Explainable AI
"Explainable AI" (xAi) or "explainability" is when you design and build systems that can explain their decisions. Turns out I do this right now.
Chris Kenst
Thoughts on The Worlds I See
The Worlds I See is a very good story and now I have some thoughts to share.
2024 In Review
2024 was busy and 2025 has been unrelenting so far.
so long, farewell
A farewell message to the greater AST community.
Push vs Pull Work
In a push system, teams are given tasks to do. In a pull system, teams pull tasks from a backlog or central place.
By moving towards a pull system our testers will have more ownership and responsibility over their work.
2023 in Review
Itās March and I havenāt published since November. I am just now writing a recap of last year so itās fair to say Iām a bit behind on things, but Iām excited to share why! Year in Review time.
You can find previous years in
Observability, Monitoring and Testing
Observability blurs the line between testing and monitoring. The concept TOAD can help us think through their relationship and extends it to DevOps.
Closing the gap between confidence and knowledge
Part of our misbelief in things comes from the gap between our confidence and what we really know. Confronting that can prove exciting.
Negotiating an offer: An unreasonable number of reasonable requests
When you get a job offer, it needs to makes sense for you. When it doesn't, you need to know what requests you can make to change things.
What's a testing manager?
My career has been defined by a lack of test managers. Only 25% of my jobs have had them. That's led to a few interesting challenges.
Using ChatGPT to help write scripts
Each month I artisanally handcraft a newsletter for TestingConferences.org. A month ago I decided to see what parts of that process I could automate using ChatGPT
Testers are NOT the gatekeepers of quality
Software testers are NOT the gatekeepers of quality. They donāt control or limit access to quality software or services.
Hiring more Software Testers, an Analysis
I'm analyzing the next two Software Test Engineer hiring rounds from 2021. This time I have a theory to test: testing education is a positive signal in my hiring process.
Unit testing your e2e test framework
'Treat your test code like production code' is a really common saying. Lets tackle one facet of that rule: unit testing your e2e tests
Effective Technical Investigators
Testing is a skilled technical investigation and competent testers are the investigators. This essay is about re-introducing the concept of software testers as skilled technical investigators.
Feedback on Apprenticeships for Software Testers
An overview and feedback on an upcoming framework for helping companies create an apprenticeship program for software testers.
Answering questions with questions
There are two reasons why we shouldn't worry when someone answers our questions with more questions: most initial questions are sub optimal and follow on questions are important.
2022 In Review
Over the past decade Iāve written quite a few year end notes. They start with a brief summary and then focus on individual article performance. For reference see: 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
This year I want to try something different. Those previous notes are missing non-work
Hire someone with a Testing Education
Whenever possible, you should hire testers with testing certifications
There are 2 big challenges when hiring for a role:
1. Getting enough applicants
2. Finding a match within those applicants
Should a hiring manager focus on hiring testers with certifications over those without?
No, they should not.
First, it creates
My Career Story
Reflecting upon the past sets the context for the present. It also reveals a system of behaviors which can we improve upon once we understand them. In my mind this story is the foundation of that system.
Whatās the right ratio of developers to testers?
Whatās the right ratio of developers to testers?
For as long as testers have been working with (other) developers, this question has existed. Itās a question focused on a false belief there is a right ratio in staffing levels across the industry.
Ratios
Ratios are relationships between two
Evidence in Performance Reviews
Reviews are grounded in evidence of your accomplishments, as measured against set goals.
Goodbye and Hello
Today I sent my last personal newsletter and then deleted my account.
I called it Hello and Goodbye:
Hello Friends,
It's easily been 2 years since I've sent a newsletter to anyone on this mailing list. So long in fact you may not even remember having
Changing Wordpress' URL structure
This site has public articles dating back to March 2009. At some point in my blogging journey I moved to using WordPress as a platform and inherited a url structure with dates in it. I recently got rid of this structure and simplified it to be the name of the
What Is Exploratory Testing?
Exploratory testing was first coined by Cem Kaner who defined it as
a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the value of her work by treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, and test result interpretation as mutually
Exploratory Testing FAQs
Iāve come across a number of Frequently Asked Questions about Exploratory Testing and Iāve got what I hope are pretty good answers.
Exploratory Testing FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions about exploratory testing. Got a quick question? Get a quick answer.
Yes, there are many examples where people have used
Exploratory Testing Charters
An exploratory testing charter is a mission statement for your testing. It helps provide structure and guidance so that you can focus your work and record what you find in a constructive way.
How to Write an Exploratory Charter
My favorite way to structure exploratory testing charters is to base
Self hosted blogs are not for the faint of heart
In December I wrote about hosting a WordPress blog on Digital Ocean and said:
Blogging is an excuse to write more. Writing is a great way to think clearly about a subject. Running a website on a (small) Linux droplet is a starting point to learn more about the ops
Reflections and fun stats from 2021
I started my previous post by saying ā2021 was an improvement over the previous yearā. This was due, in large part, to the growth and new challenges at work. Here are some more reflections and a few fun stats from 2021 on those new challenges:
Growth
Growth at Promenade came
2021 in Review
2021 was an improvement over the previous year in a number of ways: more mental energy, more growth at work and a safe return to in-person conferences at the AST.Ā
Growth and the challenges at work have become inspiration for sharing in short form on LinkedIn and Twitter. Theyāve
The Future of Software Test Engineers and Codeless Tools
A few months ago I was chatting with Evgeny Kim about some of the reservations I had while exploring a new codeless test automation tool. He was also exploring some codeless tool options and so he invited me onto his podcast to talk about it. We chatted about a wide
Learning to balance a Maker's and Manager's Schedule
One of the hardest things thus far about becoming a manager (managing others and their work) has been learning to balance my makerās schedule with my managerās schedule.
Maker Schedule, Manager Schedule
The concept comes from a Paul Graham essay which says:
There are two types of schedule,
THE Ultimate Curved Monitor for a MacBook Pro
Back when I wrote Building an Awesome Home Office I was six months into remote work and although optimistic about my chances of returning to the office, determined to use all the hardware I had at my disposal to make my home work conditions better. As time went on I
CAST 2021 Recap
When I hit publish on my article CAST 2021 is AFK a few weeks ago I said:
Iām in an airplane for the first time in years on my way to Atlanta, GA for CAST 2021. CAST is both my first conference in-person and the Association for Software Testingā
Running Reflect.run builds in CodeFresh CI
For the last few months Iāve been using a no-code UI test automation service called Reflect.run to build out some UI tests (scenarios and such) with the goal of evaluating how well it works in in terms of feedback (and value) as part of our build process. While
CAST 2021 is AFK
Iām in an airplane for the first time in years on my way to Atlanta, GA for CAST 2021. CAST is both my first conference in-person and the Association for Software Testingās first since 2019. Iām pretty excited to confer safely at an in person conference AND
Came for the training, stayed for the community
When I look back on my nearly decade journey in the testing community, it all started with the Association for Software Testing. I came to the AST seeking their BBST courses, but I stayed for the supportive community of people I met both online and afk.
