The previous post in this series provided a detailed description of testing framed in terms of Intention, Discipline, Testability, and Realization: It might be tempting to unroll these frames by starting in the top right, and rearranging them in a nice, tidy, linear sequence: Although it’s not the way people usually talk about it, you could think of this as a kind of end-to-end testing. Most of the time, so … Read more
In the last post, I introduced four frames for testing, each of which might present a set of ideas for covering a product with testing at various points through its development. On the way to a complete package, system, or service, people produce many different ideas and artifacts, each of which can be tested. Moreover, people with different interests, temperaments, and roles in the development process perceive testing in different … Read more
Last time, we looked at what the business wants from development. What does the business want from that part of development we call testing? Sometimes people say that what the business wants from testing is confidence — reassurance that everything is okay. This is understandable — confidence is a good feeling for designers, developers, managers, and the rest of the business. Confidence and reassurance are not the business’s goal, though; … Read more
In the previous installment, we looked at what the business wants: a product of high value, and one for which costs of development and will be low. This time we’ll look from a slightly different angle: how does the business get what it wants? There is a kind of universal development cycle. No matter what your development model might be, it probably looks something like this: Since it’s a cycle, … Read more
In the first installment of this series, I introduced two key things that the business wants from development: a product of high value and low cost. In order for the business to get a high-value product, we must envision success so we can set about building it. And yet… there’s risk. It’s easy to assume that we’ve built a high-value product, and that cost to the business is low and … Read more
Conversations about testing in all kinds of places have been going pear-shaped for a long time. As Jerry Weinberg was fond of pointing out, the word “testing” is overloaded, lumping a variety of ideas and activities together. The word “testing” gets applied to different actitivities, performed by different people, working in different contexts, performing different tasks with different priorities, at different moments in the development process. No wonder that people … Read more
The saga continues. As of this writing, OpenAI has noted the problem with David Mayer, putting it down to “a technical glitch“. As of this writing (around 2:00pm, Eastern Time, 2024-12-03), exactly the same issue persists with the name “Brian Hood”. (Here’s a link: https://chatgpt.com/share/674f5626-feb0-8009-8d82-c773b83416ae) But maybe there’s a hint as to why. A little more persuasion provides this: (and here’s a link: https://chatgpt.com/share/674f6095-f04c-8009-bdf3-daa747fec30c) ChatGPT’s guardrails are made of silly … Read more
Since June 2023, James Bach and I have been collecting a set of “syndromes” associated with certain forms of AI — chatbots based on Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs). The most prominent of these, at this writing is OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Today we added a new syndrome: Voldemort Syndrome. Today LinkedIn (and much of the rest of the internet) lit up over the “The Man Who Shall … Read more
Today I visited Facebook to post a notice of my upcoming trip to New Zealand. There will be three stops on the tour: Auckland (for Testers and Automation, Avoiding the Traps, February 17-19), Wellington (Testers and Automation, Avoiding the Traps, February 24-26), and Christchurch (Rapid Software Testing Explored, March 10-12). Facebook’s AI Layer (I’ll just call that FAIL) offered to turn it into an event. I accepted the offer, and … Read more
Why do we refer to the real requirements for a product as ‘non-functional’ requirements? Here’s a short video in which I talk about that. https://rapid-software-testing.com/ Subscribe: @rapid_software_testing