I recently had the opportunity to converse about tester certification with Carol Cornelius, who's on the board of the New Zealand version of the ISTQB. The discussion went well in one respect: she did … [Read more...] about The Euthyphro Dilemma in New Zealand
Testing Culture
Immaturity of Maturity Models
Maturities models (TMMi, CMM, CMMi, etc.) are a dumb idea. They are evidence of immaturity in our craft. Insecure managers sometimes cling to them as they might a treasured baby blanket. In so doing, … [Read more...] about Immaturity of Maturity Models
What Testers Find
While testing at eBay, recently, it occurred to me that we need a deeper account of what testers find. It's not just bugs. Here's my experimental list: Testers find bugs. In other words, we look for … [Read more...] about What Testers Find
The Dual Nature of Context-Driven Testing
The Context-Driven School of software testing is a way of thinking about testing, AND a small but world-wide community of like-minded testers. There are other, larger, schools of testing thought. But … [Read more...] about The Dual Nature of Context-Driven Testing
Shiva is Annoyed with My Questions
A person named Shiva contacted me on Skype back in May. Then he didn't say anything for several months, until yesterday we had this exchange. Shiva: Hi James! James: Hi. Shiva: I wanted to set … [Read more...] about Shiva is Annoyed with My Questions
How Challenging Each Other Helps the Craft
Regular readers know that I'm dissatisfied with the state of the testing industry. It's a shambles, and will continue to be as long as middle managers in big companies continue to be fat juicy targets … [Read more...] about How Challenging Each Other Helps the Craft
Stuart Reid’s Bizarre Plea
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 … [Read more...] about Stuart Reid’s Bizarre Plea
My Life With Colleagues
My work is greatly influenced by fellow students of the craft. My friends are critical to my education.They help me focus my attention and they stir up my ideas. Here are some substantive examples … [Read more...] about My Life With Colleagues
Skaters Redux
An open letter to James Whittaker: You wrote: "I had an amicable hallway conversation with James Bach. His blogger angst at my use of the title 'Exploratory Testing' didn't spill over to a … [Read more...] about Skaters Redux
The Drunken Gold Rush
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 … [Read more...] about The Drunken Gold Rush