I’m ambivalent about honours. Recognition is nice, but I’m skeptical about the notion of winning over other worthy nominees. Nonetheless, at the EuroSTAR conference, I accepted the inaugural EuroSTAR 2008 CapGemini Award for Innovation, recognizing the most innovative track session, for my talk Two Futures of Software Testing. We won!
Who won? Well, I did for the presentation itself, but James Bach, Cem Kaner, and Jerry Weinberg share credit for the themes and key points of the presentation. Thanks to them.
The award was voted on by EuroSTAR’s attendees, so they won too. That’s because I’d like to believe that they voted less for the presentation and more for what it offered: a bright future of testing that is in contrast to the dark future that is so much like today. So thank you to the attendees.
Thank you also to Bob van de Burgt, EuroSTAR 2008’s Conference Chair; to the EuroSTAR staff; to CapGemini; and to all of the people with whom I’ve had such interesting conversations over the years. About the future: we can’t predict it, but we’re all in it together.
Not to mention that the award was signed 😉
Btw, could you please summarize your ideas clearly for the people whos only conclusion have been : “Do more exploratory testing – meaning no rules, just test.”
Thanks, Anon… and you know who you are. 🙂
Some people do seem convinced that exploration is a bad idea, saying that we can’t work without writing down everything in great detail, or providing a set of steps for testers to follow. So, for those people (who may or may not have concluded that exploratory testing means “no rules, just test”), I have this set of detailed steps to follow:
0. Recognize that exploratory testing doesn’t mean “no rules, just test”, but something more like “you can control the rules and work with them; the rules need not control you”–a point upon which the following steps build.
1. Go here (http://tinyurl.com/4wuhka) and read the blog post. This is my latest summary.
2. Go here, and read the PDF.
3. Go here, and read the PDF.
4. Reflect on what you’ve read.
5. If necessary, repeat steps 0-4 a few times.
6. If you still have questions, ask mb@michaelbolton.net, james@satisfice.com, kaner@kaner.com, or some of the many, many other people who have thought deeply about exploratory approaches for years.
Cheers,
—Michael B.