I’m exploring the 3 Amigos in agile at the moment, as I feel it may be in need of a makeover. But first, the traditional view of the 3 Amigos. I know, there’s already loads of articles on the 3 amigos, but I thought it might be useful

As I child I received the usual number of knocks and bumps, cuts and the inevitable scabs that grew as my body healed itself. I enjoyed nothing more than spending time picking away at these scabs. I wanted to explore and uncover, pick and observe in fascinating as the pink

New to API’s and want to learn how to test them? Here’s some learning strategies to help you get started on your way. Feel the fear…and do it anywayFor many, opening up the bonnet of a UI and staring at the underneath and the API and the

“Everybody Wants Some!!” It’s a nostalgic coming of age movie for male base ballers set in the 1980’s. The following conversation ensued between Jake and Willoughby (both pitchers): Willoughby: ..let me tell you something, Jake. It is lonely out on the bump, man. You know, hitters, they got

We know quality is ‘value to some person’, so it stands to reason that risk is also subjective. If we use risk as a factor to determine what to test, then how you test, what you test and your testing strategy will evolve and change. Is it though? Think of

Like many young children, my niece Emily was a little scared of going into the ocean. It was a beautiful Irish June day, and my mother could see she wanted to join all the other children splashing about and having fun. She took her by the hand and led her

Software Tester’s are a rare breed. We perform a role that can be difficult and not always fully appreciated or recognised. We are often the sceptic on the team, raising difficult questions when no one wants to hear them. We discover unplanned work, we question design, we uncover ambiguity.

In my Exploratory Testing class, I talk about shallow and deep exploration. When you say the word exploratory testing, many think, ‘just playing around’ on the product. And to some extent that’s true, a good true. So when I talked about shallow exploration it seemed to fit. Different from

As software testers, our role is to avoid being fooled by stuff that is potentially fooling others. For instance, we try to avoid being fooled by the product, we do that by testing with more than one piece of data. We try to avoid being fooled by stories as they

[the offer for free coaching is now closed. Coaching is available but a fee applies] I’m offering free online coaching on software testing this week and next week. The coaching session is approximately 90 minutes where you will test something for me and we will then review and discuss

Five crimes against testing that I see repeatedly executed. Testing and Quality are the same thingsJust because you test, it doesn’t mean you have a quality product.  Sounds obvious right? But why then is quality assigned to one person. Why have a Quality Gatekeeper? Testing shines a light on

Yesterday I wrote a blog post entitled “Leave Testing to the Experts” to which Maaret quickly reacted online and by a post where she strongly disagreed with the sentiment.  Disagreement is a very useful tool to clarify your thinking, so thanks Maaret!. It’s allowed me the opportunity to explain

The ‘Base Camp’ heuristic is the work required to find any bug. Typically ‘Base Camp’ bugs tend to be low lying fruit and can be found quickly, especially if a tester is experienced. In the world of Daniel Kahneman, these bugs are found using Systems 1 thinking. To discover an

One question I often ask a tester in an interview is what they believe are the essential skills that differentiate a good tester from a great tester. One of the common replies is “Paying attention to detail”. But what does that really mean? Start with detail. What do you mean

If there is ever one word that highlights the difference between a tester and a developer’s mindset it has to be the word done. Developers¹ tend think of done as a form of sign off. A story is done when the code is complete. For many developers, it’s

We’ve placed a ban on crappy work within my test team. From now on, we declare that the testing team will refuse to do crappy work. The challenge is in knowing how you're doing good work or crappy work?  This is why I’ve created this simple 5 minute

Jon Bach this morning wrote a post about how we need to be precise in our thinking. Thank you Jon, its a lovely honest piece with lots of wisdom.  But it got me thinking how sometimes precision can let us down too. For instance, we can get fooled into thinking

“Knowledge is power” Jerry Weinberg cites courage as the most important trait in a tester. Quoting Kipling, Jerry says testers need to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” But I see another type of courage at play in software testing. Testers

Seriously, how serious are you about testing? Let's presume you study the craft of testing. Does that make you a serious tester? If you answer yes to this question, congratulations. You are on your way to becoming a serious tester. Now ask yourself this question: “Do you take yourself seriously?