Posts Tagged ‘heuristic’

Black Box vs. White Box Henrik Emilsson 7 Comments

I have heard and seen the difference between Black Box Software Testing and White Box Software Testing being described as “whether or not you have knowledge about the code”; and that Gray Box Software Testing is a mix of the two. But is it really about how much of the code you see? I rather […]

HICCUPPS F.C. Rikard Edgren 7 Comments

James Bach and Michael Bolton has a classic collection of consistency oracles; HICCUPPS(F): History, Image, Comparable Products, Claims, User Expectations, Product, Purpose, Standards and Statutes, Familiarity It is a very good collection; not only helping you find out if something is a problem or not, but also the other way round: serving as testing inspiration. […]

The Little Black Book on Test Design Rikard Edgren 15 Comments

During my first paternity leave I learned sourdough baking. During the second I couldn’t help writing an ambitious paper, or a small book, about people-oriented test design, about things beyond test design techniques, close to the exploratory testing tradition. It can be downloaded here. It contains collections of knowledge, and generalizations of my ten years […]

No Flourishes and New Connections Heuristics Rikard Edgren No Comments

I used to be a bit skeptic towards the word “heuristic”. It seemed needlessly advanced, and things are possible to explain in other words. But when I read Gigerenzer’s Gut Feelings about how to catch a flying ball, it all came together. For software testing, which can’t be complete, is dependent on many factors, with […]

Flipability Heuristic Rikard Edgren 8 Comments

Credit cards are taking over the usage of notes and coins. This has benefits, but it is not possible to toss a coin with credit cards. Bob van de Burgt coined (!) the term flipability at EuroSTAR 2010 Michael Bolton tutorial, coin exercise. It is a lovely word, and can be used more generally to […]

Background Complexity and Do One More Thing Heuristics Rikard Edgren 5 Comments

I spend a lot of time testing new features for the next release. I actively try to not test the features in isolation, to not use the easiest data and environment. One example of this is that I often use “documents” that are more complex than necessary, that includes elements and strange things that aren’t […]

The Crashing Paper Airplane Heuristic Henrik Emilsson 2 Comments

I thought of this the other day when rethinking a situation that was described in the experience report from Petter Mattson on “Swedish Workshop on Exploratory Testing” (SWET1). Let’s say that you have 100 Paper Airplane builders in your team. They all follow scripted instructions on how to fold a paper in order to create […]