Once Upon a Time
Good Tests vs Bad Tests and why you shouldn't repeat them
A little rant on this concept of Good Tests vs Bad Tests and whether a good test (case) is a repeatable one.
Testing Community of Practice (CoP) Experience Report #1
I published an audio experience report about running my first Testing Community of Practice (CoP) at work. tl;dr it was a really good exercise that I intend to run regularly.
Hereās an imperfect transcript:
Hello everyone, Chris Kenst here, I wanted to talk about running my first community
Better Tester Training Materials
Last month the Association for Software Testing (AST) announced a new partnership with Altom, the owner of BBSTĀ®, that enables the AST to refresh our curriculum lineup with the new BBSTĀ® Community Track and help fund the future growth of the materials. This partnership and refresh are a huge milestone
Not good enough
A month ago someone on LinkedIn thanked a website and the person running it for helping them learn. They recommended others use the site. When people in my network commented on how the site wasnāt any good, I took notice. It reminded me of what Seth Godin said in
How to export environments from Postman
Postman can export data, including collections and environments, to be used outside of Postman. This is especially important when using Newman (their command-line collection runner).
With the release of Postman v8.2 it is easier to find and export Postman collections but harder to find and export environments, hence this
Hiring a Software Tester, an Analysis
In May of 2020, back when Promenade Group was still called BloomNation, I opened a job posting for a Software Test Engineer. This was to be the first of many test positions we eventually hire for. After going through the whole process of hiring a software tester, I thought it
2020 in Review
2020 was a year of starts and stops. Of more time but less mental energy. It was a year of developing patience and adapting to hard changes.
Patience
In early March my wife, an ICU nurse here in Los Angeles, saw the first signs of COVID coming in from travelers
Hosting a Wordpress blog on Digital Ocean
Iāve been runningĀ Kenst.comĀ since 2009. While the content has changed over time, the site has remained a blog. Kenst.com has gone from self-hosted on a Windows Home Server in my living room, to Blogger, and ultimately to WordPress. Itās been migrated to and from so
November 2020 Updates
Somehow Thanksgiving is over but Iāve been buying Christmas presents for weeks. Itās amazing how quickly (but not quietly) 2020 is flying by now that it is nearly December. As with most of my updates, these are mostly for my own clarity on what has transpired but I
I'm Speaking at TestFlix
Itās true, Iām speaking at TestFlix on November 28th, 2020. You should sign up to join; itās free to register!
I recorded and submitted my 7 minute talk on āUsing Test Idea Catalogs for Better Testingā. The premise is:
Testers can develop a set of tests or
Upgrading to WebDriverIO 6
In March I went through the process of upgrading to WebDriver v5. Last month I took the next step by upgrading our deployment to version 6 so weād be current. I learned quite a bit from that first upgrade which made this upgrade a whole lot easier.
Hereās
The TestOpsy
Back in January I hosted James Bach and Michael Bolton for an AST webinar on the concept of a TestOpsy or a way to learn about the testing you do by dissecting it. Below youāll find not only a description and the webinar video but a transcription for what
Website Update? Don't forget to Annotate!
Letās say you published new layout changes to your website or you released new content or even a new landing page. How do you easily record such events so you can see what happens to your traffic? If you are using Google Analytics you can add annotations!
Simply put,
How to take a screenshot and record video in macOS
One of the nice things about macOS are the built-in tools. A recently improved upon built-in tool is called Screenshot which allows users to take a screenshot and record video. Taking screenshots has been around macOS forever, but taking video directly from OS shortcuts came along in macOS Mojave. The
Building an Awesome Home Office Space
My current awesome home space
In the United States it seems like most of us will be working from home at least until Q1of 2021. I was thinking about this the other day: when will we see infection levels low enough that masks will no longer be required AND such
Iām running for the 2020-2022 AST Board of Directors
Elections just opened for the Association for Software Testingās Board of Directors for which Iām a candidate. If you are a voting-eligible member of the AST Iād appreciate the consideration as I run for my 2nd term.
For those who are voting (or possibly just interested) I
My First Term on the AST Board of Directors
The Association for Software Testing (AST), a non-profit professional organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and science of software testing, has announced a call for nominations for the Board of Directors for 2020-2022. This means my two-year term as a director is coming to an end. I feel fortunate and
FAQs to How I Became An Automation Engineer (talk)
Iāve given the talk on How I Became an Automation Engineer a few times. Each time Iāve gotten good feedback and a lot of questions from engaged participants. With each repeated question, I try to update my talk to address those points for future audiences. However often I
Five for Friday - April 17, 2020
Welcome to Friday, here are five points worth sharing. A few of these are āworkā related but not all. Here is to helping find balance between working from home, home time and personal time:
* Iām finishing my second week of One Hundred Push ups. Itās hard but fun
Upgrading to WebDriverIO 5
A few weeks ago I finished upgrading our implementation of WebDriverIO from version 4 to version 5. The impetus for the upgrade was an announcement by the WebDriverIO twitter account of a new beta version 6 to be quickly followed by a finished version (itās already here). One thing
Regression testing isnāt only about repetition
Often when Iām chatting with someone about their regression testing strategy there is an assumption regression is all about repeating the same tests.Ā This is a bit problematic because it ignores an important aspect which testers tend to be good at: focusing on risk. A better way to think
I like working from home... š
I like working from homeā¦ but it feels different now.Ā
Clarification: I like working from home, when itās my choice.
My ideal work/life choice would involve: splitting the week into 2 or 3 days of in-office and from-home work. The extrovert in me would get to talk to
Five for Friday - March 13, 2020
Welcome to Friday, here are five points worth exploring:
* Iāve created a list of software testing conference changes this year due to COVID-19. Itās a small list that I think will grow over time. There have been a ton of canceled conferences because of Corona, mostly big events,
February 2020 Updates
This month has been busier than the last few and Iām feeling the need to chill. Part of this busynessĀ is having just wrapped up teaching an AST-BBST Foundations class, which is about equally as intense for the instructors as they are for the students. The other part is
2019 in Review
My yearly tradition has been to summarize the most popular and important (to me) articles Iāve written over the past year along with some reflections and other forward-looking (and likely wrong) statements mixed in.
You can find previous years in review here: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
What happened in
Five for Friday ā January 17, 2020
Welcome to Friday, here are five points worth exploring:
* The State of Testing Survey is open so go fill it out! I often like seeing what the results of this survey are and how things change over time.
* The first newsletter of 2020 from TestingConferences.org came out and itā
January 2020 Updates
* Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 8th at 11am, Iām hosting James Bach and Michael Bolton for a webinar on TestOpsies ā Dissecting Your Testing. Learn More or Sign up today to attend / receive the recording!
* Starting on January 12th Iāll beĀ teaching the first AST-BBST Foundations course of 2020. The class
It was the Creative Web that collapsed
In his book Permanent Record, Edward Snowden suggests the evolution of the internet has gone from a community without border or limit where āanonymity-through-polyonym produced more truth than falsehoodā to one that is unrecognizable today. Unrecognizable, in part, due to the loss of individual websites shuttered by the promise of
What it means to be a leader in testing
Background:
During CAST I sat for an interview with Pradeep Soundararajan of Moolya Testing. We talked about a few things mostly on what it meant to be a leader in the testing space. They made a short video on the interview so check it out or read the transcript.
