The Manual Testing Show

The host of The Evil Tester Show opens with a trigger warning: the phrase "manual testing" is one of three noun phrases that cause confusion in the testing community, alongside "test automation" and "quality assurance." The central argument is that these terms are noun phrases, which turn processes into static things, and that this linguistic habit leads to vague communication and conceptual conflation. The host proposes a simple but deliberate shift: use verb phrases instead, with "testing" as the core verb, and add adverbs to describe how the testing is done.

The host explains that noun phrases like "manual testing" or "test automation" force you to say "I'm doing manual testing" — which treats the activity as a thing rather than a process. The parallel is "I'm doing the dishes" versus "I'm washing the dishes." The first is vague; the second describes an action. The same applies to testing. "I'm testing manually" is a verb phrase that keeps the focus on the process of testing, while "I'm doing manual testing" turns it into a static category. The host argues that this distinction matters because noun phrases encourage conflation: "manual testing" and "test automation" sound like two separate things, when in reality they are different approaches to the same activity.