Upgrade testing is rotting my brain

Installer and upgrade testing is probably the worst activity that I have to do as a tester. To put it bluntly: I hate it.

I like creating the strategy and the plan to get good coverage with smart test design, but when one gets to executing these tests, it tends to fall into the repetitive, slow grind that quickly spirals into tester fatigue land.

For the past week, I have been reimaging a set of machines, preparing them with test data, performing an upgrade and verifying the state of the application and trying to find if anything unexpected happened. If I find a failure, instead of the usual rush of adrenaline that every tester gets, I groan when I think of all the extra reimaging I’ll have to do to narrow down the repro steps. Plus, trying the scenario on the previous version and the “other” platform to gather more information for developers.

The sad part about this is that I feel like I am not learning anything during these periods. And I get sloppy after a while. A part of me thinks that this salt-mine work is necessary, but another wonders if there is a better way to do this…

Anybody has good suggestions for a fellow tester?

- Federico