Category: Software Testing

Rolling your own methodology

I came across someone asking for an answer to the old “How do you test a stapler” question, and in light of my new role, I thought this was a good opportunity to start taking up James Bach’s methodology challenge, using the stapler example as a starting point. I’m starting with the meta-questions, those which […]

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Personas, substruction and other trades’ tricks

Developing personas is a well-described technique (see Alan Cooper’s ‘The Inmates are Running the Asylum’ and Mike Cohn’s ‘User Stories Applied’) for considering the different kinds of users of the system we are developing. On a recent project, we began considering the different users who might want to user our product. In the process, I […]

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Job hunting and domain-shifting

I was responding to a posting on usenet on the trials of transitioning from a hardware and device testing role to a software testing role.  To me, this breaks down to creating a resume which focuses on the critical, non-domain related skills of testing.  I think this advice is applicable to anyone seeking to move […]

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Tester meetup in Melbourne, Australia

I’ve been (very) slowly collecting names and email addresses of enthusiastic testers in Melbourne, and have been hoping to organise some kind of meetup or regular drinks night. Is anyone from Melbourne reading? If so, drop a comment. If there is enough interest, I will post a venue/time. Erik, you must come! Note: This now […]

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Do you get annoyed with…

…tools for thinking workers which don’t work the way they think, and don’t help support thinking? Which tools have you used that don’t leave you with this feeling? Which tools make you feel this way? My list- – Mercury products I’ve used – Rational Robot (for performance testing) – Lots of programming languages. Korean makes […]

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