Critical Thinking Skills for Testers
Tutorial at the 2023 EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference, June 13-16, 2023
13:30-17:00 CEST Tuesday 13th June
For more information and to register
Critical thinking isn’t just “good thinking”. It’s the kind of thinking that specifically looks for problems and mistakes. Regular people don’t do a lot of that, but to be a great tester, you need to be a great critical thinker. Critically-thinking testers help to save projects from dangerous assumptions and hidden problems, and ultimately from disasters.
The good news is that critical thinking is not just innate intelligence or a talent—it’s a learnable and improvable skill you can master. Critical thinking begins with five questions—Huh? Ready? Really? And? So?—that kick-start your brain. Those questions prepare you to analyse specifications, risks, causes, effects, project plans, and anything else that could puzzle, confound, or fool you, your colleagues, or your clients.
In this interactive, hands-on and minds-on workshop, Michael Bolton shares specific techniques and heuristics of critical thinking that can help testers deal confidently and thoughtfully with difficult testing situations. We’ll deal with realistic testing puzzles that help you practice and sharpen your thinking skills. We’ll study and analyse product behaviours, and learn new ways to identify, isolate, and characterize bugs. Finally, we’ll learn ways to think and speak carefully about testing work.
Michael will be attending the rest of the conference and loves to talk about testing. Contact Michael to meetup.