As a fan of incremental/iterative methods, I like the idea of test automation. In theory, everything should be retested every release, but with two-week iterations, that simply is not going to happen. With test automation, we can at least have some confidence that the software didn’t introduce any major regression errors outside of the obvious […]
Lessons from Math – II
What makes a good mathematician? I suspect that a common response would be a strong intellect, but another common response would be a great deal of self-discipline. After all, a mathmetician has to spurn all worldly pursuits in favor of a a drudging existence, sitting at a table, laboring with numbers. Why, the mathematician must […]
Lessons from Math – I
Yesterday, I suggested a topic of “Testing Lessons from Mathematics.” Yet in my recent work, I’m becoming much more holistic about software. If I find a particularly interesting point that applies to requirements, do I throw it out? Probably not, so, I’ve re-titled the series. I will call it lessons from math and we’ll see […]
A Box Of A Different Color
Better Software Magazine published by artilce “A Box of a Different Color” this month If you like this blog, you would probably enjoy Better Software. They have a free trial subscription, or you can get a free year’s subscription when you attend an SQE conference such as STAREast. If you just want a freebie, you […]
Non-Functional Testing?
There’s an interesting discussion going on at the Association For Software Testing discussion list on non-functional testing. Basically, Danny Faught thinks the term is weak and is looking for alternatives. I happen to agree; here’s my reply: Danny Faught Wrote:>Yes, “non-functional” is a rather bizarre term, though it seems to be gaining acceptance. Yes, that’s […]
The Age of Reason
I just finished reading Measuring The World which is a wonderful historic novel about the world in the 18th and early 19th century. In many ways, the book explores the death of the Greek mythology and folklore and the beginning of science. Aristotle’s earth/air/water/fire theory is replaced by the periodic table of the elements, Carl […]
Off to vacate
I’ll be in vacation for the next few days, but in the mean time, Paul Carvalho has an interesting post comparing skilled (exploratory) testing to fencing. I thought it was insightful; I hope you enjoy it.
Context Driven
I posted this to the Software-Testing Yahoo Group yesterday, and I thought Creative Chaos Readers might enjoy this. The background is a post saying that context-driven thinking was universal, and there was no value in putting people into different boxes such as the “Analytic” (Academic, Telecom, Finite State Machines) school of testing or the “Factory” […]
Four Schools of Software Testing
Most readers of “Creative Chaos” probably know that allthough I do all things software, my predominant focus is software testing. In fact, a few weeks back Elisabeth Hendrickson labelled my blog “Mostly Testing”, and I was vaguely annoyed that I did not make her “Mostly Agile” list … then again, seeing how my thoughts on […]
Test or Hardware Architecture ? – I
In the 1960’s, we had the “Software Engineering Crisis”, which was essentially the problem that NATO could not develop software supply to meet demand. The solution, more-or-less, seemed to be TQM (at least, according to NATO), which had it’s pros and cons. (I think Tom DeMarco offered a more credible, economic explanation in “Why Does […]
I’ve not been welll …
… And will probably continue to be sick. There’s more to come on Agile Jumping the Shark, but it’ll probably later in the weak. Still, in the interim, I wanted to share this. This is from a discussion I had with Cem Kaner a few weeks ago: (Consultant X) is wrong. I’m wrong. Bach is […]
A Few Of My Favorite Things – IV
I am vaguely disorganized. No, please don’t jump out of your seat and tell me that I “Have” to get more organized. I don’t buy it. I’ve run a successful regional software conference with my methods; they seem to be doing just fine. I used to tell a story about how I felt bad or […]
Test Estimation
I thought my recent post to the Agile-Testing Discussion list was worth repeating. Here goes: Earlier, Lisa Crispin said Test Estimation was hard, and asked if anyone had a perfect method, to which I replied: > Ask the customer when they want it done, get a prioritized list of> features, and deliver on the day […]
The End of the BlockBuster – II
When Chad Fowler gave his talk, he mentioned that the implied career path for most people in software is to become CIO – perhaps for the ambitious – CEO – of the big company you work at. He suggested the alternative of becoming CEO of something else. A programming language. A platform. A tool. Become […]
The End of the BlockBuster – I
Remember back when everyone saw Batman? I mean everyone. Science Fiction Fans watched it; thrill seekers and horror fans watched it (it had a very dark “joker”); kids who played with action figures watched it – though they probably should not have. Mom watched it (romance and drama), Dad watched it, teenagers watched it – […]
Testing Computer Software, 3rd Ed
Dr. Cem Kaner has started work on the 3rd edition of his popular sofware testing book by posting a short article here. If you’d like a short introduction to some deeper issues in software testing, you could read my blog for six months, or, well, check out his post. Seriously, it’s good. A couple of […]