Pradeep blogged this, today. I need to amplify it because it provides a nice example of at least six useful and important patterns all in one post. This is why I believe Pradeep is one of the leading Indian testers. Practical advice: “Ask for testability” His story is all about asking for testability and all [...]

One of the comments on my post about The Esssence of Heuristics went like this: “An excellent example of a heuristic is a hammer.” Ecstasy is your friend: it picks you up at the airport. Non heuristics that can help an expert solve a problem, without being a guarantee – an abridged list: * Money [...]

A lot of what I do is give names to testing behaviors and patterns that have been around a long time but that people are not systematically studying or using. I’m not seeking to create a standard language, but simply by applying some kind of terminology, I want to make these patterns easier to apply [...]

Excellent testing requires skill, but heuristics give structure to that skill. Heuristics help us access our skills under pressure. A heuristic is a fallible method of solving a problem or making a decision. Cem Kaner and I came to this definition based on an extensive search of papers and books across fifty years of psychology [...]

Stuart Reid is planning to do a talk on how we should use “evidence” in our debates about what works and doesn’t work in testing. A funny thing about that is Stuart once spent 30 minutes trying to convince me that the number “35,000″ was evidence of how great the ISEB certification is, as in [...]

A former fellow of the ISTQB sent me some secret dirt about the ISTQB qualifications process. (Editors Note: The ISTQB is the organization of cash-grubbing bullies that runs advertisements that say things like “join the elite”– meaning “pay us to give you a ridiculous and unnecessary exam that almost everyone passes so that dimwitted managers [...]

I just discovered that all new comments were being sent to the spam instead of held for moderation. I have no idea what has triggered this strange behavior. If you have made a comment in the last couple of weeks and didn’t see it appear, it maybe lost. Please try again. I did manage to [...]

Yesterday, I got to thinking about what I like to do. I want to be an expert. I’ve always wanted to be an expert. I’m aspiring to be that. I recalled that Steve McQueen played my kind of expert, in the movie The Towering Inferno. So, I found a clip and added subtitles to turn [...]

(CNN) — Early evidence points to driver error as the reason a 2005 Prius sped into a stone wall on March 9, according to federal investigators. “Information retrieved from the vehicle’s onboard computer systems indicated there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open,” according to a statement from the National [...]

I’m not against Toyota, really. I’m against manufacturers who try to weasel out of their responsibilities after they put people at risk with poor design. I do not know if Toyota is guilty of that, here. I also don’t know what the real story is with this Sikes fellow who was in the car that [...]

A press release by Toyota recently stated: Toyota’s electronic systems have multiple fail-safe mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power in the event of a system failure. Extensive testing of this system by Toyota has not found any sign of a malfunction that could lead to unintended acceleration. Here are some notes for the [...]

My son turned 16 a couple of weeks ago, and the event prompted me to take a fresh look at him. This is hard to do, in life. You put someone in a category, and it’s all too easy to keep him there. I think my own mother still thinks I’m 14 years-old (the age [...]

Richard drove up to the hangar just as I was checking the oil on the Husky, his prized baby float plane. Nuts. He was right on time. I was late. I’m supposed to have the plane ready to go when he arrives. “Hey Dad, looks like a good day for flying. I’m just in the [...]

I’m on a new project lately, working with a team at QualiTest. We’re testing a class III medical device. This is an exciting project, because for the first time I am aware of, formalized exploratory testing will be used to do such a validation. We will not rely on masses of procedural test scripts. I’ve [...]

My brother and I are experimenting with short podcasts. Here are the first two 15-minute segments: Testers say the darndest things. One issue in coaching testers is getting them to speak carefully about evidence and about what they can and can’t do. For instance, we talk about how we react when someone tells us that [...]