Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 19, 2015
These are the points I captured while reading 1st part of “Too much information, too many decisions” chapter of the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. I put my points and cross-references next to them. Every day, we are confronted with dozens of decisions, […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 16, 2015
“Key principles for business-driven development” is IBM article that I recently read and liked very much. It aligns quite well with the concepts of context-driven testing, but looks at the whole project. I’ve mind mapped it for future references. Click below for picture or here to download the XMind file. ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 14, 2015
“How can I learn about critical thinking? What are the examples? How to apply it in testing?” If you’re asking such questions for yourself or for coaching of your team I can help you with a perfect source. Skeptoid is a podcast, public research projects, quality learning material, and source of excellent examples of critical […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 13, 2015
These are the points I captured while reading Introduction to the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. I put my points and cross-references next to them. Human continuously look for ways to improve brain functioning and / or strengthen it. || This is especially […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 12, 2015
A few years ago I started using my notebook regularly inspired by Michael Bolton’s article “Exploratory Tester’s Notebook”. Then, as I moved up to lead roles, I got busier with different stuff, and my tester’s notebook turned into a general notebook. I captured meeting notes, my to-do’s, and even fishing plans. It turned into a work, […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 08, 2015
Running Context Driven Testing Meetup In Your City Lightning Talks is a very fast paced method of conferring. To make sure I get the most of 5 minutes time frame I put together main points in my tester’s notebook. By the way, it turned out a very handy way to publish the contents into the […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 07, 2015
This time I’m telling about my workshop experiences, including a session of Avalon gameplay with testers at CAST. TDD Workshop by Robert Sabourin I really enjoyed the workshop. Though the most interesting part for me was not about TDD. Self-organizing team. Maybe not by intent the workshop has perfectly demonstrated this challenge of Agile. The […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 05, 2015
Dialectical materialism is a philosophy of science and nature, based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Wikipedia Dialectic (also dialectics and the dialectical method), from Ancient Greek διαλεκτική, is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to European and Indian philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jul 06, 2015
..Another lunch break, and Quora suggests that I might be the right person to answer this question. Why, yes, I’m taking on it. “Why should I test my program?” – Answer: As a tester, I avoid jumping into conclusions. We know little from this question. Let’s analyze possible points of concerns. /Why/ should I test […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 12, 2015
As the whole talk is about 45 minutes long, I post series of the review in my blog. Part 3 – Closing Notes Video Mindmap Review Points – Value – Problems Automation might become too expensive “Fancy” automation, like BDD, might be cool and enjoyable to work on, but managers must understand business value and risks of […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 11, 2015
As the whole talk is about 45 minutes long, I post series of the review in my blog. Part 2 – Refactoring and Walkthrough Video Mindmap Review Points – Value – Problems Axis in refactored version by Bach/Bolton High Value of Product – Low Cost of Development Synthesizing – Analyzing Core agile values in version by Bach/Bolton […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 10, 2015
As the whole talk is about 45 minutes long, I post series of the review in my blog. Part 1 – Rationale for Refactoring Video Mindmap Review Points – Value – Problems It’s an open question: what are the roles and responsibilities of testers in agile development environments. Testers do something important, special, and different. […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 04, 2015
Even though I’d wish to do it more often, I very rarely blog on real-time topics. But I’m taking some time tonight. I tweeted a few thoughts on Tuesday, 2015/03/03. Expanding them to address responses received. Test scripts are exclusive. Testing charters are inclusive. Quoting Cem Kaner‘s statement and fact, early in the project we […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Feb 19, 2015
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 […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 27, 2014
Foreword Recently I’ve been observing some new silly ideas about testing – on how to do as less of it as possible or not do it at all. I don’t bother posting links here – reading those isn’t worth the time. But I’m gonna speak on the subject myself. I grouped those ideas into 3 main categories: […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 18, 2014
Notice This post and mind map are work in progress. I’m hoping to get the community feedback as well as further refine the ideas myself. Stay tuned. See more contents below the mindmap. Below is the mindmap in [accessible] list format with my comments elaborating the points. Problems You’re a Test Manager. You had your […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 10, 2014
