I started playing a game type that I rarely play: a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game. Specifically, Star Wars: The Old Republic. As I was playing it, I realized that it was actually an interesting game for a tester. I … Continue reading
As a tester, you don’t just gather and manage test data. You don’t just create test cases. As part of quality assurance, you don’t just check requirements. You don’t just do reviews. In short: you are not just a bundle … Continue reading
There is notion in quality assurance and testing between verification and validation. Verification asks “Are we building the product right?” Validation asks “Are we building the right product?” Some people use this very distinction to draw a line between the … Continue reading
My opinion is that the “positive” and “negative” distinctions for tests are a faulty conceptual distinction. To me, only “old school” testers talk about “positive testing” and “negative testing.” Pretty bluntly stated, huh? I feel strongly about this because the … Continue reading
When people talk about the “testing phase” of a project, you already have a problem because that implies testing is an activity that is relegated to a certain phase as opposed to a structural element of the entire project itself.
In my last post about what tests are for I talked a bit about the ability of test writers to be nimble in terms of getting quality-focused information — usually as a result collaborative discussions — encoded into readable tests … Continue reading
A key question to ask is what you want to get out of your tests. I’ve already talked about how I think the purpose of testing is to find information and then communicate that information. That’s great and all … … Continue reading
As a tester you will often encounter environments that desire to practice some form of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and testing practices must fit within that. The term “BDD” may be used more or less vaguely. One thing that’s often somewhat … Continue reading
One area of testing that often gets neglected are the various ways that bugs can be ferreted out by considering how they “hide.” Testing an application is sometimes like walking a mine field, where you have to trigger the mines … Continue reading
Have you ever come across the term “mutation testing”? My experience is that some people might have heard about the concept of mutation testing — perhaps in passing — but rarely have they heard too much substantive about it. Even … Continue reading