I use Jerry Weinberg’s definition of quality: “Quality is value to some person”; and I use Cem Kaner’s extension to the definition so that it becomes “Quality is value to some person (that matters)”… I.e. quality is inherently subjective. And there are a lot of persons that are affected by software that we produce… With this in […]
In order to become a successful inquisitive tester, there are a couple of things you can do to improve your skills beyond the more common quest to “question a product”. One important thing is to question the tests themselves. ——————– Have you ever run tests and wondered if they were really necessary, perhaps knowing that the tests […]
When you come up with a new test idea, you are using your knowledge and experience, but there is also some sort of stimuli that triggers the idea. Something you see, hear, understand or think about. You seldom think in totally new ways, you rather combine things in a new way. These are my favorite […]
It cannot be exactly defined what a bug is, or how it should be reported. And each tester, developer, project manager et.al. has her own way of writing, thinking about and handling bugs. I like to think of this as taste. Do you prefer having all details in a bug report, or only including what […]
When working as a consultant you must live up to the paradox that: You should already be specialised and competent enough to get a contract i.e. best of all candidates for the job; but in order to stay alive in business you need to be as general as possible in order to meet the criteria […]
A few years ago I switched company from a software company to a hardware focused company. I understood from start that this would be a difficult task in getting to learn the new technologies and platforms, but I did not see what this would do for testing. When you test software that you are totally […]
I’ve just gone through a three day course in Rapid Software Testing (RST) run by James Bach. This is the first time I’ve seen him in person. I’ve previously seen his responses and discussion from the yahoo group software-testing. I’ve seen the presentation on RST by Michael Bolton and I think either of them would […]
Actually not, but still it is a must if you have not tried it. Combine it with exploratory testing techniques and you will be effective and have a good time. One person explores and tests while the other documents, interacts and questions. Documenter: * Write down one-liner or at least short blocks of text for […]
I have a friend that proof-reads every bug report before reporting; “otherwise there will be spelling errors”, she says. I have a friend that always reproduces the bug before reporting it, at least four times. I have friends that always ask “Bug or Feature?” or “One or two bugs?” when they are uncertain. I have […]