I've been real busy with all the planning work we're doing now. Part of that is writing test plans and such - which includes lots of thought about test matrices. I was very happy to see what Michael Hunter wrote about using pairwise combinatorial methods...

There was an interesting question on Encarta's Beta newsgroup recently. In a nutshell, it was asked: How does a bug submitted during a beta get fixed? Beta testers have many drastic differences in their backgrounds. They range from professional...

After Greg's last two posts I can see this is going to work out great. While Greg's product (Encarta) is getting close to shipping and he's going through all the things you go through to get a product out the door, my product (Office) is just about to...

Interesting in getting involved as a technical Beta Tester for Microsoft products? There's some instructions on how to apply here . -Greg

Things have been particularly busy here for the Encarta Test team as we roll out the Beta for our next version, Encarta 2005. This seems like a good time to talk about characteristics of a good Beta tester, and is something that I would like to elaborate...

Most people know that part of software planning and scheduling is developers taking a look at the spec and trying to guess how much it will cost. They go through the features and come up with their best guess for how long they will take (a SWAG.) Then...

A reader named “Iam N” left an interesting comment about his search for a career that *matches* what he loves to do. He posses some interesting questions (see his original post here ). One questions he presents is: Who are your customers...

Time for a foray into a “hidden“ perk of working at Microsoft. One of my favorite perks of the college-style atmosphere that we have here on the Redmond campus is a fairly wide array of interesting lecturers. Not only do we have our own people...

Let’s pretend today is one of your first days on the job as a Tester at Company X. You see the following testcase: “Verify HighDPI ” What should you do? 1. Hide under the desk 2. Run for the door 3. Shout out...

Mike asked what languages I use when I write test automation. It turns out there's a lot of them. Right now I'm doing all my work in C#. The whole Office test team has shifted over to .Net languages for writing automated tests for the next version...

Well, I know I said I'd have this done on Wednesday, but I ended up writing a bit more then I expected. Writing is always strange for me. I continually underestimate the amount of time it will take. A part of me is just like “I know what I want...

A lot of people have asked Greg and me about automated testing. This is an important subject for me since I feel like it's the most important part of my job. I'm a smart guy and I know a lot about software development, so it's clearly not the best use...

I just arrived back from the RIT career fair. Thanks everyone that stopped by our booth! I think very highly of the school, especially now that I've had a chance to visit and interact with some of the students. Here are some tips for those of you approaching...