Hope to See you at STAR East, Eurostar, and CAST
STAR East is next week, in Orlando, Fl. I will be there. I’ll be roaming the halls with my portable test coaching kit (currently being beta tested), hoping to talk to people.
I rarely go to a presentation at an exhibition conference like STAR, because I go to conferences to confer, and that’s a two-way process. But I appreciate being invited to a talk by a speaker who wants a critical and collegial review. (Whenever I give a talk, I invite anyone and everyone present to talk back, argue with me, attack me, etc. That’s how I earn my self-respect.)
So, mostly I’ll be in the hallways and in the lounge, sipping my ginger ale. If you want free consulting or coaching while I’m there, I don’t charge for that– actually that’s how I do my marketing. And if you want to offer me free coaching or consulting, too, be my guest.
You know what I would love? Challenge me to test something. Throw down a laptop in front of me and say “Test this! Test it now!”
I will also be at the CAST conference, in Seattle, in July, where I will be holding an open testing competition and giving my “Self-Education for Testers” tutorial. CAST is the closest thing we have to an exhibition conference for Context-Driven testers. And I’ll be at Eurostar, in Stockholm, in December, where I will be making my arguments against certification programs such as ISTQB and explaining why I am not certified.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:35 am
A few days ago I red eurostar content as it’s theme is related to my local speech next week. Content this year in this conference is promising – let me quote a few (imo typical) key points: Trust people, not numbers, processes, books or tools; “Softer” skills are critical today…; Learn by comparing approaches, techniques & tools; People are inspired and follow a leader. I was also agreeably surprised to see your keynote to open the conference.
I was not surprised however to see your keynote description (we believe… explain what …) contrast with others (the skills testers can learn… the answers to … demonstrates the value of … give some tips… ). It seems you will try to apply peer conference idea of sharing instead of consulting (provoke thinking of alternative(s) instead of providing “the wisdom”). Good luck!
May 10th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
I’ll be at STAREast James.
I hope to have a conversation with you about the lightning talk I will have there.
The title “Expecting the right result” might be misleading but I want to challenge the statement that the expected result is a fundamental testing attribute.
The topic is related to your RASTO class and the section about oracles. I have tried to talk to several people (the so called ‘established’ names) at STARWest 2 years ago. All but 2 turned there head and did not want to go into the conversation (”…well it’s just a best practice to have an expected result, Erwin!”).
Looking forward to next week!
I am really interested to hear about the “Self-Education for Testers� tutorial. However, I will be in Europe during that timeframe.
[James' Reply: The expected result thing is interesting because we have a million expectations, mostly unconscious and emergent. To suggest that there are only one or two expected results is absurd. What I say is not that you need an expected result for a test. What you need is a reasonable oracle. This is a broader idea than expected result. By the way, your oracle is not necessarily needed before the test is executed. It can come at any time, even a week later.]
May 11th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
James,
This is exactly what I have been trying to say for a while!
You might have a million expectations or you might even have none before you start to test.
I think of an expectation as an event to occur in the future. If upon execution of a test an event occurs, you can not say “I didn’t expect this”, if you didn’t clearly state before the test started that you were not expecting the event.
An “expected result” is in my opinion something that must be clearly expressed/stated before you do something. This is the difference with an oracle.
If you think about what should happen before you start your test, you might find a lot of things that should happen and a lot of things that shouldn’t. Therefore in a lot of cases there is no value in thinking about your expected result.
2 Years ago I talked about this with your brother Jon.
Jon said “If I order a beer at the bar, then I epxect to get my beer”.
Right ! or maybe not!
When I am drunk and order a beer, the right thing to do for the bartender to do, is to not give me the beer.
On the other hand, I also expect
* that the beer is cold
* the glass is clean
* the glass is full
* there is only beer in the glass and nothing else (unless I ordered a Corona, and then I expect a lemon)
* the brand that I get is the brand that I ordered
My conclusion is that every test has an oracle, not all tests have an expected result.
[James' Reply: You also expect that the bar will not explode or suddenly freeze. You expect pink elephants will not begin suddenly begin to bounce around the ceiling. There are many many NOTs that you expect. We are never completely without expectations. What we need to do is educated our expectations to a sufficient degree. This can be done over time.]
