Audition question: How do You Test a Stapler?
October 19th, 2004
Last week, at my PNSQC workshop, we talked about auditions. One of the participants said that when he auditioned testers, he asked each candidate how the candidate would test a stapler. Take a look at Mike Kelly’s answer. Bet you didn’t realize there were so many ways to test a stapler :-)So why is this a good question for testers? Because testers deal with work artifacts, and what a tester does when presented with a work artifact — even a stapler — is a good indication of how the tester will work when presented with your work artifacts.The beauty of this question, is that it works for lots of roles:
- Writers: Describe how you’d write about stapler use.
- Product marketing: Describe how you’d derive requirements for a next-generation stapler. Or, explain how you’d organize a product launch for a stapler.
- Support staff: Describe how you’d deal with a customer who says he/she has a problem with their stapler.
- Developers: Describe how you’d approach extending the design of a stapler.
I wouldn’t use this as my only audition question, but it’s a great start.
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