I, and others, have written a couple of blog entries on how activities outside of software testing can help understand testing (I refer to my entries on Dancing and Gardening).  Here is a story that has happened to me over the last couple of weeks that show the reverse, i.e. where testing skills have helped in my non-work life.

My wife is very interested in alternative therapies, herbal remedies, Reiki, crystal healing and the like.  This in turn has made her interested in the more mystical aspects that seem to go along with these alternative therapies, such as reading and understanding Auras, Angels and so on.  Their overriding philosophy is one of openness and honesty in all dealings – remember this for later!

Because my wife has this interest, I have also now got a (mild) interest although I am much more sceptical than her.  It is interesting, though, how a lot of the written works in this area have a direct correlation with some of the management books I have read, particularly on managing people, motivation and intuition.

However, I digress.  There is a company local to us that has a shop selling things like crystals, incense sticks, books, etc.  They also run a number of courses on the types of healing and how to become more in tune with yourself.  My wife is a frequent visitor to the shop and knows the owners quite well.  

A couple of weeks ago the company sent out an email asking for an investor/business partner and were offering a third of the business in return for the investment as well as asking for the investor to participate in the management of the business.  My wife was interested, so we asked for information.  They told us that they wanted £x for the third of the business and that the investor could expect to make about 6% return.  I thought £x was a bit high, so after some thought, we asked the following, basic, questions:

·                What was the investment to be used for

·                How was the business value of £3x calculated

·                What was the percentage return on investment for the previous year.

I also told them that depending on their answers I would then want my accountant to get involved.

All went quiet for almost a week.

We then got an email saying that they had decided to put the business up for sale.  The price?  £x/2.  So they had valued the business for an investor at £3x, but were prepared to sell it for a sixth of that value.  It smelled very fishy.  We suspect that the £x investment was to clear debts and the business is in trouble.  So much for openness and honesty, it feels like they were trying to con us.

So, by asking simple questions that you would expect a tester to ask (or, indeed any potential investor) we avoided a potentially damaging financial loss.

The lesson from this story is that even though someone would appear to have the highest values, you still cannot fully trust them.  This can be true in Testing.  Even the most honest appearing Project Manager can try to hide things from you to get what they want.

Bottom line:  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you still need to do a DNA test to show it really is a duck!