When do you feel productive? Rikard Edgren
I believe that it is impossible to objectively capture important things about a software tester’s productivity.
On the other hand I don’t believe there is a big difference between feeling productive and being productive.
I feel productive when I
* test a feature that is good, but not perfect
* review specifications
* do pair testing
* am happy
* am motivated
* find interesting things in the product
* find very important defects
* report bugs
* help developers
* don’t think much
When do you feel productive?
How do you make sure you spend as much time as possible being/feeling max-productive?
Good list…but
“* don’t think much”
Could you elaborate on this one?
Sometimes I notice that I haven’t really been thinking for a long time.
I have just kept doing what I was doing.
This happens mostly for me when playing music, but can also occur at work (too seldom, though…)
I’m totally absorbed, and after an hour or so, I realize I have been very productive.
I have read Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, and it’s basically the same thing.
See also Henriks blog post Professional creativity = a conscious way to step out of your consciousness. – http://thetesteye.com/blog/2008/04/professional-creativity-a-conscious-way-to-step-out-of-your-consciousness/
I don’t feel productive when I know someone else think I am not. I doubt.
When people have trust in me that I am productive, I am not hindered in feeling productive.
I’ve not read Flow, but I think the things you list are good.
I feel productive when…
– an end-user says : we usually find those bugs in production ( last month)
– another end-user says: wow you really found that complicated bug(monday this week)
– my test-adept says it is fun to work with you and I am learning a lot(last week)
– what I tell participants in one of my classes make them say: I got so many new ideas, we really have to change the way we are working (today)
-when I help isolating the bugs i find so that it really easy for the developer to fix them
I agree Martin, Trust is important, for many reasons.
Torbjörn, that’s a good list, and a good list to have!
I didn’t think about the retrospective productivity feeling, which might very well be more important.