The widespread gap between having a little experience replicating other people's experiments and seeing some work on a lab, on the one hand, and learning to do and evaluate research on the other hand -- this gap is the home court for truthiness. In the world of truthiness, it doesn't matter whether the evidence in support of an absurd assertion is any good, as long as we can make it look to enough people as though good enough evidence exists.

I’ll be keynoting at CAST on investment modeling and exploratory test automation.In its essence, exploratory testing is about learning new things about the quality of the software under test. Exploratory test automation is about using software to help with that learning.Testing the value of investment models is an interesting illustration because it is all about [...]

The Association for Computing Machinery’s Computers & Society Special Interest Group just honored me with their “Person Who Made a Difference” award. Here’s what it’s about:Making a Difference AwardThis award is presented to an individual who is widely recognized for work related to the interaction of computers and society. The recipient is a leader in [...]

I finally found some time to update my website, posting links to some more of my papers and presentations. This post highlights the themes and posts the links to 28 publications over the past couple of years.

“The Proposed Final Draft of the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts was approved, subject to the discussion at the meeting and to editorial prerogative. Approval of the draft clears the way for publication of the official text of this project.” (from a report to members on the  actions taken this week at the [...]

James, Bret and I published our definition of context-driven testing at http://www.context-driven-testing.com/. Some people have found the definition too complex and have tried to simplify it, attempting to equate the approach with Agile development or Agile testing, or with the exploratory style of software testing. Here's another crack at a definition: Context-driven testers choose their testing objectives, techniques, and deliverables (including test documentation) by looking first to the details of the specific situation, including the desires of the stakeholders who commissioned the testing. The essence of context-driven testing is project-appropriate application of skill and judgment. The Context-Driven School of testing places this approach to testing within a humanistic social and ethical framework. Ultimately, context-driven testing is about doing the best we can with what we get. Rather than trying to apply "best practices," we accept that very different practices (even different definitions of common testing terms) will work best under different circumstances.

Ed Foster just died.Ed was one of the great journalists of Silicon Valley. He listened. He read. He asked probing questions. He changed his mind when the evidence proved him wrong.  He understood the computer and information industries from (at least) a dozen perspectives. And he could explain their perspectives to each other.Ed was part [...]

This year’s theme at CAST was multidisciplinary approaches to testing. Tying my experience in psychological research, legal practice, and testing, I gave the keynote address:  The Value of Checklists and the Danger of Scripts: What Legal Training Suggests for Testers. At its core, the talk says this:In the hands of professionals, checklists facilitate the exercise [...]