License To Crack - Industry Difference

There are some significant differences between software industry and other industries. If we take pharmaceutical industry there are many chemical manufacturers; there are many different production plants that mix these chemicals and make a specific drug. These drugs need to be packaged, transported to different cities and to retail pharmacies. Assuming an incident in which some drugs caused bad side effects in a particular city, the drug company need to ensure that it is addressed within hours, submit legal documents on quality, replace drugs and battle any lawsuits!

Assuming a manufacturing company that provides ball bearing to a car company and the dimension of the bearings are smaller by 0.1mm in dimension! Same issue to replace, transport, etc. Moreover we need more raw materials to rebuild some more parts; we need more time, transportation. What are we going to do with the facility drugs or bearings? It requires more expenses!

In software, there is no transportation cost, just redo and email/ftp the new software. There is no wastage of raw material. There is no waste disposal. Any other industry, the defect or mistakes are visible very obviously, quickly, if a food item is stale, we can feel immediately, if a car driver makes mistake while driving, it will be visible clearly, but in software, we cannot fine the defects easily, once the code is compiled and built all mistakes are buried in binaries.

Most of the times one portion of the software will work; another area will fail. We cannot see through the software fully, easily. No one is directly physically hurt if a software fails. If an artificial respirator fails, due to software defect the first doubt by instinct goes towards the equipment and not to the software that controls it. So, a mistake made in software is not easily detectible. If it is not easily detectible, it gives more room to make mistakes!

Testing requires a mindset to find issues. The first and foremost quality for that is "Attention to details". Let us have a small exercise. Just mentally list one all the parts of a two wheeler or four wheeler vehicle. Count how many parts you are able to do so. Your time starts now. Hope you are done. Le me ask a simple question. Did you list the fuel tank cover, fuel tank cover open knob, seat cover, engine temperature indicator, battery, foot rest…. Do you agree that you missed at least 2 parts out of the above list? So many years you see and use, yet you miss. That is what to be found out in testing. What a developer misses, that should be caught by a tester.

Did you observe one more thing where you listed out the parts? First minute you would have listed fast, next minute you slow down, 3rd minute onwards you feel like not getting any more parts. Human mind needs constant push. We need to push it saying "There is some more left, unnoticed". So did it! A test must never give up.