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
Testing Culture
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
G2 Test Labs: Cry “Certification!”
A salesman from G2 Test Labs just called me. He said he was from India. He wanted to know if my testing company needed to partner with an offshore lab like his. I'm writing this now, while the memory … [Read more...] about G2 Test Labs: Cry “Certification!”
Pradeep Pulls The Tail of the ISTQB
Pradeep Soundararajan got threatened with lawyers when he criticized Testing Experience magazine for being under the thumb of the ISTQB (for those who don't yet know, the ISTQB are the guys who want … [Read more...] about Pradeep Pulls The Tail of the ISTQB