Exploratory Testing Hands-On - Part I

Heyhey!

Back in business and I have tons of stuff to write about! But with what should I start? Why not the subject that is dearest to me, namely Exploratory Testing? There are many interpretations of what ET is, different entities have written tons of articles, blog posts and even books what it is and what it is not, gurus are battling it out in seminars... all done to a point of nitpickering. All this just confuses me and I've decided not to bother myself with that nonsense. Of course I still read everything and try to learn about ET, but only to aim for results and become better at it.

So, it's time for my first hands-on blog post. I usually encourage people to think for themselves by not giving them everything to complete what I'm wishing them to complete. I will continue on that path, but now I try to give a bit more; I try to give a real life example of how I do Exploratory Testing AND with a system that many consider to be the worst thing ever happened to a field of software testing; That is of course HP Quality Center.

Status update

Heyhey!

I'm still here. In an assignment. Not able to... um... think... and... um... write blog. But things are picking up. I'm starting to shift my role from operative to strategic i.e. I start to train/coach, develop processes, support, mentor, be more visible in testing community, social media, etc. and all in all be more than just a battle monkey. A natural shift towards what I love to do.

That means more blog time too, yey! This post is just an update on the things yet to come. I have 34 articles under work, holding about 200 book pages worth of thoughts about testing:

We Like To Think

Hey hey!

Ok, my original start could have caused unnecessary trouble, in the worst case gotten me to lose my job so I have to keep my openness in check. It was just a whine about how good people are kept from being good testers. With some flavour of course... :)

Even now in this assignment I'm surrounded by very smart people, capable of doing great things, but incapacitated by all the waste. And I hope I could help them as Michael Bolton (not the singer!) helped me in his Rapid Software Testing (RST) course...

And that, ladies and gentlement, is our wobbly donkey bridge to today's topic: heuristics!

The Peaceful Retrospective

Hi,

I've been working.

And to work is to not write blog.

With this foreword I'll get to my next subject: retrospective. The word "retrospective" comes from latin word "retrospectare", which means to look back. It is the most important thing in becoming better on what you do. To become an expert one has to reflect experiences to teachings, measure what has been learnt, contemplate what should be kept or avoided and how to proceed to upcoming challenges. That and more is what we do in retrospective mode.

Test Planning - Granularity

Hi,

I received feedback from my previous post and unfortunately there was too much tl;dr. The blog loses it's purpose if no one's reading, so I'll try to write more concisely or if the writing flow takes me, to divide the post into different subposts. And this is one of those.

Test planning as a whole is just too big to be fitted into one post so I just write about one of my favourite portions of it, the granularity. As Wikipedia puts it

"Granularity is the extent to which a system is broken down into small parts, either the system itself or its description or observation."

The World Divided

Hi,

So. As I promised, here's some more concrete stuff. Not rock solid, but at least something to hold and hug. I'll write about a subject that has been close to my heart for quite some time; The World Divided. It is of course the war between the people representing the traditional way and the new way of doing testing. Ok, those who do testing in more traditional way might not know the difference, so I'll shine a light to this...

Community Service

Hi,

I've stumbled across a familiar problem. I've started to write about several subjects. I've been writing with pure joy, from the heart, but when it comes to the the actual professional stuff, the boring stuff, the joy stopped. And so did the writing. According to Belbin Team Inventory assessment, I have very strong tendency towards Resource Investigator and Plant, with a hint of other roles, but no Completer/Finisher. Not even a single bit. Ok, Wikipedia puts Completers/Finishers to be quite anal characters, but it see them as people who get things done, which is an admirable quality. And I lack that, dammit!

And there I go again with the jibberjabber! To dodge this issue, instead of sticking with the original plan, starting with the basics of testing, I'll just write about this happening I participated and how it grew thoughts in my mind...

Hello world!

Hi,

I'm Sami and as many before me, I've decided to start a blog. A blog about software testing.

But why a blog and why in earth about software testing? Perhaps there's something I'd like tell about the industry that deserves the attention? Something that has not been told in those numerous blogs, written by people far more experienced than I am? Do I want to rise on the shoulders of those giants I greatly admire? Or perhaps I just want to show off? Perhaps I just want to create some kind of extended CV? Humongous calling card? A reaching hand for better job offers? Or am I just writing for the fun of it?

Perhaps all of those?

Anyway here I am. Finding it out. Testing how it goes.