Dear Reader, I would like you to give up, henceforth, the idea of "best practice." Thank you. I want to stamp out "best practice" for several reasons: There are no best practices. By this I mean … [Read more...] about No Best Practices
Heuristics
Test For Ambiguity
Here is one test to tell if a sentence is potentially ambiguous: It has words in it. … [Read more...] about Test For Ambiguity
Amateur Penetration Testing
It's traveling season for me. London, Amsterdam, New Zealand, Australia, and so forth. That means I'm killing time in a lot of airports and hotel lobbies. And THAT means I'm testing software on kiosks … [Read more...] about Amateur Penetration Testing
To Repeat Tests or Not to Repeat
One of the serious social diseases of the testing craft is the obsession with repetition. Is that test repeatable? Is that test process repeatable? Have we repeated those tests? These questions are … [Read more...] about To Repeat Tests or Not to Repeat
Test Messy with Microbehaviors
James Lyndsay sent me a little Flash app once that was written to be a testing brainteaser. He challenged me to test it and I had great fun. I found a few bugs, and have since used it in my testing … [Read more...] about Test Messy with Microbehaviors
Counterstrings: Self-Describing Test Data
I was at a conference some months ago when Danny Faught showed me a Perl package for manipulating the Windows clipboard. I turned it into a little tool for helping me test text fields. It's called … [Read more...] about Counterstrings: Self-Describing Test Data
Testing Heuristic: Rumble Strip
A rumble strip is a strip of corrugated pavement running alongside highways. If you go to sleep and and drift off the road, the wheels of your car hit the rumble strips and that makes the car vibrate … [Read more...] about Testing Heuristic: Rumble Strip
Obvious/Oblivious
(Revised: 1/2015) As a process guy, I often hear the term "common sense". It's a strange term. Like "luck" it's a concept that generally brings an end to inquiry, because it's a reference to magic. … [Read more...] about Obvious/Oblivious