thoughts from the test eye

The delegates of the second Swedish Workshop on Exploratory Testing (Test Planning and Status Reporting for Exploratory Testing) were:
Henrik Andersson, Azin Bergman, Robert Bergqvist, Sigge Birgisson, Rikard Edgren, Henrik Emilsson, Ola Hyltén, Martin Jansson, Johan Jonasson, Saam Koroorian, Simon Morley, Torbjörn Ryber, Fredrik Scheja, Christin Wiedemann, Steve Öberg

Discussions on peer conferences can’t be summarized, but you can read the abstracts, Ryber’s notes, and here comes some quote highlights:

– How many test cases do you want? 800? Then let’s say we have 800. (Jonasson)
– Think “there are problems”, not “there might be problems” (Bergqvist)
– To motivate: lead by example, avoid de-motivating (Hyltén, Andersson)
– They want to see bug curves, but don’t know it going up or down is good or bad. (Jonasson)
– Rather ask “What are you afraid of?” (Jansson)
– Qualitative information is sensitive to filtering (Emilsson)
– Dialogue is important! (Morley)
– Exploratory test planning, adapt to reality. That’s how we all work. (Scheja)
– A test expert that doesn’t know anything (favorite slip of the tongue from Jansson)
– Has this story confirmed that anyone can test? (Bergman)
– Incorrect expectations: if we test, there won’t be any production problem (Ryber)
– Categorizations are good for learning, but throw them away to meet reality (Edgren)
– I always use low-tech testing dashboards, except in this case (Ryber)
– A tester is also test leader, test designer, test planner (Scheja)
– It is small raisins in a very large cake (Jonasson)
– I want to test until the world is on fire (Wiedemann)
– Care about what is most important (Emilsson)
– I invent many wheels every day (Scheja)
– I want more emphasis on which information we have and don’t have, and the confidence of the information (Koroorian)
– Beware of using the word “coverage”, rather say security, or risk (Birgisson)
– To me, coverage is a start of thinking about what to test (Bergqvist)
– If this isn’t reported “upwards”, you avoid the biggest risks (Andersson)
– The map and the creation of it is more important than the numbers on it (Öberg)
– It might look easy with a number, but it isn’t (Edgren)
– This weekend is evidence that standards don’t work. We can discuss forever, and that’s what is fun! (Emilsson)

These Lightning Talks (5 minutes including questions) were held:
* Martin Jansson on the tester’s greatest nemesis, the view that anyone, thus any idiot, can test.
* Henrik Emilsson on unjustified tests that open up to serendipity and new ideas.
* Robert Bergqvist had an experience report that showed that exploratory testing also needs planning.
* Azin Bergman on the common view that testers have lower status than other roles.
* Simon Morley on root cause analysis heuristic FICL: Framing, Information Gathering, Consensus, Learning.
* Rikard Edgren on Binary Disease – our tools have shaped way too computeresque theories.
* Christin Wiedemann on open-ended plans without fixed scope.
* Sigge Birgisson shared an experience report with developer collaboration under the radar.
* Steve Öberg led a brainstorm on testing analogies with story from the Aeneid about not following the Delphi Oracle.
* Ola Hyltén showed the Johari window that can enable better communication between leaders and team members.
* Torbjörn Ryber led a discussion about doing a context-driven conference in Sweden.

It is very easy to organize a workshop like this when you have 15 motivated, passionate testers.
You just need a venue with few distractions, a theme to focus, an agenda and discussion rules, plus food and drinks.

Looking forward to SWET3!