testingReflections.com - The mind-share information resource for software testing, agile testing and test-first/test-driven development

Explaining the other work we do

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:54:38 -0600

I had a technical issue I needed to research for a client. Nothing surprising, I research different bits of information frequently. At the end of my research I realized I wanted to explain what I'd done, I wanted to clarify and present what avenues I had pursued, what information I'd learned, what issues remained and what possible other solutions we might look into. I realized I wanted to share these bits of information with the project team so I set out to write an email.

Attitude of the development team to the product

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:31:04 -0600

Back in the old days, most of my Agile consulting was coming into well-performing Agile teams who wanted to talk about improving their testing. So I got to see a lot of seasoned teams. What struck me most, and made me happiest, was their stance toward their product and the product owner. Proud. Enthusiastic. Engaged.Dave [...]

Up in the Air

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:00:31 -0600

I saw “Up in the Air” last night. While it’s a well-done movie, albeit entirely predictable, the world it portrays is a lot more disturbing than it seems at first. To explain, I recommend John Holbo’s close reading of David Frum’s Dead Right. Here’s the most relevant part:[Frum writes] “The great, overwhelming fact of a [...]

Pex v0.22.50128.1: Bug fixes, bug fixes, bug fixes

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:00:15 -0600

We just released a new version of Pex and Moles that brings a number of bug fixes and various improvements to the behaviors for SharePoint and Asp.NET.

Improvements

Interaction with the Source Control provider has been significantly improved for Moles
Support for Moles of nested types.
Improved logging in the Host Type
Improved Behaved collections
Added Behaved types for mscorlib and System.Web types.

Bug fixes

Using Moles to test DateTime.Now on Channel9

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:30:12 -0600

We did a super-short movie with Nikolai Tillmann on how to use Moles to test code depending on DateTime.Now. Enjoy!

Implementing DependencyProperty with a single attribute (and CciSharp)

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:00:17 -0600

In WPF, one needs to implement the DependencyProperty pattern to make properties bindable. It usually involves a lot of boiler plate code:

adding a static field that names the depency property,
adding the instance property to the type (and make sure you follow the naming convention),
add validation methods and wire them in the dependency constructor

These are a number steps that need to be done again and again if you are building new WPF controls.

Directed Graph ML (DGML) support in QuickGraph

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:30:10 -0600

The new version of Visual Studio 2010 supports a very cool graph viewer (powered by MSAGL) and a simple XML file format (DGML) to load your own graph. I’ve added support in QuickGraph to emit .dgml file from any graph (you will need to build the sources). For example, this snippet display a very simple graph:

Exploratory Testing IS Accountable

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:00:17 -0600

In this blog post, my colleague James Bach talks about logging and its importance in support of exploratory testing. Logging takes care of one part of the accountability angle, and in an approach like session-based test management (developed by James and his brother Jon), the test notes and the debrief take care of another part of it.

Logging: Exploratory Tester’s Friend

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:00:12 -0600

I’m on a new project lately, working with a team at QualiTest. We’re testing a class III medical device. This is an exciting project, because for the first time I am aware of, formalized exploratory testing will be used to do such a validation. We will not rely on masses of procedural test scripts. I’ve [...]

08/02: Pex for SharePoint aux TechDays Paris

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:30:24 -0600

Je présenterai une session en francais sur l’utilisation de Pex et Moles pour tester des services SharePoint aux TechDays Paris le 8 Février de 17:30 à 18:30.

Test Unitaire de Services SharePoint avec Pex et Moles.

A European pair-touring trip

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:30:26 -0600

I’ll be speaking at the Scandinavian Developer Conference on March 16-17. I may be speaking at the Scottish Ruby Conference on March 26-27. I have to be back in the USA for Philly Emerging Tech on April 8th. I’d like to do a pair tour of Europe sometime in that time. I’m thinking of something [...]

Interviewing Insights and Test Frameworks

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:00:27 -0600

By James A. WhittakerGoogle is hiring. We have openings for security testers, test tool developers, automation experts and manual testers. That's right, I said manual testers.As a result of all this interviewing I've been reading a lot of interview feedback and wanted to pass along some insights about how these applicants approach solving the testing problems we ask in our interviews. I think the patterns I note in this post are interesting insights into the mind of the software tester, at least the ones who want to work for Google.

Delivering value

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:51 -0600

It’s quite the rage today to talk about “delivering value” as opposed to “delivering software”. That scares me.Consider the contractor who had our house in chaos for what seems like forever. We now have more counter space in the two upstairs bathrooms. I think you could make a strong argument that he would have delivered [...]

A parable about mocking frameworks

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:00:41 -0600

Somewhere around 1985, I introduced Ralph Johnson to a bigwig in the Motorola software research division. Object-oriented programming was around the beginning of its first hype phase, Smalltalk was the canonical example, and Ralph was heavily into Smalltalk, so I expected a good meeting. The bigwig started by explaining how a team of his had [...]

Agile Performance Testing in Software Test & Performance

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:32:39 -0600

A magazine version of my Agile Performance Testing article was published in the November 2009 issue of Software Test & Performance.

I explained what this article is about in my earlier post