3.14 Lessons for Testers from Theatre
With a possibility of 78.5% applicability of the 4 analogies from Theater discussed in this article, I hope this article ins-pie-res testing minds. This is the best I could come up with, oder?
"?? ???? ??? ?? ???! ???-??? ?? ????? ???? ?? ????? ????" ~ ??????????? ????????
(Non-translatable, sorry. Lit.: Hey, Pie of your Four. This Faijal will hold you accountable for every Pie. This translation is so bad that it's funny).
Sorry people. The weasel from Scott Adams universe captures my soul every now and then. I promise I am usually as dull and serious when I begin to write an article or a post, as the IT world expects me to be. Then the weasel takes over and I see humour in random stuff. It takes a certain quality of mischief in mind to understand my humour. I know most of you are not mischievous or not my kind of mischievous. You are good, sane people. With this excuse, I already feel better. The weasel may rest for a few minutes.
As a kid I was introduced to the world of theatre - stage plays, debates and poetry - since I was around 10 years old. The stage plays were mostly dark and satirical versus poetry, primarily ghazal, was deep, serious and philosophical. I am pretty much used to these two contradicting personalities which co-exist in me. That's also the reason I had only a few friends, and all of them barring one, 10-15 years on either side of my age.
I don't believe in over-fitting of analogies. So, here are some things which became a part of my personality - which helped me surf through the chaos of testing world with a mind that is even more chaotic. You might have or could have reached the same state by taking a very different path from me. The path in itself is just a path.
The Script and Improvisation
I have performed various roles in stage in an earlier life before becoming a presenter in the IT world in 2003 with my talk Be the Best of Whatever You Are, a talk whose title was picked up from Dale Carnegie's book.
I did stage plays lasting 30-90 minutes, and solo acting performances ranging from 3-30 minutes. I did stage anchoring lasting a few minutes to 14 hours at Hariballabh Sangeet Sammelan, one of the largest Indian classical music events in the world.
Why am I mentioning all this background?
Because I see the testing world debating unnecessarily about scripted vs exploratory testing.
Even the novices, 10 year olds from Theatre can tell you that the script and improvisation co-exist.
In a recent conference I delivered a keynote without slides for 45 minutes. Also, it was not a pre-prepared/scripted talk, although I had created a rough mental model about it in 2 hours before the talk. Some said oh that must have been pre-planned, hinting that all through the previous months I had been rehearsing for it. So people, make up your mind first. Can you face/digest pure exploration when you see it, although you keep talking about exploratory testing? Can't you see that a script could just be a skeleton of thought in one's mind without ever scribbling it. Oh wait, that's what you have been calling exploratory testing. Now, either I am confused because I believe in this co-existence or you have found peace in an ever-existing binary shade of reality.
Chekhov's Gun
Not that gun, you funny weasel. The gun on the stage.
"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev (pseudonym of A. S. Gruzinsky), 1 November 1889.
No wasteful documentation is often talked about. It's another thing, that some Agilists (with the letter 'A' in caps, bold, stylised and blinking), found the word 'wasteful' itself a waste and are happy with 'No documentation'.
Jokes apart, the key message is:
No Wasteful Anything.
* Many years back, I had written a detailed article about Chekhov's Gun and Test Planning. I don't like it any more. It is a case of overfitting - something which irritates me to the core these days. I have this feeling when I look at my own article.
Zameen
Zameen is an Urdu word which usually translates to Earth.
However in Urdu poetry, specifically in a poetry form called ghazal, it has the meaning of being a basis. Let me explain.
A ghazal contains couplets (pairs of two lines). Each couplet can express a continuation of the overall idea or an altogether different theme. Each line in the ghazal follows a fixed meter in terms of the totality of vowel sounds and their exact flow. There is a strict rhyme scheme as well.
When I went to Abdul Rahman Jaami saahab, he was in his seventies. I requested him to teach me how to write Urdu ghazals. He said:
No one can teach poetry to any one. The poet should already be in you; however the rules can be taught. For that too, the signs of how to weave words, following the rules, into something which still can be considered art, can not be taught.
