For this post I’m going to be giving you all the commands you need to run algorithms through Pacumen. But I will note that the readme file of the Pacumen project does provide some context for you should you choose to play around with the project. You can also reference my exploring testing and AI post for more details on how to use Pacumen.
Category: Exploration
Testing Algorithmic Searching, Part 2
This post follows on from the first part. That post, and this one, are building up your understanding of the algorithms that you have to consider when you are a tester in a machine learning or AI environment, particularly when dealing with search problems.
Testing Algorithmic Searching, Part 1
The next two posts are follow-ons from the previous. The goal here is to get you set up thinking as a tester in a machine learning environment and specifically in the context of search problems. This post, and the next, will focus on making sure you have the basics of the algorithms.
Testing Learning Systems
Let’s continue the from the last post where you saw a working implementation of a learning environment called Pacumen. Here I want to provide you more details of the basis for this kind of work and use that as a springboard for thinking about how testers fit in these situations.
Pacumen – Exploring Testing and AI
In this post I want to set the stage for some future posts regarding thinking about how you might work, as a specialist tester, within the context of an environment that is using machine learning and various artificial intelligence techniques. This is an area that I’m finding many testers are not ready for. To that end, I’m going to show you how to get my Pacumen code repository up and working. Then I’ll take you through a few exercises to put it through its paces.
Exploration – Testing and Checking
In this post I want to follow on a bit from the interactive exploration idea developed up to this point but also focus on the distinction of checking and testing that often gets debated. I also want to use this post to reinforce a few things I talked about last year.
Interactive Exploration – Buying
This post follows on immediately from the last one, so let’s get started with the exploration!
Interactive Exploration – Engaging With Ideas
Let’s continue our interactive exploration example. Here I’m going to provide a bit more of a complex scenario for you to consider. My hope is that you will take the time to engage with this idea, exploring the ideas around the central idea, and figure out how you would ultimately craft tests.
Continue reading Interactive Exploration – Engaging With Ideas
Exploration, Requirements, and Computation
Let’s use this post to take stock of what I’ve done so far in the interactive series but also talk a bit about exploration as a core technique of testing, particularly around the idea of requirements.
Interactive Exploration – Photographing
This is the second post in the interactive exploratory testing series. The first post provided a relatively large amount of context as well as ending with a challenge. So let’s continue to explore this idea of exploratory testing with interactive fiction.
Exploratory Testing with Interactive Fiction
I want to start off 2017 by playing around with the idea of exploration. I gave an example of how I applied exploration while testing a particular game as well as creating a game to test the exploratory abilities of testers and even a little bit about reframing interviews with gamification in this context. I want to start taking this to the next level.
Continue reading Exploratory Testing with Interactive Fiction
Testing and Things That Matter
I wrote about how testing is like writing fiction. Testing can actually influence reading fiction as well. And reading fiction can be great practice for exploration in a lot of ways. I recently came across a good example of that.
The Art of Attention to Detail in Exploratory Testing
Testers must have the ability to utilize exploratory testing as well as scripted testing. But exploratory testing is actually not the entirely free-form exercise that some people associate it with. So let’s talk about that.
Continue reading The Art of Attention to Detail in Exploratory Testing
Bumping the Lamp During Testing
Most testers have heard of “bump the lamp.” It’s hard to go through a testing career and not be exposed to this concept at some point. I recently found an experience where I was able to keep this kind of thinking front and center.