May 15th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Come on , you need to speak out against certification programs such as ISTQB and explain why you’re not certified at the STAR conference.
[James' Reply: Okay, I will.]Â
May 16th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Hi James
Looking forward to seeing you at EuroSTAR. To bad I can´t attend your tutorial since I have my own. I am happy, and a bit surprised that they let you give the starting tutorial about NOT being certified. That will surely start some (well-needed) discussions. After all, if something does not stand up to scrutiny - it is probably not good enough.
I have an idea of how to make the coneference more interesting. As you said yourself you will not be attending the talks but prefer discussing with people. I would like to plan for some unplanned peer meetings during the day. Let´s get a flip-chart and gather some people for fruitful discussions. Who attends will be random, we will just have to explain the rules and have a few mini-presentations of max 15 minutes to start the discussions. The STaRT meetings in Sweden have been a success so far and have spread to Ann-Charlottes bank. I would love to hear more about how to fake a test project.
[James' Reply: Sounds like a great idea. Also, I generally make an open offer to meet with people before or after the conference and do testing exercises and challenges. More walk, less talk.]
May 17th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
James, I quite enjoyed your presentation and have to agree that you’ll likely not be called back to Star East, though I’m certain that the majority of green feedback slips favored your talk.
Thanks for giving up some time afterwards to chat with me about my over-documentation issues.
I’ve worked as a tester for 14 years having never known certifications or even institutionally accepted terminology. In fact, Star East ‘07 has been the first time I’ve mingled with the QA world at large. As a result, my head has been swimming with the idea that I must be grossly inadequate as a tester (and as a test team lead) since I’ve spent so long being so unaware of the various methods and processes created over the years.
But then, during the after-chat following your presentation, I realized that my lack of terminology has in no way impeded my ability to test. I’m still going back to my organization with a lot of new ideas for possible improvement, but I’m likely to assess these ideas much more critically than I had originally intended as I have now recovered from my sense of QA vertigo.
It was great meeting you. And kudos for being the only presenter this week to liberally use Star Wars references.
[James' Reply: Thanks, Travis. Actually they asked me to do the How To Fake A Test Project talk again at STAR West. So, I suspect they didn't fully understand what I was saying.
I am happy to have helped you be a little less alienated from your own self-worth. That's what makes speaking fun. Keep in touch.]
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 am
“If I order a beer at the bar, then I expect to get my beer�.
When I order a beer at the bar, I expect to get a bill, too.
—Michael B.
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
for Michael —
Do you expect a bill when your order a beer a the bar, and you are the owner of the bar?
Do you expect a bill after every beer you order? or at the end when you close your tap?
May 30th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I’m sorry I missed your how to fake presentation - the ppt looks wonderful. Is the talk up on youTube or google video or anything?
[James' Reply: SQE filmed it. But, I have no idea if or where it will be posted.]Â
June 10th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Erwin said:
Do you expect a bill when your order a beer a the bar, and you are the owner of the bar?
Do you expect a bill after every beer you order? or at the end when you close your tap?
Actually, I wrote a long list that I saved under the filename “Heuristics of Beer”. I got modest and only posted the second-last line of it, but now you’ve gone and appealed to my baser instincts. Remember: these are heuristics, so they usually work but they might fail.
• I expect the beer to be delivered in a glass, a cup, a bottle or a pitcher, and not in (say) a firehose or tanker truck.
• I expect to receive a quantity of beer consistent with what’s advertised on the menu.
• I expect to receive the same quantity of beer as people making orders that are similar to mine.
• I expect the establishment to follow the relevant business and liquor licensing laws (and I expect to be surprised when I find out that they’re not).
• I expect to get a glass or cup with the beer, unless social convention (e.g. a sports bar) suggests that it’s okay not to get one.
• I expect the volume of the glass to be consistent with the volume of beer than I’m receiving.
• I expect the glass to be clean.
• I expect the beer (and appropriate containers) to be placed on the table, not dropped on the ground, rested on a chair, poured into my lap, etc. If something of that nature does occur, then I expect apologies, an offer to help with my cleaning bill, and (of course) another beer.
