I just heard that Ed Yourdon died. In '93 or early '94, I got a strange email from him. He had heard about me in Mexico and he wanted to meet. I had never been to Mexico and I had never met or spoken … [Read more...] about The Man Who Opened the Door
Re-Inventing Testing: What is Integration Testing? (Part 1)
(Thank you, Anne-Marie Charrett, for reviewing my work and helping with this post.) One of the reasons I obsessively coach other testers is that they help me test my own expertise. Here is a … [Read more...] about Re-Inventing Testing: What is Integration Testing? (Part 1)
TestInsane’s Mindmaps Are Crazy Cool
Most testing companies offer nothing to the community or the field of testing. They all seem to say they hire only the best experts, but only a very few of them are willing to back that up with … [Read more...] about TestInsane’s Mindmaps Are Crazy Cool
Competent People and Conference Keynotes
My colleague and friend Anne-Marie Charrett has a thing about women. A) She is one. B) She feels that not enough of them are speaking at testing conferences. (See also Fiona Charles' post on this … [Read more...] about Competent People and Conference Keynotes
Exploratory Testing 3.0
[Authors' note: Others have already made the point we make here: that exploratory testing ought to be called testing. In fact, Michael said that about tests in 2009, and James wrote a blog post in … [Read more...] about Exploratory Testing 3.0
History of Definitions of ET
History of the term “Exploratory Testing” as applied to software testing within the Rapid Software Testing methodology space. For a discussion of the some of the social and philosophical issues … [Read more...] about History of Definitions of ET
“Are you listening? Say something!”
[Note: J. Michael Hammond suggests that I note right at the top of this post that the dictionary definition of listen does not restrict the word to the mere noticing of sounds. In the Oxford English … [Read more...] about “Are you listening? Say something!”
How Not to Standardize Testing (ISO 29119)
Many years ago I took a management class. One of the exercises we did was on achieving consensus. My group did not reach an agreement because I wouldn't lower my standards. I wanted to discuss the … [Read more...] about How Not to Standardize Testing (ISO 29119)
Let’s test at Let’s Test
I've been telling people that the best conference I know for thinking testers is Let's Test (followed closely by CAST, which I will also be at, this year, in New York). Let's Test was created by … [Read more...] about Let’s test at Let’s Test
Variable Testers
I once heard a vice president of software engineering tell his people that they needed to formalize their work. That day, I was an unpaid consultant in the building to give a free seminar, so I had … [Read more...] about Variable Testers