Testers as Dungeons and Dragons Classes

I’m a big fan of Dungeons and Dragons, having blogged and spoken about it and how it’s affected my testing. I thought it’d be fun to share what types of tester each Dungeons and Dragons class might be. Your Dungeons and Dragons class is the role that you fit within an adventuring party and impacts what skills and spells you might have or gain access to.

Note: Yes I missed out Blood Hunter. Sorry… I couldn’t think up a good idea for them.

The Artificer

Illustration of a character labeled 'The Artificer' with glasses, holding a glowing orb and surrounded by lightbulb icons. Text highlights their skills as a technologist, toolsmith, and problem solver in the context of testing classes.

Artificers are builders and tinkerers, creating and maintaining testing frameworks and working with the most modern tech stacks. They have the right tool for any testing job and are always happy to run a proof of concept for something new the team might want to try.

Whilst the Artificer is highly technical and can solve your pipeline testing needs, they need to be cognisant that automation might not work for 100% of all testing.

The Barbarian

An illustration of a muscular barbarian character holding a hammer and shield, with long hair and fur clothing. The background features striking colors and text discussing the testing class called 'The Barbarian', highlighting attributes such as rage, primal instincts, and suitability for ad hoc testing.

Barbarians are intuitive, using their instincts and trusting their gut which means they get the “feel” for where bugs are. They like to get stuck into the fight and would rather do something than talk about it, making them excellent at ad hoc activities.

Whilst the barbarian can use their primal instincts to get started on testing quickly, they need to not be blinded to the project’s overall plan.

The Bard

A fantasy character, the Bard, depicted with horns and playing a guitar, showcasing traits of inspiration, performance, and charisma. The background features bold text on testing classes.

Bards are charismatic people people, they use their influence to inspire others and share information about testing. They like to command an audience and perform, whether that’s running a demo, workshops or even talking to someone about the details of a bug that’s been found.

Whilst the bard makes for a great leader and can take people on a journey, they need to remember to put others in the limelight and not hog all the glory too.

The Cleric

A digital illustration of a cleric character with long white hair and wearing an ornate robe, accompanied by text highlighting their roles as a teacher, problem-solver, and wise figure in testing classes.

Clerics are wise, bringing in a lot of experience that gives them the ability to be pragmatic. Kind and nurturing, the cleric is seen as a healer and is someone who will look to solve problems in order to heal a team.

Whilst the cleric can be an evangelist and teach others about the craft of testing, they must be careful to not become dogmatic.

The Druid

An illustrated character labeled 'The Druid' with long light hair and elf-like features, surrounded by nature-themed elements. Text highlights their adaptability in testing roles, generalist skills, and ability to maintain team harmony.

The Druid is a shapeshifter, able to change their testing into whatever form is needed by the team. To complement this, they are the quintessential generalist and able to turn their hand to many types of testing for a holistic approach.

The Druid will look to promote harmony by picking up glue work and tasks to support the team, they must remember to not let this overwhelm them and prevent them from testing.

The Fighter

An illustration of a warrior character representing 'The Fighter' class, featuring attributes such as tactical planning, leadership, and courage. The background is black with bold pink text on top.

Strong and powerful, the Fighter makes for a great leader as they have the force of will to say what needs to be done. A great tactician and strategist, the Fighter is the one to draw up the battle plan through strategies and approaches and communicates them to their team.

The Fighter is a great champion of testing and waves the banner, but must remember that a brute force approach can alienate others.

The Monk

A stylized image featuring a character named 'The Monk' with a hooded cloak, accompanied by text outlining their agile testing abilities, focused accuracy, and discipline within a team environment.

The monk is agile, their testing style and skills allows them to work fast and be flexible to adapt to changing needs. Focused on the specific information they need right now their disciplined stance allows them to avoid distractions and work for the good of the team.

Whilst going fast can help the team to get to production, the Monk has to remember to try and elevate quality and not just test the bare minimum.

The Paladin

A stylized illustration of a armored paladin character, with dragon-like features, standing confidently. The background is black with vibrant pink and yellow text describing the role of the paladin in testing, emphasizing their lawful approach, trustworthiness, and commitment to quality standards.

Lawful and order are the ways to describe the Paladin, they like to have a clear way of working and structure to their testing to ensure that it’s done right. Having clear structure about their testing means they can speak to the core truths about testing, being trusted to give advice on the quality of something.

Able to clearly work with the certainty of standards making them a great tester for regulated environments, the Paladin may struggle in a more uncertain environment.

