Occasionally people come to me and say they want to learn certain things. They ask "how do I become a good tester" or "how do I design test cases" or "how do I automate" or something specific like … [Read more...] about My Personal Source Code: Books to Learn Analysis
Risk Analysis
The Bestselling Software Intended for People Who Couldn’t Use It.
In 1983, my boss, Dale Disharoon, designed a little game called Alphabet Zoo. My job was to write the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions of that game. Alphabet Zoo is a game for kids who are learning … [Read more...] about The Bestselling Software Intended for People Who Couldn’t Use It.
Reinventing Testing: What is Integration Testing? (part 2)
These thoughts have become better because of these specific commenters on part 1: Jeff Nyman, James Huggett, Sean McErlean, Liza Ivinskaia, Jokin Aspiazu, Maxim Mikhailov, Anita Gujarathi, Mike Talks, … [Read more...] about Reinventing Testing: What is Integration Testing? (part 2)
Justifying Real Acceptance Testing
This post is not about the sort of testing people talk about when nearing a release and deciding whether it's done. I have another word for that. I call it "testing," or sometimes final testing or … [Read more...] about Justifying Real Acceptance Testing
Quality is Dead #2: The Quality Creation Myth
One of the things that makes it hard to talk about quality software is that we first must overcome the dominating myth about quality, which goes like this: The quality of a product is built into it by … [Read more...] about Quality is Dead #2: The Quality Creation Myth
The Future Will Need Us to Reboot It
I've been reading a bit about the Technological Singularity. It's an interesting and chilling idea conceived by people who aren't testers. It goes like this: the progress of technology is increasing … [Read more...] about The Future Will Need Us to Reboot It
A Question About Test Strategy
Maria writes: A) Your presentation Test Strategy: "What is it? What does it look like?" applies to creating a test strategy for a specific application (I've also read Ingrid B. Ottevanger's article … [Read more...] about A Question About Test Strategy
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
How to Investigate Intermittent Problems
The ability and the confidence to investigate an intermittent bug is one of the things that marks an excellent tester. The most engaging stories about testing I have heard have been stories about … [Read more...] about How to Investigate Intermittent Problems
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