New "What's it all about?"

Since I started this blog in April 2009 I had the word "quality" placed somewhere near the top of the page - specifically in the "What's it all about" box. I've just made a change from:

The Tester's Headache is sometimes about issues connected to the balancing act of executing a test project on Time, on Budget and with the right Quality. Other times it's a reflection on general testing issues of the day.

to:

The Tester's Headache is sometimes about issues connected to the balancing act of executing a test project on Time, on Budget and trying to meet the right expectations. Other times it's a reflection on general testing issues of the day.

I've been doing a bit of sporadic writing/thinking about this recently, the occasional tweet and the odd comment on selected blog posts. There will be more to come soon (I hope - all to be revealed soon) on my thoughts around the word 'quality' in the testing-specific domain.

I'll still occasionally use the #qa hashtag on twitter - hey, I can't start a revolution/re-think from the outside can I? Or can I?

Thoughts, comments? Provocative? Thought-provoking or sleep-invoking?

Blink Comparator Testing vs Blink Testing

I saw an article on the STC the other day about a competition to go to the ExpoQA in Madrid.

I was immediately interested as I backpacked around Spain years ago and Madrid is a great place to spend time, but I digress...

I scanned the programme (top-down), got to the bottom and started to scan bottom-up and immediately saw an inconsistency. Then I started wondering why/how I'd found it. Was it a particular type of observation, test even?


I realised that when I started scanning upwards I had some extra information and that was why it popped out. I twittered a challenge to see if anyone else spotted anything - at the time I added the hashtag #BlinkTest. After further reflection I wasn't so sure that was correct - I started thinking about the blink comparator technique that astronomers used once upon a time.

It seemed like a blink test (that I've seen described and demonstrated) - but after some thought it seemed closer to a blink comparator test. Was there a distinction, what was lying behind why I'd spotted the inconsistency? Was one a form or subset of the other?


Could Blink Testing be a general form of information intake (and subsequent decoding) and Blink Comparator Testing being a special form where the pattern, legend or syntax is specified and the scanning is aimed at spotting an inconsistency. Maybe. Hmm...




Blink vs Blink Comparator?

I'm going to think of a Blink Comparator Test as being one that takes a particular type of priming (concious) - here's a pattern (or patterns) and this is used to compare against the observation - maybe for the absence or presence of the pattern/s.

I'll think of a Blink Test as being an observation without priming (subconcious) - although there will always be some priming (from your experience), but that's a different philosophical discussion - and it's the subconcious that waves the flag to investigate an anomaly.

Of course, both can be used at the same time.




Why distinguish?

It's about examining why I spot an inconsistency and trying to understand and explain (at least to myself) what process is going on. So, why the interest in understanding the difference? For me, that's what helps get to the bottom of the usefulness and potential application, and indeed recognising the technique 'out in the wild'.

This started out as looking at an anomaly (maybe even a typo) in an article, and now I have an addition to my toolkit - I probably already had it, but now I'm aware of it - and that means I have a better chance of putting it to good use. I can see uses in documentation, test observations and script design (to aid observation/result analysis). Cool!

Oh, the inconsistancy I spotted was the use of (Sp)* in the time schedule, which wasn't in the legend. Simple stuff really producing all that thinking...

Are you a divergent thinker?

#softwaretesting #teamwork

Almost sounds unpleasant doesn't it? Something that was frowned upon in Victorian times? Well, I am a divergent thinker, and more...

Problem solving and learning fascinates me - especially the interaction with teams. The how and why people learn in different ways and how they approach different problems. Luckily, sitting in a software test engineering environment, I get to think about this, put it into practice and continue to learn and develop daily.

Whenever I sit down with someone to look at a problem - whether it's brainstorming, bouncing some ideas around or to help someone out - I'm intrigued by the different approaches and paths people take to tackle a problem.

Problem solving is like going on a journey - lots of different ways to do it (paths to take) - hopefully arriving at the same destination (the problem in question is solved.) This has a very close analogy to the way people think and learn - lots of different ways to do it, to hopefully achieve the same result.

So, what am I?

Many years ago I was involved in a self-managed learning program. Out of that my instructor and myself came to the conclusion that I was a divergent thinker. Okayyyy I thought...

Is that all?

No, we also concluded that I was an emergent (constructive) learner. Not bad, but what does all this mean?

Testing relevance?

Some key attributes are:

Emergent Learners

- Building knowledge from the bottom-up

- Diving-in to learn from experience rather than from a book

- Evolutionary - adapting to change and being self-organising

- More DIY-learning...

Divergent Thinkers

- Brain-storming

- Creativity

- Looking at the problem from several angles -> "Big picture" & "out of the box

Sounds great to have these qualities in a test team.

Of course, there are drawbacks with these. Emergent learners may have holes in their knowledge as they haven't gone via the classroom - but I think the ability to adapt and learn makes-up for this.

This doesn't mean that one type of learning/approach is better than another - as with any team, it needs a healthy mix of all types - then everyone is backing each other up... That includes mixing high-flyers and less-able members - it's the team that counts, not the team hero.

Similarly, I wouldn't want a team of only brainstormers (or even brain showers!) - all that whiteboard and post-it activity - they'd never do anything!

In practice, is it true? Has it worked?

In early 2005 when I joined an organisation as a system integrator - with part of the role being to establish a system integration process and organisation - I was the only tester not to be sent on a training course for the HW/platform we were using. My manager's explanation: "we're time stretched and you're the sort of person that will learn more without the course..."

Well, I didn't completely agree - it was like a bit of tightrope walking without a safety net - but I pulled on my waders (or was it diving suit) and jumped in at the deep end.

Horrible mix of metaphors!

True enough, I adapted and evolved both a strategy and process - this attitude fitted nicely as the org was an incremental development project in start-up, so there was plenty of change, modification and adaption.

Does this mean these traits are more suited to incremental development? Yes, they're good to have but again I think it's the healthy mix of competences that makes the project work. Everyone has elements of all learning styles - just that some are more practiced than others...

Is that all then Ted?

Recognising and understanding the differences is what's important. As a team leader it's very handy to know (or guesstimate) these styles in different team members because adapting the presentation to the individual wins every time! Also tasks can be shuffled around to match strengths, or even exercise/improve weaker areas.

As an aside, if you're interested in mind-mapping (will appeal more to the divergent thinkers) there's a lot of good software tools out there. One I've been playing with recently is bubbl. Quite nice.

Don't confuse emergent learning with emergence - this is another term I'm interested in - more to do with how teams can self-organise...