thoughts from the test eye

Cem Kaner has updated his set of publications. I’ve been reading his well written articles over the last ten years. Have a nice time digging in!

In many discussions about testing methods, courses, techniques, approaches etc it is usually software testing that is in focus. I cannot see why the limit is set to just software. For instance, the excellent course Rapid Software Testing advocates, by its name, that is meant for personel who perform testing of software. It could perhaps be […]

For quite some time I have felt that the classic test design techniques don’t add up to the needs of software testing that tries to find most of the important information. At EuroSTAR 2009 it dawned on me that it is time to describe the method that I, and many, many others, have been using […]

When preparing for EuroSTAR 2009 presentation I drew a picture to try to explain that you need to test a lot more than the requirements, but we don’t have to (and can’t) test everything and the qualitative dilemma is to look for and find the important bugs in the product. Per K. instantly commented that […]

It was Stockholm again this year. Good to not have to travel far, but since you are travelling I wouldn’t object to something more exotic, and warmer. Next year it is Copenhagen, again. I had a full-packed program with 4 days of tutorials, workshops, tracks, short talks, test-labbing, conversations, so in total it is quite […]

Statements in specifications try to clarify and are inevitably an interpretation of what the author thinks need to be more specific. I.e., they try to be a more specific model than what existed before the spec. And “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful” (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_E._P._Box). Every specification you encounter is persons’ interpretations, and  […]

In many organisations it is hard to change how you are working. You might be bound to certain CM tools, how things are expected to be planned, documentation systems, management expectations, project management expectations and so on. In many of these traditional environments you might also use the regular test plans, test matrices, test specifications, […]

Exploratory Testing in its purest form is an approach that focus on learning, evolution and freedom. Cem Kaner’s definition is to the point: “Exploratory software testing is a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the value of her work by treating test-related learning, […]

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 […]

I like to use categorizations to structure my understanding of a subject; and after the simplifications are made and I think I understand it well; the structures can be ripped apart, and you get a bit less confused by the complexity of reality. There are many forms of requirements, these are some a tester should […]