Notes on testing, automation, and software craft.
Do you know what a fall guy is? the answer is you. Why? Because when you're told that there is a human in the loop means... there is a you shaped person to blame. So, while you are working harder than ever, using the latest tools money can buy or tokens can build someone has… more »
In 316 AD Emperor Constantine issued a new coin, there's nothing too unique about that in itself. But this coin is significant due to its pagan/roman religious symbols. Why is this odd? Constantine had converted himself, and probably with little consultation his empire to… more »
Sometimes people discuss test engineers and QA as if they were a sort of police force, patrolling the streets of code looking for offences and offenders. While I can see the parallels, the investigation, checking the veracity of claims and a belief that we are making things… more »
When I’m debugging a complex system, I’m constantly looking for patterns. I just ran this test code... What did I see in the log? I just processed a metric $^&\ load of data, did our memory footprint blip? I’m probably using every freedom unit of screen space to tail logs, run a… more »
There's no such thing as a small bug. Customers, be they people or businesses, do not measure Software bugs in metres, feet or miles or kilograms. They use measures like time wasted, life lost and money. Take a recent bug from Facebook. It affected thousands, maybe millions of… 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 »
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 »
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 »
Take a pack of cards, shuffle them well, and place them on the desk in front of you. Could you accurately tell me what the order of the cards would be, without looking? By Rosapicci Own work, CC BY SA 4.0 Now spend 2 weeks in a software development team, writing code & using… more »