Author Archive

Testing is blocked? Martin Jansson No Comments

Sometimes when I read status reports or hear project managers talk about testing, I hear that “testing is blocked”. What do they mean by that? When I delve deeper in what they are talking about I sometimes see that the progress on workpackages for the testing team or testers in a team have been combined with […]

Pair testing with a flare of checking Martin Jansson No Comments

When I explain pair testing I usually say that you pair up two persons. One drives the testing while the other documents, comes with suggestions and asks for clarifications. In this context, if we consider the use of testing and checking. What if the person driving focus on testing (that is usually the case) and the […]

Some initial thoughts on checks Martin Jansson 5 Comments

Introduction In 2009 Michael Bolton had a talk at Agile 2009 from which he later on wrote about a distinction between testing and checking [1]. He has since then elaborated more in the area and digged deeper into it [2], and continue to do so [3]. By clarifying what we are doing at a certain […]

It’s the little things Martin Jansson 2 Comments

As a tester you find lots of things that bugs you when exploring a system. In some cases these issues only nudge you slightly at first, but after passing over the same issue many times it really starts to drive you crazy. This, at first small issue, has now become something that affect you more […]

Story telling and week[end|night] testing Martin Jansson No Comments

Story telling is an important part of testing. It is a part where you communicate and tell a compelling story what information you found at. Each story needs a scene in which it plays. Some of you might have attended the weekend or weeknight test sessions, some might have attended classes in testing where they […]

Working with the testing debt – part 3 Martin Jansson 3 Comments

This is a follow-up from Working with the testing debt – part 1 [1] and part 2 [2]. The reason for the clarification is that you so easily come up with a tip without a context or example. Tip 3: Grow into a jelled team (read Peopleware [3] by Timothy Lister and Tom deMarco for […]

Working with the testing debt – part 2 Martin Jansson 1 Comment

This is a follow-up from Working with the testing debt – part 1 [1]. The reason for the clarification is that you so easily come up with a tip without a context or example. Tip 2: Focus on what adds value to developers, business analysers and other stakeholders. If you do not know what they […]

Working with the testing debt – part 1 Martin Jansson 2 Comments

Jerry Weinberg made an excellent comment on my previous article Turning the tide of bad testing [1] where he wanted more examples/experience on the tips. It is sometimes a bit too easy just to come up with a tip that lacks context or explains how you used the specific tip in a situation and where it […]

Testers greatest nemesis Martin Jansson 19 Comments

Background When I first got in contact with software testers, I worked as PM and developer for a language tool. Our CEO had said that he had hired two testers, easily since you can just pick them from any street corner. Sadly they had no clue what to do and did not find any bugs, […]

There are no testers that are the best Martin Jansson 7 Comments

In a recent discussion with Henrik Andersson on Twitter regarding some consultancies being or claiming to be best at testing. Here is the initial conversation: Henrik: Dear consultant companies why are you calling yourself consultant when all you talk about are recourses and invoiced hours. Shame on you! Henrik: Many “consultant” companies claim to be […]