Two ways of learning that benefit testing

Testers are learning all the time. I have been reading John Dues’ new book Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools with the Profound Deming Book Club and have gained insights into different ways of learning.

“Moving from planning to doing is deductive learning and moving from doing to studying is inductive learning”[1]. I often learn in these two ways. Before I read John Dues’ book, I had not considered how different and useful each way of learning is.

“Deductive learning involves moving from a theory to the test of a theory”  [1]. I often learn when I move from planning to doing, and in doing so I test the theory I had developed on how to do the work. I write a charter for some exploratory testing by writing and then learn while I am testing. I plan the automation of a test and then learn while automating the test. The charter for exploratory testing or the plan for test automation can be described as my theory.

“Inductive learning involves using results from the test to revise the theory” [1]. I also learn when moving from doing to studying.  When I am reviewing my exploratory testing and test automation I am also reviewing the theory I had created on how to test or automate. Once I have stopped exploratory testing I review my testing and consider what went well, and what could have been better. I also learn from reviewing my test automation after I have automated a test and may have an insight that I want to add to my test automation standards. 

Both ways of learning are useful. When I am doing exploratory testing I may find that I have forgotten to include something in my testing charter, this would be deductive learning. When I review the results of my exploratory testing I may find that most issues that I had found were in a particular area of functionality, this would be inductive learning.

Working in a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle includes both types of learning. If you are working in a plan-do-study-act cycle you: plan your work; do the work; study the results of the work and then act on what you learned by taking your learning into a new Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. John Dues includes a diagram that shows how a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle moves between inductive and deductive learning:

• Plan-Do includes moves from a theory to testing a theory and so is deductive learning.
• Do-Study uses results to test a theory and so is inductive learning.

Testers need to be learning continually. Each iteration of a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle contains deductive and inductive learning. Using a Plan-Do-Study-Act loop to organise your testing and test automation builds inductive and deductive learning into your testing and test automation. 

References:

[1] Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools by John Dues (2023, chapter 1)ues (2023, chapter 1)