A popular misconception is that software testing is primarily about finding defects. This view is not really tenable, regardless of which testing school you identify with. The BBST® Syllabus states in essence that testing is a search for information and serves to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or the test object. The ISTQB also names this as one possible testing objective. Relevant literature points in a similar direction. Elizabeth Hendrickson postulates in Explore It that providing information is one possible goal. Maaret Pyhäjärvi strikes a similar chord in Contemporary Exploratory Testing, placing learning at the centre.
In this understanding, testing represents one way to gather information and make it accessible to other people and places. There are generally two purposes behind this:
-
Improving the basis for decisions Decisions are made at many points in product development. Do we continue? Can we release at this point in time? Testing gives us proven methods to deliver information for exactly these decisions. AI is already accelerating this information provision in many areas today — and at the same time these decisions sometimes rest on considerably shakier ground, because the information is not always as valid as the decisions require. Testing therefore assumes an important information control function here.
-
Dissolving knowledge silos The emergence and dissolution of knowledge silos connects to the SECI model by Nonaka and Takeuchi. This model describes how knowledge is created and transferred through four modes: socialisation, externalisation, combination, and internalisation. Testing contributes significantly to promoting the flow of knowledge between these modes. For example, implicit experiences and discoveries from the testing process (socialisation) are made explicit through test documentation, bug reports, or joint reviews (externalisation). These explicit pieces of information can then be systematically combined and analysed (combination), enabling new insights and approaches. Finally, these findings can be adopted by other team members and applied practically in their daily work (internalisation) — including in the decisions mentioned above.
Further Reading:
Pyhäjärvi: Contemporary Exploratory Testing. 2024.
Hendrickson: Explore It. 2013.
Nonaka/Takeuchi: The Knowledge Creating Company. 1995.
