Top 3 Phrases that should carry trigger warnings for the Test Community: Manual Testing, Test Automation, Quality Assurance. In this episode I’m going to talk about Manual Testing. And I’m going to talk about what we might want to say instead of “Manual Testing”.
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One Thing in Common
And they all have something else in common.
They are all noun phrases.
I try to think in “Verb noun” phrases to keep communication simpler and less vague.
I don’t want to police the language that other people use, I want to police the language I use to try to be as clear as I can when I communicate.
A heuristic for spotting Noun Phrases.
- if a phrase X describes something that you do, but in order to use it you have to say “I’m doing X” then it’s probably a noun phrase.
I’m “Doing the dishes” instead of “I’m washing the dishes”.
Washing the dishes is a verb phrase that describes the process.
But it’s all Testing, Just say Testing
It is all Testing, but if I just say “I’m Testing” then I’m hiding a lot of the nuances about what I’m doing.
- Testing (verb)
- Manually
- By Hand
- For Performance characteristics
- While Automating
- From Hand drawn state charts
- Old bugs that we think we have fixed
- etc.
With a verb phrase I can add all the additional descriptive words after testing. And manually seems to fit well OK there.
But I do have a lot of sympathy with this view of “Just say Testing” because most of the time when I see videos or blog post about “Manual Testing” they are really just describing a generic testing process.
They are not describing Testing Manually at all.
And they are not even describing how they test, it’s just a generic: Start with requirements, write some scenarios, blah de blah.
It’s possibly good that they don’t describe it as “Testing” because what they are describing is a horrible approach to collaborative Software Testing on a project and is more like a model of “Expensive Outsourced Testing”.
So maybe say that instead “Expensive Outsourced Testing”
- “what are you doing?”
- “Oh, I’m just doing some Expensive Outsource Testing”
- No no don’t do that, can’t you just test it manually instead?
But we don’t say Manual Programming
No, because programming is a verb. And we haven’t really automated it very well.
But people do now say… :
- I’m programming
- using ChatGPT
- using Co-pilot
Language is Ambiguous
Language is ambiguous.
Particularly when we have words that can be used as both nouns and verbs, depending on the context.
Words like “Testing” and “Programming”.
To demonstrate that usage context matters, I fed different prompts into Chat GPT.
Asking a very limited question which has few options for the answer, I received the answer I was looking for.
> Is this a noun phrase or a verb phrase: "manual testing"
"Manual testing" is a noun phrase. It consists of the noun
"testing" modified by the adjective "manual."
> Is this a noun phrase or a verb phrase: "testing manually"?
"Testing manually" is a verb phrase. It consists of the verb
"testing" modified by the adverb "manually."
But if I ask a more general question then I receive options that explore the variety of usages.
> Is Manual Testing a Noun Phrase?
Yes, “Manual Testing” can be considered a noun phrase. A noun phrase is a group of words centered around a noun that functions as a single unit and can act as a subject, object, or complement in a sentence. In the case of “Manual Testing,” the noun is “Testing,” and “Manual” is an adjective modifying the noun. Together, they form a noun phrase that represents a specific type or approach to testing that is done manually, without the use of automated tools.
> Is Manual Testing a Noun Phrase?
Yes, “Manual Testing” is a noun phrase. A noun phrase is a group of words centered around a noun that functions as a noun in a sentence. In this case, “Manual Testing” consists of the noun “Testing” modified by the adjective “Manual,” indicating that the testing is done by hand or manually.
> Is Manual Testing a Noun Phrase?
No, “Manual Testing” is not a noun phrase. It is a noun followed by a present participle acting as an adjective. In this case, “manual” describes the type or method of testing being performed, while “testing” is the noun representing the action or process of testing.
> Is Manual Testing a Noun Phrase?
No, “Manual Testing” is not a noun phrase. It is a compound noun formed by combining the adjective “manual” and the noun “testing.” A noun phrase is a group of words centered around a noun that functions as a subject, object, or complement in a sentence. For example, in the sentence “I performed manual testing,” “manual testing” is a noun phrase where “testing” is the noun and “manual” is an adjective describing the type of testing being performed.
> Is Manual Testing a Noun Phrase?
This was my particular favourite answer where it is not a noun phrase because it is a noun phrase.
No, “Manual Testing” is not a noun phrase. It is a noun followed by a present participle, which forms a noun phrase. “Manual” is an adjective modifying the noun “Testing,” which is the gerund form of the verb “test.” Together, they form the noun phrase “Manual Testing.”
By describing the process we use, at the current point in time, with the current aims we are attempting to achieve, we can reduce the ambiguity in our communication.
Adverbs Help me focus
Adverbs help me focus and avoid my biases.
- I’d avoid doing “Manual Testing”, instead “I’m testing this manually, I haven’t decided if I will automate this yet”
I do have the word “manually” in my vocabulary when I think I need to explicitly state that I am not automating something.
I use the word for clarity, but it is an adverb rather than making a nominalisation out of “Testing”.
I mostly use it silently when Thinking.
I use it when thinking about what I’m going to do because I might jump to ‘automating’, particularly when I’m working in a code base with a lot of Automated Execution coverage already in place.
I sometimes jump into very technical Tool based interrogation testing too quickly. So “manual” helps me focus on higher level coverage because I can’t go as deep into the system as quickly without tools.
I might use the word manually in response to a call for clarity e.g.
Alan: I'm testing the file processing we just introduced.
Person: Are you automating it?
Alan: No, I'm testing it manually
Alan-Earth-2: No, I'm testing it by hand
At other times I might say “No, I’m testing it by hand”, I’m adding the adverb for clarity to distinguish it from the process of automating.
My language choice means that I don’t tend to say “Manual Testing” but I also don’t feel a strong aversion to it.
I use this to help me. And it does help me.
I have a bigger aversion to the use of Quality Assurance than I have to Manual Testing but different words trigger different people and I find that talking in terms or processes and in more detail about how we do what we do helps improve communication.
And always remember, it could be worse. People might talk about “Manual QA” instead.
