For testers, I think creativity comes up in things like:
-Test design aimed at exposing specific product features
-Finding workarounds for known problems
-Finding probable flaws or defects, based on our knowledge of the product history, and on the human nature.
-Finding potential ways to break a fix
-Finding faster/smarter ways to accomplish my objectives
-Find out what would be the best/ideal tool for specific task
-Finding tools
-Creating tools
-Imagine how the tool I am using might threaten the value of my work, for instance giving me confidence on certain area by false or biased results
-Generically, imagine how my concepts might be deceived. For instance: am I pretending to advocate the customer, when in fact she doesn't value my values?
-At last, but most important, finding or previewing defects just by conducting our though to the conclusion. Imagine a chess game: if a developer thinks 3 moves in advance, and the tester thinks 4, then it is possible for the tester to anticipate defects that the developer didn't. I often think of this as /Imagination/, rather than creativity, in the sense that we let our mind go to all the way to the end
---, Lisa Crispin wrote:
>
> IMO, software development in general is a creative activity, testing
> included. Testers add the most value when they strive to hone their craft,
> collaborating with team members to find good ways to ensure delivering high
> quality software and delighting customers. Exploratory testing requires
> creativity as well as critical thinking. Testers need lots of creativity,
> imagination and empathy to come up with good test cases and
> scenarios.Testers on my team come up with creative solutions to
> coding/development problems, not only testing problems (and the reverse is
> true too).
> -- Lisa
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:17 AM, Strg Pune
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > Recently I watched a video on YouTube and fallen in love with the thought
> > expressed by Sir Robinson.
> > Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
> > *
> > *
> > The question is how can we as testers' community adopt the notion of
> > creativity?
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Michael Bolton added a plus 1 :) and:
>If one believes in the theory of multiple intelligence of Howard Gardner,
what is that the tester has to possess to be a creative tester?
Among other things...
- independence of mind
- diversity of experience, approaches, models, tools, education...
- freedom and encouragement to innovate, explore, and discover
- freedom from arbitrary constraints
- responsibility to explain and justify his/her work
---Michael B.
Another add on:
The creative process is said to be of five stages.
1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Elaboration
5. Verification
