The next chapter: Exploring human fallibility...

In pretty much every book I've ever seen on testing, the first chapter usually starts with a discussion on why we need testers.  And the reason is always given that "we need testers because human beings are fallible when it comes to creating things".

This is absolutely true.  However in many people's education on testing, once this has been brought up, it's immediately dropped, and never returned to.

But consider this - if we knew more about the ways that we as humans are unconsciously susceptible, wouldn't that make us better at anticipating problems?  That is an approach which is far more uncommon, and really it was James Bach's Rapid Software Testing course that was the first time I'd encountered a serious look at how such psychological limitations impact how we functioned within an IT context.

We've covered aspects of this before - however I want critical thinking to become much more the focus of topics explored going into 2016, although as always it'll be linking back to IT related themes.

So that means, some of the subjects covered on this blog may well seem initially a bit odd- but humour me.  Then again, this is a blog which has covered alien invasions and flat earths - so I guess you know that weird comes with the territory ...