Russel Smith, Janrain
With the implementation of Systems Thinking as a mindset, and pulling from Systems Thinking principles, I believe that testers can be more valuable to their organization in at-least 2 ways. 1- They can apply Systems Thinking to their own existence in the system they live and work in. 2- They can educate and coach the teams they work with and improve the system as a whole. Because of the unique position we are in, and the number of individuals and teams we interface with, we are at an advantage to spreading ideas just as bees spread pollen between flowers and thus having influence on the environment in a positive and meaningful way. Because Systems Thinking can be applied so vastly I have chosen to narrow the focus of this paper to using Systems Thinking laws as a Tester in a non-management role, though some areas may be relevant or touch base on test management or organizational management and situations where you are interfacing with management. This paper will be guided by the Systems Thinking laws as described by Peter Senge and how they are at play during your everyday life as a Tester. It is aimed at helping you recognize the situations in which non-Systems Thinking is at play and how to apply Systems Thinking during those situations. Anyone reading this should be able to extract the concepts and apply them to what they do regardless of whether they are a Tester or Test Manager.
2015 Technical Paper, Russel Smith, Paper, Slides, Notes, Video.