Transcript:
It's hard to attend and run a conference
Turns out itās hard to attend and run a conference at the same time. Go. Figure.
I had a great idea to let other people decide what talks I should attend at CAST 2019 and then Iād do a writeup of each one. While I love the idea
Five for Friday - September 20, 2019
Your headās for having ideas, not for holding them. ā David Allen
Iām fairly certain I like writing because it clears my mind and gives me calm (aka I have ideas and then get too distracted when I hold them).
Welcome to Friday, here are five points worth exploring:
Getting Paid to Learn
Picking up experience on the job can be great (for example learning about SEO, application monitoring or observability) but all things being equal, it shouldnāt come at the expense of the many other ways we learn. Without the support to continuously learn new things we get stuck in jobs
Late-August updates
August has been crazy busy with a mixture of travel, AST elections, my day job and the annual CAST conference. Some recent updates:
Learning
* Joined my first TestAutomationU course on WebDriverIO. I already use WebDriverIO v4 but figured since it was using v5 it might be fun to see what
Help me choose my CAST 2019 schedule
Iāll be attending CAST in Cocoa Beach, FL next week and I canāt quite decide what sessions and workshops I want to attend on during the conference days (Wednesday and Thursday). I will definitely live tweet but Iād also like to do some live blogging / recaps / summaries
Five for Friday - July 26, 2019
I have now managed to keep my publishing trend of 4 weeks straight with this post! Here are five links worth exploring:
* I recently finished reading (technically I listened to the audiobook) Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World. It was a really fascinating book
You don't have to be an expert to teach
You donāt have to be an expert to teach someone else, you just need to know a little more than they do.
Years ago when I became an assistant scuba instructor, I was able to provide huge value to new students despite my having far less diving experience than
Do things that donāt scale
If you can find someone with a problem that needs solving and you can solve it manually, go ahead and do that for as long as you can, and then gradually automate the bottlenecks. ā Paul Graham
With the title of Automation Engineer it might seem like automating bottlenecks is āmy
How I Became An Automation Engineer
Have you ever wondered what an Automation Engineer is or what they do? Iāve never found a great definition so I shared my experiences on How I Became an Automation Engineer and what that first year has looked like: the good, bad and the ok. I also talked a
Participating in Code Reviews as a Tester
Have you ever wondered what a code review is and/or what itās like to participate in one? Are you a tester, product or business person who regularly interacts with the output of the code but wonders if they could catch bugs earlier by āshifting leftā?
Turns out you
Move fast and make things better
I much prefer the saying move fast and make things betterĀ over move fast and break things. The latter might be more popular but the former is more realistic.
Moving fast (software agility) used to be a business advantage but now, at least for any service business, itās mostly
Five for Friday - May 24, 2019
As much as I like writing recap blog posts Iām tired of the way I title them, e.g. early, mid, late + month updates so instead Iāve organized this one as five articles / resources to share (note some of these feature me):
* My Webinar for TestCraft on āParticipating
Join my Webinar on Participating in Code Reviews as Tester
Last year I wrote an article for Stickyminds about Participating in Code Reviews as a Tester where I made the case for Code Reviews being more than just a chance to catch bugs. They also serve as a chance to see how something is built and have a conversation about
late-April Updates
April has come and is nearly gone without any prose being published. I couldnāt have that. You see Iāve been writing but I havenāt condensed that prose into a nice enough package to share. In the meantime lots of things are happening that are worthy of sharing:
How to debug problems on Mobile Safari
When you are developing and/or testing a web app on iOS, having the ability to inspect and understand what is happening in the browser is incredibly useful. For just this reason Mobile Safari can use the same developer tools that are built into Safari on macOS.
To start debugging
Itās easier to write about tooling
Itās easier to write about tooling than it is to write about the decisions we took and models we made prior to choosing it. I can write about a specific test I designed with WebDriverIO far easier than I can write about the strategy taken, oracles used or even
Installing ChromeDriver on Windows
Installing on Windows 7 & 10:
The following are the best ways to install ChromeDriver on Windows so you can run Selenium:
* The easiest way to install ChromeDriver is to use a package manager such as Chocolatey. You should really have a package manager if you donāt now:
1.
Five for Friday - February 1, 2019
I donāt imagine doing a Five for Friday often (this is in fact the first time Iāve done one) but it seems like a good format for a few important things happening this month:
1. February 21st at 11am, Iām hosting Brent Jensen for an AST webinar
Quality Equals Profit ā Understanding Quality Helps Us Test
A coworker sent me an email about a conversation he had with one of our executives about risk and how quality played into her decision making:
āShe [the executive] was giving me some insightā¦
As we were discussing the balance of quality policies (as we experienced them in the beta
2018 In Review
As it has become a yearly tradition I will attempt to summarize the most popular and important articles Iāve written over the year along with some other forward-looking (and likely wrong) statements mixed in with past reflections.
You can find previous years here: 2017 | 2016 | 2015
What happened in
The Woolsey Fire came too close
Today, when you approach Calabasas from either direction on HWY 101 the first thing you notice are the black rolling hills. As far as the eye can see there are visible signs of the struggle that came with the Woolsey fire. Lucky for us changing winds and a strong first
Remember remember it's the month of November
November has been so packed full of interesting events that itās time for an update! (Although perhaps not as interesting as Guy Fawkes Night, on November 5th).
The first weekend of November I took my position as incoming Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Association for Software
BBST Domain Testing ā An Experience Report
In late January of 2014, after the Workshop on Teaching Software Testing (WTST) at Florida Institute of Technology, Dr. Cem Kaner and Dr. Rebecca Fiedler put together a 5-day pilot course to beta test a new Black Box Software Testing (BBST) course called Domain Testing. I was one of ten
How To Run Your Selenium Tests with Headless Chrome
The Problem
If you want to run your tests headlessly on a Continuous Integration (CI) server youāll quickly realize that you canāt with an out-of-the-box setup since there is no display output for the browser to launch in. You could use a third party library like Xvfb (tip
Appropriate Test Documentation & Formatting
The Question
Recently in an online forum a tester person asked:
Does someone have a simple example of test case (excel sheet) format? I am the only one tester in my company and we are trying to arrange the test documentation. Any advice or example will be useful.
I wish
How To Run Your Selenium Tests Headlessly in Docker
The Old Way
It used to be that in order to get your Selenium tests running on a given machine you had to install each individual browser and then the browser drivers (for instance ChromeDriver for Chrome). Some of my most popular posts are about installing these drivers. However thatā
Highlights from CAST 2018
Last week I attended CAST in Cocoa Beach, Florida, which was my second time attending and the first since CAST in Grand Rapids back in 2015. It was a fun experience for a number of reasons including giving my first workshop at CAST and being elected to the AST Board
I'm running for the 2018-2020 AST Board of Directors
Iām running for the 2018-2020 AST Board of Directors this year. Iām asking for your Vote! (If you are an AST member youāll see an email for voting on August 6th!)
