investigating software

Lets assume we know that our software is not perfect. How can it be? Its complex, mortals created it and we don’t have enough time to test every execution path & environment – so we could never be sure anyway. This is Ok - this is normal, testers deal with this situation every day. This tends to be a typical scenario... Our team has been working on some new features. They’re looking good, initial teething issues have been fixed and the new features are considered worthwhile enough and bug-sparse enough to be released into the wild. This is where things can get a little awkward. The team member’s opinions are often split across a wide spectrum. The relatively minor perceived impact of the work leads some to conclude that the work is ready for release as is. Other team members, who are possibly twice shy from previous ‘minor change’ induced problems, argue for a comprehensive ‘regression test’ of the software. There is usually a range of views in between suggesting for example only ‘

I'm watching my son, a toddler, at play. He picks up his toy train, a hefty piece of wind-up fisher-price-esque technology, and hurls it at the water bottle. I'll not pass judgement - but suffice to say - the bottle is still standing - several other objects in the room are not. He reaches down with both arms and picks up the train again. He steps a bit further away, turns his back on the bottle, and slings it back over his shoulder. A few more similar attempts end in much the same result, Until finally the killer-move is identified: You stand point-blank over the bottle and drop/throw the train down onto the bottle. A chip off the old block. I'm glad my son is having fun. But I'm interested - What's he thinking? No, that's not it... How is he thinking? What he's doing has strong parallels with what his father does for a living. I spend much of my time learning how [for example] a tool works or, maybe more often, how they don't work. If that takes the ap