Lessons Learned by a Software Tester

As an Agile/Testing consultant, trainer and coach there are certain questions I hear often. One of them is: "What tool should we use for test automation?" My response is usually the same: "What...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2015/04/agile-testing-automation.html

An old friend reached out to me recently to ask me some questions about Ruby, a very handy programming language to know if you are in testing, development or IT/Ops. During the conversation I men...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2015/04/where-would-you-go.html

This month I will be doing two sets of training sessions - one for Agile Testing (AT) and one for Exploratory Testing (ET). I have extensive experience with both and I enjoy teaching and coaching...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2014/02/agile-testing-vs-exploratory-testing.html

I received an email recently about an event happening later this month in London, UK. It's the world's first official TESTATHON (testathon.co ). The site describes the event as "like a hackathon ...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2014/01/testathon.html

Yesterday I attended a Waterloo Agile Lean session on Story Mapping presented by Mark Levison . I had heard of Story Mapping but hadn't worked through it before. I liked the hands-on exercises a...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2013/04/salary-thieves.html

Test Management is wrong. There. I said it. I can't believe it took me this long to notice the obvious. If you are doing Software Development in any fashion, and are worried about how to manage...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2013/02/test-management-is-wrong.html

When I work with teams to help them learn something new, I try to pay attention to a few things. Firstly, I pay attention to how people are learning, and secondly how I am teaching. When I used...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2013/02/shuhari.html

As I go through life I keep noticing stories, ideas and insights into humanity and I sometimes wonder if we are meant to discover these lessons slowly or if there isn't a quicker way to learn the...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-human-side-of-living.html

I've been asked a few times over the past few months why I haven't blogged in a while. Funny that. I have been writing more in this past year than I think I have my whole life. It turns out that ...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2013/01/sharing-thoughts.html

What is Exploratory Testing (ET)? I am asked this every once in a while and I hear a wide range of ideas as to what it is. This is one of those topics where Wikipedia doesn't really help much. ...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-is-exploratory-testing.html

In a few days I will be giving a presentation to the local Agile/Lean Peer 2 Peer group here in town. The group has a web site - Waterloo Agile Lean , and the announcement is also on the Communit...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2012/02/testing-is-medium.html

I was asked recently what metrics I would collect to assess how well an agile team is improving. I paused for a moment to scan through 12 years of research, discussion, memories and experiences w...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2012/01/quality-agile-metrics.html

Let me tell you about something called Dramatic Irony. You see it in movies, television shows, plays and in many other places. It happens when you (as the audience or observer) see or understan...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/12/testers-learn-about-agile-and-lean.html

This topic keeps coming up in various discussions so here are some thoughts on what I think a future may hold for us one day.  What does it mean to predict the future? Does it mean it is inevita...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/10/futures-of-software-testing.html

Several years ago I wrote an article summarising some of the key points I keep in mind while interviewing candidates for a test team. The article is called "Hiring Software Testers in an Informat...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/08/hobbies-and-interests.html

It is not a matter of "if" -- it is a matter of "when" HP's Quality Center software will die.  And you, my dear readers will help make that happen. "How?" you may ask? Simple. There are two th...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/07/quality-center-must-die.html

I first attended StarEast in 1999. I remember the day-long tutorial I attended (by Rick Craig), and two track sessions - one by Cem Kaner on hiring testers, and one by James Whittaker on "Exploi...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/05/thoughts-on-stareast-2011-conference.html

At this year's KWSQA Targeting Quality conference I gave a half-day workshop titled "Exploratory Testing Basics".  I originally proposed that title since I thought it followed nicely from the s...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/04/reflection-on-my-testing-workshop-at.html

This topic is one that I have been asked about many times over the years and I am long overdue for a detailed discussion of it. Back in 2006 I presented an Experience Report at the STiFS workshop...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/03/radiating-testing-information-part-1.html

I was watching a science program just now and it occurred to me that Testing is very much science. And then I wondered about Programming. I started in IT over 22 years ago doing programming.  ...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/01/testing-programming-oil-water.html

I made myself some microwave popcorn for a snack just now.  Placed the popcorn bag in the microwave, pressed the 'popcorn' button and then 'start'. Someone next to me said: "There's a popcorn bu...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2011/01/software-testing-popcorn-button.html

I just came back from a week at the AYE Conference . My head is full with several new ideas swimming around and stirring up half-baked old ideas - which is a good thing. One of the thoughts cau...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2010/11/fishing-for-wisdom.html

Okay, to recap, Session-Based Test Management (SBTM) is a test framework to help you manage and measure your Exploratory Testing (ET) effort. There are 4 basic elements that make this work: (1) C...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2010/09/using-ms-outlook-to-help-support-sbtm.html

I used TDD as an analogy to a tester today to explain how logging bugs in a bug tracking system drives the development. A bug report represents a failing test (when you verify that it's really a ...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2010/09/test-driven-development-isnt-new.html

Someone recently said something to me that made me think. He said that all New Year's resolutions fail because they come at the wrong time. You know what I mean by New Year's resolutions, right...

http://swtester.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-new-years-resolutions-fail.html