If my name sounds familiar to you it could be because I ran and failed to
8 Tools I use to Accelerate My Testing
Inspired by Justin Rorhmanās post of a similar nameĀ with a slight twist focusing on tools that generally help accelerate my testing.
As a test and quality specialist embedded in an engineering team I have a lot of work to do on any given day. Our engineering teamās
Good and Bad UI Test Automation explained - Inspired by Richard Bradshaw's Tweets
Generally speaking thereās a scary trend with the influx of people interested in test automation where (seemingly) everyone wants to automate at the UI level. For example the phrase āTest automationā seems to be synonymous with UI automation which seems to mean using Selenium. To be fair there are
Opting out of A/B Tests while Running your Automated Tests
At Laurel & Wolf, we extensively introduce & test new features as part of A/B or split testing. Basically we can split traffic coming to a particular page into different groups and then show those groups different variations of a page or object to see if those changes lead
late-May Updates
Some random thoughts and updates towards the end of May:
* On August 8th, Dwayne Green and I are teaching a workshop at the Conference for the Association for Software Testing on Domain Testing (aka Boundary Analysis + Equivalence Class Partioning). Will you be there? If so come to our quick workshop
What are Quicktests and when are they used?
What are Quicktests?
Tests that donāt cost much to design, are based on some estimated idea for how the system could fail (risk-based) and donāt take much prior knowledge in order to apply are oftenĀ called quicktests (sometimes stylized as quick tests or even called attacks).
When are
Lessons Learned from the Contributing to GitHub is For You Workshop
On April 11, 2018 I gave a workshop called Contributing to GitHub is For You is For You (abbreviated as C2GI4U)Ā in Des Moines, IA to the Des Monies Area Quality Assurance Association (abbrevitated as DAQAA). Roughly 36 people signed up for the DAQAA event meetup and of those about
A GitHub Workshop & why Version Control is a Technical Skill
On April 11th, 2018 Iām giving a workshop in Des Moines, IA to the Des Moines Area Quality Assurance Association (DAQAA) called Contributing to GitHub Is for You (join us!) on learning to use git with GitHub. The workshop is based on a presentation I did with Matt Heusser
A typical day of Testing (circa 2018)
Recently I found myself repeatedly describing how I approach my testing role in a ātypical dayā and afterwards I thought it would be fun to capture some things I said to see how this might evolve over time:
Background
* At Laurel & WolfĀ our engineering team works in 2 week
How to set up Apple Pay on Mac (non TouchID)
According to Bailey, Apple Pay availability was limited to about 3 percent of stores in the U.S. when it launched in 2014, but is now accepted in 50 percent of stores.
AppleInsider
Many eCommerce companies use Stripe to collect monies from customers. Itās a great service that takes
How to Write a Good Bug Report, use RIMGEN
RIMGEN is an acronym and mnemonic (or memory aid) to help us remember the elements of a good bug report. It can be used to help anyone write a better bug report or review existing bug reports looking to make improvements.Ā
In general my preference with reporting bugs is to:
2017 In Review
As it has become a yearly tradition I will summarize the most popular and important articles Iāve written over the year along with some other forward-looking (and likely wrong) statements mixed in with past reflections.
You can find previous years here: 2016 | 2015
The Five Most-Viewed Articles:
* 18 Github
mid-January Updates
Some random thoughts as I sit here at mid-January of the new year:
* Iāve been reading Walter Isaacsonās newest book Leonardo da Vinci and itās a fascinating look at how mastery in one discipline or craft such as painting can evolve and become better based on studying
Rebooting the AST's Webinar Series!
Last year, after failing in my bid to become a Board Member, I agreed to run the ASTās webinar program. Funny thing was I already had a small list of people and topics I wanted to learn more from / about based on conference and podcast talks. (When something intrigues
Appreciating the appreciation
This month Iāve gotten several compliments and positive feedback on how TestingConferences.org has helped them. Some have been speakers, some participants looking for a conference and others have been conference organizers.
Itāās a pretty amazing feeling when (in this case) multiple people say theyāve gotten use
MacBook Pro 2012 and 2015 Performance Benchmarks
Apple tends to make small improvements with each iteration of itās laptop lines. Between my personal mid-2012 MacBook Pro with Retina and my new(er) mid-2015 work MacBook Pro with Retina I didnāt think there was a much of a difference. Visually they are identical. Most of the
Facebook Ad's Massive Design Bug
In mid-September ProPublica published an article proving Facebookās advertising system helped them market to people who expressed interest in radical and racial topics:
āWant to market Nazi memorabilia, or recruit marchers for a far-right rally? Facebookās self-service ad-buying platform had the right audience for you.
Until this week,
Accessibility improvements or the end of Audiobooks?
In January I started working for Laurel & Wolf and went from being a distributed employee working from home to driving daily into an office. The commute is roughly an hour each way so I began looking for ways to consume items from my reading backlog (books, articles, papers, etc.
Being a Distributed Tester was hard
As a new father, being able to work a few days per week from home has been a great way to help adjust to our wonderful new addition and the demands that go along with him. Days in the office are great for face time and collaboration and days at
Patterns in AST Board Candidate Responses
In my last post I announced my running for the Board of Directors for the Association for Software Testing. Voting for the board starts next week (so watch for ASTās email) but the list of AST Board Nominees now contains each persons Candidate Questionnaire replies, including my own.
After
I'm running for the AST Board of Directors
Although itās not yet time to vote, Iām excited to share that Iām a nominee for the 2017 Board of Directors of the Association for Software Testing (AST) along with some really amazing people. I care about the work the AST provides (some of which Iāll
Contributing to GitHub is for Everyone at the Online Testing Conference
One of our sessions you canāt afford to miss āContributing to GitHub is for Everyoneā with @mheusser & @ckenst https://t.co/dfFpLj6pwQ pic.twitter.com/D1MMQQjicw
ā onlinetestconf (@OnlineTestConf) May 23, 2017
On June 13thĀ Matt Heusser and I will be giving a talk at the Online Testing Conference
18 GitHub Projects for Testing
Aside from itās many awesome lists GitHub is a really good place for open source testing tools, libraries and frameworks (and their corresponding code). Iām pleasantly surprised by these new (and sometimes old) testing resources, so Iād like to highlight many of them in the hopes others
9 GitHub Lists for Testing
I spend a lot of time on GitHub and it can be a great place for finding open source libraries, tools, frameworks and pretty much anything else you might want to version control. This includes lists (and more often than not, lists of lists). The challenge is finding just those
Testers, donāt be afraid to make Production Changes
Scenario: You are testing a new page and thereās a typo. What do you do?
* File a bug report?
* Mention it in passing and hope the developer fixes it the next time she remembers?
* Fix it yourself?
If youāve got access and arenāt afraid to commit (eventual)
Reading & Writing, the I/O
I grew up with a lot of books in our home but I rarely recall someone reading them. My mother was perhaps the most avid reader with her interest in romance novels while my dad read the daily newspaper and his magazines. Their library was (and still is) a homage
How Do I Test This?
