An open letter to James Whittaker: You wrote: "I had an amicable hallway conversation with James Bach. His blogger angst at my use of the title 'Exploratory Testing' didn't spill over to a … [Read more...] about Skaters Redux
Exploratory Testing
Exploratory Testing Skaters
When Cem Kaner introduced the term "exploratory testing" in the mid-80's, everyone ignored it. When I picked up the term and ran with it, I was mostly ignored. But slowly, it spread through the little … [Read more...] about Exploratory Testing Skaters
The IMVU Shuffle
Michael Bolton reported on our quick test of IMVU, whose development team brags about having no human-mediated test process before deploying their software to the field. Some commentors have pointed … [Read more...] about The IMVU Shuffle
Could the Military Be Waking Up?
Ever since I got into the testing field, almost 20 years ago, it's been a truism that military software development is moribund. It's not that they love process, it's that they love bad process. … [Read more...] about Could the Military Be Waking Up?
Exploratory Testing Research
Good research on testing is hard to find. Why? One reason is that testing does not belong to the field of Computer Science. I mean, sure, some of it does. There is some value to describing and testing … [Read more...] about Exploratory Testing Research
Surprise Heuristic
At the recent Workshop on Training Software Testers, Morven Gentleman showed us a chart of some test results. I was surprised to see a certain pattern in the results. I began to think of new and … [Read more...] about Surprise Heuristic
Dead Bee Heuristic
Have you ever had a software problem that disappeared even when you did nothing to correct it? Or have you ever fixed a bug by doing something that seems as if it shouldn't have fixed … [Read more...] about Dead Bee Heuristic
How to Investigate Intermittent Problems
The ability and the confidence to investigate an intermittent bug is one of the things that marks an excellent tester. The most engaging stories about testing I have heard have been stories about … [Read more...] about How to Investigate Intermittent Problems
On Answering Questions About ET
People ask me a lot of questions about ET. I want to be helpful in my answers. A problem I struggle with is that questions about ET often come with a lot of assumptions, and the first thing I have to … [Read more...] about On Answering Questions About ET
Why Talk About Exploratory Testing?
So, there I was at the Dutch Testing Day, last year. I was a featured speaker, talking about exploratory testing. ET is one of my favorite subjects. It is helpful and powerful, and yet by some strange … [Read more...] about Why Talk About Exploratory Testing?