James Bach - A-Galumphing We Go

I love this talk posted in TestBash 2.0 from James Bach, He loves it too:

One of my best talks. "@damimj: another great lesson by @jamesmarcusbach ministryoftesting.com/2013/04/testba… #testbash"

— James Marcus Bach (@jamesmarcusbach) 26 de abril de 2013

The Goalkeeper Tester

Two of the best Goalkeepers of the World

In association football, the goalkeeper occupies a position that represents the last line of defence between opposing attackers and his own team's goal. The primary role of the goalkeeper is to defend his team's goal and prevent the opposition from scoring a goal. The goalkeeper is the only player who is permitted to touch the ball with his hands or arms in open play (within his own penalty area). 1

"And what do you want? If he's a Goalkeeper!" Diego Maradona

In football, I am a Goalkeeper.  Since I was a boy. I have also played as a striker, I love to score goals, but perhaps because my father was a Goalkeeper too, or maybe because I'm not so good at other skills that a scorer should have, or because nobody wanted to do the thankless job of being Goalkeeper on the team, I decided to save goals , flying from post to post, touching with the tip of the fingers and the ball going off by kissing the post, while my teammates stop breathing for a second. Very poetic...but they hate us, despise us for 89 of 90 minutes of a game and every goal against is a death sentence for the Goalkeeper, guilty of all evil, welcomed and appreciated little in the triumphs.

The goalkeeper's job is thankless.

At work, I am Tester. For just over a year. I have also been an analyst, I like to analyze the problems and see what solution can be given, what is the best way to approach a solution. But for reasons of life, moving to a new city, not be bored to death writing innumerable documents, make something new, because nobody wants to be a tester, I decided to do this work, find defects that anyone can before the product reaches production, see how that flaw is fixed, and developers sigh when a new release comes out production and product owners congratulate us, although they are congratulated for their great work, and  they congratulate the testers with a pat on the back for doing what we should do.

Testing is a thankless work.

They say that the Tester is the "gatekeeper" of the quality of a product. Many are against, as James Bach on his blog, or Joel Montvelisky on his.

I'm not a Gatekeeper. I'm not afraid of Bugs

I propose that we compare our work with the "Goalkeeper". Maybe is a bad analogy, but...why not?

We don't stop a release, we try to make the fewest goals against (bugs in production) so that the greatest successes of our team enable us to win (go to production). The goals against are the fault of the whole team (attackers, centers, defense and the goalkeeper), bugs are the fault of the whole team (developers, designers, analysts and testers).
The Goalkeeper has a different view of the game, sees everything from the back, so you can see  other aspects of the game that others (including the coach) can't see. It is therefore very important to have good communication skills, to organize the defense and counter-attack game. The tester also has a different point of view of product development, has to see things from another context than others (even from their Managers). And communication skills are essential in order to ask the right questions, to the right people in the right time, to solve problems or avoid them in the future.
The best goalkeepers have skills that are not normally asked, like playing well with their feet, becoming the team's last defender, or kicking penalties, that at certain times in a game can be important for the team. The best testers also require skills, which is commonly believed that they haven't, as the knowledge of development languages, or the application of tools to improve their work.

The best football teams, love and indulge world class goalkeepers, because they know that they will need when they are most needed. We must do the same in development teams, we must become the "Goalkeepers" of software development.

The Bilingual Tester

One of the most important skills you must have as a software tester today, is to know a second language, with a greater emphasis with English.
At present, in most of Latin America, engineers and systems analysts work mostly in Outsourcing companies. I am one of many.
My first work experiences in IT did not involve the English language, whether they were customers in the public activity, or companies that work 100% with the domestic market, or that their main customers were Mexicans. My current job does imply as a condition English, which I studied intermittently since age of 6, but that I could never practice as I have wished. Luckily I passed the tests and I am in my current job, which allowed getting to know the world of Testing and thanks to that, I'm writing this today.
But the second language, in addition to the advantage that allows you to communicate better with customers, allows an additional advantage: being able to understand what the customer wants in their stories or requirements. And this is something very important for a Tester, because their work begins when there is a new requirement (whatever the form in which we receive this requirement) and if we do not understand what they want, we can report about our Testing,something that could not be valuable to the customer.
Knowing English can also allows you communicate with the World Testers community. In previous posts I have reported how to connect with these people via Twitter, that every day they share their ideas, blogs, links and information related to the daily tasks of the Testers worldwide.
To communicate with Swedish, Finnish, Romanian, English, Canadian or American, we need a common language, and English, even with its imperfections, dominates over other languages​​, though is not the most spoken (Mandarin and Spanish are most widely spoken in the world than English, see here).
So I've decided to continue polishing my English skills, doing double duty: writing my posts in Spanish and then translated into English. Obviously when I make a post translating an article written in English, I will not put back in their original language. But I think it's worth that my articles can also be read beyond people of Latin America.