Occasionally Iāll be looking at a bug report / kanban card / story, trying to understand it and its implications. Unable to make sense of what Iām reading, Iāll find the originator and ask them āhow do I test thisā? The problem is I donāt mean this literally;
Practice using Selenium Now!
Have you ever wanted to learn a little bit about Selenium WebDriver but didnāt know where to start?
Turns out there are some good tips / tutorials online for practicing writing Selenium in Ruby. One of those is a newsletter called Elemental Selenium that has something like 70 tips. You
2016 In Review
Itās a new year which means itās time to look back at the previous year. Although this isnāt a lessons-learned or a progress report, these reviews are like a snapshot in time, forever preserved in writing. Unlike the past years I had no specific writing goals for
Installing GeckoDriver on macOS
Overview of naming conventions
* GeckoDriver is the library you need to download to be able to use Selenium WebDriver with Firefox. These are the Selenium Bindings.
* Marionette is the protocol which Firefox uses to communicate with GeckoDriver. Installed by default with Firefox.
* FirefoxDriver is the former name of GeckoDriver.
Ways
A RubyGems SSL cerificate solution
The Problem
Early last month I was trying to update some gems on my MBP and ran into an SSL error:
ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError)
SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed (https://api.rubygems.org/specs.4.8.
Selenium-WebDriver 2.53.x not working with Firefox 47 and beyond
The problem
Iām used to running selenium tests against Firefox locally (OS X Yosemite and now MacOS Sierra) both from the command line using RSpec and when using a REPL like IRB or Pry. I donātĀ use FFĀ often so when I started having issues I couldnāt
Installing SafariDriver on macOS
Safari + WebDriver aka SafariDriver comes included in Safari 10 which means as long as you have Safari 10 and later versions you can point your tests at Safari and run them without installing anything else.
Safari now provides native support for the WebDriver API. Starting with Safari 10 on OS
Tinkerer, Testerer
Thereās something fun about web development.Ā Something fun withĀ trying to build a website from the ground up orĀ tinkering with aĀ template with it until it fits my needs (like this site), building a Jekyll site from the ground up to display a list of software testing conferences
Debugging Selenium code with IRB
Occasionally something will change in ourĀ system under test that breaks aĀ Selenium test (or two). Most of the time we can walk through the failure,Ā make some tweaks and run it again ā repeating the process until it passes. Depending on how long itās been since we last worked
Review of The Selenium GuideBook: Ruby Edition
tl;dr If youāve ever wanted to learn Selenium but didnāt know where to start, The Selenium GuideBook is the place (doesnāt matter which edition you use, itāll be good).
Page Contents
* 1 Learning Selenium
* 2 Book Options
* 3 The Book
* 4 Applying the Book and
The Promise and Failure of Record and Playback
I came across the below video of Bret Pettichordās keynote presentation to the Selenium Conference in 2011 called āScience and Stories and Test Automationā. Much of the talk covers his experience with Test Automation, specifically the promise and failure of record and playback over the last 20 years (I
As the World Turns
āAs the world turnsā seems like the best way to describe the busy-ness Iāve experienced recently. Feels like Iām forgetting a lot of things and to help Iāve written them down. Iām also feeling goofy so this post might contain a few GIFSs.
Work has been
Running Rspec acceptance tests in TeamCity
At work we useĀ TeamCityĀ as ourĀ CIĀ service to automate the build and deployment of our software to a number of pre-production environments for testing and evaluation. Since weāre already bottling up all the build and deployment steps for our software, I figured we could piggy back on
Trends in Testing Terminology
There are lots of things to consider when trying to recruit or develop software testers especially industry trends, both within the testing community and in the larger software engineering community. In a small community like ours those trends might include development practices, tools, techniques and terminology (among others). As I
Selecting a few Platform Configuration Tests
Iāve been developing a GUI acceptance test suite to increase the speed of specific types of feedback about our software releases. In addition to my local environment Iāve been using Sauce Labs to extend our platform coverage (mostly by browsers and operating) and to speed up our tests
Coding Without a Net
Yahoo! has been in the news quite a bit over the last few years as itās primary business of placing display ads slowly dies and it searches for new ways to grow and/or remain relevant. Itās hired new executives, lost new executives and made acquisitions. Plenty of
2015 in Review
The beginning of the year seems an appropriate time for looking back at the good and the bad of the previous year. Looking at the data to determine what things I want to continue doing or to develop and what I might want to change.
I had a lofty goal
Exploratory Charters in GitHub
Since CAST 2015 Iāve wanted to implement an interesting idea that could potentially give my testing greater visibility and greater scrutiny: Putting exploratory testing charters into our project tracking tool.
At work we use GitHub to host our code which means we use GitHub Issues as our bug tracker.
Introducing TestingConferences.org
For the past few years one of my professional goals has been to attend (at least) one testing conference or workshop per year, mostly because itās such a great way to recharge and learn what other practitioners are doing. Unfortunately, I couldnāt find a good source of events
Catching up on a few Conferences
One of the great things about modern testing conferences is most either live stream or record their conference talks so the information can be disseminated to a wider audience. While you donāt get the interaction and conferring that an in-person visit would get you, it doesĀ make it easier
10 Years In
For 10 years (one whole decade) Iāve been employed in a few different software testing positions with a few different titles. Itās been a fun and challenging road. Iāve navigated large companies filled with good people and backward practices to small companies where modern practices are encouraged
An In-depth look at CAST 2015
The Conference for the Association for Software Testing or CAST 2015 was held in Grand Rapids, MI during the first week of August. Since thenĀ Iāve been trying to reflect on what I thought, learned, liked and didnāt like. Here is that reflectionĀ in roughlyĀ 3,000 words.
The idea of a Professional Tester
As rough as traveling can be, one benefit isĀ dedicated time to catch up on reading. I finally got around to a post from Uncle BobĀ onĀ āSapient Testing: The āProfessionalismā memeā andĀ it captured something Iāve been thinking about for a someĀ time: the label of professional(ism)
Screen resolution vs Resizing a window in Selenium
The main product I test was designed to follow a responsive web design layout so it could theoretically be used on anything from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones. Practically speaking this means different viewable window sizes (viewport sizes) will result in the browser placing elements of our application in
Humans and Machines: Getting The Model Wrong
It seems like one of the more prominent and perpetual debates within the software testing community is the delineation between what the computer and human can and should do. Stated another way, this question becomes āwhat parts of testing fall to the human to design, run and evaluate and what
Shaping Your Identity as a Tester
On Thursday, June 25, 2015 I presented my first webinar called Shaping Your Identity as a Tester that was based on an earlier article I wrote called Blogging for your Career.
uTest recorded it and made it part of their uTest University series, you can check it out here. Iā
The Apple Watch wonāt change Testing
Probably. The Apple Watch wonāt change Testing, probably.
Last month uTest announced a contest to win an Apple Watch. All you had to do was provide a response to this post:
In just a paragraph, describe how the Apple Watch will or will not change software testing as we
When to use a Gemfile
Iāve been building a GUI acceptance test automation suite locally in Ruby using the RSpec framework. Ā When it was time to get the tests running remotely on Sauce Labs, I ran into theĀ following error:
RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::WrongScopeError: `example` is not available from within an example (e.g.
