Today's testing heuristic – SEP

Having seen a number of testers posting their heuristics on Testing reflections, I thought I might chime in with one that popped into my head. I’m calling it the SEP heuristic, which is probably all you need to know about it if you are familiar with Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide books.

It is simply this –

– Anything which project members or stakeholders appear to be treating as “somebody else’s problem”, is quite likely not so, and highly likely to bite us firmly on the backside if we continue to treat it as such. Ignore at your peril.

As SEP fields can be beaten by specifically looking for that which is concealed, the countering strategy is simple, but not necessarily easy. The SEP heuristic tells us to look for problems or tasks that are being ignored or thrown in the ‘too hard’ basket and focus energy there sooner rather than later.

I think that early in one’s career, it’s easier to let some things be somebody else’s problem, with minimal personal consequences. I’m finding as I have increasing responsibility, this heuristic becomes increasingly important.