A few observations on graduates of Rapid Software Testing course I was into studying of heuristic-based exploratory testing approach and methodologies for at least 2 years prior to taking of the course. I took the course in 2011. Blogged about my experiences. I’ve kept broadening and sharpening my skills since then. Blogged about my path as well. With time, I also […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 30, 2014
I’ve just read this colorful definition of testing by Michael Bolton. And I got a sparking idea – “I wanna see a tag cloud for this”. And here’s what I’ve got. And I love it. Testing product among things, testing things among product. Feels like I found a meta-definition of Testing. ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jul 02, 2014
With years of my career evolution as a testing and automation professional, I’ve developed my own practical view about requirements, their role, and how to deal with them in a context-driven, heuristic way. I’m completely satisfied with the requirements provided by Business. I never require them to be 100% clear and precise, and never complain […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 10, 2014
Let my story be a warning. About 4 years ago, being a successful test automation engineer, I felt strong enough to challenge James Bach and Michael Bolton, who were loudly advocating for exploratory testing approach and, specifically, a methodology for a structured exploratory testing – Rapid Software Testing. So I challenged them… Oh, It didn’t […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 10, 2013
One “QA” reads a document how the application is going to be. To say better, it’s a writing of someone’s beliefs how certain, those explicitly described, aspects of an application should be according to that someone, at some point of time. Then the “QA” creates another writing how the application is going to be, is […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Sep 23, 2013
Agile Testing? Waterfall Testing? Here’s another cool name I invented. In case good old Exploratory Testing doesn’t sound cool to you :) PS. I guess, the picture speaks for itself. This is a slide from my presentation for a local testing group. The point was to illustrate systematic testing approach. ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 24, 2013
Some good open interview questions for QA/Testers. What value did you bring to the project / organization as a tester? What is your vision for the role of testing? Do you know / follow any school of testing? What is the recent book / article about testing you read, and can you give a review […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 08, 2013
(If they haven’t learnt that from doing testing) This is another my notebook entry, but entry unusual. I started it while playing chess. This is also one of the proud parent moments: my 9 years old son brought this initiative of evening chess parties – all by himself! As much as we, parents, try to […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Apr 19, 2013
I often come back to re-read certain articles and books on testing. Typically, in the light of new experience, or with regards to specific problem. This month’s top – Perfect Software and Other Illusions About Testing. Chapters 5 and 8. *** Even though testers pretty much can/should be “jack of all trades” kinds of specialists, […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Apr 12, 2013
“Personas” were not invented by testing people, but quickly picked up, especially with regards to usability testing aspects. Over the years, I’ve read quite a few articles advocating for use of Personas, mainly in exploratory and agile testing. Yet somehow I haven’t seen a single practical, “hard-coded” example. Since usability is one of the aspects we’re testing, […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Apr 05, 2013
I’m leading a SWAT team. S.W.A.T. here stands for “Systematic Wondering, Automation, Testing”. We’re doing all kinds of cool stuff in testing. Might say, transforming “some” testing to awesome testing. I am very excited about it. While doing a lot of thinking, and having a lot of ideas I could write about, and having experiences […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Aug 06, 2012
Some time ago I had a hard time discussing performance problem with application developer. My challenge was to overcome a “block” set by the developer: “this is a one-page code, it’s a very simple logic, and I see no reasons to spend time evaluating its performance”. I didn’t have more than 5-7 minutes for the […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 29, 2011
I have made two major investments into my professional development this year. One of them, taken in April, is the course of Rapid Software Testing. I wrote about my experience and takeaways, as well as proudly gave a personal endorsement. Another course, similar and different at the same time, is Black Box Software Testing (Foundations […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 14, 2011
Note. The reason of this posting is two-fold: While considering taking the Rapid Software Testing course I found surprisingly little of feedback information on testers’ blogs, and none of that addressed the questions I actually had. So I’m fixing this issue retrospectively. There are too many aggressive pseudo-education “courses” or scamming certification schemas advertised on […] ...