See you at CAST 2015
Thanks to my awesome companyās sponsorship and my wifeās love of travel I will be at CASTĀ this year and attending the tutorial āDelivering Difficult Messagesā by Fiona Charles. This is both my first time attending CAST and traveling to Grand Rapids, MI so Iām expecting to
And nothing else funny happened
I was recently talking with someone about their testing strategy and process when I noticed they were trying to build overly-detailed test scripts (procedures). It didnāt take them long to realize specifying to such detail often left them bored (writing became redundant) and so each test became less and
Installing ChromeDriver on macOS
The ChromeDriver getting started guide isnāt super helpful if you are unfamiliar with including the ChromeDriver location in your PATH environment variable. (The PATH variable helps Chrome find the downloaded ChromeDriver exe).Ā Also itās a lot of work for something so common. Never fear, here is a better
Including the ChromeDriver location in MacOS System PATH
The ChromeDriver getting started guideĀ isnāt super helpful if you are unfamiliar with including the ChromeDriver location in yourĀ PATH environment variable. The PATH variable helps Chrome find the downloaded ChromeDriver exe.Ā Donāt get me wrong, Iāve updated PATH variables on Windows for years but never on
The Anti-Library
The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with āWow! Signore, professore dottore Eco, what a library you have!
Recognizing a problem in eBayās iPad app
Iāve been buying and selling things on eBay for more than a decade. In the last few years Iāve spent more time using the iPhone app but for some reason I wasnāt using the iPad app. I figured it was time, so I installed the eBay app,
State of Testing Survey 2015
In December of 2013 I mentioned Lalit Bhamare and Joel Montvelisky created a survey for assessing the āstateā of the testing community to help the community to get a better understanding of what is going on around the world and help testers improve things. They published their results in a
Import Complete
As I prepare to launch kenst.com as my main software engineering blog I wanted to get my favorite posts from My Technology Fetish. Unfortunately importing blogs into WordPress (or exporting them from Blogger) is an all or nothing event. I apologize to anyone who got trackbacks or notifications as
Blogging for your Career
It may not seem obvious to the casual observer but one of the major ways the testing community disseminates information is through blogs. When practitioners want to find help or stay informed of the latest on goings, reflect on events, the medium-of-choice are blogs. We are able to disseminate and
Winning the #KaepernickingWorldwide Contest
I won the kaepernicking worldwide contest all thanks to our trip to Signapore.
Guilt about not buying music
Ever feel guilty about not buying music?
I donāt mean stealing, torrenting or other ways of not paying for music. I mean the guilt of not directly paying for an artists work (song, album, video, whatever) in this day of streaming everything. Maybe guilt is the wrong word. Do
Our Wedding Day
Captured beautifully in 4 minutes,
and fully in 12 minutes.
Be sure to check outĀ Our EngagementĀ and WeddingĀ photos from our photographer Anne-Claire Brun.
Deliberate practice of writing
Writing is hard.
Iām always coming up with concepts of things to write about but hardly ever do I find the time (and/or desire) to sit down and flesh out those ideas. Some ideas are really strong, or well timed and they eventually make it but most linger
Please sign the Petition to Stop ISO 29119
I signed the Petition to Stop ISO 29119 and I think so should you too. Hereās how: sign this petition!
I donāt typically get involved in overly political movements, typically because I donāt feel I have enough information to make an educated or defensible position. I think
Getting better at Domain Testing
In late January of 2014, after the Workshop on Teaching Software Testing (WTST) at Florida Institute of Technology, Dr. Cem Kaner and Dr. Rebecca Fiedler put together a 5-day pilot course to beta test a new Black Box Software Testing (BBST) course called Domain Testing. I was one of ten
TDD and Software Testers
Iāve been following along with the series of conversations with Martin Fowler, Kent Beck and David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) entitled Is TDD Dead. The whole conversation about whatās good, bad and ugly with test driven development (TDD) is interesting in my role as a software tester and from
Life as a Remote Worker
My ālife as a remote workerā has just begun. A few weeks ago, the company I work for decided it was time for my small team to let go of its office and work remotely on a full-time basis. To prepare for this change and gain a better understanding of
Conference Idea - A Bug Advocacy Boot Camp?
If someone asked you to speak at or submit a proposal to speak at a conference do you know what youād say?
Iād say no thanks for now, but I do have an idea for a tutorial. (This is a not-so-well thought out brainstorm and not a proposal.
I'm an AST BBST Instructor
Thatās right, I completed the trifecta of BBST classes and decided to continue on to being an Instructor. I finished the class in November but just recently got the proof:
Boom! Now comes the hard work ā working as an assistant through enough classes until I learn the system and
State of Testing Survey 2013
Lalit BhamareĀ a co-founder and editor of Tea Time with Testers magazine contacted me to share a project he and Joel Montvelisky came up with ā a State of Testing survey. Lalit said it best when he described why they wanted to undertake this survey:
Some weeks ago my friend, Joel
See you at WTST 2014
The Workshop on Teaching Software Testing, abbreviated as WTST and I think pronounced āwhatās itā, is coming up at the end of January 2014 in Melbourne, Florida near the Florida Institute of Technology campus. (You maybe have seen a few of Cem Kanerās posts.) Just recently my application
The Domain Testing Workbook is available
Cem Kaner, Sowmya Padmanabhan andĀ Doug Hoffman have a new book called The Domain Testing Workbook. Iād highly recommend picking up a copy or at least adding it to your reading list! This book is not just a deep dive into one test technique but it represents a collective
Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Masterās insights on China, the U.S. and the World
Lee Kuan Yew has been the prime minister of Singapore (an island nation or city-state) for about 50 years and is credited with taking them from a developing country into one of the worldās largest economies as measured by Purchasing Power Parity. Singapore has an interesting story, transforming itself
The Gang and Us
Last night on the tv show Itās Always Sunny in Philadelphia aired the episode we were on set called The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award. Itās on Amazon, iTunes and possibly other places but I bought it and cut out the little section we are in.
How to Write a Good Bug Report (and be a Bug Advocate)
For the previousĀ BBST classesĀ I made the mistake of not writing about what I learned and the value the classes provided me. To an organization who might consider sponsoring someoneĀ (a programmer, analystā¦)Ā or to a fellow tester who is looking for a step in the right direction I
Installing Ruby and Watir on Windows 7
I recently started playing around with Web Application Testing in Ruby or Watir for short. As is recommended, I downloaded the Homebrewerās Guide to Watir by Zeljko Filipin and started trying to install the latest versions of the RubyInstaller for Windows (currently 2.0.0) when I ran into
I'm a Bug Advocate
I do advocate for bugs to be fixed but the title comes from passing the Association for Software Testingās (AST) Black Box Software Testing (BBST) Bug Advocacy course. The class officially ended in mid-July and it marks the third and final BBST class for me. Together Foundations, Bug Advocacy
Why take a Black Box Software Testing course?