He opened one of his published books and picked one of the lines from one of his ghazals:
"ab nahi hai vo hamsafar mera"
He said - "This is your exercise, go ahead and complete the ghazal and bring it back to me. If I see any signs of you being a poet who can write a ghazal, I'll teach you further."
To cut the story short, yes he ultimately found me worthy and became my teacher.
This concept is called "Kisi ki Zameen par likhna - to write a unique & original ghazal by taking a single line from someone's ghazal.
When I felt like breaking the rules, I started writing other forms of poetry in Urdu. Later I transformed this art and craft to writing Punjabi poetry. I even use some of the lessons in writing my English articles for testing world.
While some of my peers throughout my career were just echoing what different experts in the world were saying at a point in time, hopping from one buzzword to another, one appealing one-liner to another, I used work from all these experts as "the Zameen" to create my original poetry in the testing world.
Have you embraced the themes in testing and started writing your own poetry? Have you explored the deeper rules of the craft of testing? Are you still stuck with the rules of the craft or have you progressed to the art of testing to transform those rules?
Dignity and Bliss
During the theatre, there were various instances where someone not giving his profession or art the respect it deserves, would have given up.
When I was 15, we were supposed to perform a stage play in an open auditorium near a village. An hour before the play, it started raining heavily. No one turned up in the audience except this one person, who sat on a wet seat with an umbrella. The stage was open too so if we had to perform, we would be performing in rain. We all decided to go ahead and perform the play out of sheer respect for this one person who wanted to see the play. No, it was not about money. There was no entry ticket.
Some years later, I setup a Nukkad naatak group of my own when I was 17. During one of the acts, we were chased by Police as we were performing an anti-police play in front of a police station. We continued performing acts after this episode. No, there was no money involved. We used to contribute our pocket money to take care of the expenses.
Still years later, my complete team went away to participate in a strike. It was a 6-actor play of 30 minutes. I thought the show must go own. So, I played all the the 6 characters. It was of course disqualified from the competition as it broke the rule of min 4 actors. But it was fun.
One of the judges said - "I won't say it was a great play. It was just ok. But in my 30 years of professional theatre, I haven't seen any such thing happening. You must have a lot of love for what you do to take such a step.".
That!
That took some time for me when it comes to testing world. However, I share the same relationship with testing since many years which I once shared with theatre - that of dignity and that of a feeling of sheer bliss.
What's your relationship with testing?
I hope that covers the 3.14 lessons from theatre for testers, Faijal?
No? 0.37? Ok, that's fine too.
In case you are interested: Find out what is the Fourth Wall in theatre. When you understand that, you will understand some of the subtle humour in my fable The Crow who Wasn't Thirsty - a little better and maybe the Faijal humour here as well in the way I wrote it.
That's all for now.
Some related articles:
Founder 5 Elements Learning and Mosaic Words | Published Author | Selenium Committer | Eternal Learner | Conservationist | ??? ????? | #BeKind
1 年I was introduced to theater when I was around 9 I guess, I remember playing a parrot a mighty one i have to add, and the song I along with other birds sang.. I think we do remember the script, the dialogues. I learned that I enjoy being the one directing than performing.. so I went on doing it in my college and made people dance on my tunes.. I do that now with family :) and that's why I enjoy organizing conferences, enjoy others taking the stage and shining! This sentence - Kisi ki zameen pe likhna reminded me of the book I read sometime back - Steal Like an Artist.. The book says we aren't creating anything which doesn't already exists. I started writing poetry early as a kid, and I remember meeting Ruskin Bond in his Landour house, climbing all those stairs with a broken ankle, pestering him to open the door(he is very reclusive), and getting him to read my work, asking if I can ever be a published poet, he explained me the grim realities of the published world, but was generous enough to give me few of his books on life, love, your article reminded me of all that. But I do wish you publish your work, I have read your poems, and feel the depth of it. And I hope I see your this side one day at Rekhta.