What is lateral and critical thinking?
Lateral thinking is where we try to think creatively about an idea, requirement, or piece of information from different angles to uncover more information about variables and perspectives relating to that initial information. And critical thinking is where we critically assess the information that we have, thinking about risks, assumptions, and problems relating to that information that we are assessing.
Do you have any examples?
So thinking laterally about dice, it can have between four and a hundred and twenty sides. The number of the dice can be displayed as dots, digits, or even as written text on the dice. The dice can be made from plastic, wood, or many different kinds of metal. And thinking critically about the fact that we need the dice to play the game, we can ask questions like, well, why do we need the dice? Would our random number generator, be suitable instead?
And what's the value?
So lateral and critical thinking skills help us to uncover test ideas. If we are testing the idea of the software early in the SDLC process, then our lateral and critical thinking skills will help us dispel assumptions and uncover more information to help us prevent problems and risks further down the line.
And what are the pitfalls?
So many people aren't familiar with lateral and critical thinking and don't realize the importance of these skills for testers. And many companies don't fully understand the investigative side of testing. And even with strong lateral and critical thinking skills, it's important to remember, you can't think of every permutation or each variable.