I was recently telling a friend about the BBST Bug Advocacy course I was working on and he asked why I was taking a black box testing course. I think what he meant was why would I take a course on black box testing as opposed to glass box (or
Fixing IE10 from rendering in IE7 mode
I was browsing a few articles Iād written years ago in IE10 when I realized Internet Explorer was breaking my commenting system, Disqus. Luckily Disqus provided a linkĀ to help troubleshoot the problem. After some searching through IE Developer tools and my own template source code, it seems like
I'm a Black Box Test Designer
More accurately Iāve passed theĀ Association for Software Testingās (AST) Black Box Software Testing Ā (BBST) Test Design class. Test Design is a survey class, students are introduced to 30+Ā types of tests but there is only enough time to focus on a few of them: risk-based testing, specification-based
What I've been up to lately
Things have been busy in the last month or so and I felt like sharing what Iāve been up to lately. Most of it revolves around software testing:
April saw the start of Dan Arielyās A Beginners Guide to Irrational Behavior class on Coursera. I knew I had
NRG Global Test Competition Retrospective
Roughly two and a half weeks ago I competed in the first NRG Global Test Competition. The idea behind the competition was simple: get a bunch of people/ teams together to test a few products, split the competition into two days, one with functional testing and another with performance testing,
On Set with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
To watch our part in the aired Episode goĀ here.
A month ago I was at my buddyĀ JoeāsĀ annual MultipleĀ Sclerosis fundraiser when I saw a silent auction for Itās Always Sunny in Philadelphia (my favorite show). Ā After some intense bidding to the very end of the
First principle reasoning
When I was young I remember wanting to be an awesome football player like Joe Montana, or an FBI agent working on the X-Files like Fox Mulder. These days I want to have the skills to identify and solve problems like Elon Musk.
Musk is an interesting person. Heās
Low and High Intensity Learning
Paul Graham in his essay WealthĀ says startups are a way of compressing a whole working life into a few years. You work at a very high intensity for a short period of time (say four years) instead of the normal low intensity for a long period of time (say
Taking the RTI Online
In February I attended an online training course where participants test a software product using the Rapid Testing methodologyĀ called Rapid Testing Intensive (RTI) Online taught by James Bach. I found it to be a great way to test a product, get feedback on your work, build a software testing
Creating value by writing
Different perspectives help us model problems and ideas in new and sometimes exciting ways. They can lead Ā us to new evidence or help to re-engage our thinking about things weāve taken for granted. Things like testing software or writing.
Writing isnāt easy but I find it helps clarify
Looking ahead at 2013
2012 was a good year in my development as a software tester.Ā IāveĀ slowly started writing about my experiences.Ā Some articles were better than others (Iām not as concerned with popularity to an external audience as I am about my own internal, undefined standards). Iām making progress
I'm a Black Box Software Tester
More accurately I should sayĀ IāveĀ passed the Association for Software Testingās Black Box Software Testing Foundations class.Hereās the proof:
What does this mean? It means the instructors think I understood enough of the material to pass me based on the work I did throughout the
The Bug Bounty Hunter
I havenāt been writing as much as Iād like thanks to an intense software testing class, travel, a few too many energy drinks which lead to some bad sleep and other life musings. New topics keep coming to mind and although I havenāt had the time to
A Test Group of One
I started theĀ FoundationsĀ Black Box Software Testing classĀ earlier this weekĀ and we are now into lesson two. I thought the discussion question was interesting so Iād like to share it along with my response:
[P]lease describe the role of the test group (services and responsibilities) in
How do you handle regression testing?
Matt Heusser sent the context-driven-testing email group a series of questions about handling regression testing. Specifically he asked:
How do your teams handle regression testing?Ā That is, testing for features /after/ the ānew featureā testing is done.Ā Do you exploratory test the system? Ā Do you have a standard way to
Feedback from a Developer (without knowing it)
Recently someone asked one of my developers if we created formal test plans. Since the conversation was in an email, my developer ccād me on it and responded saying he wasnāt sure but he had seen me create test cases in our bug tracker, SpiraTeam. He wasnāt
Rapid Testing Intensive 2012: Day 5
The final day of the Rapid Testing Intensive #1:
The Group photo ā taken on the 4th day (Iām in the 2nd row behind the #1)
9:00 AM ā We all picked up our Certificates of Satisficity ā saying we completed Rapid Testing Intensive #1
9:05 AM ā Jon, as PM,
Rapid Testing Intensive 2012: Day 4
9:02 AM ā James starts us off on Day 4. We are going to look at the status of the test project in terms of what we need to accomplish and look for the holes. This is a typical rapid testing management maneuver. James is showing a graph and reiterates
Rapid Testing Intensive 2012: Day 3
9:02 AM ā Jon kicks off the Intensive with his project meeting. Talking about the communication between us and his eBay team.
9:07 AM ā James talking about the upcoming assignments which will be split between onsite and online. Each table will get a 30 min test session. Later today
Rapid Testing Intensive 2012: Day 1 Recap
This is a previous day recap of the things we did in Rapid Testing Intensive #1, Day 1 on Orcas Island, WA in 2012. I hope I remember everything. Some of the information I took from Karen Johnsonās internal micro-blog. Weāve got eBayās support, developers online, ready
Rapid Testing Intensive 2012: Day 2
9:00 AM ā Start of the day. James doing some talking about what we did yesterday, heās built aĀ mind map. James and Jon are going over our schedule ā gonna try to stick to it better than we did yesterday.
9:23 AM ā Jon is doing a de-brief from
Enrolled in BBST Foundations
Itās official. Iām enrolled in the BBST Foundations course for November through AST.
I joined AST (Association for Software Testing) with the end-goal to enroll in the BBST (Black Box Software Testing) Foundations course. Iāve read about the classes, seen a number of experts whom I trust
Do Software Testers Need a College Education
I came across an old blog post on the uTest blog Do Software Testers Need a College Education. The author says:
Depending on who you ask this question to, youāre likely to receive various degrees (pardon the pun) of yes and no. Or you may find many others who
Anyone Can Test, right?
In this video from StarEast, Rob Sabourin talks about his experience with concept ofĀ āanyone can testā. This actually gives me an idea for a challenge:
Before watching, make a list or jot down some notes that try to describe the potential benefits and problemsĀ with assigningĀ any particular person
AST Membership and Learning Goals
Itās official Iām a member of the Association for Software Testing or AST as itās commonly known.
Iāve been meaning to sign up so I can take the BBST Foundations Course, meet some local (or not so local) context-driven testers, perhaps post on their discussion boards
What Testers Need to Learn
Sunday night I attended a live webinar by James Bach entitled āWhat Testers Need to Learnā that was put on by Tea time with Testers. It seemed like an interesting topic so I joined (it only cost $30).
The webinar got off to a slow start thanks to some technical
1993 World Book definitions for Quality and Testing
According to the 1993 āThe World Book Dictionaryā the definition for Quality Control is
ā[T]he inspection of manufactured products from the raw materials that go into them to their finished form to insure that they meet the standards of quality set by the manufacturer.ā (pg. 1703.)
