The Tester's Critical C's: Criticism, Communication, Confidence

Testers are professional critics. Our job is to evaluate and criticize other people's work. Although criticism can have a positive meaning, it is more often taken as negative. When we communicate our criticism to other people, we are sometimes misunderstood, and this can lead to serious problems, including losing confidence in ourselves. Dorothy Graham examines how our delivery of criticism and the ways we communicate can make us more effective-and not damage our interpersonal relationships. Dorothy presents a communications model that helps explain how and why personal interactions can go wrong. Both the "push" and "pull" styles of influencing can help us communicate better with our managers. Dorothy explains how your confidence level affects your ability to constructively criticize others' work and communicate test results. She concludes with valuable tips for increasing your confidence.

• Give and receive criticism effectively
• How communication can go wrong and how to improve it
• Increase your confidence to improve your effectiveness