate it as I can to the quotes.
Sun Tzu said: The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men: it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.
I guess a more current version of this might be not biting off more than you can chew, take small bites, or even manage a large group as many small groups. On a personal level, if I have a lot of work to do, then doing it in small pieces is much easier to control than trying to complete all of it at once. When getting a project of work, doing 100% of it, and spreading your time across all of the components that make up that project doesn’t get it done any faster than focusing on one piece at a time. Baby steps, like we used to say when I was a kid, don’t push yourself until you are ready, just take it slow and focus on what is in front of you. Same way with a large project or task, take what is in front or needs to be done first and as its done move on, be like water moving around a bunch of stones, the water doesn’t crash into the rocks, well it might if it’s a deluge, but a stream finds a path through them of least resistance and deals with the path that requires the least expenditure of energy.
In some ways a project has an energy balance, or in game terms you have 100 Project Points, pushing yourself across the project you lose points as you move through it. If you rush then you lose points pretty quickly, and unless you can get time to get those points back you will run to 0 and then it’s Game Over. If you take time, find the right path, look for the Restore Points, allow yourself time to regenerate then you will get further than just running along the path and trying to reach the end. Sort of like the tortoise and the hare, the hare may be quicker but may need to rest more, or become too confident at getting there first that he makes a diversion, while the tortoise moves along at a good pace and gets to the end.
The discussion on energy from Sun Tzu uses two terms Cheng and Ch’I, which don’t easily translate well to English, many Chinese terms have a lot of significance behind them which is not really a part of the definition but a part of the ideogram and what lies behind it. A simple definition for Cheng is facing the enemy, where you march straight to the enemy and keep your face towards them; Ch’I on the other hand is movement, making diversions or changing direction in some form. Cheng becomes passive as its just movement, a steady flow towards a point, Ch’I is activity where motion becomes part of the movement and the point can then be reached by many pathways. Pretty much all I am going to do for this one, since it could go on and on, maybe a follow up later on.
In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.
To get work done in the project requires a path, that was determined within the project plan, to achieve those results occasionally means moving around the point or task and determine if maybe the direction to complete it has changed. Do you use energy actively or let it collect until the end? In other words, expend and recharge or use it in a burst? In some respects using it all at once can be useful, if your culture moves you in a direction where all testing happens at once, or if testing is done over time then alternately saving and expending energy will be the wise choice. How you move and use your energy in a project is up to you, and will change according to conditions of the project and the company culture. The important thing is to avoid burnout.
Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.
There are multiple approaches to the problem, think back to a solution made a year ago, would you make the same results now? Has experience taught you that maybe a better way now presents itself? Just as lessons learned are gone in the past, they will come again unless the culture that generated them has changed, just as the problems that arise can be infinite so can the solutions to resolve them. But just as there is more than one way to plan a project, so there is more than one way to test a project, one may be better than another in a given situation. A project that has limited resources would be tested much different than one where you have twice the resources, including automation capability, that in itself changes how the project would be handled once it undergoes test. Still the point I made earlier, there is a certain amount of energy in a project, what changes over time is how that energy can be used and channeled. A team of testers who are able to do Functionality, Exploratory and Unit Testing are going to be handled and worked differently than a group of Functional, GUI and Automation testers. Understanding what kind of energy you have, and how it can be used to be most effective will help not only in smoothing a project, but even on a personal level allows better choices in choosing what to do and handle within the time allotted. Know how much energy you have for a project, then plan it out to get to the end, but remember roadblocks may happen, when they do, be like the water and flow around them eventually they will grind down.
The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?
It’s circular. Like a point in a circle there are many ways to look at it in two dimensions, 360 degrees of looking actually, but if that point is now in a sphere you have a larger number of ways of seeing that point, use it to your advantage and consider how many ways to test then choose the right one for you.
This one was tough…but its 5 down!
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