{"id":1464,"date":"2016-10-05T12:15:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T10:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asym.dk\/?p=1464"},"modified":"2016-10-05T12:15:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T10:15:24","slug":"dont-shoot-sparrows-with-cannons-reassess-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/2016\/10\/05\/dont-shoot-sparrows-with-cannons-reassess-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Don't shoot Sparrows with Cannons: Reassess Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second blog post sharing inspiration from the\u00a0<\/em>Reinventing Testers week<\/a>.<\/em>
\nThe WITS<\/a> Sunday peer workshop that preceeded the conference on Monday and Tuesday had some very interesting discussions over this subject. The first I’ll blog about is one Simon Peter Schrijver<\/a>\u00a0started.
\nWhat he said sparked my mind on contrasts about “reinventing or reassessing ourselves”\u00a0in new contexts.
\nAt one point in the workshop, I think we were getting high on our fantastic combined abilities around the table to adapt and reinvent Context Driven Testing. Fortunately Simon brought us back to earth, so to speak<\/em>, as he shared with us that when changing jobs, projects, organisations and contexts, he found that he is really only reassessing\u00a0himself.
\nI challenged him on that, after having\u00a0looked up stuff online about the meaning of the words, but I later realized he was right: We often \u201conly\u201d reassess ourselves. Only is in quotes here, since it is not trivial.
\nLet me share my understandings of reinvention and reassession.
\nReinvention<\/strong> must have something to do with creativity, which is fundamentally about giving up our preformed solutions and starting over from scratch. The only thing we keep is a guiding image, something we wish to achieve, a problem to solve.
\nBut first we have to return to our newborn states of mind, and listen carefully for new and original solutions our minds could be suggesting.
\nI have an introspective image of how it works: First I relax, give up on everything I know, and accept that I am vulnerable and fragile. In the next moment, I regain a sense where I am, who I am, and what I\u2019m up to. And that\u2019s when the flow of ideas begins.
\nReassessment<\/b> must be totally different.
\nOriginally, assessment had to do with accounting, where an assessing the accounts involving verifying their validity.
\nThus, if I am reassessed, I am reverified. Revalidated could be synonymous.
\nMy introspective image of reassessment of myself in a new context is one of me entering my minds’ inner archive of carefully labeled, preformed solutions, finding those that seems to bear the name of the particular testing problem I have, and then apply them, validating (assessing) in the process that this still works.
\nIt does depend on me having experience, but it also depends on my ability to assess<\/strong> whether the knowledge and experience I dig up works in the particular\u00a0context.
\nMy experience and knowledge is applied, and I assess it. I don’t apply it mindlessly.
\nSimon is a great tester and thinker with enormous experience. He reminded us that – in many ways -, changing contexts does not mean throwing overboard what we know.
\nIt is often only the pieces that make up the context, which appear different. They aren’t necessarily really new.
\nReinvention certainly has its place, and I\u2019ll get back to that later, but\u00a0Simon reminded me\u00a0that we shouldn’t shoot sparrows with cannons.
\n 
\n

\"dsc_4325\"
The WITS workshop was run in LAWST format: personal ERs (experience reports) from the participants, followed by an ‘open season’ – a facilitated group discussion. Simon wore a very nice t-shirt at the workshop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second blog post sharing inspiration from the\u00a0Reinventing Testers week. The WITS Sunday peer workshop that preceeded the conference on Monday and Tuesday had some very interesting discussions over this subject. The first I’ll blog about is one Simon Peter Schrijver\u00a0started. What he said sparked my mind on contrasts about “reinventing or reassessing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[55,69,95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asym.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}