I have this conversation rather often. A test manager asks, “We’ve got a development project coming up that is expected to take six months. How do I provide an estimate for how long it will take to test it?” My answer would be “Six months.” Testing begins as soon as someone has an idea for a new product, service, or feature, and testing ends, for the most part when someone … Read more
There’s a flaw in the way most organizations classify the severity of a bug. Here’s an example from the Elementool Web site (as of 14 January, 2015); I’m sure you’ve seen something like it: Critical: The bug causes a failure of the complete software system, subsystem or a program within the system. High: The bug does not cause a failure, but causes the system to produce incorrect, incomplete, inconsistent results … Read more
For a long time, I’ve admired Robert (“Uncle Bob”) Martin’s persistent advocacy of craftsmanship in programming and software development. Recently on Twitter, he said . @LlewellynFalco When programmers do their jobs, testers find nothing. — Uncle Bob Martin (@unclebobmartin) December 8, 2014 One of the most important tasks in the testing role is to identify alternative interpretations of apparently clear and simple statements. Uncle Bob’s statement appears clear and simple, … Read more
Sometimes testers say to me “My development team (or the support people, or the managers) keeping saying that any bugs in the product are the testers’ fault. ‘It’s obvious that any bug in the product is the tester’s responsibility,’ they say, ‘since the tester had the product last.’ How do I answer them?” Well, you could say that the product’s problems are the responsibility of the tester because the tester … Read more
Another day, and another discovery of an accusation of Kool-Aid drinking or book burning from an ISO 29119 proponent (or an opponent of the opposition to it; a creature in the same genus, but not always the same species). Most of the increasingly vehement complaints come from folks who have not read [ISO 29119], perhaps because they don’t want to pay for the privilege but also (and I’d guess mainly) … Read more
Every now and again, someone makes some statement about testing that I find highly questionable or indefensible, whereupon I might ask them what testing means to them. All too often, they’re at a loss to reply because they haven’t really thought deeply about the matter; or because they haven’t internalized what they’ve thought about; or because they’re unwilling to commit to any statement about testing. And then they say something … Read more
On July 23, 2002, Capers Jones, Chief Scientist Emeritus of a company called Software Productivity Research gave a presentation called “SOFTWARE QUALITY IN 2002: A SURVEY OF THE STATE OF THE ART”. In this presentation, he shows data on a slide titled “U.S. Averages for Software Quality”. (Source: http://bit.ly/1rj19Ol, accessed September 5, 2014) It is not clear what “defect potentials” means. A slide preceding this one says defect potentials are … Read more
On July 23, 2002, Capers Jones, Chief Scientist Emeritus of a company called Software Productivity Research, gave a presentation called “SOFTWARE QUALITY IN 2002: A SURVEY OF THE STATE OF THE ART”. In this presentation, he provided the sources for his data on the second slide: SPR clients from 1984 through 2002 • About 600 companies (150 clients in Fortune 500 set) • About 30 government/military groups • About 12,000 … Read more
In response to my earlier blog post, I received this comment from Anne Mette Hass. I’m going to reproduce it in its entirety, and then I’ll respond to each point. I think this ‘war’ against the ISO standard is so sad. Nobody has set out to or want to harm anybody else with this work. The more variation we have in viewpoints and the more civilized be can debate, the … Read more
On September 8, Stuart Reid, the convenor of the Working Group, posted a response to the Stop 29119 petition that included this paragraph: (The petitioners claim that) “The standards ‘movement’ is politicized and driven by big business to the exclusion of others. A large proportion of the members of WG26 are listed at our About WG26 page along with their employers. This list does not support the assertion in the … Read more