Where are the Kung Fu Warriors?
How do we find great testers after we have hired most of whom we know? Where are those great testers whom we don’t know yet? Can we really find them? Will they just show up? Are they available?
If we can’t find them, how can we create great testers in large numbers? How fast? How efficiently can we bring them into the real world? How can we facilitate great testing that is capable of changing the World?
These were some questions we challenged ourselves at Moolya – long before we hit our 2nd year of operations. We didn’t have answers but we had hope.
The Domino Effect
We wondered if there is any Super Talented School of Testing that can provide us great testers on a need basis. To our dismay, we didn’t find any. This is when the idea struck – “Why not create a great school on our own that would feed the need for more great testers in Moolya?”
What about the Domino Effect? Why not create a few testers who in turn would go on to create a few more. In a few years, we would have created scores of testers who would be coaching/mentoring/training other testers and lay a strong foundation for furthering great testing. There was a Big Heady Audacious Goal in the making.
This is why Moolya Academy was born!
Moolya Academy
Moolya Academy is the Kung Fu School of Testing at Moolya. It is the Next Generation Test Lab for creating skilled software testers. At the Academy, we practice the Art and Science of Software Testing. We spread Moolya Testing Mindset to all Moolyans who join us.
Moolya Academy is creating world-class testers by providing hands-on testing practice on real projects to new recruits (including experienced testers) before they get onto large projects.
If you step into Moolya, you’ll see Kung Fu Warriors practicing the Art of Software Testing every moment with a passion towards mastering it, all this by using their Brain and Testing Armory – Approaches – Context-Driven, Exploratory, Mindset – Rapid Testing, Test Techniques – Heuristics, Oracles, Technologies – Tools/Add-ons. If it looks like what every service company does – we are extremely happy because we have been successful in making our success factors disguised to you.
Why the name Academy?
Plato founded a school called Academy in 387 BC in Athens where he taught Socratic Principles. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before he founded his own school, the Lyceum. Academy persisted as one of the highly respected schools for skepticism in that era and nurtured many philosophers who changed the world, for the better. Moolya is here to re-define the way testing is done, sooner! Academy suited apt.
Moolya Orientation
Testers inducted into Academy go through an Orientation Program introducing them to Moolya’s culture, values, and ethics. This orientation includes talking about our garage days, current projects and clients, introduce them to Moolyans and have a fun team huddle – where they have to perform. We have some of the coolest dancers, school drop-outs, singers, musicians and snake wranglers as testers! It’s fun.
Moolya Testing Scrolls (a.k.a Coaching Style)
The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War consists of three main scrolls, titled “The Killing Sword,” “The Life-Giving Sword,” and “No Sword.” These are Zen Buddhist terms adapted to both wartime and peacetime principles of the samurai. At Moolya, our coaching style is based around these Zen Buddhist principles.
The Killing Sword
Young bees (yeah, busy bees) at Moolya need to be dusted off the dirt about Testing, Exploratory Testing, Requirements Testing, Bugs and a whole bunch of other concepts taught by educational institutions and gory testing institutes. The killing sword represents the use of force to quell disorder and eliminate violence. At Moolya, I use the killing sword to ward off all the bad stuff filled in tester’s brains, drain it out completely and allow them to start afresh, on a blank slate. All over again.
The Life-Giving Sword
Most of the dirty stuff is gone. Brains are clean. And they are ready for the Life-Giving sword. The life-giving sword represents the preparedness to perceive impending problems and forestall them. I introduce testers to a variety of testing problems and exercises and leave them in a state of oblivion. It’s like being in the middle Sahara desert. I let them work through their problems while continuing to confuse and challenge them at every state. I prepare them for the problems by giving an almost impossible problem to solve (at least impossible for them). I make them solve it with absolutely no help. Sometimes, I help them solve it with little help based on some questions they may ask. Sometimes, I hypnotize them to think I am right and they are wrong all the time, challenging their confidence. At the end of this, they would have learned to use the life-giving sword – solve any problem that comes their way!
No Sword
How about fighting a battle without using a sword? No sword represents the capacity to make full use of the resources of the environment. In this phase, I coach my testers to use all the resources (Brain, oracles, heuristics, tools/add-ons, etc) they have at their disposal and test better. I no longer use a sword. I just show up with a problem that they’ll own from that moment on. I just look at them solving the problem. No swords. Oh no, not anymore!
Blooding our Warriors – Moolya-fication
All fresh recruits in Moolya who are inducted into Academy and passed all the tests with flying colors will be blooded as Warriors and moved onto other projects. This is a test that will determine if a Moolyan has to get onto projects or get out of Moolya to find a better place that nurtures their real talent. This is a defining moment in any Moolyan’s life. Every Moolyan has to pass through the Moolya-fication phase.
How do people who join Moolya benefit from this?
They will learn about testing, technologies, languages, tools, and add-ons with the same vigor. They won’t carry the baggage of certifications, tools, and fools who mistake tools for skills. They will be aware that Testing is a Mindset and a Skill-set. They will be known for Critical Thinking, Questioning, Skepticism, and Investigative thinking and Challenging testing itself.
Learning is a Journey, not a destination
If you have not noticed how a dung beetle works, you must! No matter where you air-lift and drop it, the dung beetle would know where exactly it was going and where it wants to go. It would figure out exactly what the problem is in terms of where it is heading and how to deal with that problem.
Dung beetles are capable of determining their destination using cues like sunlight, thermal conditions on the ground and their own body temperature. All this put together, they know how to reach their destination no matter what or who gets in their way.
Moolya inspires passionate testers. Moolya loves testers with dreams. Moolya rejuvenates itself by hiring people who challenge Moolya. I believe that the Academy is going to make Moolya all the more powerful with its magical Testing Scrolls!
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