thoughts from the test eye

I know of some testers who are pointed out by others to be Bug Magnets; people recognized for their ability to somehow draw bugs to them. Bug Magnets can be found in many workplaces and I bet that you know of someone that falls under this description. I have been appointed a Bug Magnet by […]

quantitative numbers in a world of qualitative feelings I am not against measurements in general, they can surely be useful. I use length when building things, weight for baking, time for appointments etc. I often use numbers for various things in my bug reports. But metrics are something different; metrics are measurement plus value. “Should […]

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 […]

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 […]

I recently acquired the best product in the world, for me. It is a Victorinox serrated multi-purpose chef’s knife that I use to slice bread. In 2000, chefs around the world voted it as the best knife in the world. I want to go one step further, and name it the best product in the […]

In testing text books you can read that compatibility testing should be performed after the functionality testing and bug fixing is completed. I guess the reason is that you don’t want to mix these categories, but hey, what a waste of resources. My suggestion is to perform the compatibility testing at the same time as […]

I used to be a bit skeptic towards the word “heuristic”. It seemed needlessly advanced, and things are possible to explain in other words. But when I read Gigerenzer’s Gut Feelings about how to catch a flying ball, it all came together. For software testing, which can’t be complete, is dependent on many factors, with […]

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 […]

This began as an answer to Rikard’s post http://thetesteye.com/blog/2011/06/a-word-of-caution/ where the discussion on “traditional testing” came up. I often hear comparisons with our “industry” and the Automotive industry. In that context, you could say that “traditional testing” corresponds to the methods and practices that are applied in line production of large car companies. And the […]

If you are a faithful reader of this blog, you have probably read some challenges of established ways of testing. I write stuff like “anyone can do non-functional testing”, “look at the whole picture”, “test coverage is messing things up”, “you can skip all testing techniques”, “requirements are covered elsewhere, so focus on what’s truly […]