Friday, December 11, 2015

Keeping Up with the Times

Yesterday I conducted two phone screens seeking Senior Quality Assurance experts for a 6-month contract.  They were both great candidates with traditional testing skills and passion.   I am not responsible for hiring these individuals but to offer my assessment.  My conclusion was that they have the skills necessary to do the job.

Here is what alarms me.

  • Neither one has recently read a Testing Book
  • Neither one follows testing blogs
  • Neither one ever heard of SBTM or RST
  • Neither one seemed to participate in local testing community or meet-ups
  • Neither could write code
  • Both assumed documentation exists
  • Both assumed there were people available to help them
So I have a one-word message to all testers around the globe.

Participate!

We have a thriving and pioneering global testing community.  We need everyone to continuously improve our craft by being involved in the learning.

Is my perspective misguided or would you agree?

Happy Testing!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Two words making me cringe these days

Lately, two words have been making me cringe.  I am not 100% sure why I am having such a negative response to these two words.

Ready - Test Plan and Test Cases

With respect to the term test plan, my memory conjures up a negative image of lengthy Rational Unified Process documents.  In my mind, I have started replacing the term test plan with the term test strategy.  I outline my test ideas in a mind map.  Using a mind map is fast, flexible, and easily communicated.  I share my test strategy in a mind map.

If I reflect in a neutral way, I conclude that test plan and test strategy are interchangeable.

I think the term test cases causes me to cringe because they were part of the RUP test plan documentation. The term test case conjures up the negative image of scripted tests.  Following a detailed set of steps never seemed productive for me on my mission to find bugs.  I followed this practice early in my career, but it does not make sense to me today.  Mentally I have substituted the term test ideas to replace test cases.

The words themselves are fine.  I need to make sure I articulate my definition when they terms are used in conversation.

Anyone else of a POV to expand upon or refute my negative taste for these terms?

Friday, October 30, 2015

Veterans4Quality

Yes, once again I have been a slacker regarding blog posts.  Some recent events are worth mentioning.

I am extremely excited that I have been nominated and selected as a Board Member for the newly formed non-profit, Veterans4Quality.  We are getting things off the ground, but the 30,000-foot view is that this organization provides training to Veterans on how to test software.

Last night I had the pleasure of being an instructor for this graduating class.  They are such a great group of people.  I hope they got some value from the class because I certainly did.

I hopefully introduced them to some tools they had not previously been exposed too.  Here are the topics that I covered:

  • Schools of Testing, highlighting Context-Driven
  • Mind Maps
  • Heuristics, distributed Elisabeth Hendrickson's cheat sheet
  • Oracles
  • Mnemonics
  • Charters
  • BugMagnet
It was interactive and a really good dialog.  

One student/comedian in the room stated he did not like the XMind tool because it had a template for a "Honey Do List".  Later he kindly pointed out that I was not using autosave functionality for XMind.  I certainly took note.

I had a blast sharing my experiences with this great group of Veterans.

If you are a software company in Austin texas, these Veteran's are looking to cap-off their education with a 90-day internship, so please give them a shot at a bright future with a career in Software testing.

  • ‘internships’ are 90 days – NO STRINGS for extensions or hiring
  • Companies can bring them in direct as 1099’s (which you did at HomeAway) or Veterans4Quality can bring them in as 1099 and be the ‘bank’ for the companies
  • Min. rate $18
  • Start date – fluid – in that we’d like them to start by week of Nov. 16th
  • Contact me for more details or questions  [Brenda_Hall@Bridge360.com]
@Brenda - Thank you for this awesome opportunity!


Sunday, August 23, 2015

What did I learn at CAST 2015?

I attended my fist CAST in Grand Rapids, MI.  What did I learn?

I learned that it takes an extremely dedicated group of people to run an organization such as AST.  Several key board members were stepping down while a new set of energized members were stepping in.  Unfortunately, I could not vote, but looking in, the election process seemed balanced, quick, and successful.  I would like to thank the leaders stepping down, Michael Larson, Markus Gartner, & Peter Walen.  I would like to encourage the new leadership who are dedicating their time, Eric Proegler, Ilari Henrik Aegerter, and Roxane Jackson.

I learned that it takes a ton of dedication and energy to pull off a great CAST conference.  What a fantastic job by Peter Walen.  He had a few bumps in the road that very few would even know who occurred and he handled them like a magician.  I do regret that I did not find the time to have a cold beverage or two with Pete, but he was busy and the conference energy was high.

I learned that facilitators "ROCK".  This conference leverages the LAWST style of running a meeting.  Every participant had unique cards (red, green, and yellow).  The participants used the cards and the facilitators keep the process organized and meaningful.  Red cards were for urgent questions or concerns.  Green cards were for new conversation threads.  Yellow cards were used to keep an engaged dialog moving.  I would like to thank all of those who volunteered, especially Alex Bantz, who facilitated our session.  Every conference should consider this style of facilitation.

I learned that activities that were tangental to the actual conference were crucial to the learning experience.  I met some amazing people sitting on the couches at the hotel.  I have great conversations over meals.  One of the most amazing conversations was in the hallway with Karen Johnson.  I learned a more effective way to hold Lean Coffee.  I would like to thank Matt Heusser for facilitating the Lean Coffee and those who actively participated.

