Portrait of a Software Testing Knight – Cem Kaner

After about 5 years, I tried my hand at pencil portraits. I used to draw portraits of some faces filled with a certain emotion, mostly concentrating on eyes & expressions. I also used to draw portraits of some close friends and teachers. I have put some of these at Testing Perspective galllery; these are the only ones I’m left with.

For the last 6 years, my world revolves around software testing. So, I thought to pick a personality from the testing world. And then, there was an obvious choice! Like other uncountable testers in the world, for me too, Cem Kaner’s thoughts and literature on testing, have been the building blocks of my testing career.I have never met or seen Cem Kaner. Also, I do not have any large sized photograph of Cem Kaner. I searched for his pictures on the net. I chose the one on the left, which is shown in its original size, as got from the web.

I am not a professional portrait maker, I am just a hobbyist. The portrait might be far from perfection. I drew this to say thanks to Cem Kaner for providing wonderful insights into the complex world of software testing. His books, papers and the black-box software testing course (along with other wonderful co-authors who need a different dedicated discussion) are one of the finest which anyone can find. His powerful stand through the concept of Schools of Testing and Context-driven school in particular, has inspired a lot of testers around the world. This is true not only for the testers who subscribe to it, but also for testers like me, who might differ in opinion but are still benefited by some of the its ideas. Thanks Cem! The picture on the left is my attempt at drawing your portrait! (Very cleverly, I have put it in a reduced size to look similar to the original picture)

Here goes the portrait in a larger size, with many more visible mismatches:

Rahul Verma
Site Admin, www.testingperspective.com