That same dictionary
Throw someone else in to help QA it faster!
Throw someone else in to help QA it faster!
A former boss (or two) of mine
Iāve heard this statement many times in my career but it happened again just recently and it got me thinking. Aside from the poor choice of words, about āQAingā something (is that really
Performance Reviews (bad)
Itās that time of year at my company when we meet with our respective bosses to discuss how well we did. Review time is probably the least fun time of the year, not because I am fearful of how I might do but, because itās time to give
How not to welcome a new customer
Way back in October of 2008 when I launched My Technology Fetish I intended to useĀ WordPress as the blogging platform while using the Mac Mini I owned as the server. It didnāt take long to realize I didnāt know what I was doing (or how to install
Testing Idol Worship?
With software testing Iāve found it important to identify a few key experts in the field to see what theyāre saying, doing, reading, etc. in order to learn and expand my testing thinking. Maybe itās the size of the industry, the lack of ābasicā testing education but
The Role of Testing by James Bach
The following is a summary of the essay The Role of Testing by James Bach from the book Amplifying Your Effectiveness: Collected Essays.
The essay goes like this: After not liking his time as a developer James thought being a testing manager would provide more wiggle room, since testing is
Building context like Thomas Jefferson
During a recent trip to Washington DC I got to view the library Thomas Jefferson sold to the Federal Government in 1815 for $24,000. The sale contained some 6,487 books which are now part of the Library of Congress.
Jefferson built his library over the course of his
Rapid Testing Intensive Confirmed!
(Stolen from the Rapid Testing Intensive site)
Itās official Iām booked for the onsite Rapid Testing Intensive with James and Jon Bach at the end of July on Orcas Island in Washington. According to the website this testing intensive will be based on āā¦ Session-Based Test Management and Rapid
Are Testing "Schools" a Good Idea?
There has been some controversy with Cem Kaner announcing the Context-Driven School of TestingĀ will no longer be called a school. Cem believes (as I understand it) calling something a āschoolā is too divisive resulting in an exclusionary system that might possibly ignore people with great ideas who donāt
Bach Brother's Rapid Testing Intensive
When I was at StarWest in October of last year I had the good fortune of running into James Bach at the end of the day. I participated in a Rapid Software Testing class with his partner in crime Michael Bolton the prior day and sneaked into Jamesā Critical Thinking
Review: Exploratory Software Testing - Tips, tricks, tours and techniques to guide test design
Some of the first testing books I read were from James Whittakerās How to Break Software series. Those books, like this one, are laid out in a practical manner with each chapter focused on a specific attack or approach making them easy to read, reference and apply. Perfect for
My Tester's Commitments
My job is to help programmersĀ look good;Ā to support themĀ as theyĀ create quality; to ease that burden instead of adding to it. In that spirit, I make the following commitments:
1. I provide a service. You are an important client of that service. I am not satisfied unless
Becoming a Software Testing Expert
From a software testerās point of view a lecture entitled Becoming a Software Testing Expert is a bit enticing. A lecture by James Bach is even more so. Bach, widely considered an expert in Software Testing, is a passionate advocate of software testing. As an expert heās in
StarWest 2011 Keynote Presentations
Iāve uploaded two Keynote Presentationās from this years (2011) StarWest conference.
The first is James Whittakerās Keynote entitled All That Testing is Getting in the Way of Quality:
The second is the Lightning round Keynote featuring a number of testing luminaries like Michael Bolton, Lee Copeland, Bob
Learning about customers
Working for a startup company you go through a lot of problems, potential solutions and more problems. I was reminded of my company in the article by Startup Lessons Learned entitled Validated learning about customers. Eric Ries, who writes the Startup Lessons Learned blog, describes two scenarios with two fictional
James Bach's Open Lecture on Software Testing
I got to talk to James Bach last week at StarWest 2011 in Anaheim. I joined his Critical Thinking class forĀ its final 2 hours on Tuesday after walking out on my boring afternoon half-day tutorial on Open Source tools.
I was surprised when I was able to catch up
uTest's Business Model
Note: I am an active uTester.
The last few months Iāve completed a number of rounds of testing for uTestās clients, mostly in dealing with web applications for my iPhone. In fact a majority of work Iāve done since joining has been for functional testing of mobile
Testing at the Speed and Scale of Google
This is an interesting blog post from Google Engineering about how 50% of their code changes every month and how important their continuous integration system is. Itās worth a read to know a little bit more about How Google Tests Software.
http://google-engtools.blogspot.com/2011/06/testing-at-speed-and-scale-of-google.html
5 Ways to Revolutionize your QA
I canāt remember where I originally found this post and the corresponding eBook but the eBook is definitely worth taking a look at. Here is the former uTest blog post, now Applause blog post.
The 5 ways or insights are:
1. There are two types of code and they
Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar by James Bach
I recently finished reading James Bachās bookĀ Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar.Ā I purchased the book mistakenly thinking it was a book on software testing (I didnāt really read the synopsis before buying it) but was pleasantly surprised after having read it.
Iād heard Bach was an expert
STAR West 2011
Itās official Iāve registered for STAR West 2011 (also know as Software Testing Analysis and Review for the west coast) in Anaheim, CA. Iām only going for Monday and Tuesday, the tutorial days, but Iām excited for the ones Iāve chosen:
Monday:
A Rapid Introduction
GTAC 2011 and STARWEST 2011
The two big Software Testing events of the year, GTAC or the Google Test Automation Conference, and STARWEST are both being held in October of this year. Big month for software testers!
According to the Google Testing Blog GTAC 2011 will be held in Mountain View, CA during the week
Summary: How Google Tests Software
As a software tester I try to learn as much as I can about how other companies test software. It just so happens that through Googleās testing blogĀ James Whittaker has taken steps to outline just how Google does it.
If youāre interested in learning more Iād
Windows Time Sync error: 0x800705B4
When trying to display the time difference between a local computer and another time source using the Windows Time Sync command: w32tm /stripchart /computer:targetcomputer /samples:number /dataonly you may see the response as ātimestamp, error: 0x800705B4ā. This just means the local machineās time source isnāt available.
To
Associate SQL Server user with login after db restore for SQL Server
This post was borrowed from Computer Cabal and expanded upon:
After youāve restored a backed up SQL Server database instance you may find the user logins are no longer associated with the users. You canāt make this fix via SQL Server Management Studio but you can run the
Set VLAN ID on a Network Adapter in Windows 7
Here are the steps to set a VLAN (Virtual LAN) ID on a network adapter in Windows 7:
Ā
1.
1. Right click on Computer > Click Properties
2. Click Device Manager
3. Expand Network Adapters
4. Right click on the adapter you want to set the VLAN for > Click
Deleting a EISA Partition
Most consumer computers these days have their drives partitioned: one for primary use and another for restoration. Often this is a partition that you canāt access because it contains restore / backup data. Fortunately for most users new hard drives are large enough that you likely donāt need the
Quote of the Day
This quote is simple and yet remarkable accurate, especially whenĀ referringĀ to computers:
The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from. by Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
This is why best practices donāt work, you need to choose the standard that fits the context.
(Updated