• I expect the beer to be placed on my table, at my place, and not on someone else’s table or at someone else’s place at my table.
• I expect there to be no adulterants in my beer. Kahlua is right out.
• I expect there to be no invisible toxins in my beer. I expect not to keel over in my chair upon taking the first sip.
• I expect not to be asked to sing before I’m permitted to have the beer.
• I expect the waiter to be reasonably sympathetic and courteous.
• I expect the brand of beer to be the brand that I ordered.
• I expect the bottle (if there is one) to contain the brand of beer that the bottle identifies.
• I expect to receive a beer only if I’ve ordered one.
• I expect to receive only one beer, unless I’ve ordered multiple beers, in which case I expect to receive the number that I’ve ordered.
• If the kind of beer I ordered is not available, I expect that to be reported to me, and I expect to be offered another choice.
• I expect not to receive a deer, an ear, fear, a gear, a jeer, a leer, a peer, a seer, a steer, a spear, a tear, a weir, or a year. Or a von Trier.
• I expect the bottle to be full.
• I expect the bottle to be open.
• I expect the beer not to be flat.
• I expect the waiter to pour it (or not) in a manner that’s consistent with the image of the establishment that is providing it.
• I expect the beer to be served at an appropriate temperature (which varies with the kind of beer proffered).
• If it’s a Guinness, I half-expect the person pouring the beer to have inscribed a shamrock in the foam with the last few drops from the tap, which I despise as being phony, inauthentic, and twee.
• I expect to have to describe “twee� to the staff when I complain about the shamrock.
• I except the colour of the beer to be consistent with the kind of beer than I ordered.
• I expect the beer not to have gone skunky in the bottle.
• I expect to see nothing floating in the beer (unless it’s a Mexican beer, in which case I might expect a lime in it).
• I expect not to be threatened by the restaurant staff.
• I expect that someone will bring me the beer reasonably promptly.
I expect to receive another beer the next time I ask for one.
• I expect other people at the table to receive the beers of their choice, whether our choices are the same or whether they differ.
• I expect to change my expectation, depending on whether the bar is empty or crowded.
• New information might change my expectations. “There’s no table service here, sir; you’ll have to go to the bar and get it yourself.�
• I expect that if I have a problem with any of the above, that the waiter or manager will attempt to resolve the problem to my satisfaction.
• I expect to get a bill.
• If I own the restaurant, I expect not to get a bill.
I can’t remember a time when it’s been more appropriate in a blog comment to say…
Cheers,
—Michael B.
[James' Reply: I expect the waiter to understand my expectations, even if I don't list them.]Â
June 11th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I expect at least once to say “except”, even though I meant to say “expect”.
—Michael B.
June 12th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Hurray for you for standing up against certification. I have yet to discover that a “certified” tester was certified as being able to test. Too many people can’t hold up to a basic question like, “If you’ve just had the time for testing cut in half, how would you respond?” It’s terrible!” I think certifications are only meaningful if you work for an insurance company or some organization liek that. I do kind of like the fact that the ISEB cert in the UK does give people the same “language” to use when talking about testing, but I’d just as soon hire someone with good communication and investigation skills and a level head than someone who could explain to me in detail the difference between waterfall and V-model testing.
[James' reply: The irony is that certified testers usually can't even explain in detail the v-model, etc., nor can they defend themselves in an argument. It's just a multiple choice exam they take!]Â
September 13th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
MB is definitely a man who has said at least once ‘I just want a beer!’
As a one-time student, I hope to see you at Eurostar. In fact it was a note about the conference programme on the Eurostar website that I wanted to write about:
‘Please Note: This is A preliminary programme and may change in advance of the conference.’
It’s unlikely to change afterwards!
Initially I was going to submit this purely for silliness, but I think it complements the beer thread. Both are to do with context. Everyone playing the beer game was contextualising beer and bars, while the problem with the website text is that there’s an implied misunderstanding of the context of an exhibition programme. I think, for testers, especially those who would free themselves from the shackles of the expected result, that an understanding of context is key.