Understanding... The Big Picture

During my years testing... okay, even before that began... I have always viewed life by things like Newton's Laws of Motion, even before I knew they existed.  And please, don't try to engage me on their
specifics, I don't study physics on purpose, they are just there... in nature. 

Or, maybe more in line with the Butterfly Effect. "A small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere."

In the "system" I work in, that could mean:

1. Each time code is changed in the product/application/system that I test, there is the potential that something else will "react" to it.  This can be in a negative way (Bug) or a positive way (Fixed/Fixed
Indirectly/Better Behavior)

2. Each time a new OS/Browser is introduced, it has the potential of being something the customers/end users may have, but our product/application/system does not behave well in it.

3. Each time there is a change in the processes that are implemented for the project, there is the potential that it could cause something else to be missed that used to be a higher priority than the process itself

...among other things, that would likely lead me off topic...

If your intent, as a software tester, is to be the best that you can be, it is necessary to engage in thinking outside the moment.  It is necessary to understand that a minor change anywhere could have a major effect elsewhere. 

The minor change can be in regards to equipment/tools/management/product/system/application/processes/etc.  If you see something
that might have a negative effect on the product or the company, report it.  It may or may not be addressed, but I stand firmly on the belief that software testers should "provide information to the people that matter" (paraphrase of James Bach's definition).

It is seeing things with the Big Picture attitude that makes the difference.  As a tester, I cannot focus
on one task, "does this work", I need to focus on many at the same time. 

Some things that I have found useful in learning this approach - outside of how I was wired at birth - are:

* Read any book by Gerald Weinberg
* Take the Rapid Software Testing course, co-written by Michael Bolton and James Bach
* Always question everything - even why the sky is blue
* Learn about psychology and philosopy
* Read/Read/Read - blogs, books, everything, anything  (as a child, I read Grimm long before ever reading the Happily-Ever-After fairy tales...)

Software testing involves understanding there is a Big Picture and trying/learning to see what that Big Picture is...