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Becoming A Tester (RSS)
Some time back, Alan Page sent me a review copy of How We Test Software At Microsoft (HWTSAM), which he, Bj Rollison , and Ken Johnston published late last year. I was curious to read this and discover whether their view of testing matches mine. Now that
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For weeks now I have been seeing ads for a local bank. These ads consist of a vast expanse of white space disturbed only by the phrase "(This space intentionally left blank)". These ads baffled me. Yesterday, however, I realized that the last word in
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What drew you to testing? What keeps you here? What would cause you to leave? I fell into testing by accident. Autodesk needed testers for a new version of AutoCAD, I had registered copies of AutoCAD, they asked if I was interested, I said "Oh yeah!",
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Newbie testers often believe they can actually stop their product from shipping. Product teams often foster this belief by forcing their testers to sign off on their product before shipping it. Can you imagine the result if we decided to exercise our
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Recently I was thinking about the plethora of Test Heuristics floating about the blogosphere. HICCUPPS , CRUSSPIC STMPL , FCC CUTS VIDS , and on and on and on. Eventually I became overloaded and started searching for a heuristic to help me sort through
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What are you favorite testing games? I learned Headline News from Elisabeth Hendrickson many years ago, and it has since become one of my favorite games. The idea is to dream up headlines involving your application or feature which you really do not want
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I have another Tester Spotlight posted! Pop over to Tester Center - via Channel 9 - to see my interview with Ivo Manolov , Test Manager for the Windows Presentation Foundation team.
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When I started writing this blog I had no idea what I was going to write about. I don't remember that ever happening before - usually I know exactly what I want to talk about and more-or-less how I want to say it. When I test, however, I find myself in
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I have another Tester Spotlight posted over on Tester Center ! This time I talked with Bryan Lipscy, who tests all of the help in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the not-yet-released Windows 7. Watch my interview with Bryan to learn why he is excited to
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"Why did you miss that?" I imagine you have heard that question more than once, regardless of whether you test, write code, manage a project, or run a company. Something unexpected happens and now the powers-that-be want to know how you could possibly
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Check out my Tester Spotlight interview with Rob Straavaldson over on Tester Center !
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Some months ago I posted about CAST 2008, how it's not your typical conference, how gobs of Smart Testers will be attending, and how you probably should attend too. The program is up now, and it's a doozy! Jerry Weinberg is presenting the opening keynote
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These, then, are the five parallels I see between drawing and testing: Work what you see, not what you know. Copying and deconstructing the work of people you admire can help you identify the works’ parts and understand how they fit together, at which
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I mentioned earlier that I started learning to draw so that I could sketch houses I saw in my head. When I went out sketching I noticed all sorts of interesting people whom I sketched as well, and I found these subjects to be a fascinating challenge.
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As I learned the vocabulary of drawing I realized that most of my drawings were detailed studies where I attempted to record every last detail. I decided to switch to gesture drawings - quick sketches whose only intent is to get the spirit of the pose.
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