On the lines of “Code smells” , QA/Testing related smells in my experience, fall into these 4 broad categories (of root cause(s))

1. Apathy – Disregard for Testing as a function/craft
2. Hubris – Talent or position driven blindspots that lead towards flawed decision making
3. Ignorance – No one has shown them how to do better or Team members lacking (certain) Testing mindset
4. Helplessness – Cognitive exhaustion from pushing back against immature SW practices or organisational dysfunction

Compiling a list of verbatim/observational “smells” I have come across in my Testing career so far 🙂 , including some that I myself have been culprit of !

Feel free to add yours in the comments below , thank you

I’m sure some will resonate as stereotypes , hopefully some are new to you? ( hence something you might want to watch out for)

• Customers wont use it “that” way
• You are testing too early
• (corollary) You tested too late
• Why would you be needed in the design session ?
• Why would you be needed in the code review ?
• Why would be be needed in the requirements gathering session ?
• I challenge you to break it
• (corollary) No customer has complained so far !
• Look ( pointing to their IDE) , works
• Try now <keyboard clatter> ..Try now <keyboard clatter> ……………..Try now <keyboard clatter>
• Did it just break ?
• When was it last working ?
• I did not change anything
• how do I know what changed?
• I cant tell you which tests you should write , your job!
• It’s a big change, we just have do it all in one go
• How do I see the back end errors ?
• What does “Unhandled exception , contact your System Administrator” mean ?
• How do I know if all these errors are related?
• This keeps happening but I just cant make it happen at will
• Ok, I cant tell what else is broken ?
• This aaaaawwlllways breaks
• We always, must take 3 days to retest everything
• I am a “manual” Tester
• (corollary) I am an “automated” Tester
• Every developer must be experienced in Automated Testing
• (corollary) Ma..look no Testers needed !
• (corollary of corollary) <this approach/tech> will replace Testers
• No, DONT try changing this config file
• (corollary) why do you need access to the build pipeline ?
• It will be faster in this release
• Test it while I document the design
• (corollary) will document it, only if I have time
• I will refactor it in one go
• This was never meant to be in scope
• Why do we just have 157 test cases for this project?
• (corollary) We are 100 % PASS
• (corollary of corollary) We were 100 % but this we are 87 % PASS
• (corollary of corollary of corollary) If we go down from 75 % we can’t ship
• This environment is just for development
• (corollary) It will be “different” in PROD
• “Don’t worry about integration yet” ( Team 1) ……tududududu… ( 2 weeks from Go Live) … Team 2 – “not one told us about these changes”
• Must be the database box
• (corollary) Must be permissions
• (corollary of corollary) Must be a known issue
• These are my automated tests , they dont need them in version control
• (corollary) Test code isnt “production code”
• (corollary of corollary) Our Team only ships application code
• This is how Agile is
• (corollary) This is how Agile Testing is
• (corollary of corollary) This is how <insert prevalent industry term> Testing is
• Because, Docker
• (corollary) Because, <some new tech>

List to be continued…..