[James’ Reply: Bruce originally approached me to pay for putting this link on my site. But I looked at the site and it seems to reasonably related to the things I’m talking about. I appreciate being asked, but I will allow commercial links on my site, free of charge (for now, at least), if I believe they serve my readers.]

[James’ Reply: Thank you, Yan.]

[James’ Reply: Thank you for blogging on this worthy subject. It’s the sort of thing we need to talk about more often and more deeply.

I think the most prevalent connotation of talent is “the natural endowments of a person” (from Webster’s), as opposed to what is acquired. Skill and knowledge are acquired.

I associate talent with interest. If you truly have no talent for an intellectual pursuit, I conjecture that you will not be able to sustain your interest in it. That’s why, when I start coaching someone, I ask him or her to perform an exercise that is difficult and time consuming. I expect untalented or uncommitted people to fade away, at that point. The few people who remain get my further attention. Someone may have less talent and more commitment, but someone with too little talent will eventually give up under the normal stress of the job (never mind the unusual stresses).

I’m not worried too much about talent, because everyone has a talent for something. My wife has a talent for taking care of the logistical details of living. She was a highly regarded secretary at Apple Computer, when I met her. I would say she has very little talent for testing, per se, but because of her, I am a better tester. When I am doing my work, she flutters about like an angel of snacks and errands, relieving me and my teammates from any other concern but testing– therefore her talent can make a better test team.

Looking at the activity of testing itself, software testing of the kind I teach requires a certain modicum of talent so that your learning curve is not so slow that you get discouraged. Some of the talents are: ability to operate and make progress despite high levels of uncertainty and complexity; ability to pursue a line of inquiry; ability to practice philosophy; ability to suspend judgment; ability to responsibly apply heuristics; ability to learn.

Here’s how you can be sure you will benefit from taking the Rapid Software Testing class (or any class): develop the ability to benefit from anything that is happening around you. If you put me in a dark quiet room for 90 minutes, I promise you I will benefit from it. That is under my control, not the room’s control. The better question is whether Rapid Software Testing is a better use of your time than a dark quiet room, or some alternative class. I can’t answer that for you. However, I have designed the class to be one that I would like to take. I have designed it to challenge your mind. I enjoy teaching it, because it challenges me almost as much as it does the students.

If, when I tell you I will challenge your mind, the feeling you have is excitement, perhaps you have a talent for this sort of thing.]

In fact, I read about it in US News and World Report this week, so, apparently, it’s like, a real thing and stuff. Add a link to your website, people click on it, fill in finacial details, and your phone rings. Your phone doesn’t ring unless Ether has allready collected the fee for you. When you’re done, the money goes into paypal or something.

Nice post on collaboration. I’ve been reading your stuff since I was hired as the tester for a company that builds a project management tool for virtual teams.

You may want to check Groove out. Groove has been around for a while and was bought by Microsoft about a year and half ago. They let you create “workspaces” and have several tools that you can add to the workspaces. It all decentralized and keeps a local copy of the space and content on every workspace member’s computer. Any changes in the space are disseminated to all other members automatically so everything stays in synch in close to real time. And it works across firewalls!

It is going to be part of Office 2007 but you can get it stand-alone or as an annual subscription as a Live Office solution. You may still be able to get the 2007 Beta, but I’m not sure.

I didn’t really want to plug Groove like that, but it is a great tool.

Cheers,
Brandon

[James’ Reply: I’ll take a look at it. I was under the impression that Microsoft had already warped Groove into LiveMeeting or something. I assumed it was dead.]

My MSN: longarxin@hotmail.com; I know the chance you add me to your MSN would be zero…:-P