[Paul Holland] Trends in Software Testing

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Copyright © 1995-2014, Doran Jones, Inc. and Satisfice, Inc.
Paul Holland, Doran Jones, Inc.
pholland@doranjones.com
www.doranjones.com

My Background
 Managing Director, Testing Practice at Doran Jones
 Independent S/W Testing consultant 4/2012 - 3/2014
 16+ years testing telecommunications equipment and
reworking test methodologies at Alcatel-Lucent
 10+ years as a test manager
 Presenter at STAREast, STARWest, Let’s Test,
EuroSTAR and CAST
 Facilitator at 50+ peer conferences and workshops
 Teacher of S/W testing for the past 6 years
 Teacher of Rapid Software Testing
 Military Helicopter pilot – Canadian Sea Kings

Attributions
 Over the past 10 years I have spoken with many people
regarding Exploratory Testing and Metrics. Much of
this talk comes from the Rapid Software Testing class
developed by James Bach and Michael Bolton.
 For the rest, I cannot directly attribute any specific
aspects to any individual but all of these people (and
more) have influenced my opinions and thoughts on
metrics:
 Cem Kaner, Ross Collard, Doug Hoffman, Scott Barber, John
Hazel, Eric Proegler, Dan Downing, Greg McNelly, Ben Yaroch

What I’m seeing in New York City
 “C”-level executives are aware that:
 They have quality issues
 The current approach of outsourcing doesn’t work
 When you go with the lowest bidder, you often get
the lowest skill level and lowest quality of work
 Software is becoming more:
 Expected by customers - everywhere
 Integrated with business needs
 Complicated (increasing risk of failure)

Important Change in Approach
 There is no such thing as a “Best Practice”
in software testing:
 The word “best” means there is nothing better
 If something is the best we think it can’t be
improved
 Something that works well for one project may be
a bad practice for another project or company
 There are only “Good” Practices for a
particular context.
 All practices can be improved

Important Change in Approach
 Stop using the term “Quality Assurance”
 We can’t “A” the “Q”
 The term comes from manufacturing which is a
different industry with different challenges
 Software development is as much about
relationships and social interaction as it is about
technology
 Could you assure the quality of a meeting between
intelligent and empowered individuals?
 Use “Quality Assistance” or “Question Asker” or
simply “Tester”

Call this “Checking” not Testing
Observe Evaluate Report
Interact with the
product in specific
ways to collect
specific
observations.
Apply algorithmic
decision rules to
those
observations.
Report any
failed checks.
means
operating a product
to check specific
facts about it…

Acquiring the competence, motivation,
and credibility to…
Testing is…
create the conditions necessary to…
…so that you help your clients to make
informed decisions about risk.
evaluate a product by learning
about it through experimentation, which includes to
some degree: questioning, study, modeling,
observation and inference, including…
operating a product
to check specific
facts about it…

Tacit
Test Procedures
Consistency
Oracles
Prospective Testing
Learning and
Teaching
Commitment
Management
(inc. estimation)
Recruiting
Helpers
Managing Testing
Logistics
Test Tooling and
Artifact Development
Test Framing
Bug
Advocacy
& Triage
Project
Post Mortem
Creating Archival
Documentation
Guiding Helpers
Discovery of
Curios, Issues &
Risks
Building the
Test Team
Designing
Checks and Tests
Playing with
the Product
Studying
Results
Galumphing
Configuring
Product & Tools
Schedule
Management
Study
Customer
Feedback
Relationship
Building
Making Failure
Productive
Sympathetic
Testing
Maintaining Personal
Health and Motivation
Team
Leadership
Quasi-Functional
Testing
Playing
Programmer
Testing w/Simulated
Conditions
Testing a Simulation
Creating the Test Lab
Studying Specs
Managing Records
Playing
Business Analyst
Opposition
Research
Testability Advocacy
Cultivate Credibility

Testing vs. Checking
TESTING (think “what testers
do”):
the process of evaluating a product by learning about it
through experimentation, which includes to some degree:
questioning, study, modeling, observation and inference.
CHECKING (think “fact
checking”):
the process of making evaluations by applying algorithmic
decision rules to specific observations of a product.

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Exploratory Testing Is…
 an approach to testing…
 that emphasizes the personal freedom and
responsibility of each tester to continually
optimize the value of his work…
 by treating learning, test design, test
execution and result evaluation as mutually
supportive activities that run in parallel
throughout the project.
(applicable to any test technique)
(optimize how?)

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Session Based Test Management
 SBTM allows Exploratory Testing to be
managed in an effective way that stands up
to scrutiny
 It allows planning, estimating, tracking and
reporting of testing projects
 It does NOT involve counting test cases or
reporting on pass/fail counts
 Read more online at www.satisfice.com and
www.developsense.com

The Fallacy of Repeated Tests:
Clearing Mines
mines

Totally Repeatable Tests
Won’t Clear the Minefield
mines fixes

Variable Tests are
Therefore More Effective
mines fixes

Agile™ Development
 Everyone on the SCRUM team must be
able to perform all tasks for the team
 Test Driven Development (TDD) fulfils the
testing needs of the project
 Acceptance Test Driven Development
(ATDD) really fulfils the testing needs
 Designers can test their own code just as
well as a tester

Agile™ Development
 The BEST expected result from an
excellent automation framework is an
awesome SANITY CHECK of the software
 Testing by testers is still required on most
projects (some exceptions like Facebook)
 Dedicated testers should support SCRUM
teams from within the team and/or as
“undone” work

The Agile “Testing” Pyramid
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Checking

A Better “Testing” Pyramid
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From: Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams by Lisa Crispin and
Janet Gregory.
Automation is in the pyramid
while manual testing is not.
Manual testing is
performed as required.
Manual testing is a cloud
and is not attached to the
pyramid – it can occur at
any phase & be any size.

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 How often do you account for your progress?
 If you have any autonomy at all, you can risk
investing some time in
 learning
 thinking
 refining approaches
 better tests
Allow some disposable time
Self-management is good!

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Allow some disposable time
 If it turns out that you’ve made a bad
investment…oh well
 If it turns out that you’ve made a
good investment, you might have
 learned something about the product
 invented a more powerful test
 found a bug
 done a better job
 avoided going down a dead end for too long
 surprised and impressed your manager

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[Paul Holland] Trends in Software Testing

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