Contents:
Conferences
   Context Driven Testing
   NLP For Testers
   Graph Based Testing
   Be a Beta Tester
Theory Made Practical
   Excel Test Data
   Descriptive Words
   Alternative Tools
   Path Analysis
   Test Scripting
   Little Essays
   TOTE
Notes from a tester's Journal
   Charity Shop Shopping
   DIY Quality Costs
   An Actor's Life For Me
Test Management & Strategy
   Testing Must Start Early
   Modelling Tesla
   Finding Faults
   Competitive Engineering

Conferences

Context Driven Testing, A Personal View March 2005

This is the supporting page for a talk that I first gave at the North London British Computer Society in March 2005.

I wanted to explore what I thought about Context Driven, how context driven I am, and what I think it means to be context driven.

Paper and Presentations here

NLP For Testers, A Brief Introduction July 2004

This is the supporting page for a talk that I first gave at the London Special Interest Group in Software Testing in June 2004.

NLP is a topic that I have found fascinating for a number of years now, and I use it to help me understand what it is I do when I test software. The supporting paper provides an introduction to the NLP Meta Model and some observations on how it affects my thinking about Software Testing.

Quickly add some NLP to your testing here

Practical Experiences in Graph Based Testing 19/6/2003

I went off to StarEAST 2003 and spoke about my experiences with graph based testing, the tools I use and the models of testing that I have built up in order to conceptualise a context within which graph based testing can work.

The paper also looks at how higher level models can help reduce the work involved in manual scripting.

Read it here now.

Be a Better Tester, Be a Beta Tester December 2003

In December of 2003 I went to EuroStar, presented "Be a Better Tester, Be a Beta Tester" where I expounded the benefits of downloading software off the internet and testing it. The accompanying paper lists a whole bunch of tools and web sites that can be used and describes the approaches and motivations for doing this. Beta Testing is something that I have gained a lot from so I always encourage other people to do it.

Now Read it and get beta testing.

Theory Made Practical

Excel For Test Data Generation March 2005

MS Excel, and spreadsheets in general, are the testers friend. I have written up some notes about how to use Excel and VBA to generate test data.

Start getting your test data under control

Descriptive Words Aid Testing Feb 2005

Words, and how they affect cognition, perception, state and action, interest me. I wanted to experiment with a less linear and more diagrammatic communication format, so... I thought, and I drew, and I experimented, and I turned a textual blog entry into a single page of diagrams and boxed out text.

View the page

Alternative Test Tools In Action March 2004

I went through a process of self-evaluation to understand better how I test, how I think about testing and the tools I use. This paper discusses the tool strategies I use and is an introduction to the world of free and cheap tools available to help us do testing.

See cheap and free tools in action now.

An exploration of, and notes on, model path analysis for Testing January 2002

This essay explores the use of graph models in testing and the practice of structural path derivation using 3 coverage concerns: node coverage, link coverage and loop coverage. Predicate coverage is considered but is not covered in detail.

An exploration of, and notes on, the process of Test Scripting January 2002

This essay explores the test scripting in terms of software development as the two processes are very similar and share many of the same techniques and pitfalls. It is primarily aimed at manual test script construction because automated test script construction is software development.

Little Essays and Modelling Notes February 2002

Sometimes writing longer essays may not be required. This work in progress has notes and little essays on Modelling, Test Conditions, Testing, Error Guessing and more...

TOTE August 2002

Wherein the TOTE (Test Operate Test Exit) model is used to explore the nature of feedback and abstraction of test phases

Notes from a tester's Journal

Charity Shop Shopping January 2002

Buying testing books isn't as easy as it may first appear. And this particular incident of book buying highlighted, once again, one of the problems with testing - the perception of testing and its role in the software development process.

The Cost of DIY Quality January 2002

Quality costs money and when people talk about quality being free, they mean that it costs less to build quality in, than it does to address the mistake later on.

An Actor's Life For Me March 2002

One of the main principles behind Compendium Developments is that we can learn useful lessons and techniques from many different sources.

Actors have to adopt the role of someone else, their words are typically scripted but each actor chooses to communicate those words in different ways based on the character's personality that they have chosen to model. When we approach the testing of a system and we have to think like a User, to think what someone might choose to do next to a piece of software, I wonder if we can learn about any of this from an Actor?

Distilled from the erudite theatre workshops of Sir Michael Redgrave. Compendium Developments present "An Actor's Life for me".

"To act well and to act well repeatedly has to become an obsession"

Test Management & Strategy

A very general essay on the need for quality control. It is primarily aimed at management, the tester is probably all too aware of the problems they face.

Modelling Tesla For Testing January 2002

Nikola Tesla was a visionary Inventor back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. He is mostly known for the Niagra Falls generator and he, rather than Marconi, has now been recognised as the inventor of radio. This essay explores what we can learn from this Genius of invention.

Finding Faults with Testing February 2002

The way we think is affected by the language that we use. The chains of reasoning that we adopt are affected by the language that we choose to reason with and the wording of the initial statement of our reasoning chain. The main improvements to the testing process result when you analyse the reasoning chains that you are using. How do you explain testing to yourself? What is the basis for your reasoning chains? Is your reasoning justified or are statements in your vocabulary accepted as fact without realising the chain of belief that led to them?

Tom Gilb Competitive Engineering Course Review 20/10/2003

In September of 2003 I attended courses conducted by Tom Gilb based on the work presented in his Competitive Engineering book. There was a lot of useful information on these courses that relate to testing and this is a short write up of the courses and some of the basic principles of Competitive Engineering.

Read it now.