Software Testing and Autism

April 14, 2008 – 9:20 am

We’re in that dreaded QA phase of the new MailChimp, and we’ll soon be opening up to beta testing. I say “dreaded” because designing and programming and marketing a new product is fun, but testing it for bugs is so opposite-of-fun. It’s critical, but it gets so repetitive, and tiny little details can get overlooked. Software testing is tough. So this article caught my eye:

“Software analysts and programmers live to innovate—but hate to run tests. Yet top-notch testing saves many a company money when bugs are caught early. A new case coauthored by HBS professor Robert D. Austin describes the secret behind a Danish consultancy’s success: The majority of its testers have Asperger syndrome or a form of autism spectrum disorder.”

The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing, from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge.