John McConda's blog

WREST at the Better Software Conference

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:22:49 +0000

This year's Workshop on Regulated Software Testing will be hosted free of charge by the Better Software Conference and Expo at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

WREST 3 will be held on Friday June 11th, the last day of the conference, with the same LAWST-style format of previous workshops, and will be facilitated by Mike Kelly.

BBST Practical Lessons: False Alarms

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:49:16 +0000

After pulling into my garage yesterday I accidentally pressed the panic button on my key fob. My car then proceeded to act like a nervous hysterical person with the lights flashing and horn blaring

WREST 2: We Have a Venue

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:57:10 +0000

The Workshop on Regulated Software Testing will be held at DeVry University in
Indianapolis on May 15th. Devry is located on the Northeast side of town and is
within walking distance from the Hyatt Place Indianapolis/Keystone,
Execustay by Marriott, and the Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites.

We've had some good experience reports come in, but please keep them
coming! If you are intimidated about presenting a full experience
report, please consider a lightning talk instead.

BBST Practical Lessons

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:28:13 +0000

The Black Box Software Testing series offered for free to AST members is starting up again, and I’m excited to be a student and volunteer instructor. Developed by Cem Kaner, Rebecca Fiedler, and James Bach, these classes offer university-grade course material in a unique online format.

The most important measure for me when I take part in testing training is how many lessons I can actually use in my daily job. The Foundations course has provided me many of these, a few of which I’d like to share in this and subsequent posts.

Silent Night? Thank a tester.

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:43:46 +0000

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the cubes
Not a coder was patching some critical kludge.

The managers nestled all snug in their beds
Had seen the unit tests, all green, no reds.

But not just with machines was this code made pure
Our testers have brains, and they used them for sure.

These sapient lads, and lasses precise
Had trapped critical bugs, with minds like a vise.

US Voting Software: Live User Test Happening Now!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:46:00 +0000

This was my first time using an electronic voting machine. Did anyone else have to fight the urge to test the software instead of just voting?

The First Presidential Testing Debate

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:24:07 +0100

What if we elected a President of Testing?

Moderator:
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the campus of Baseline University for the first debate between candidates for the President of Software Testing, I'm your moderator, Quentin Colson, (though sometimes I go by Quentin Anderson just to confuse everyone).

The Test Servant

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:18:08 +0100

If testing is a service, what does that make testers?

I’ve heard much about the definition of testing being a service to the project, or at least that this should be the definition of testing, and I agree. Most of this comes from what I’ve heard and read from James Bach and Michael Bolton as part of the Rapid Testing courses.

I’d like to extend this metaphor a step further though. What do you call the person who performs a service? The word service is tossed around so often in the software world that it’s lost a lot of meaning and is easy on the ears. Once the form is changed to “servant” though, you might get some interesting responses. “Me, a servant?”

The Next BBST Foundations Class Starts Soon!

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:48:05 +0100

The next Black Box Software Testing (BBST) Foundations class will begin July 20th, right on the heels of the CAST Conference , so we expect demand to be high. Scott Barber will be lead instructor with Elaine Conway and myself as co-instructors.

See You at Disneyland

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:37:09 +0100

I'm excited to be giving my first STAR West track presentation this October. My topic is "Fun With Regulated Testing", where I'll be talking about ways to do to better testing in regulated contexts.

I hope to see you there!

Turtle Test Heuristic

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:33:10 +0000

These past two days, Mobius has had the pleasure to host Mike and Dave’s excellent Exploratory Testing Practicum (PDF alert). One of our exercises on Wednesday was to think about some heuristics we use in every day testing and come up with easy-to-remember names for them. I’m sure that I am not the first to recognize this one, so I’ll also invoke the Pirate Heuristic to create it. I call mine the Turtle Test.

Software Testing and the Total Depravity of Man

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:26:14 +0000

I was intrigued by a discussion that went on recently in the software-testing Yahoo message board. Matt Heusser started the conversation, spun off of another thread in the forum about Exploratory vs. Scripted testing (itself always a fun topic for debate :) . The thread started with a question about what kind of testing discovers defects and what kind verifies functionality.

A Tester's Letter to Santa

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:15:06 +0000

Dear Santa, I'm a software tester.

Since you see me when I'm sleeping and know when I'm awake, you must know that I dream about this stuff when I'm sleeping and obsess about it when I'm awake.

The Cord of Three Strands

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:09:09 +0000

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
-Ecclesiastes 4:12

At the first WREST workshop last month, one of the key ideas that came to light for me was the need to mentor inexperienced testers in regulated environments (see citation below). Many of us who have worked in this world have met testers who have known nothing but mindless script execution and piles of documentation. My fear is that we lose potentially great testers who start their careers this way and decide that testing is not for them.

Test Team Book Club

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:27:46 +0100

Oprah should be worried.

Ok, not really, since I doubt I’ll have a worldwide syndicated talk show anytime soon, but I wanted to share a little about what my team has been doing to increase our knowledge and skills as testers.