Doer vs. Talker in End-to-End Test Automation

E2E Test Automation is super practical. One can only master it by doing, not talking.

https://pixabay.com/vectors/public-speaking-introduction-8093767/

Yesterday, another customer purchased one TestWise (a functional testing IDE) Personal License. Upon receiving the notification, my wife said, “Let me guess, this new customer never contacted you beforehand, right?” My answer: “Yes”.

Many people contacted me (via various channels, such as Email, LinkedIn, Medium, or phone calls from former colleagues), but few took real action. It seems to me that they just wanted to talk about test automation. On the other hand, there are doers (far fewer) who invest in their growth with actions. Only those with that (doer) mindset can grow to be real test automation engineers (rare).

“In my experience, great developers do not always make great testers, but great testers (who also have strong design skills) can make great developers. It’s a mindset and a passion. … They are gold”.
- Patrick Copeland, Google Senior Engineering Director, in an interview (2010)

Table of Contents:
· Most people contacted online don’t follow my advice to practice. Interestingly, those who opt for my suggested frameworks and tools for test automation rarely reach out to me initially.
· Talker
· It is not about Affordability
· You can only achieve E2E Test Automation by Doing, not Talking
· Doer

Most people who contact me online don’t follow my advice to practice. Interestingly, those who opt for my suggested frameworks and tools for test automation rarely reach out to me initially.

After so many years, even my wife noticed that most people approached me, asking questions or advice (and I always replied), and usually did nothing (from my perspective). I refer to them as ‘talkers’. On the contrary, some test engineers purchased my books, TestWise/BuildWise licenses, training or coaching services without contacting me upfront. I refer to them as ‘doers’.

As an author and a top writer on software testing (not self-rated), I received a lot of feedback (mainly via LinkedIn or Medium response), such as:

There is more, and the above are just from one channel: LinkedIn, but not a single person from those people purchased even one TestWise license or even 30-minute Test Automation Coaching for $1.

Frankly, I found the above behaviours hard to comprehend. All my books and articles were publicly available. Before Medium restricted access in 2023–07, my 300+ articles could be viewed free in Incognito mode. After all, the Medium membership is only $50/year anyway. All my books (on Leanpub) have 60-days money-back refund policy. Fully-featured TestWise and BuildWise could be run for free, with a very minor constraint. I also offer $1 online coaching 30-min sessions.

Back 25 years ago, If I were to contact experts (like the above), surely I would have read most of their books/articles, practised with recommended tools, attended their training, and if satisfied, approached them to be my mentors. I would regularly submit my test scripts for review and ask for advice on specific challenges.

The only logical explanation that I could come up with: these people think I am a test automation expert who does hands-on real E2E test automation. Somehow, connecting or contacting me makes them feel good. (I rarely use social media; I kind of get it. Still, what’s the point?). But, why don’t you learn and get the expert to help you to do real E2E test automation?

“E2E Test Automation, while challenging, is fun when hands-on doing it, if properly, of course.” — Zhimin Zhan

ALL purchases of TestWise and BuildWise Agent licenses (by the way, all my software offers free mode, fully featured, with just minor inconvenience) were made by “strangers”!

My wife found that fascinating, too. She even advised me not to waste time answering all sorts of questions and requests, because it always ended up nothing fruitful anyway (for both). I disagree. I don’t want to miss a motivated and passionate learner, like myself (18 years ago) and several now high-achieving mentees.

After pondering this subject more, I came up with two different mindsets (not related to technical capability): Talker and Doer.