#30DaysOfTesting - Closing Reflection
30 Days of Testing is an ongoing series of regular challenges based on various themes within software testing. The topic for this month: ecommerce. This challenge was hosted by the good folks over at Ministry of Testing and sponsored by Sauce Labs.
As this challenge has come to a close, I take a look back and reflect on what I’ve gleaned from learning about a new subject matter over the course of 30 days:
Understand the basics
Throughout this challenge, there were some topics and terms I vaguely knew about. I took that as an opportunity to peel it back and get a general sense of the fundamentals to help contextualize my understanding. It doesn’t hurt to take a moment to go back to basics and get a grasp of the fundamentals before taking a deeper dive into the specifics and advanced stuff. Don’t cut corners!
Unpack the questions
There were a variety of questions I encountered during this challenge: hypotheticals, definitions, research missions... at times, I noticed I would get so engrossed in the ‘what’, that I would lose sight of the ‘why’. When learning about a new topic, understand what the question is really asking, and identify what the key learning outcomes are. Only then can you start to find value in the information you are consuming.
Engage with others
Learning is (more) fun with friends! Getting your thoughts and opinions out there, while commenting on and questioning others, will challenge your own thinking/bias, expose you to other approaches, and elevate your thinking overall.
Make it challenging
No real growth happens within your comfort zone. Going into this challenge, there were aspects of ecommerce I was familiar with, and things I was not. Even with the questions, I found that some seemed quick and easy that I felt I needed to abstract it or deviate from the original exercise slightly in order to make the task at hand just the right amount of challenging.
Make it fun
Learning, without a hint of gamification, can sometimes be a little bland and vanilla. Find little ways to make what you’re learning that much more enjoyable and dare I say it, ‘fun’, for you. For me, it was infusing Emojis in my posts, and hunting for a contextually relevant GIF or animation to accompany my posts.
Apply yourself
Knowledge *only when applied* is power... Ultimately, the true test of demonstrating your newly acquired knowledge is finding ways to apply your learnings to real life, relevant applications. How can you apply what you’ve learned today? in your current job/role? your current project? Learn, apply, and learn from that. Always be learning!
ICYMI, here’s another look at the daily missions for this challenge.
Catch up on all my entries in reverse chronological order here.