ends influence means - book becomes tool

A question that several people have asked me (like in this interview, for example), is

How and when did you get the idea of Testersdesk.

While I am not sure if I did the smart thing or not, wanted to write a post that externalizes my philosophy.

Most of us get a new idea, most of the time, with a particular set of "ends" we want to reach.

Couple of years ago, when I wanted to reach the "ends" of improved test productivity through smarter utilization of technology tools, I started writing a book on how to use technology in building utilities for Test Design, Test Data Generation, Test Diagnosis and Validation etc, primarily concentrating on things not broadly addressed by major test management and automated test execution tools. Said differently, the "end" I wanted to reach was inculcating toolsmith thinking in testers in their activities so that they can use their brain-work for more valid cases of value assurance.

Midway through the writing of the book, I found a clear need of translating all the work into a working product, as opposed to keeping it as some pages of text. I have convinced myself that a tool with "execution" power will reach the ends more quickly. Stopped writing the book, and basically became a spec for the tool, what it known as www.TestersDesk.com today.

So the point is the more faith we have in the ends, can influence the means we adopt. Some form of reverse as well as re-engineering.

Technically speaking, means can be viewed as several parallel threads racing to reach the end but I am not so fortunate to have the resources to run parallel threads!