RST - Would Michael or James attend their course if they weren’t running it?

I was having a discussion with SimonK over on Software Testing Clubs forum in a thread regarding education in testing & where you spend your buck in doing it.

I’m an advocate of the Context Driven school of testing. I wasn’t really aware of this until I actually started reading around the subject of testing and realised the principles & ideas of this school closely match my own. In some cases, it even defined my working practices which I didn’t realise I was doing (this may have something to do with cognitive bias & me looking to affirm my actions).


I have thrown myself headlong into this school of thought & have recently attend a highly context driven rapid testing course. Now I find myself preaching about it on forums & blog posts as I try to make sense of what I learnt on the course (the novelty will wear off I’m sure, & the comments sections will be free of my spiel once again!)


Anyway, I was promoting the Rapid Software Testing course provided by Michael Bolton & James Bach on the education in testing forum, in particular to SimonK (I’ll lay off now Simon, I promise).


I was like a Staffie with a bone - I just wouldn’t have a bad word said about the course which I’d just paid my hard-earned cash on (cognitive bias again?) & whose content I agreed with until he posed the question:


“…would James or Michael take the RST course if they weren’t running it?“


This kinda threw my argument as initially I don’t think they would.


But then I felt this course would be more up their street (than a certification course) because it is based on many years experience in the testing field, provides useful tools for efficient learning &/in testing & they love to learn. (BTW I have asked Michael & James the question as well, but these are my thoughts)


I spent a while musing over the question trying to work out why I was so confused. I think the answer has come to me - what’s the context?


The question doesn’t have context, and as such has many answers :


“Would James or Michael attend the course if they had their current experience, but somebody else was running it?” - I’d say yes as they would be interested to see what others have to offer.


“Would James or Michael attend the course if they did not have their current experience & they were trying to improve their testing?” - I’d say yes as they’re still learning their craft, even with their current experience.


“…if they were thinking of running their own course?” - Again, yes - they’d want to see what their potential competitors are upto.


I see a problem here, so I’m going to stop - all the contexts I’m thinking of always lead to a ‘yes’ response to the question. I think this primarily due to the fact that ‘yes’ is the answer I want, but also it is logical. I’ve tried using programmers here who dont have the bias, but still the answer is ‘yes’.


I could reverse the question & ask “why wouldn’t James or Michael take the RST course if they weren’t running it?


Some of the reasons they might want to attend:

• They are critical thinkers - they would want to see what all schools of thought have to offer so that they have an informed opinion (they are happy to lay their cards on the table)
• They are always learning - they actively seek out information, both in testing & numerous other fields
• They are businessmen - they would want to know what to deliver in a course if they were interested in starting one up