Author Archive

Exploratory Testing – the learning part Henrik Emilsson 5 Comments

Let me begin by a quote from T.S. Eliot: We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. One of the most important things with Exploratory Testing is that it allows for you to learn something […]

Ignoratio elenchi Henrik Emilsson 6 Comments

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could come up with a Quality Value for our products?”  said a colleague of mine. “Yes! That would be super!” me and a couple of colleagues answered. We had a lot of categories and data in our bug system; and perhaps most important was that we had a good data […]

EuroSTAR Test Lab Apprentices Henrik Emilsson 7 Comments

Last week, me and Martin won the competition “The EuroSTAR Test Lab Apprentices”! Read more at: http://www.eurostarconferences.com/delegates/the-test-lab-apprentice.aspx See you in the Test Lab in Copenhagen! Cheers, Henrik & Martin

Being Typecast and breaking out Henrik Emilsson 3 Comments

Typecasting is the process by which a film, TV, or stage actor is strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters with the same traits or ethnic grouping. For many actors this has been a nightmare, even if they have earned a fortune on it. I believe that some of […]

Exploratory Testing is not a test technique Henrik Emilsson 7 Comments

Well, to many people this is nothing new. But still, there are a lot of testers, and indeed test leads, that still think that Exploratory Testing is a technique that can be used in testing. To some extent, it has to do with that both Cem Kaner and James Bach have used this term amongst […]

The Testing vs. Checking Paradox Henrik Emilsson 21 Comments

If you haven’t read the excellent articles by Michael Bolton regarding Testing vs. Checking yet, now is a good time to do it: http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/08/testing-vs-checking/ http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/09/transpection-and-three-elements-of/ http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/09/pass-vs-fail-vs-is-there-problem-here/ Done? One thing that struck me with this is that the more testing you do will result in less testing and more checking. I.e., the more you test, the more […]

The Boundaries of System Testing Henrik Emilsson 3 Comments

Over the years I have noticed that System Testing have had a special meaning at every place I have been at; and it has even meant different things for people on the same place. I.e. System Testing is depending on the context; and it is fuzzy because we are dealing with arbitrary and/or general systems. […]

Rage against the machine Henrik Emilsson 5 Comments

As a user of Facebook I feel really helpless when nothing works as it should (as was the case with the latest GUI-update). Posts were stochastically shown in the feed and a lot of errors occurred in various situations. A lot (all?) of my friends on Facebook experienced the same problems. When there are lots […]

ISTQB Certification is not a qualification Henrik Emilsson 28 Comments

Let me begin by saying that these are my beliefs ever since I took the ISEB/ISTQB certification. But when I thought of this recently, I think I need to make a statement and try to help all those that are rejected because they are not certified. ————————————– In the search for a qualifying certification many […]

The Quality Status Reporting Fallacy Henrik Emilsson 4 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I had a discussion with someone that claimed that testers should (and could) report on quality. And especially he promoted the GQM-approach and how this could be designed to report the quality status. When I asked how that person defined quality, he pointed to ISO 9000:2000 which define quality as […]