Survivorship, Best Practices and The Power of Wish Thinking

“The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn sure of what the result is going to be, he is in some doubt.”Richard Feynman

I recently had the distinct privilege of watching an expert tester at work. I wouldn’t call this person a “test manager” or “test lead”, even though what they were doing would probably be categorized as an activity associated with both of those roles. No, I would give them the honor of calling them an expert tester – someone using all of their knowledge and skills developed through years of practicing their craft. And they weren’t even testing software; they were testing ideas. Testing assumptions. Testing people. Testing themselves. It was a thing of beauty. Continue reading

Leadership in Testing – What Really Matters

Special thanks to the awesome folks at The Testing Planet for publishing the following story in their latest issue. Get yourself together and subscribe today! Continue reading

The Pursuit of Scrutiny

“It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves” – Arthur Miller, The Crucible

I love scrutiny. I love it so much that I try to constantly surround myself with people who challenge my views. Either by directly asking for critique or by putting my work up to public Continue reading

Improving the State of your Testing Team: Part Three – Strategic Objectives

Whenever we start a new testing effort, one of the first activities is to define the mission. Why are we testing? Who are our clients? What information are we trying to find? Knowing your mission is an important part to successfully meeting your projects objectives and the driver for what you produce during the life of the project. Continue reading