Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #25 Blind Men Feeling an Elephant 盲人摸象

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Image Credit: https://www.sohu.com/a/152856385_99896699

This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.

The Story

Long ago, there were four blind people. They wanted to know what elephants looked like. Because of their blindness, they could only touch the elephant.

The fat blind person touched the elephant’s tusks first. He said: “ Oh, I see! The elephant is big, thick and smooth, just like the carrots.”

The tall blind person touched the elephant’s ear and yelled: “ No, no, no. The elephant is a big fan!”

The short blind person touched the elephant’s leg. He said: “ You are all wrong! The elephant is a pillar.”

The old blind person said: “ The elephant is not that big. It’s just like a rope.” He was touching the elephant’s tail.

The four blind people were arguing endlessly. Each of them said he himself was right. We all know that none of them is right.

The Meaning

We should look at the whole picture instead of only seeing part of it. Only in that way can we fully and truly understand the situation of things.

Examples in Software Development

Different team members often have different views (and expectations) on automated end-to-end testing (via UI). The italic text is the typical view of people in software development.

• Executives
  “Of course, software testing shall be automated. Without test automation, I lacked confidence when talking ‘Agile’, ‘DevOps’, and ‘Release Early; Release Often’ on the stage.”
  
  Reality: Despite most executives never witnessed a single successful implementation of test automation.