Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Rapid Testing Intensive - Day 2

Today was the second day of the Rapid Testing Intensive.  Another interesting day with the Bach brothers (James and Jon).

Today we talked about Test Strategy, Risk Analysis, and Test Oracles.  We also got a lecture on Test Oracles from James, and a live pair Exploratory Testing exercise from Jon.  All in all, another good and packed day!

Today's pearls of wisdom by James:
  • Our job is not documentation - it is to get the testing done. Learn how to takes notes w/o interfering with your testing.
  • To train yourself to take notes, try setting a timer every 15minutes for a day. It will build in a practice of taking notes.
  • What should session notes include? Tell the story of your testing - briefly. For a 90min session, three paragraphs are enough or 10-15 bullet points. Tell enough so that someone can visualize what you did.
  • Oracles: A medium by which we connect our feelings about the product with the opinion of someone that really matters.  If they're not satisfied, you have a big problem.
  • Oracles: A natural tester just looks for inconsistencies. You have to be able to describe your testing. Oracles are heuristics; there are no oracles that are perfect. Oracles require ongoing learning.
  • Oracles: You're a tourist if you test with no oracles - you're just observing - that's lack of an oracle. You're touring a product. You're not testing.
  • James is nervous when not testing with other people because he's afraid he'll miss something.
  • Rapid Testing is rapid learning.  Learning is a normal thing that happens all the time.
  • "If you're confused, you're right on track"

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