Notes on testing, automation, and software craft.
It's August 1941, during the opening years of WW2, the axis powers had conquered much of mainland Europe and the Allies were desperately trying to limit the capacity of the axis military industrial complex. They did this with little feedback on their success much like some… 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 »
"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 »
Thank you to the colleague/customer/product owner, who found the bug I missed. That oversight, was (at least in part) my mistake. I've been thinking about what happened and what that means to me and my team. I'm happy you told me about the issue you found, because you... 1)… more »
Google Maps directs me to and from my client sites. I've saved the location of the client's car parks, when I start the app in the morning it knows where I want to go. When I start it at the end of the day, Google knows where I want to go. This is great! It guides me around… more »
After a weary few hours sorting through, re running and manually double checking the "automated test" results, the team decide they need to "run the tests again!", that's a problem to the team. Why? because they are too slow. The 'test' runs take too long and they won't have the… more »
Earlier this year Boeing 787 maintenance engineers were given some new instructions by the FAA (The US government's: Federal Aviation Authority). They were informed that if the airplane's electrical generators were left running for 248 days, they would enter the fail safe mode.… more »
I now cover this issue in more detail in my podcast! The EPA (The US government's Environmental Protection Agency) recently issued Notice of Violations regarding the emissions from Volkswagen cars. Volkswagen is actually a group of brands, therefore the Notice affects other cars… more »
When you read a blog post like this, or an article on a website, can you be sure its the 'real thing'? How would you know if it had been doctored? Lets assume the 'server' is fairly secure and hasn't been hacked into. So the content is going to be OK isn't it?, it looks OK..? So… more »
Monday 3rd September 1827, A man steps off the road at the corner of Fifth and Elm, and walks into a store. He's frequented the store a few times since it opened, and he's starting to get to know the owner and his range of merchandise. In fact, like many of people in town he's… more »