In the interview with the Coding QA guys that was the subject of my last post, James Bach refers exploratory testing as parallel learning test design, test execution and learning, and said that exploratory approaches are epitomized by loops. Where do loops happen in exploratory testing? In fact, exploratory testing includes both looping and branching. When we’re testing in an exploratory way, we may branch away from the current path … Read more
Several months back, James Bach did an interview with the CodingQA guys, Matthew Osborn and Federico Silva Armas. In the interview, James talks about the skills of exploratory testing, sex education (now do I have your attention?) and how to use session-based test management with minimal overhead and maximum credibility. I’m surprised at how few people have heard about the podcast, so I’m drawing attention to it here. It runs … Read more
Phil came into my office, and flopped down into the comfortable chair across from my desk. He looked depressed and worried. “Hey, Phil,” I asked him tentatively. “You look like something’s bothering you. What’s up?” His brow furrowed. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. Sometimes I feel like people think of me as nothing more than a literary device.” I usually don’t like fiction writing in the form of … Read more
For the last few weeks, I’ve been updating my blog and my Web site. This was inspired largely by Blogger’s decision to drop support for blog publishing via FTP. That would mean moving the blog to a .blogspot.com site, or to a custom domain that wouldn’t be developsense.com or a subdomain of it (later: not a subdomain, but a subfolder of http://www.developsense.com). Ugh. Many of my colleagues have taken to … Read more
It’s a busy season in Europe for Rapid Testing this spring. I’m going to be at the Norwegian Computer Society’s FreeTest, a conference on free testing tools in Trondheim, Norway, where I’ll be giving a keynote talk on testing vs. checking on March 26. That’s preceded by a three-day public session of Rapid Software Testing, from March 23-25. Register here. After that I’m off to Germany for a three-day public … Read more