Notes on testing, automation, and software craft.
“I’ve completed my testing of this feature, and I think it's ready to ship” “Are you willing to bet on that?” No, Don't worry, I’m not going to list various ways you could test the feature better or things you might have forgotten. Instead, I recommend you to ask yourself that… more »
"Don't get off the boat." "Seriously, never get off the boat," The instructor said, leaning forward and looking at each of us in turn. "But surely if it's sinking..." We reply, somewhat confused and slightly incredulous. We've seen Titanic, we think to ourselves, we know how… more »
How would test a water sac? (Wow there, calm that tester brain... I know what you are thinking, Whats it used for? Who / what uses it? how long does it need to last? Does the temperature of the water matter? Is it single use? etc. But let's assume a generic hiking or camping… more »
Mostly Harmless, I've talked and written about randomisation as a technique in software testing several times over the last few years. It's great to see people's eyes light up when they grok the concept and its potential. The idea that they can create random test data on the fly… more »
How did you find that bug? They asked with a sort of puzzled " he dun't thunk like uz " look on their faces. An expression that suggested they were unsure whether to commend the discovery or gather their pitchforks and organise a well overdue witch burning. Likewise, I now knew… more »
The release shipped. For a while, the team felt good. The work was done, the team had achieved something, and that was rewarding. Unfortunately for the team, it wasn't long before a problem was found. The Product Owner wasn't happy and had asked was going on down there in the… more »
There is a pattern I see with many clients, often enough that I sought out a word to describe it: Manumation, A sort of well meaning automation that usually requires frequent, extensive and expensive intervention to keep it 'working'. You have probably seen it, the build server… more »
Many, Many years ago I worked at a startup called Lastminute.com (a European online travel company, back when a travel company didn't have to be online). For a while, I worked in what would now be described as a 'DevOps' team. A group of technical people with both programming… more »
A while back, I sat in on a planning meeting. Many planning meetings slide awkwardly into a sort of ad hoc technical analysis discussion, and this was no exception. With a little prompting, the team started to draw up what they wanted to build on a whiteboard. The picture spoke… more »
Is your car German or Japanese? Are your chocolates from Belgium? And your wine, which country might that be from? There's a good chance you know the answer to some of those questions. Our culture places value on provenance. That is, we care where our possessions originate. It's… more »