I believe we need a lot more examples of software testing. They will be key in transferring tacit knowledge (they will not be all that is required, but an important part.) They work best when done live, so you can discuss, but that doesn’t scale very well. So I have created a few examples in […]
I am quite proud to announce a new free e-book about test strategy. It contains ideas Henrik Emilsson and I have have discussed for years. It is not a textbook, but it contains many examples and material that hopefully will inspire your own test strategies (the careful reader will recognize stuff from this blog and […]
Background The first three parts of ISO 29119 were released in 2013. I was very skeptic, but also interested, so I grabbed an opportunity to teach the basics of the standard, so it would cover the costs of the standard. I read it properly, and although I am biased against the standard I did a […]
I was at Nordic Testing Days and had a great time meeting new and old friends. During my presentation about serendipity I showed two heuristics I wanted to share here as well. They both concern observing from different angles, to learn something new, and increase chances of serendipity. The Notepad Heuristic Years ago I worked […]
Why do you prefer a product even if it has equal functionality to a competitor? What is it that makes one product stand out amongst the other? Maybe you have had thoughts about what makes a product feel special? We all know that this happens in some way, but how do you test for the […]
Asking questions is rightly regarded as important for testers. But I seldom here anything about what we should do with the answers. Not that I believe anyone would ask the question, then not listen to the result, but I think we take for granted that we will understand the answers, and that we can use […]
More than 3 years have passed since we published the first version of our Software Quality Characteristics. It is quite popular, and it is now translated to 8 languages by testing enthusiasts. But it’s about time to talk a bit more about how to use the list, where there are at least three typical scenarios: […]
I am always at the lookout for new testing exercises, since I teach a lot. Today I found a programming exercise at http://imranontech.com/2007/01/24/using-fizzbuzz-to-find-developers-who-grok-coding/ that I thought could be turned into something for testers. Since it doesn’t fit any of my current teaching schemes, I blog about it instead of putting it in the closet. Instructions: […]
When I test software I try to start friendly, to see the good things about the system, and to not focus too much on problems, that might not be important for the whole. So I did this for the new ISO 29119 testing standard, where I have read the three parts that were published September […]
Our minds are fantastic, but can be biased and make dubious decisions. As I read Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, I thought about test strategy and found some interesting stuff, based on mistakes I have seen, and done. Answering An Easier Question “How could we possibly test everything important?” is a very difficult question. It […]