A weekly source of software testing news
ISSUE #19 - June 11, 2017
Quality and testing subjects are sometimes best explained through the use of analogies. Similes, metaphors and bad puns can work too. This issue of Tester’s Digest offers a compilation of all of the above… even koans.
“Pulp Fiction” (the movie) reinterpreted as a parable on testing. For instance, the scene sequence, or lack thereof, serves as a reminder to test user actions in your product out of order.
https://www.stickyminds.com/article/why-every-software-tester-should-watch-pulp-fiction
How to test lightsabers, complete with Selenium TestNG code to validate their colors:
https://www.stickyminds.com/article/strategies-testing-lightsaber-don-t-include-force
How Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” is like testing. Testers may wish to reflect on whether viewing the product (or worse, developers!) as the enemy is wise… but certain quotes fit supremely well: “THE WAY IS TO AVOID WHAT IS STRONG, AND STRIKE AT WHAT IS WEAK” to identify focus areas for testing.
https://testzius.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/sun-tzu-was-a-tester/
Technical terms explained via analogies: “2-factor authentication is like Cinderella’s slipper”
https://sidewaysdictionary.com/
Unit testing principles packaged as Zen koans. “Think of code and test as one”.
http://www.agitar.com/downloads/TheWayOfTestivus.pdf
Where did the above come from? Google, it turns out. Find attribution and a short discourse on testability here, as well as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde analogy:
https://testing.googleblog.com/2010/06/testivus-testability-and-dr-jekill-and.html
This article by Michael Bolton likens a tester on a project to an actor in a theatrical production and discusses multiple roles of both.
http://www.developsense.com/blog/2015/06/on-a-role/
Risk based analysis and human error, experienced via interactive theater. Wish this play would travel from Edinburgh to San Francisco!
https://humanisticsystems.com/2016/09/14/human-factors-at-the-fringe-nuclear-family/
I suppose this is not entirely off topic, since visualization is a kind of analogy. How to visually indicate broken builds or alerts by hanging these UFO looking lights throughout your office:
http://www.tjmaher.com/2017/03/how-to-signal-that-build-is-broken-look.html
Handy tips on doing simple things in Linux (most of which would also work on Mac OSX from the terminal), such as checking your disk space usage and available RAM, or looking for errors in multiple log files.
http://teachmelinux.com/topics/guides/
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