A first step toward saying what we mean when we say "Automated testing"

“In the universe, nothing can be said to be automatic, as nothing can be said to be without design. An imperfect parallel may be found in human inventions; springs may move springs, and wheels, indexes; but the motion and the regulation must be derived from the artist;” From Elements of Chemical Philosophy Part 1, Vol.1 […]

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"Tools for testers" course next month at STANZ

Paul Szymkowiak and I will be running a one-day workshop on tools for testers, as part of the STANZ conference. The current run on August 13th is full, but you can register your interest for future courses via SoftEd, or drop me a line. Details of the course are at http://www.softed.com/stanz/speakersandsessions.htm#tst I’ll have the presentation […]

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Answering a question…

A few weeks ago, Designer commented on Software testing, art and productivity. The question got lost in amongst the comment spam, so I thought I’d give my answer a bit more prominently than usual. The question was: …Many people who want to get a web-developed project don’t even understand the details of work. They just […]

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INVESTing in User Stories, revisited

Mike Cohn’s “User Stories Applied” discusses using the INVEST mnemonic as a guide to writing better user stories. I was recently asked to dig up a reference for it, and found this presentation here, with the section on the mnemonic on pages 47 and 48. As I read it, I noticed that there’s been a […]

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Request for Beta Testers…

This was passed on to me via Paul Szymkowiak. Feel free to email me if you are interested in participating in this test for Security Innovation and I will pass on Pete’s contact details. ————————- Recruiting Beta Testers for Security Guidance System Usability Testing We’re looking for 50 beta testers for our new application security […]

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Software testing, art and productivity

In the Yahoo software-testing list, Shrini Kulkarni stated “…productvity as a term is “bad” for creative work like “testing” or “art”. That makes me to feel that I am a low skilled labour on a manufacturing assembly line (not that – it is a bad profession but that does not represent the kind of job […]

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Another Australian context-driven blog

Alister Scott, an Australian tester located in Brisbane has started a blog. There are a few Watir samples, and it’s always nice when a test automator puts their code up for scrutiny. I know my plans to do the same have taken far too long. Check his writing out at http://watirmelon.wordpress.com/

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Not looking my usual self

Due to a persistent hacking attempt over the last few days, I’ve done an emergency upgrade. Things will probably look ugly until the weekend, so apologies to anyone visiting!

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Things to look out for in your agile (or Agile) adoption

Jonathan Kohl pointed me at a position paper from Brian Marick for the Agile Coach Camp. If you’re in the middle of adopting agile, it’s well worth a read. You can find it here: http://wiki.agilecoachcamp.org/tiki-index.php?page=BrianMarickPositionPaper

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The second MAST meeting, finally

Another year, and a chance to bring enthusiastic testers together to network and learn from each other. To this end, I’m going to be organising public MAST gatherings. This will be a bi-monthly drinks night at a venue to be decided. In addition to this, I’ve set up a Ning group to allow members to […]

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