Be an Educator, not an Enabler

This weekend I set up a computer at a relative's house. I unboxed it, plugged it in, went through the Windows setup screen. I set the timezone, removed some of the preinstalled crap-ware and finally installed MS Office. The entire process only took about 35 mins, but when I went home that night, I was disappointed in myself; I had missed out on an opportunity to teach my family how to do something with a computer.

Let's be real here folks, how hard is it to set up a new PC? This one had 3 wires. The CPU power cord, the monitor power cord, and the cable that connected the monitor to the PC. The keyboard and mouse were wireless, and just needed batteries installed. Loading Office is just a matter of inserting a DVD and clicking "Next" a few times. I could have walked them through the process and then they'd have felt smarter and more confident with the technology. Instead, I've inadvertantly fostered the belief that working on computers is hard, and borders on black magic.

It's like that with test automation, too. People who don't have an understanding of what it does and how it works see it as some sort of dark art. It's up to us to educate them so that they learn the right way to do things, rather than us always doing it for them. Good teachers help people figure out the answers for themselves, rather than give the answers to them. I'm going to try and be more like that in the future.

What have you done to help educate your team/group on automation? Have you been an educator or an enabler?