https://k12.home.blog/2026/06/14/my-shadow-haiku/

The First Job!

I got it after a long & long days of struggle in Bangalore in 2007.

I belong to the majority of Majority. Majority means ‘Engineers’, ofcourse, and Majority of Majority means those who weren’t fortunate enough to get a job in a campus recruitment.

Welcome to the world of job searching. You just got only 12,437,2514 engineers to compete with you.

Having not learnt any technologies, and not being someone who can lit up the stage with his English accent and vocabularies, I knew it is going to be a big challenge, but I was up for anything at that moment.

The frequent enquiries and taunts from your haters (we call them as relatives in India), the cluelessness of not knowing what is in the store for you, and the way failures becoming a day-to-day routine – These were all the discouraging factors for me.

Strong Motivation, Believing in own ability, Hunger and Thrive to win, Training, Will, Vision, and a well wishing mother – These were all the encouraging factors.

I used to follow everyday job adverts and do walk in randomly. Most of them were call center interviews, run by some consultancy every day, and the candidates will be selected through the ‘Self Inroduction’ itself.

Well, that used to be the first round, and my elimination round too.

However, it didn’t stop me from attending interviews daily. Because the goal is set; And I’m working hard towards the process. Results will definitely come one day – I believed so.

Things started changing slowly…..

That north eastern HR who surprisingly appreciated my accent,

That Start-up MD, who offered me a Team lead role, when I just went for a Data entry job,

Those collegues who genuinely welcomed me when i joined an internship for a credit card company,

That experience gathered in doing a part time with my uncles’ business,

They all helped big with my confidence to take me one-one step closer to my goal.

I tell you what! Confidence and Positive mind set works wonders for you. You can cut the mountains in to pieces with the knives made out of Bananas. It happens when you are confident, and it happened for me too.

Finally, the ray of hope. With all the experience gathered in this process, with all the learnings taken out from the struggles, I got my first job. I was as excited as the sunflowers seeing sun for the first time. I felt like a new born baby started hearing her first music.

Success…. Makes everyone your friend, and makes everything look very easy. A happy phase. And Indeed a no stopping from there.

There will be ups, there will be downs, but remember the key is this. ‘Focus the goal and put efforts towards the journey’. Some might stop you in the middle, some might pull you down, some might even try to destroy. But those are all temporary set backs. They give us the biggest experience which no institutes can teach us for lakhs. Go through it, learn from it, and if possible, make sure those learnings help the people around you.

I thought that sharing this small experience might help someone in need. I wish good luck for everyone who is reading this. Trust me, You are special & You are going to do wonders.

 

Overview:

A Risk based testing is an approach in which the test efforts are focused on high risk areas, where the risks are assessed based on business criticality, usage frequency, defect prone areas and also the complexity. The tests are sequenced based on risks, where the high risk modules are tested first and also with extensive test coverage. Generally, it is an understanding that the risk based testing is performed only when the teams have limited time and resources, but in the real world it is not the only way it has to be used.

Importance of Risk based Testing:

The fundamental testing principles of ISTQB states that ‘Exhaustive testing is impossible’. It means that whatever the maximum test coverage we are doing is already a ‘Risk-based’, as we do not necessarily cover all the multiple/possible sets of test data or test conditions within our scope.

It might not be possible to deliver a ‘Zero defect’ product all the time, but by identifying risks properly and ensuring that testing covers all of them, one can atleast be sure that we don’t run in to the production issues which will lead in to any major customer dissatisfaction, or something which costs the reputation of the organization.

Imagine a scenario like this – Your CEO gets a major complaint call during his holidays at night while celebrating his birthday in Paris. And that’s because of one critical defect, resulted from that one test case, which you missed to identify and execute. Well, we should never even imagine creating such scenarios, but these things can be mitigated only by a proper risk analysis upfront.

How does it benefit Agile?

Enhancing Customer experience: We do testing not just to uncover defects. If that is the case, a lot many tests can be run and a bulk of defects can be found. But we do testing ultimately to keep improving the ‘Customer experience’. Risk based testing adheres to the fact that customer experience is taken as a prime priority. With multiple releases in Agile, team has to be aware of key risk areas all the time and testing has to cover the same, whenever a release is happening.

Every risk is mitigated: We are in the world of continuous integration and delivery. With the help of automation, it is quite possible to do extensive as well as repetitive testing. But still we need to understand the fact that 100% automation is not possible, and there is always some manual element left out to consider. Risk based testing helps here to prioritize tests in both manual and automation areas, and there by gives the overall coverage of risks and helps us to mitigate them at the earlier stages.

Cost effective: The frequent deployment and releases happening in the Agile world demands the testers and developers to be highly effective with time management. Risk based approach enables the team to give more output in a lesser period of time, and hence it ensures cost effectiveness at its best.

Risk based testing approach in Agile:

Epics, features, Backlog items and User stories are the test basis in Agile model, and they are also the best candidates to extract the ‘Risk items’. The process starts with the much important phase of identifying the Quality risks. They can be identified at a higher level during release planning by all the stake holders, and in a detailed level during each sprint planning by the Scrum team.

One of the most beneficial and also a light weight risk based testing technique used in Agile is ‘Risk Poker’. Just like planning poker, Risk poker is a team based activity, where decisions are made by achieving consensus. After listing out the risks, a scoring will be done separately for the likelihood and impact of the risk, which helps us in concluding the level of risks.

