Tag Archives: software testing - Page 2

Put your lips together and blow

Posted by on February 25, 2011 9 comments
lauren_bacall_and_humphrey_bogart_in_to_have_and_have_not_trailer

When I first heard about Tacit Knowledge, I had a vague idea what it was. The word “tacit” sounded a bit like “tactile” so I guessed it was knowledge that you could touch.

I was a bit off the mark.

Normally, I try to avoid starting my posts with definitions, it reminds me of those dreary debates we had at school where everyone started their discourse by using the dictionary definition.

I’m making an exception in this case as I think its important that we all understand what tacit knowledge is, so here is the wikipedia definition (Don’t be lazy, click on it)

This morning my son had a bit of a crisis going to school. As some of you know, we’ve moved country and continent. For my kids, this means new school, new friends, new environment. It can be a tough challenge for an eight year old.

Suffice to say, he needed a bit of cheering up, so I suggested he look on the bright side of life. Cue Monty Python Bright Side of Life

Well, it sort of worked especially when I tried to teach him how to whistle.

Have you ever tried to teach someone to whistle?

Lauren Bacall had a go, in the movie “To have and to have not”

But you know what? As Alex found out, if you do put your lips together and blow it doesn’t mean you can whistle!

Actually being able to whistle is pretty hard.(I’m sure many of you have memories of trying to whistle in vain!)

But why is it so hard? The basic facts were explained and it seems quite simple. What vital peice of information is missing from Becall’s instruction?

That my friend is tacit knowledge. Simply put, its the knowledge you can only learn by doing.

And so to software testing.

The reason why software testing is so hard to teach is because it requires the student to learn by doing.

To learn software testing you must….software test!

Yes, you can read and learn the peripheral stuff around testing. For example you can learn what a IEEE829 test process is. You can learn how to write a test plan, how to create a test script, but that is not testing.

Testing is the doing bit. The bit where you have to think, judge and act on a testing dilemma. Thats why some companies when interviewing for testers will ask you to test something. They know, intuitively, that testing is about doing, not writing.

My Skype coaching sessions on software testing are based around this principle. You won’t find me “sharing my experience” in the sessions because that’s not how you learn about testing. Instead, you get a challenge, puzzle or dilemma that I work through with you.

To really understand testing, you must do testing but also you must be aware of what you are doing while testing. Why? Because awareness brings about discovery. You discover assumptions you make in testing. You discover conflicting ideas and you discover your bias in testing. From that awareness comes learning and improvement.

I think thats pretty damn cool.

Now all together…

“Always look on the bright side of life…”

(my skype coaching sessions are free, contact me on skype id charretts with the word coaching in the request)

The antipodes are calling

Posted by on January 13, 2011 No comments

I’m heading to Sydney, Australia on 22nd January 2011.  I will be looking for test consulting work  preferably through my Australian consulting company Testing Times.

What do I offer?

I shed light on testing problems often obscured or caused by a testing process. I bring a new perspective often hard to gain when inside an organisation.

I do this by thinking outside the square, looking for solutions outside traditional process orientated ideas.

So, if you have a problem that you haven’t yet being able to solve using traditional testing approaches, or you want a testing approach based on excellence and speed* why not contact me?

I also deliver one day training workshops on testing. These workshops focus on increasing tester skill.

I offer a context driven approach to testing.

These  principles are:

1.    The value of any practice depends on its context.

2.    There are good practices in context, but there are no best practices.

3.    People, working together, are the most important part of any project’s context.

4.    Projects unfold over time in ways that are often not predictable.

5.    The product is a solution. If the problem isn’t solved, the product doesn’t work.

6.    Good software testing is a challenging intellectual process.

7.    Only through judgment and skill, exercised cooperatively throughout the entire project, are we able to do the right things at the right times to effectively test our products.

What this means to you is that the advice I offer is to ensure you the customer get the best value out of your testing.

If you like that idea then contact me at amcharrett @ testingtimes.com.au

Interesting fact on the word antipodes. “The antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth’s surface which is diametrically opposite to it.” – Wikipedia. So, technically that would mean somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Though I suspect that not a lot of testing is done there!

* I use a rapid software testing developed & taught  by James Bach & Michael Bolton.

Exclusive cartoon – see it here first !

Posted by on December 3, 2010 3 comments
If i were a test case

Here is an exclusive, never seen before cartoon, created especially for the upcoming ebook “If I were a testcase, I would…”

As you may know, this e-book contains over 300 memorable and funny responses to the Twitter challenge started by the Daily Testing Tip prompting testers to complete the phrase

“If I were a test case I would…”

The book will be available for download for free. We are still looking for more sponsors, so please if you or your company wishes to advertise in this book, please check out the advertising details at Daily Testing Tip The closing date for advertising is December 10th 2010. So be quick.

All proceeds from advertising will go the Chandru Fund to help raise funds for Chandrashekar B.N (Chandru) , a software tester in our community that has been recently  diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

Cartoon Tester (Andy Glover) has created some of his memorable cartoons into this great little ebook.

Here’s a glimpse of what’s to come…..

So if you haven’t joined in the fun why not do so now?  If you were a test case, what would you do???

Next Tuesday we will be holding a special #dttip challenge on twitter, so look out for that.  So please give generously with your ideas and contribute to the challenge.