thoughts from the test eye

One of Cem Kaner’s many classic writings is “What is a Good Test Case?” It is a very good article, well-spent time for anyone involved in software testing. But when writing about test ideas, I started to realize that the list of properties for good test cases isn’t perfect, for me. So it’s time for […]

Making estimates on a test assignment is hard. What you include and exclude varies between each person. As I see it, there are many things to consider that might make the whole test effort longer and make it more complex. So, instead of guessing or giving a random number consider this… When you are asked […]

“Testing can’t be complete” might be the only statement all testers would agree upon. This means that we only will run a few of all possible tests, and this is in many fields called sampling. There isn’t too much said about qualitative sampling in software testing, so let’s look at what Grounded Theory says about […]

I have become allergic to models that are brought from other industries, and put on software testing as a best practice, or something really good. Software testing is unique, and you might violate important aspects when applying a template that doesn’t match. It is a big difference between producing 100,000 cars a year, and one piece […]

Typecasting is the process by which a film, TV, or stage actor is strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters with the same traits or ethnic grouping. For many actors this has been a nightmare, even if they have earned a fortune on it. I believe that some of […]

Testers are often in a unique position because we know a lot about the system as a whole, but also a lot about the details of the operating software. There are interesting dynamics between the small and the large, and with a human mind in between, a lot of important information will emerge. “The distinction […]

This is a follow up from previous articles on Growing test teams based on the ideas from Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister. Uncertain team composition If you are newly assigned to be a team leader there is a big chance that you also have a team, but that is not always the case. Just […]

There are many names for software testing strategies/activities/ approaches/processes; they can be risk-based, coverage-focused, exploratory, requirements-based, Super-TPI, TMM 5 et.al. The names generally come from how the testing is performed or initiated, so I thought we should look at it from another angle, from the end of testing, from the results that we might know […]

Well, to many people this is nothing new. But still, there are a lot of testers, and indeed test leads, that still think that Exploratory Testing is a technique that can be used in testing. To some extent, it has to do with that both Cem Kaner and James Bach have used this term amongst […]

Exploratory Testing is not as widely used as it could be, because management doesn’t want it. Stated reasons for this could be unaccountable, unstructured, sloppy, non-scientific etc, reasons that can be refuted by communication. But I think the real reason is something Exploratory Testing can’t have: a controlled process. Management/Companies want to have a plan […]