Testing Moving Targets

In some organizations, not anywhere I have ever worked, testers feel they are undervalued and not respected. The vibe is felt when management sends them off to test a moving target knowing that they will be throwing their work out when the new release-candidate version is produced by the hard working software engineers who fixed so many bad bugs to get the product ready. (The programmers didn't do a good job and/or the schedule was bogus so the development schedule had to slip but since the release date can't slip we will have to test harder and faster.)

Sometimes is it tough to dig in deep when you know that the "real product" will be significantly different from what you are testing today.

"If it is going to be changing significantly, then it is not ready for validation testing."—K.