Monthly Archives: May 2010

Software Testing Brainiacs

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Do you know the famous british television show called Braniac? The one in which Richard Hammond and Jon Tickle verify whether common conceptions are true (such as whether it is possible to run over a pool of custard)?

I personally find it to be interesting and amusing in the same time because it is a show that gives you the possibility to learn some crazy new things while being entertained.

Now imagine something similar to this done for software testing! Ever thought about how to destroy software testing myths? At a simple search on Google you can find dozens of software testing myths that could be destroyed (or investigated) in a “show” very similar to this one.

In the same “show” we could test myths about certain products or features from different software products. Or we could just use it to as an opportunity to get together with our friends and people and have fun while learning (or destroying :) ) something new.

Have an idea on how to transform this in reality, or just want to be part of the team? then just leave me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

“I know it’s late but please help me out guys!” – #EWT17

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WeekendTesting“I know it’s late but please help me out guys!” – this is how it all starts:

Today I’ve attended for the first time an Europe WeekendTesting session. For EWT #17 we had to test a software compressor plugin that our “manager” asked us to throw an eye at for 1 hour and see if he and his band can use it in tonight’s concert.


If you’re wondering why did he waited for the last minute? Beats me, he only told us that his hardware compressor was broken and that he was in an urgent need of such a tool for his concert and this software compressor appeared to be a good choice given the circumstances.

To get things started:

I’ve installed the software given to us by our manager, loaded an *.wav file and   pressed the play button. Right after the song started playing I realized that I have no clue on how this software works and what does it suppose to do.

So I begin to search the Internet about the rocket and minihost software in order to learn more about them and noted down their websites. Then I wanted to learn more on software compressors and ended up on Wikipedia where I’ve found something about audio compressors, what they are and how they work. All this had taken me 15-20 min.

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“Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar” – by James Marcus Bach

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Not long ago I’ve read the book “Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar” – a great book, it really helped me see some things that weren’t clear enough for me before - which is the last book written by James Marcus Bach who is also the co-author of “Lessons Learned in Software Testing”.  More about the author and his book can be found on the following website http://www.buccaneerscholar.com

NOTE to all of you that live in Bucharest, Romania and want to read this book: I can borrow you my copy, all you have to do is to leave me a comment or contact me in any other way so that I can reach you after that.

As a short description I can tell you that this book caught my attention the moment I finished reading it’s first page and in two nights it was done. The stories and the way in which it is written have kept me engaged all the time. The book covers a wide range of subjects starting with the elements (“The elements of My Self-Education Method“) and principles used by the author when learning new things and continuing with a list of self-evaluation heuristics that can help you discover where you are at a moment in time. Towards the end of the book the author shares some of his knowledge and views on how to “buccaneer in the long run”.

Another great thing about this book is that it is full of quotes named by the author “Great Secrets“, which can be in handed sometimes especially when you look for something to grab on. Here are some of my favorites:

  • “At a distance many fun things to learn look scary“
  • “If I try to understand, but fail, that’s progress“
  • “Whenever I learn something new I keep expectations low, and aspirations high” (expectations = are what I know I can do; aspirations = are what I hope I can do)
  • “Most people, most of the time, don’t try it very hard“
  • “Everything I learn is a gateway to everything else I will ever learn“

To end this post I will say that this is a great book for all of you that have difficulties in figuring out how to learn new things without having the impression of failure, or how to self evaluate you or for those of you that are just looking for example stories.

The Daily 5 Minutes (D5M) for the rest of us

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I was reading about the Daily 5 Minutes (D5M) on Talking Story with Rosa Say blog and immediately something crossed my mind.

Why don’t we as individual contributors, people that work in the same domain (in my case software testing), on the same position or level in an organization don’t make this a common thing, a daily must-have task? I think that if we could surpass the “ego-centric” barriers and stop seing this as a threat we could learn a lot from what, how and why others are doing around us.

Not only that it would help us to better communicate with our colleagues but it would also help us build a stronger connection between we and them, a connection based or mutual respect and trust. Just think about all the information we could gain from one another (from our testing matees or colleagues you named it) if we would spend 5 minutes each day from our time to ask one of our colleagues what was the last thing they tested and what did they found and how did they found it. By doing this we could obtain insights in how others see and understand a product or a small feature or even an entire system and adding them to our present set of skills /insights can help us uncover hidden parts of your imagination.

I definitely must add this to my personal TODO list and give it a shot, who knows what it may uncover.