Video

Mindmap

Review

Points – Value – Problems

• It’s philosophy that makes time worth living
• Efficiency means different things in different contexts
• The challenge of the hidden picture puzzle
  • Each click is a test
  • How much testing do I do before I decide I know what the picture is
• Explicit Parameters in Testing
  • Coverage
  • Time
  • Outcome
• Implicit Parameters in Testing
  • Progress
  • Correctness
  • Risks
• Efficiency and effectiveness mean different things, depending on what you want to achieve and what you care about along the way

SNACK

• Structure
  • Entertaining introduction
  • Main content
  • Entertaining conclusion
  • Invitation to CAST 2011
• Narrative
  • Summary
    • James Bach and Jonathan Bach “escape massive nuclear explosion” and catch an argument on meaning of “efficiency”
    • Description of a testing educational game – hidden picture puzzle
    • Examples of different gaming styles with analysis and commentary
    • Making point about meaning in the context
    • Invitation to the conference
  • Highly professional narrative in the main content
• Addressing
  • Audience: testers and other IT folks who like to do the job thoughtfully
  • Addresses in a thought-provoking manner
  • Aims at a highly relevant problem
• Consistency
  • The video is highly aligned with the title and the purpose
  • Elements of “acting” in the entertainment parts
  • Professional, well-structured, well-paced video and speech
• Keywords
  • The video operates highly relevant testing and test management keywords
  • No jargon, the video could be easily understood by a general English speaking audience

Comment – Argue – Acknowledge

• Hidden picture puzzle is a reversed analogy of testing
  • Product picture – explicit and tacit models – is generally known; with puzzle it is unknown
  • Product testing uncovers problems in seemingly known picture, bugs are subjective, decision rules are heuristics; puzzle exercise uncovers picture itself, not bugs, and decision rule is literally black-white.
• Test is a discovery of information
  • Depending of the actual test, it takes different time, skills, and means
  • It also takes a skill to decide what tests to perform
  • Value of information discovered may vary from critically important to useless
    • It also might be too late to know
  • Tests that confirm known information add very little value
• I’m not sure I agree with the statement that Michael Bolton took a lot of risk
  • The goal was achieved – picture was uncovered and read correctly
  • Uncovering any more pixels (i.e. doing any more tests) in the given situation wouldn’t have added new information
  • Risks are not equal. Saying “took a lot of risks” when what are the risks is not defined makes little sense
    • Not testing product on officially unsupported browser version – is it “taking risks” or assessing risks and making conscious and justified decision not to test?
• The graph presented in the video, frames “High Coverage – Little Time” testing style very attractively
  • I think, it’s a problem, because it misrepresents testing – it misses costs, and equates slapdash clicking with testing
• How can “High Coverage – Little Time” be achieved?
  • Have more testers discovering information in parallel
    • More staff – higher costs
  • Have programmers dedicating part of their time to testing
    • Less programming done + switching costs
  • Increase efficiency of testing, remove obstacles and reduce bureaucracy
    • Easier said than done. Such a change can’t happen overnight
  • Downgrade testing to checking and automate it
    • Value of information is downgraded
    • More risks
    • Has investment and maintenance cost demands
• Acknowledgement – even though I put a number of arguments from my side:
  • It was a really fresh and unexpected idea to model testing in such way, and to turn it into hands-on / minds-on educational exercise!
  • My main takeaway is about being explicit when considering these factors in my test strategy, making sure to discuss them with the stakeholders
  • The video itself is a long standing asset. I’ve used it for training sessions with my team and as a ground for time-coverage discussion with management.
    • Actually, that’s how I discovered the problem I mentioned above.