When a programmer builds a product, should he release it to the testers right away? Or should he test it himself to make sure that it is free of obvious bugs? Many testers would advise the programmer … [Read more...] about Should Developers Test the Product First?
Satisfice Blog
Sometimes it Gets Personal
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 … [Read more...] about Sometimes it Gets Personal
Who Stole Agile?
Brian Marick complains about people, like me, who prefer to use dictionary definitions of words such as agile, instead of capitalizing the word and using it as a brand name, as he does. Read his blog … [Read more...] about Who Stole Agile?
Studying Jeff Atwood’s Paint Can
I just found Jeff Atwood's Coding Horror blog. He's an interesting writer and thinker. One of his postings presents a good example of the subtle role of skill even in highly scripted activities. He … [Read more...] about Studying Jeff Atwood’s Paint Can
Defining Agile Methodology
Brian Marick has offered a definition of agile methodology. I think his definition is strangely bulky and narrow. That's because it's not really a definition, but an example. Those of us who've … [Read more...] about Defining Agile Methodology
“Use Version Control”
Darrell Norton says that "version control" is a best practice. I disagree with him about that, but his blog posting gives me an opportunity to show how context-driven reasoning works. Darrell … [Read more...] about “Use Version Control”
Some Useful Definitions
I use the following. I find these definitions to be flexible, inclusive, and consistent with the dictionary: Technique: method. Method: a way of doing something; an idea or ideas that specify … [Read more...] about Some Useful Definitions
Exploratory Testing Research
Good research on testing is hard to find. Why? One reason is that testing does not belong to the field of Computer Science. I mean, sure, some of it does. There is some value to describing and testing … [Read more...] about Exploratory Testing Research
Surprise Heuristic
At the recent Workshop on Training Software Testers, Morven Gentleman showed us a chart of some test results. I was surprised to see a certain pattern in the results. I began to think of new and … [Read more...] about Surprise Heuristic
Dead Bee Heuristic
Have you ever had a software problem that disappeared even when you did nothing to correct it? Or have you ever fixed a bug by doing something that seems as if it shouldn't have fixed … [Read more...] about Dead Bee Heuristic