The Egg testing challenge, context and mission
Matt Heusser is describing his challenge to test various inanimate objects – An egg, a stapler, a salt shaker and a knife. Read it here, but be sure to come back for the rest of the problem.
I’d now like you to spend a few minutes thinking about how you might go about testing an egg.
Now I’d like you to read this and this. (Oh, read this if you can’t read Chinese. Oops). Now ask yourself if there’s anything you’d like to change about your egg-testing strategy. Or another question you think might be worth asking before you start testing the egg.
The questions that leap out at me are –
– Who am I testing this for?
– What is the purpose of the egg?
When testing, we often assume the answer to these questions without checking what our mission really is. This can lead to unwelcome surprises at the pointy end of the project.
Now you can read this and start thinking about your egg testing strategy again! Happy testing…
/trivia on
Eggs were once tested for public consumption by holding them to the light, to see if unhatched chickens were inside. Obviously, this only worked for very white eggs. In recent decades, brown eggs have come back in fashion, because they look more natural.
/trivia off
Anyway…
– chemically like an egg (e.g. is it made of alum?)
– physically like an egg (e.g. is it about 60g? will it shatter easily? does it smell ok?)
– degree of processing of an egg (e.g. is it raw?)
– fit for consumption by humans? In various regulatory regimes?
– fit for consumption by other creatures?
– evidentiary chain of treatment (e.g. can we prove it has been refrigerated and shipped in accordance with some standard)
– degree of processing of an egg (e.g. is it raw? is it a poached egg?)
– quality of processing (e.g. is the poached egg been overcooked?)
– origin of the egg (e.g. are we talking chicken eggs here?)
– treatment of the origin of the egg (e.g. organic chickens, free range, etc)
– quality of certification processes for treatments (e.g. do we believe whoever said they were free range chickens)
– aesthically like an egg? (e.g. would it serve as a prop in a movie?)
..and a new one from the final link…
– are the egg test defects real?
Nice one.
Oh… and is it fertile?