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 “35,000 [...]

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 will [...]

This comes from an ISTQB advertisement they spammed me with, today:

“To ensure the quality of any software system, testers and QA professionals must thoroughly test the product. But how do you know that these tests are effective? If your team is conducting ad hoc, informal tests with little guidance or planning, the quality of the [...]

Pradeep Soundararajan got threatened with lawyers when he criticized Testing Experience magazine for being under the thumb of the ISTQB (for those who don’t yet know, the ISTQB are the guys who want to prevent you from getting work as a tester unless you first pass their silly test. They also plagiarized my definition of [...]

At the Star conference, this week, the lady at the ASTQB booth was executive director Lois Kostroski. The ASTQB is the American chapter of the ISTQB. Here’s the gist of the conversation we had about certification…
James: “Do you need any experience to get certified?”
Lois: “No, you just have to pass the exam.”
James: “What are the [...]

I’m thinking of having badges made which say “Conscientiously Uncertified.” It’s for those of us who want to resist the dumbing down of our craft by cynical consultants promoting bogus tester certification programs.
For me, when I see that someone is certified as CSTE, ISEB, ISTQB, or CSTQE, I immediately think “there goes someone who was [...]

Alan Richardson writes this commentary from inside one of the stupidest of the certification programs: the ISTQB (well, he says “ISEB”, but by all accounts, it’s being taken over by ISTQB stormtroopers).
Long ago I also tried to change a certification program from the inside. I also failed. Now I do my best to cultivate the [...]

Thanks to Michael Bolton, for plunging in at Eurostar after I had to cancel. He has blogged on it here and here.
For what it’s worth, this is the presentation I was going to give at Eurostar, before I had to drop out.
And interestingly, Matthew Heusser just blogged on one of my central ideas: that different [...]

This posting by Corey Goldberg illustrates an interesting and all too common kind of confusion people get into when discussing methods and practices. It’s worth pondering.
On SQAForums, someone stated:
“ISEB defines automated tested as useful only in mature testing environments and where functionality is not changing i.e. at regression testing.”
to which Corey replied:
“…and ISEB would be [...]

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. [...]

It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.
This reminds me of that “definition of insanity” which is so often attributed to Einstein. But this comes from Francis Bacon, circa 1620. In his seminal [...]

Cem Kaner recently posted an announcement of a class he’s giving. In the announcement he said “This course is not affiliated with a university. It is not accredited, not approved by any professional society and not associated with any certification effort.”
I smiled when I read that. Then I realized why I was smiling. [...]

Recently, a colleague of mine felt stung by something I said in an argument. He complained that I was making an “ad hominem” argument. I want to clarify this issue, because it’s a common mistake: what I was making was a personal attack, not an ad hominem argument.
A personal attack is when someone criticizes you [...]

What follows is a somewhat grumpy argument against tester certification programs. I have mixed feelings about writing this, because I know a lot of otherwise friendly people who are involved in certification. I know there are a good many organizations committed to certification. I will probably lose some business because I’m going on record opposing [...]