Software Testing and Cricket

I am trying to relate two irrelevant topics here :)

I see a few similar points in Software Testing and Cricket.

(Un)Predictability

In a cricket team, it is very difficult to predict a win or loss until the last ball is bowled. Unpredictability makes  cricket very interesting. In software testing, test plans are prepared, the tester is ready with manual or automation tests with expected behaviour. We cannot predict the application behaviour until we actually get the application to test, even though we know the expected behaviour. Unpredictability makes software testing very interesting and exciting.

Skills

In a cricket team, all players are skilful but  only a few players can make their team a winner by making hundreds of runs  or taking more wickets. In testing team also all team members are skilful but only a few people find many important bugs quickly. In both cricket and software testing, one needs to learn from mistakes, practicing and applying are the three golden rules to learn any skill.

Planning

A Cricket team analyzes their opponent team and prepares a game plan. This plan will change depending on the opponent team. In planning, they consider the opponent team's weakness and strengths. In a similar way, software testing also requires a plan before testing. A test plan which includes use cases of software, performance testing, security testing and environment...etc is prepared.

Handling Pressure

Handling pressure is most important thing in both cricket and software testing. In cricket handling pressure decides the victory. We can see many situations like in a few balls needs to score more runs. The player needs to score more runs when we have few wickets and needs to take more wickets in a short time. Similarly in software testing, many situations like we don't get much time to complete the regression testing cycle, sometimes we need to complete the testing with less resource and sometimes need to reduce the scope of testing.

Adaptability

In international cricket matches, you must have observed discussion on pitch conditions, the amount of grass and weather.. etc. Cricket players find difficulty playing in other countries. But players need to adapt to the conditions and need to perform depending on the conditions. In software testing also, there are many things they need to adapt to.Testers always need to have the quality adaptability.

Testers should not come up with following excuses. 

• I have not tested anything like this before
• This platform is completely new to me
• I am new to this technology. I cannot test it
• I am a manual tester. I cannot use this test automation tool
• I need the domain knowledge before I can test this application

The last one, in my words, Software testing team is like bowling team in cricket. Although we contribute to the team’s success, failure to catch some important bugs are pointed out immediately. In cricket, in the last overs, players are required to score high run rate. In Software testing, testers get all the features for testing at end of the release.