A homeowner wanted to have her hardwood floors redone. She had two different craftsmen come to her home to look over the job.
One arrived in a Geo Metro with only a Leatherman. The other arrived in a Mercedes Benz work van full of tools. Tools she had never thought of or seen before. The craftsman had ventilated masks to protect his health. He had knee pads for working on the floor. He had sandpaper of all different varieties. He had saws of different types – manual, automated, precise and not. His clothes were even tailored for his work.
Which of these two craftsmen do you think the woman chose? Which would you choose?
When you’re asked to use one tool for many different use cases in your test automation which of these two craftsmen do you resemble? Which one does your management expected you to be?
To just look over the job? Definitely would pick the first one. I question why someone would feel the need to trot out all the accoutrements just to give an estimate.
It’s important to pick the right tools for the job, but it’s also important to pick them at the right time, too.
Good point Michael. Maybe the metaphor didn’t connect as I’d hoped. My intention was to parallel the hiring process or the hiring process in relation to tool selection – not the estimate process. Also, the way decision makers expect us to work. Do they expect you to use one tool for all jobs? Does that make sense? I see people doing silly things like trying to use webdriver for api testing, for instance.
But in the case you mentioned, I’m with you. If an SDET brought a set of jar files to a sprint planning review, I’d be concerned too!
Thanks for the comment, and really nice blog, btw!