Category Archives: BlogRoll

Get out your tin whistles

Posted by on June 18, 2010 4 comments

At last after a year of wrangling, shuffling and even some pleading Michael Bolton in association with Testing Times is coming Dublin to give his wonderful Rapid Software Testing Course.

Not that Michael needed persuading to come. He jumped at the opportunity. Mostly because he loves giving this course and helping testers well, develop sense. But I will let you into a little not so well known fact about Michael. He loves Irish Music and his a keen Mandolin player.

So we knew we were onto a winner straight away!

For those not familiar with Michael Bolton and his course.

Rapid Software Testing is “a course, a mind-set, and a skill set about how to do excellent software testing in a way that is very fast, inexpensive, credible, and accountable.” Its written by James Bach and Michael Bolton

This course is excellent, its practical and thought provoking!  I can personally say that because I’ve taken it. If you have ever asked yourself the question:

“Is there a better way to test this stuff ?”

Then I suspect this course is for you.

Some of the issues it addresses are:

  • Are you finding it difficult to assess how much time and effort you’re going to need to test effectively?
  • Are you overwhelmed by or uncertain about approaches to test planning, design and execution?
  • Are you working in an environment where some people aren’t following “the rules”?
  • Are you having trouble finding the right balance between planning, documentation, and testing?
  • Are you interested in learning skills and techniques that will help you to become a better tester?
  • Are you finding that “industry best practices” are infeasible and a poor fit for your organization?
  • Do you want to get very good at software testing?

Read more information about Michael Bolton and the course go to his website: Michael Bolton Rapid Software Testing

Even better Skillnet has agreed to partially fund the course, so you are getting this 3 day course at a knock down price of 770 euros.

If you have any money in your training budget, this course is the one to go for!

Rapid Software Testing Details

  • Date: Monday 13th to Wednesday 15th September 2010
  • Venue: Xilinx, Citywest Business Park
  • In association with Testing Times & Xilinx
  • Duration: 3 day course (9.00am to 5.30pm)
  • Cost to non-members: €1,700 per person
  • Cost to Software Skillnet Members* after Grant aid: €770 per person

*Membership to Skillnet is Free

For more details and booking go to the skillnet website:  Skillnet Rapid Software Testing

Mind mapping your testing strategy

Posted by on April 19, 2010 10 comments

I recently was asked to do a talk on software testing for a group of iPhone developers.  I decided to speak to them at a practical level and talk about how I approach software testing, as I wanted them to understand that there are different ways you can perform software testing other than resorting to heavily documented process and formal test scripts.

As part of my preparation I decided to use FreeMind to create a mind map of some of my testing strategies. Like many in the testing community I find I rely heavily on mnemonics to remember heuristics and oracles. I like Parimala Shankaraiah’s post on the Power of Mnemonics and decided to create something similar but in a mind map form.

Most of the information is not new and has been around the testing community for a while. As I started brain dumping the information, I got really excited about the map. I knew that not only was it helpful for the talk, but for me personally, it provided a great tool to remind me of different approaches I can take to testing. I’ve inserted due credit, but if I’ve left anyone out or got it wrong, please let me know and I can update it.

In fact I’m so thrilled with the results, I’m going to share it. So here it is.

Kids, Kittens and Karma

Posted by on March 31, 2010 No comments

Have I ever written about how competitive I am?  Lets just say I like to win. A lot.  Best explained by an example I think.

In my heyday I was a bit of a runner. Not a bad one, but not the best and I knew it. My favourite race was the 800 meters,  a bit shorter than the 1Km, more like a fast sprint.  Each year at school we had a sports day where we all got to compete in races against each other.

The way it worked at our school, was that you got to choose which race you wanted to run in.  So, naturally I chose the 800 meters, but was dismayed to find out a week before that the best runner in my class was running that race too! I mean she could have picked the 1K, 400m or even the 100m. Why the 800 meters?

Well, I decided I wanted to win that race, so I convinced my main competitor that for the better good (there were class points system too), she was far better off running the 1K.

I remember the look of reluctance on her face as she agreed  that it was best that our class win two races instead of having 1st & 2nd in one race.

Well I sailed to victory in the 800 meters.

I still remember that day, traced with a mixture of guilt and pride (well, it was a neat bit of negotiation).

I’m still competitive, but I guess I prefer these days to win on my own merit instead of resorting to nobbling the competition.

So where is this all going? Well, I submitted a video to the Eurostar 2010 VideoStar competition. The prize is a speaker spot at Eurostar 2010.

(Its got cute kid , but not kittens I promise, I’m saving it for the sequel)

Anyhow, now you all know how competitive I am, I wish all my Videostar competitors the very best. I know its hard work to create a video (some of them are great)  I look forward to hearing some great talks in EuroStar.

Oh, and in my enthusiasm for creating the video, I failed to mention what I was going to talk about, which is software testing and startups, working on the bleeding edge.

Of course, if you want to vote for me……

http://www.eurostarconferences.com/content/videostar-competition.aspx