Software Testing and Boredom at work

[A copy of this article is available freely for download here.]

The motivation for this blog entry came from a tester who recently told me that he was bored and his job seemed monotonous.

Before jumping right in at trying to suggest possible solutions, lets digress a bit to take a closer look at the concept of boredom ! (as if it weren’t boring enough to talk about)

According to psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel, boredom occurs, “When we must not do what we want to do, or must do what we do not want to do.” Though the feelings of being bored by routine tasks are often transitory, longer-term boredom can set in from a lack of meaning or purpose in life.