Over the holidays I got asked, “what makes a good software tester?”. As well as recounting the traditional traits of sheer good looks, athleticism and sophisticated banter, this actually got me thinking back to what we are here to do. Crudely speaking, we are here to find defects. [Note that I don't state "find and fix defects" - as that's a topic for another discussion].

To do this well requires a broad range of character traits – just like our customers have a broad range of approaches to using our software. So when asked if I’d want a tester who takes a very rigorous approach, or one with a much more ad-hoc attitude to testing – I’d happily take both.