testingReflections.com - ethics

Latest Column -- Testing training: Disturbing behaviors of students

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:17:13 -0600

My latest column...

Drive-by training. Never heard of it? It is exactly what it sounds like. You drive to a training facility (or an instructor drives to you), for a day or three the instructor delivers the pre-packaged training class, then everyone drives back home. It's not the best training model ever invented. There is generally no student assessment, and the only instructor/course provider accountability is reputation. Even so, many good ideas can be shared and lots of students come away feeling that it was well worth "the drive."

As it turns out, I've been delivering a lot of drive-by training to software testers this fall. That in itself isn't particularly noteworthy -- end-of-the-budget year is a popular time for drive-by training -- but something that is noteworthy is that I have noticed a rise in some disturbing behaviors among the individuals and organizations that select and attend drive-by training.

At first, I thought it was just me. But after an informal poll (and some lively discussions) with my employees and trainer friends in the testing realm, I became increasingly convinced that the behaviors I'm noticing are not exclusive to me and that I'm not the only one who thinks they are on the rise.

Read the rest of the column.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

When information degrades to data

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:25:14 -0600

Lawrence Winkler has two libraries. One is a traditional one, a library of information with new books and some more than 100 years old. The other library is now just a library of data, which was 3 books he had paid $100 for. What happened? Technological upgrades have degraded his books into unintelligible digital goobledegook. Now he is trying to highlight the dangers of storing information only in a digital form. In May, he had the 69th comment on a post about ebooks and copyright. In October, he had the 10th comment on a post about Amazon pushing their e-book device.

German Bank burns $500 million in automated transfer, and no one blames the computer?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:59:30 -0500

The German media branded them “Germany’s dumbest bankers” but two Board members and a senior risk controller of the state owned KfW Bank were suspended then sacked two weeks later. They were blamed for a transfer of 350 million euros to the US Lehman Brothers, 2 hours before Lehman’s declared bankruptcy despite saturation media reporting of Lehman’s troubles.

Homeland Security’s “unwelcome visitors": tales of many bug types

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:48:01 -0600

The American Homeland Security megadepartment has been in the news recently, covering a whole taxonomy of bug types, relating to people seen as unwelcome visitors and unwelcome visitors seen as raindrops! Firstly, we have the sad story of honest Debbie Williams Arthur who tried to renew her Virginia driver’s license over the net, only to have it rejected with a message saying her car stickers had to be picked up in person. Her husband went to pick them up, only to be told it had to be Debbie, and she had to call a toll free number in the meantime. When she rang the number she was told that Homeland Security had identified her as a fugitive called Debbie K Williams from another part of the U.S, and to bring her ID in to the office. When she got there, they said the problem would be fixed in 15 minutes, then she was told after an hour there were complications. These included the fact that the system didn’t think she existed and the Homeland Security override would not allow her records to be set up. After 3 ½ hours she left, after being advised to walk home because any police check would result in her arrest as a fugitive! She ended up with a hand written note (!) for the police in case she was stopped. Despite being told the issue would be fixed and she’d be given phone updates, none came. Finally after another visit to the office, she got her car stickers (at which point she probably was a fugitive driving with expired car stickers!). This is a production bug, relating to data. The system as a whole works, but missing data and locks on the existing data from the external homeland security system presumably needed software fixes to rectify the bug.

ET thoughts: Prediction and the all players all-in poker bug

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:27:34 -0600

One of the key aspects of exploratory testing is Prediction. By background research (specialist knowledge, interviewing others or looking at specifications, etc) or by observing software, we understand the models involved and can predict other behavior based on a model or model interactions. While some of this involves predicting positive behaviors, a skilled exploratory tester is often able to leverage failure models to find bugs. Once a bug is found, further investigation may lead to other variations of the bug often with a higher impact.

Pushing boundaries at airports

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:19:13 -0600

Not all bugs are created equally. One of the most common bugs is all about equality, too much or not enough. It is caused by code being “off by one”, where a boundary is meant to be at a particular point but is one value too high or too low, for example >=5 (5 or greater) instead of >5 (greater than 5).

Two incidents at airports had me inadvertently testing for boundary bugs. I had dropped off someone at the airport, waited for their delayed boarding and returned to the car park. Parking was $10 for up to an hour, then $18 dollars for up to 2 hours. I paid my ticket at a machine at 61 minutes, and paid $18! Damn. That boundary was spot on.

That wasn’t as painful as another time, getting into the checkin queue a few minutes before the half hour baggage cutoff. I waited a minute or so, and the attendant started to check me in then apologized that the system was preventing her completing it because the half hour boundary had just been crossed. I ended up bumped to the next flight leaving in another 2 hours. Even worse, she explained that if I had checked in at a kiosk instead of queuing, she could have checked my bags in and got me on that flight. At another time I might have been interested in my inclusive interpretations of their exclusive boundary (queue before cutoff versus be at counter before cutoff vs. be checked in manually by cutoff vs. kiosk checkin). That was beyond the bounds of common decency, but the program overruled any staff sympathy, though there was empathy. I just wandered off into a fog of unbounded apathy, which had no equal. I found no bugs but both situations certainly bugged me! [grin]

Read a great article about boundary testing here

Good Advice

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:42:20 -0600

I like Good Advice by Graeme Simsion very much: it lists many real traps that you may fall into during consulting engagements (and, truly speaking, overall business communication). Actually, during performance engagements, I face all these issues again and again. While the issues are definitely generic, looks like they are more acute when you touch performance: usually too much egos and money involved, too much work may need to be done, etc.

