Carnival of Testers #16

November was cold, much colder than normal - but there is no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothing (there are several test analogies there!), so whilst deciding on the right clothes I read and have been entertained by several blog posts...

• First up this month was Michael Kelly with a reminder that sometimes it's necessary to "just say no!"

• Ever get the feeling that explaining any test-related thinking to a non-techie is tricky and full of traps? If so, then you'll recognise something in this cartoon from Andy Glover.

• On the subject of techie / non-techie, do you recognise anything in Adam Knight's "Don't call me technical" post?

So, have you recognised anything so far?

• On an aspect of recognition Albert Gareev wrote about a typical trap that testers can occasionally fall into, inattentional blindness. Recognising it, and understanding it helps your learning.

• Related to traps, bias and fallacies then black swans have been known to surface. Have a look at this 'humble' story from Pradeep Soundararajan and his sources of learning.

• Of course, sometimes nothing will disrupt you and your testing. Then, maybe you're in the zone, as Joel Montvelisky encourages us to recognise and learn about the contributing factors.

• A short note from Peter Haworth-Langford on his first year of blogging. Happy blogging birthday!

• The guys at the test eye produced a two-page sheet of aspects for consideration when testing a product. It's partly based on earlier work by others, but take a look and see what you recognise and if there's anything new to you. 

• Communication, communication, communication. Take a look a Pete Walen's post on some communication aspects related to documentation.

• A nice example of the availability heuristic in Gerald Weinberg's account of The Sauerkraut Syndrome. Recognose it?

• Stuart MacDonald made a good debut on Darren McMillan's site with a tester challenge write-up.

• A view on testing debt and some tips to counteract it came from Martin Jansson.

• Weekend Testing landed in the Americas during November. Here are some thoughts from one of the organisers, Michael Larsen.

• Bob Marshall raises some pertinent questions about the state of Agile - thinking way outside the tester's box. Recognise anything?

• Some more interesting questions raised by Mark Crowther on burndown. You must reconise something here.

• Maybe you recognise Shaft,  but have you heard of beshaftitude? Erik Lonnrot takes a light-hearted view of metrics.

• A long, but worthwhile read, from Len DiMaggio on a colleague's team fragmentation problems.

I'm sure there was something there that all would recognise, and maybe something new.

Until the next time...