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Various alternative suggestions for the job title "Software Tester"
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software-tester.md

I aksed a contact on twitter if he might know some alternatives for the job title Software Tester. He, in turn, asked his followers.

The list below is what was suggested by various people:

  • Bug Hunter
  • Chief Inspector of Testing
  • Digital Entomologist
  • Empirical Epistemologist
  • Head of Product Suitability
  • Il Collaudatore
  • Logic Alchemist
  • Software Detective
  • Software Explorer
  • Software Investigator,
  • Someone who gives a shit
  • System Reconnaissance Specialist (SysReconSpec)
  • Technical Entomologist
  • Tester
  • That Guy Asking Questions
  • The "what if" Guy

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To the extent possible under law, Potherca has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "Alternative suggestions for the job title Software Tester".

@PhilipHoeben
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  • Bug Hunter - Not really; bug hunting is something you might do as a tester, but the job contains much more than merely bug hunting.
  • Chief Inspector of Testing - No clue what this means. Is that person inspecting testing?
  • Digital Entomologist - Nope. Lots of context is not digital but social. Next to that I would not use entomologist but epistemologist.
  • Empirical Epistemologist - Kinda cool, but Context epistemologist or system epistemologist might be better suited.
  • Head of Product Suitability - only 1 ility? What about the rest?
  • Il Collaudatore - Well it's Italian.
  • Logic Alchemist - I miss the social aspect of the job.
  • Software detective - ok, but meh
  • Software explorer - I think we have to be careful using the word "explorer" (or exploratory, exploring). see: http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/1509
  • Software Investigator - I think Context investigator might be better. (Q)What is the first and foremost important thing a software tester needs to do. -(A)Investigating context. (Talk between Jerry Weinberg and James Bach, written down by Michael Bolton).
  • Someone who gives a shit - So everybody else doesn't give a shit? I don't want to work in such a place.
  • System Reconnaissance Specialist - pretty cool, but already coined and difficult to interpret at first. I had to look up "Reconnaissance". It's a pretty accurate term for what you are doing as a tester, but I prefer a more 'simple' description.
  • Technical Entomologist - Missing the social aspects (again). And, as said before I am not in favour of using "entomologist".
  • Tester - maybe Tester in software or system context. It's not cool I guess, but pretty accurate.
  • That Guy Asking Questions - "Guy" might be gender neutral but I don't know if everybody interprets it like that. It's a bit tricky I think. "That person who asks questions"? Not really cool, but ok.
  • The "what if" Guy - same comment as above.

Let's first keep in mind what "Testing" is:
Testing is the process of evaluating a product by learning about it through exploration and experimentation, which includes to some degree: questioning, study, modeling, observation, inference, etc. (http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/856)

some of my suggestions:

  • Damaging (un)certainty reducer (http://lets-test.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IfItsNotContextDriven.pdf)
  • Person who knows things can be different
  • Context driven buccaneer - Keep in mind; in the CDT-community people will link this to "secrets of a buccaneer scholar". Nothing wrong with that but not an original idea.
  • Context driven tester - not cool, but it is what it is.
  • Artful investigator (in software context)- is software testing to be seen as an art or more as a science (social science)?
  • Since a product needs to be a solution to a problem; 'solution investigator' or 'solution investigator craftsman' might be accurate.
  • Software test craftsman
  • Craftsman in software testing

some with a more philosophical context, which is an extra challenge. To which philosophers do we adhere or what theories do we support? I don't know if we want to go there.

  • System epistemologist or product epistemologist or solution epistemologist.
  • Hermeneutic investigator

tbc

@Potherca
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Potherca commented Jun 9, 2015

I feel rather inclined to make a diagram of the titles and all the cons and comments 😃

@Potherca
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In addition to "Testing is...": http://arborosa.org/2015/06/14/what-is-testing/

@Potherca
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Potherca commented Nov 1, 2015

Context driven tester

Seems to have won, thus far.

@Terrub
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Terrub commented Jan 17, 2017

nociceptor
ˈnəʊsɪˌsɛptə/
nounPhysiology
noun: nociceptor; plural noun: nociceptors

a sensory receptor for painful stimuli.
"the heat from eating chillies produces ‘nociceptor firing’"

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