Come out and see Bret, myself and some other local test experts as we discuss testing in Agile environments from 6-8:30pm this evening. http://agileaustin.org/

John speaks of about collegiality.  James gives a specific example.  I really am happy to read/hear this.  All to often ego and pride come into play which does not edify our profession.  Working with Scott, I have seen this happen in the .Net community. 

So, how do we demand/command respect from our peers, management, developers, BAs, etc. and grow this field?  We gain this by acting in a professional manner as well as giving testers respect even if it's unearned, regardless if they are a high profile name or newbie interested in breaking into the field. 

And, like John, I'll put action to my words- if anyone has a questions on where to start or anything testing related, you can reach me- geogratis at gmail dot com.

I previoulsy posted about spelling issues with Live Writer back when it was in Beta.  Now that it's out of Beta, it still has issues that my colleague Kevin has pointed out.

The team was having some questions regarding the granularity and estimation of stories, so Bret set up a phone call with Jeff Patton a last week.  Here are two takeaways from that call which have already proved invaluable.

First, after each iteration, do the 3 P's- 1) what is the quality of the Product, 2) Progress- are we moving forward?, and 3) Continually to evaluate the Process that you're using;  if it is not efficient, what would change to make it so?

And secondly, when deciding on what level of quality to implement a story, use the report card metaphor using the A-F grading scale.  For example, if the story were to be done in consecutive iterations, the first release would be a C, second iteration would be a B, and third iteration an A.   Slowly turn up the quality of the story based on your customer feedback.  And, when deciding if a story should be a D or B, find a slightly higher stopping point so that refactoring is minimized.

Regardless of political affiliation, this video is pretty funny. 

As I previously mentioned, my next computer was going to be a Mac.  So, lat night, I went out and bought myself a MacBook Pro.  Never had an Apple before, but I really liked what I read and had heard about them. 

My old laptop, which my wife primarily uses, was an HP and, well, let's just say it has some issues due to bad engineering.  So, I was in dire need of a new one.  I'm anxious to install Ruby, Watir and SafariWatir.

I am not the first at Dovetail to convert to Mac though- one of our sales reps bought a Macbook Pro last month, and Scott beat me by 2 weeks. 

Oh, and because I don't like doing things halfa**, I bought my wife a Macbook too.

I use Live Writer when creating my posts. For the most part, it works OK for me, but the spell-check is awful.  The dictionary is nowhere near what Word and Outlook are.  Why can't the Live Writer team use the same dictionary as the Word and Outlook teams?  After all, it's just a dictionary!  I know it's in Beta, but Google's Betas are more solid than Microsoft's.

Because of this limitation, when I create a post, I always copy/paste into Word to do a spell-check.  Once it is checked and my typos corrected, I copy/paste from Word back into Live Writer.  Then, I insert links, format it, proof it and finally publish it (I have the option selected to do a automatically do a spell-check before publishing).  

In a previous post, I used the word 'cancelled'.  In Word, acceptable ways of spelling are 'canceled' and 'cancelled'.  In Live Writer, ‘cancelled’ was picked up as misspelled and suggested spelling it as 'canceled'.  Word just told me is was OK and now it's not? 

What did I expect when it can’t even suggest a fix for its own name!  

And, while I'm speaking about Live Writer, why do I have to hit 'Shift+F7' to perform a spell-check when Word and Outlook have taught me to use 'F7'.  Consistency here people.

Anyone suggest another editor that is fully baked?

My last post got me thinking about ethics within our industry.   Our profession does not have an absolute code of ethics, but should there be one?   Policemen, doctors, psychologists, are just a few of professions that are bound by a code which they live by.  For example, if a doctor is in a grocery store, and someone in that store has a heart attack, their code of ethics states it is their responsibility to administer CPR until more medical attention arrives.

The problem as I see it is that there is not a single organization to which governs us.  Furthermore, those organizations that do exist, like the Association on Software Testing (AST) and American Society for Quality, are "volunteer organizations".  Without a recognized single organization, it is hard to mandate a code of ethics.  I know the AST has a code, but not all testers are required to be members in order to practice software testing.   

A code is not something that you live by 8 hours a day; it is something you live by every hour of every day.  Which leads me into another question: As professional testers (notice I say professional testers, as there are testers who do not view this as a career path), should we report bugs that we find while off-the-job?  Are we ever off-duty?  On one side, if we report every bug we find, we may not have time to get anything else done.  On the other hand, if we do report defects, I think this would bring more legitimacy to our profession, something I feel we desperately need.   

Personally, I try to categorize the level of severity of the bug, although this can be difficult to do without knowing the business and technical requirements- a true black box if you will.  For example, if it's a typo, I probably will not report it, unless I have time.  If the bug is within a purchase path of an application, as was my experience with Delta, I will go ahead and submit a defect report to them.  (I did tell Delta about their bug, but as of this writing, have not heard a response).  Now, whether or not the company chooses to act on my submittal is up to them. 

Should there be an absolute code of ethics for professional testers?  Do you feel ethically bound to report a defect that you found while off-the-job?  Do you report bugs while off-the-job?  Does severity play a role in whether or not you report it?  

PS- I do not report bugs for any Microsoft software, regardless of severity; I simply don’t have enough time. Not to mention, they have a vast amount of testers for this.