The Ranger

A fantasy character known as 'The Ranger' featured in a testing classes graphic, showcasing their skills as an explorer, hunter, and independent tester.

An explorer, suited to the unknown, the Ranger has the exploratory testing skills to thrive within uncertainty and tame it. They chase after their chosen prey, whether that be bugs or information, and don’t rest until they find it and share it with the rest of their team.

Whilst the Ranger is highly independent and can set their own testing scope, they must remember to be pragmatic and keep the whole team’s needs in mind when exploring.

The Rogue

An illustration of a rogue character in a dark hooded outfit, holding a sword, accompanied by text outlining their skills in penetration testing, disarming traps, and ethical hacking.

The Rouge works as an ethical hacker who works to disarm the traps of a system and break through the security of an organisation. Working from a position of stealth they can test in the areas where nobody is expecting to find weaknesses in the system.

The Rogue has a deep specialism and can be called upon to deal with a specific problem, they also need to know how to work with a wider team for solving other problems.

The Sorcerer

Image depicting a mystical figure titled 'The Sorcerer' with white hair and a beard, surrounded by glowing stars. Text highlights characteristics of a 'bug magnet,' an innate sense for testing, and their ability to customize tools for testing needs.

The quintessential bug magnet, the Sorcerer doesn’t use specific training or testing jargon because they know and can feel where issues lie. Not being defined by the rules, Sorcerers are great at chaos engineering and bug bashes, they deliberately try to break the system to find issues.

Although great at finding all sorts of deep issues and bugs, the Sorcerer must remember to adopt a more planned approach to allow for reproduction of issues.

The Warlock

An illustration of a character labeled 'The Warlock' in a fantasy style, wearing dark robes and holding a book, discussing their role as a mentee tester who uses user personas.

The Warlock is a social tester, one who has created a strong relationship with a mentor or an organisation to hone their testing craft. They can use their social skills to create user personas, strongly supporting UAT and usability testing for an organisation.

Whilst being strong at the human side of testing, the Warlock can sometimes fall into the trap of business process and forget to question a “we’ve always done it that way” mentality.

The Wizard

A wizard figure sitting and holding a glowing orb, with text describing qualities of a modern learner in testing classes, including being a student, specializing in a specific area, and having the ability to understand complex designs.

Academic and learned, the Wizard brings their skills from technical study into the team. Up to date on the latest updates in the fields of software development and testing they can analyse any tech stack and architect a test strategy and solution.

Whilst the Wizard has many certifications and knows a lot about things in theory, they must not lose sight of what practical hands-on experience can give them.

Multiclass Testers

I’m sure that you’ve looked at these and found a couple of them that feel like you, that’s where the multiclass comes in. Multiclass testers take skills and abilities from two (or more) of the other testing classes to form something more well rounded.

Multiclass testers might have a deep specialism in one of their chosen classes (being T-Shaped) or have multiple deep specialisms (comb-shaped) based on the types of testing that interests them. The benefit of multiclassing is that you get to pick up skills from across the testing landscape, but you may lose out on the really deep specialism that comes from focusing on being one class.

A Party Full of Testers

A group of cloaked figures standing on a rocky landscape, facing a distant, imposing castle with towers, against a backdrop of fiery colors and celestial bodies.

Adventurers don’t always go alone, they take a group of friends and allies with them to slay beasts and gather treasure. In the same way testers can work together to form a party of different classes to overcome the challenges that they face.

When looking to create a testing team, much like an adventuring party, we should look at the classes we have to spot any gaps and bring in somebody who fills the need we have (that’s culture add, not culture fit). If we have a party of all Bards, maybe we need an Artificer or a Fighter to balance things out and bring in some skills that we’re missing.

Plus by having a more well rounded party means we can learn from each other and multiclass by picking up each other’s skills!

BONUS: The Dungeon Master

A dramatic black and white image of a smiling man dressed as a fantasy character, leaning over a table with miniature figures and a map, illustrating the concept of a Dungeon Master in testing roles.

The Dungeon Master creates the world that the other’s get to test in by provisioning and managing the test environments and data. Being an architect of the testing world means they will set the structures around testing ways of working and tooling.

The Dungeon Master brings the testing party together and gives them the spaces in which to test, but must remember to give autonomy to their testers and not railroad them.

So what’s your testing class? Do you have a single or a multiclass specialism?

Thanks for reading. If this resonated (or if you think that I’ve got it wrong) there’s more to read on the blog… or get in touch via LinkedIn. I’ll talk quality to anyone who wants to listen!

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