At the Star conference, this week, the lady at the ASTQB booth was executive director Lois Kostroski. The ASTQB is the American chapter of the ISTQB. Here's the gist of the conversation we had about … [Read more...] about What the Certification Sales Lady Said…
Important!
Methodology Debates: Traps and Transformations
(This article is adapted from work I did with Johanna Rothman, at the 1st Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference. It's never been widely published, so here you go.) As a context-driven testing … [Read more...] about Methodology Debates: Traps and Transformations
Question: How Many Times Should You Run a Test?
Kevin asks: What is the best or industry standard for how many times a test case should be run? There are questions that should not be answered. For instance, "What size unicorn do you wear?" or "How … [Read more...] about Question: How Many Times Should You Run a Test?
Question: Tester’s Freedom of Thought
Subha asks: A tester is usually bound by the constraints of specifications when he does functional testing. But what about usability? How much should the tester's imagination be allowed to … [Read more...] about Question: Tester’s Freedom of Thought
Defining Agile Methodology
Brian Marick has offered a definition of agile methodology. I think his definition is strangely bulky and narrow. That's because it's not really a definition, but an example. Those of us who've … [Read more...] about Defining Agile Methodology
Against Certification
What follows is a somewhat grumpy argument against tester certification programs. I have mixed feelings about writing this, because I know a lot of otherwise friendly people who are involved in … [Read more...] about Against Certification
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
No Best Practices
Dear Reader, I would like you to give up, henceforth, the idea of "best practice." Thank you. I want to stamp out "best practice" for several reasons: There are no best practices. By this I mean … [Read more...] about No Best Practices
To Repeat Tests or Not to Repeat
One of the serious social diseases of the testing craft is the obsession with repetition. Is that test repeatable? Is that test process repeatable? Have we repeated those tests? These questions are … [Read more...] about To Repeat Tests or Not to Repeat
Technical Explorations Decomposed
I've been thinking about the general nature of technical explorations. Let me take a hack at describing them. A technical exploration is a self-directed, cyclic process of problem identification and … [Read more...] about Technical Explorations Decomposed