Comments on: Testing in unknown territory

By: Martin Jansson

Martin Jansson — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:35:02 +0000

Yes, I will probably find other kinds of bugs in some contexts. In other contexts, what this article is all about is when you have too little knowledge about the environment so you will find things that you think are bugs but infact they are not.

Also, I wrote “read lots of books” not “read all possible books”.

For instance, when working with built-in systems you spend a lot of time on setup and configurations before you are able to start testing. It is very common that you do mistakes in these setups and configurations that leads to errors. These are caused by human error and are not always bugs. Hope this makes the article clearer?

By: Sigge Birgisson

Sigge Birgisson — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:02:02 +0000

But if you are new to the environment, you will also find other bugs than someone that knows the environment. So I dont really sign in on the “read all possible books” etc. Why not just dig into it, and then try to learn as it goes…Thats what the explorer does, even if I loose a toe or two. Instead explore, and then read whats relevant.

By: Henrik Emilsson

Henrik Emilsson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:26:31 +0000

You also need to learn what matters in the new environment.
Things that were important at one place could be totally irrelevant at another place. And vice versa.

By: Rikard Edgren

Rikard Edgren — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:32:10 +0000

And it’s not only the machine environment that is new; you also need to learn:

* which type of bugs are important and which are not
* which are the best ways to interact with developers
* who are the customers, and what do they do with your software/hardware

I have worked almost ten years at the same company, and usually fall into the trap thinking that I already know the things listed.
But these things, as everything else, change.