JW on Test

tour of the month: the exit-stage-right tour

All tours much eventually come to an end and thus it is with my tour with Microsoft. I have resigned...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 05/21/2009

tour of the month: the landmark tour

Every location that covets tourists must have some good reasons for them to come. For Las Vegas it’s...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 04/06/2009

testing sucks

Bet that got your attention. It's true, but let me qualify it: Running test cases over and over in...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 04/02/2009

live webinar next week

I am doing another webinar on March 31 which will be hosted by uTest. This is the second webinar I...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 03/25/2009

tour of the month: the intellectual's tour

As promised, here is the first tour on the tour-of-the-month parade. It's probably not the best...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 03/11/2009

I’ve gotten enough requests for links to my interviews, lectures and pointless videos that I am...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 02/25/2009

the touring test

(I couldn’t resist the play on Alan Turing’s famous test when naming this testing metaphor.) When I...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 02/12/2009

of moles and tainted peanuts

There was a full page ad for Jif peanut butter in my morning paper that caught my attention. (For...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 02/06/2009

getting away from it all

When you’re on vacation do you think about work? Not thoughts of dread, worry or angst but...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 02/01/2009

more about test case reuse

We mostly write test cases that are specifically tied to a single application. This shouldn’t come...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 01/22/2009

test case reuse (in the future)

I’ve given my ‘future of testing’ talk four times (!) this week and by far the part that generates...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 01/16/2009

explaining exploratory testing

I just got finished talking (actually the conversation was more like a debate) to a colleague,...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 01/08/2009

the Zune issue

As you can imagine there is a pretty lively debate going on over the Zune date math issue here in...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 01/06/2009

new year's resolutions

Welcome to the new year! 2009 will be the year I publish a new book on testing and the year I ship...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 01/05/2009

google v. microsoft, and the dev:test ratio debate

Every since I gave a talk at Google’s GTAC event here in Seattle this past October, I’ve had the...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 12/09/2008

poor promotion prospects for testers? (dirty MS laundry)

As a result of my last post, I got this email from a Microsoft tester whom I work with fairly...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 11/21/2008

keeping testers in test

I did a webinar for UTest.com today and got some great questions. One question seemed to really...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 11/20/2008

software tester wanted

Position requires comparing an insanely complicated, poorly documented product to a nonexistent or...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 11/18/2008

no more testers?

I gave a keynote at EuroSTAR on the future of software testing where I began by painting a picture...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 11/14/2008

manual v. automated testing again

In my Future series I was accused of supporting both sides of the manual v. automated debate and...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 10/29/2008

speaking of Google ...

Actually, it is more like speaking at Google as I am headed to GTAC tomorrow to give the newest...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 10/22/2008

the future of software testing (part 8)

Testing Beyond Release This is the final part of my series on the future of testing. I hope you’ve...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 10/13/2008

the future of software testing (part 7)

Testers as Designers Modern testers play largely a role of late cycle heroics that often goes...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 10/07/2008

the empire at star west

If you only attend one conference on testing, I recommend STAR (East or West). It remains the...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/26/2008

the future of software testing (part 6)

Testing Culture A couple of months ago I attended a lecture given by one of the Empire’s cache of...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/24/2008

the future of software testing (part 5)

Visualization What does software look like? Wouldn’t it be helpful if we had a visualization of...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/19/2008

on certification

How do you feel about tester certification? I’ve heard all the arguments for and against and looked...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/11/2008

the future of software testing (part 4)

Moving Testing Forward There is a gap that exists in testing that is eating away at quality,...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/09/2008

the manual v. automated testing debate

There's an angle to this debate that I missed during the prevention v. cure series I did last month....

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/05/2008

the future of software testing (part 3)

So we are now at my third prediction which deals with information and how testers will use...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 09/05/2008

the future of software testing (part 2)

In order for testsourcing to take hold of the future of testing, two key technological barriers must...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 08/26/2008

the future of software testing (part 1)

This is the first post of a multipart series on my predictions about the future of software testing...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 08/20/2008

prevention v. cure (part 5)

Ok, we're getting to the end of this thread and probably the part that most of you have asked about:...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 08/18/2008

“if Microsoft is so good at testing, why does your software suck?”

What a question! I only wish I could convey the way that question is normally asked. The tone of...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 08/11/2008

prevention v. cure (part 4)

Manual testing is human-present testing. A human tester using their brain, their fingers and their...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 08/08/2008

back to testing

Since starting this blog a couple weeks ago, I’ve received more comments via email than have been...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 08/03/2008

prevention v. cure (part 3)

Now that the testers are once again gainfully employed, what shall we do with them? Do we point them...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/29/2008

the poetry of testing

God Save the Queen! (A curious statement … from my American point of view. But given what history...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/28/2008

the european test community

I had the extreme privilege to speak to a crowd of test practitioners based in the UK last week. The...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/25/2008

prevention v. cure (part 2)

Ok, re-hire the testers. Perhaps you’ve noticed but the whole prevention thing isn’t working so...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/25/2008

prevention v. cure (part 1)

Developer testing, which I call prevention because the more bugs devs find the fewer I have to deal...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/24/2008

users and johns

Does anyone out there know who was the origin of the insight that the software industry and the...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/24/2008

measuring testers

Yeah, I know … scary subject. But as it is review time here at the empire, this is a subject that...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/22/2008

PEST

Anyone who has read chapter 6 of How to Break Software knows my fondness of mixing testing with...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/21/2008

before we begin

Ok here it is. I submit. I’ve been bugged about blogging for years. “Where’s JW’s blog?” “Why...

Author: MSDN Archive Date: 07/08/2008