I learned that there is a lot going on in the field of software testing and that there is a ton more to do.  I am currently trying to figure out how I can help make an impact.  Honestly, I have a ton of reflection to do to figure out where I stand on some of the issues.  This is definitely a future post.  One of the key takeaways for all to consider is that we need to do a much better job of education in our profession.

I learned that our profession is a bit fragmented in approach and opinion.  This is also a future blog post, but after some reflection I think this is a healthy situation.

Conferences can be exhausting!  If you are fully engaged and attempting to maximize your experience, you should be exhausted.  I was totally exhausted, but I am looking forward to my next conference.

I have a ton of things on my mind because CAST inspired me.   Hopefully, I will find more time to write these thoughts.

Happy Testing!

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Where is the WWW headed?

I found an opportunity over lunch last week to catch up on my blog roll. So I came across this blog by Michael Bolton.  I really feel and share in his frustration.  Our family budget is accomplished by Mint.com.  Several months ago our bank a local credit union changed their website.  The impact was actually quite severe in that now our checking account does not import into Mint.com.  We have had numerous email threads with both Mint.com and our bank.  Here it is 3 - 4 months later and the issue still has not been resolved.  I have offered to work with their developers to help troubleshoot the problem, but they will not take me up on the offer.  The bank claims it cannot be their problem and Mint.com is a free software, so why should they care they have destroyed a families budgeting process.  The options we now have to consider are leaving a bank with have been with for 30 years or abandon Mint.com.  I do not like either choice because this integrated solution should just work.

I get gas at several local convenient stores.  My blood pressure goes up when I read the digital greeting on the pump and the last letter of the final word appears on line 2.  Such a trivial bug, but it bothers me.

I was interacting with Lanette Creamer via Twitter.  She made this statement that resonated with me a bit; "Have you seen the case yet where they are literally building faster than they can detect sanity? Dropping a deuce on the user."  I really think she is on to something with this statement.  In the effort  to deliver software faster, companies tend to fail the primary users.  Isn't the entire purpose of delivering web applications to delight the customers?

Lanette also made a great post on LinkedIn.  I thought it would be cool to leave a comment on her post.  I was not able to leave a comment.  I tried several browsers, so I sent Lanette my comments via Twitter.  Anyone reading her article will not have that context.  LinkedIn was following the Twitter conversation, so at least they were actively aware of the problem on their site.

Is the internet getting better?  Is it heading in the right direction?  This short analysis would indicate the internet is not headed in the right direction.  Companies are not making their audience happier.

I still believe we can rapidly deliver great software, but we need to do it with the customer in mind.
Michael Bolton and Lanette Creamer are passionate people who care and want customer experiences to be better.   We should all desire great experiences and we should let these companies know.

Happy Testing!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

TestRetreat - Grand Rapids

I am planning to participate in a Test Retreat in Grand Rapids on August 1, 2015.  Test Retreat is an event formed by Matt Heusser two days before CAST.  What is Test Retreat?

The truth is I do not know what Test Retreat is.  Then why participate?

  1. I was invited.
  2. I am participating in CAST
  3. The Retreat takes on Open Spaces format
  4. Smart people will participate
  5. I will learn something valuable
Being invited is an awesome thing, because I have collaborated with Matt several times in the past. Each time we have collaborated I have learned something new.  I also become energized and inspired.

I have never participated in CAST, so I think this retreat is a logical extension of the learning experience CAST will provide.

I love the open spaces format.  The reason is that it allows for a gathering where smart people decide the agenda organically.  I was introduced to the LAWST format in 2007 by Bret Pettichord.  Brett continues to use open spaces style formats with his Test Bazaar and other events.  I have also seen Matt use this style for a panel discussion at STPCon in Dallas.  When people build the agenda, I believe the right conversations happen.

I have learned so much over the past 8 years by trying to surround myself with people way smarter than me.  An additional attribute is that these smart people have passion and drive to make the software industry better.  I believe I share that passion and drive, but often we need new ideas and tools to pivot the industry in the right direction.  We accomplish this by discussing topics with smart people.

I believe four times in this short post I have used the word, learn.  That is exactly the reason I would love to collaborate at Test Retreat Grand Rapids 2015.  I plan to continue my education journey.

If any of these reasons inspire you, please let me know so we can invite you to the Test Retreat.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Honor Your Veterans

I feel very blessed to have met a wonderful person a month or so ago.  Her name is Brenda Hall, CEO of Bridge360.  Her company has put together an amazing program that teaches Veterans to test software called Veterans4Quality.  I highly encourage all companies to offer these service men and women an opportunity to expand our global testing family.

In my opinion this is such a great opportunity to introduce passionate and talented people into the career of Software testing.  Please consider giving these graduates a 12-week internship at your company.

As a bonus blessing, we have an extremely talented daughter who soon will be going off to the Ringling College of Art and Design.  Here is an art piece she submitted to the Women's Auxillary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW.  She received a scholarship locally for this piece of art, and it is now at the state level.  My new colleague and friend Brenda Hall also shared this at the Whitehouse a few weeks ago.  Enlarge the attached photo to see the magic.


I would like to end this short post with a huge THANK YOU to all of those great people giving military service around the globe to bring peace to our chaotic world.