investigating software

  A nervous tourist, glances back and forth between their phone and the street sign. They then rotate their phone 180 degrees, pauses, blink and frown. The lost traveller, flags a nearby ‘local’ (the passer-by has a dog on a lead.   “Excuse me…” she squeaks, “How may I get to Tower Hill?” “Well, that’ s a good one” ponders the dog walker, “You know…” “Yes?” queries the tourist hopefully. “Yeah…” A long pause ensues then, “Well I wouldn’t start from here” He states confidently. The tourist almost visibly deflates and starts looking for an exit. That’s often how we start off in software testing. Despite the flood of methodologies, tips on pairing, power of three-ing, backlog grooming, automating, refining and all the other … ings ) We often find ourselves having to figure out and therefore ‘test’ a piece of software by us ing it. And that’s good. Its powerful, and effective if done right. But, like our dog walker, we can sometimes find ourselves somewhere unfamiliar...

Do you ever examine what you carry around with you every day, and wonder if you actually use it? For example, in my pockets I've got a 'smart' phone, wallet (credit & debit cards, cash and ID), keys, Travelcard ( Oyster ) and some coins. Every now and then something gets added, if its unlucky it stays. Over the years, I've noticed, that the criteria for being kept is usually convenience or enablement. That is, the items that don't get chucked or deposited somewhere about my home are usually 'tools' that make other 'things' easier like a smart-phone - I can just look up something or text someone at any time. I could just wait until I got back to my office, or see the person later but it can be easier to just act in the moment, and do it there and then. Enablement items, are things that mean I -can- do things, that without, I'm stuck. For example: door keys. The smart phone fits into this category also, if I want to meet up with someone at sh...