Once the risks are identified and prioritized, a suitable testing technique or approach can be finalized to mitigate the same. There are a lot of formulas and models being used by different organizations for Risk based testing, however, I have given a simple table which illustrates the same with few examples as below:

Risk	Level of Risk (1 being High & 5 being Low)	Test approach	Test Coverage
Change involves adding new table in to database	1	Include database testing in scope	Extensively test the data mapping, CRUD operations (create, retrieve, update, delete), schema, triggers and stored procedures in database
Incorrect calculations and numbers in a banking system	1	More focus on functional testing	Requires extensive functional testing with more story points
User will upgrade to a newer version of platform	2	Include backward compatibility testing in scope	Requires extensive testing with more story points
Software will be used specifically/majorly by the people with disabilities	2	Include Accessibility testing in scope	Requires extensive testing with respect to Accessibility and related guidelines

 Conclusion:

Probably the only model which enables the teams to achieve maximum results with in a minimal given time, and still ensures that a quality product is delivered to the customer is a ‘Risk based testing’. Some of the huge advantages we derive from it in a real time are:

• Helps the team to take some crucial calls like when to stop testing
• Defects/Problems can be identified early, and controls can be implemented sooner
• Customer experience and quality will be met with a good level of assurance
• Continuous monitoring of risks helps the team to stick in to Test strategy, approach and goals

Considering the enormous amount of values it bring in to the table, teams should start getting the most benefits out of this technique and ensure that our products and results are delivered with upmost perfection. And do make a note of this – A wise man once did testing and said that, ‘Quality is never delivered by fluke‘, and ‘Excellence can never be an accident‘.

The Virtuous path of Dharma

With the good, bad, neutral, semi-neutral, rich, poor being looted,

With the minor, major, old, young, same sex, opposite sex being raped,

With the father, mother, brother, sister, partner being killed,

With the temples, churches, mosques, schools, hospitals being bombed,

I realised it is important for us to reiterate ourselves, time and again on this topic – The holy path of ‘Dharma’.

What is Dharma?

The dharma of sugar is sweetness,

The dharma of water is feeding lives,

The dharma of a student is to implement his learning,

The dharma of a king is to serve his people,

The dharma of a game is to let the skilful win,

The dharma of a warrior is to fight the battle regardless of opponents and results

And finally, the dharma of us humans, I believe, is to live the life fulfilling one’s duties without compromising any ethical and moral values.

It has to win, at the end atleast

One of the greatest epics India has ever produced, Mahabharata, talks about the biggest battle between Dharma and Adharma.

The Pandavas had all the reasons to lose – They are the weaker opponents, lesser in number, already lost their entire kingdom, less armed and also less equipped.

On the other hand, the Gauravas were relatively much stronger – More in number, more equipped, had all the gurus by their side, and got even the biggest strategist in the name of Shakuni.

The only thing which the Pandavas had, but the opponents did not have is the Truth itself, or Justice, or Dharma, and that is what attracted even the GOD (Lord Krishna) to join them and fight the battle out.

The hero of the epic is not Pandavas, and not even Krishna; If you look at it closely and deeply, the hero is Dharma itself, which somehow pulled victory towards its own children the end.

The epic could be a story, or imaginary, or even real – Which is completely up to one’s beliefs and philosophies. But end of the day, the moral has been conveyed by the greatest epic of this country. If the epic is not the greatest, then it could definitely not have survived this longer, isn’t it?

Dharma & Leadership

In the year 1963, to listen the speech of great Martin Luther King Jr, there was a mass of 250,000 people gathered in Washington. That was an unexpected number at that time, and Martin as a leader had attracted so many people to what it later become an historical speech…… How?

The Salt March, led by Mahatma Gandhi, began with around 80people, but as more and more people joined in for the 390 km-long journey, it grew into a strong force of 50,000 people….. Why?

The reason is that,

One who has truth and justice by his side,

One who doesn’t afraid to stand for his people,

One who practices what he preaches, and the

One who walks and talks the path of holistic dharma,

People will definitely start following him. This is the universal truth. And this virtuous path has got the power of making anyone a great leader.

In simple, what to avoid

There are six vices as below:

1. Illegal or Enforced sex (Kama),
2. Violence (krodha),
3. Greediness (corruption of money),
4. Fascination (moha),
5. Ego (mada) and
6. Jealousy (maatsarya)

And also the three forms of sins.  That is, harming or hurting others

1. By words
2. By actions
3. Or even by thoughts

Most of us are definitely committing any/all of these sins on a regular basis, with or without knowledge. The focus to realise these, and the attempt to reduce those, will gradually take us through the path of dharma. Now this is the toughest part! One can do good deeds very easily, but gaining the wisdom and self-control to stay away from these bad things will be a real challenge. Simply, I would say it’s up and over to you.

Why dharma is so important

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and what not! There are so many religions and beliefs across the world. And they all have their own concepts and preaching’s. But there is one thing which they all commonly stress about – That is ‘Dharma’.

No religion asks people to spread only its, and No religion demands people to destroy others’. It’s just that we people got so addicted to our own beliefs (not just religion, anything for that matter) and started fighting with others who have different opinions and concepts.

Mutual respect, and Mutual understanding between us are the most commonly needed thing at this moment, and I’m sure that the path of dharma can definitely enable us to do the same.

Thank You!