Privacy, PR and the unpardonable "problematic" breach

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:37:56 -0600

At this time of year, various worst-of lists are appearing. Despite privacy being one of the few legally enforcable non-functional requirements for software, there are still some frightening incidents Even worse is the PR propaganda to try to excuse them.

While these are offences under the law, the fact is that many of them do not directly impact the people involved. A new privacy breach that is unforgivable has been occuring in Ohio in the U.S, Some adopted children visiting hospital are being called out with their birth names, and having their details displayed with their birth parents records, not their adopted parents. Some of these children may not even realize they are adopted. And of course, there is some PR as well, a government official said, “Obviously, when information like this is being inadvertently spit out by a computer, it is problematic”. I guess if there was an award for the understatement of the year, that may qualify!

Hourly Rant...

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:53:32 -0500

I just finished answering a question posted on LinkedIn by Esther Schindler in researching a article she is working on for CIO.com

She asks (summarized):

"There's just one question to answer: If you could get the (client) boss(es) to understand JUST ONE THING about computer consulting and contracting, what would it be?

Or, to put the same question another way: If you were given a single wish of something to change (about a current or past client) what would it be?"

Context, an equivalence class album review and some heuristics

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:10:06 -0500

In Australia, the new tax year starts in July, so there are many sales on at the moment. I found some CDs at one place at a throwaway price, $2 each. One of them is an interesting instrumental album by an artist I hadn’t heard of, Tino Izzo. There is one track I have an issue with, called a samba, but it is too slow and fails all "samba" requirements, but does pass "flamenco" muster. Artistic licence, I guess.

I did a web search for reviews of the album, and found a glowing “must buy” review here at the artist’s web site. So based on the heuristic of artists reviews at their sites will be positive, I find it holds, it is positively glowing. It’s written by a specialist in guitar music, who mentions several artists that I have never heard of. I'm not sure how deep his knowledge is though; one rocking track he highlights for "flamenco flair" has no Spanish styled classical guitar at all (just some bongos). The track is an old Beatles ballad, in a new uptempo context and great new arrangement. So that's one issue I have with an otherwise good review. I did find some flamenco flair on another rocking track (4). A good heuristic for Spanish styling is a Spanish track name! Maybe the reviewer's memory failed him. There's even a track for that, "Elusive Memories", also dedicated to testing too fast and not quite remembering how you caused that big bug...

I found another album review which is the most unusual one I have ever read. It was definitely not what I expected. The reviewer starts off discussing people’s reactions to types of music, then her dislike of this type of music, then finishes off by saying she is unfair and unreasonable, before mentioning the artist and album names already listed at the start. Oh, there is a picture of the album art. So there is not one word of actual review. The crazy thing is, she thinks it is new age, when a lot of it is rock, so if she’d only listened to it….. So as a review for me, showstopper, complete failure. As an opinion piece, it is quite well written (but completely wrong to most people interested in the style of music).

This is effectively an equivalence class review: I dislike all the music of which this album is a sample, here’s why I dislike it, and I’m sorry. So as an acceptance tester, why was she chosen for the review? Why didn’t she even listen to it? As a customer, if I am interested in the album, her review has no value at all. Even worse, if I read her review, and buy it because I love that type of music, I might feel robbed when I heard the screaming gutar solos. Ah, I see, reuse. This can now become a generic review of all similar albums. Very clever. Reuse of the completely useless.. [grin]

On the music side, I was also able to apply an album buyers heuristic. The first and last tracks are the best! Those edge conditions aren't just useful in testing....

Blame requirements (satirical poem)

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:00:42 -0500

By this writing I want to point out it is human to reject own responsibility; it is human to blame other individuals (indirectly) involved instead. Software project quality issues are to no way an exception:

Announcing CAST 2007

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:23:11 -0500

I attend a lot of conferences. I enjoy different conferences for different reasons. That said, there is only one conference that I automatically budget my own money and my own time to attend every time....

CAST - the annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing

If you haven't already registered I recommend you do it soon - seats are going fast, and there are only a limited number available. If you really care about good testing, teaching testing, advancing testing, conferring with thought leaders, sharing ideas and getting your questions answered, CAST is the place to be. Every talk includes *more* time for questions and answers than for the presentation, dramatically increasing your ability to learn the details you need to apply or internalize new ideas.

Resumes in Context

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:52:37 -0500

On a forum related to James Bach's Rapid Software Testing On-line (Beta) class (which I highly recommend! A few more technical issues to work out and it should be ready for prime-time) another student (Anne Marie Martin, from Atlanta) posted the following (lightly edited):

Here's something I struggle with though, and would love to hear thoughts on. I have about 11 years experience in testing, and try to invest time in learning more about testing, and learning more in general that can help me with testing - such as the things we've all been discussing about philosophy and learning and Weinberg and a hundred other things that have tickled my brain during our discussions and threads that made my 'to do' list of things to read or explore or learn from.

What Best Practices really are. -- CIO Article

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:52:21 -0500

Of all the places I expected to find an article supporting the fact that Best Practices is nothing more than a square on someone's buzz-word bingo card, CIO wasn't it. The highlights are these...

Using celebs for endorsements has become such best practice that everyone does it. So what is best practice about it? Nothing. The phrase is simply a demonstration of how cliched business language dresses up the concept of copying something someone else has done. And when lots of companies copy the copier, it becomes dull, intellectually stagnant and offers no competitive advantage. It's just a me-too strategy executed by the cynical, the lazy, or the lazy cynics.

How to Ask (and Not Ask) for Free Consulting

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:51:32 -0500

James Bach has posted a great blog about how to and how not to ask industry leaders for assistance.

http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/70

This rang true with me and my experiences, but some folks seemed to find his perspective to be arrogant or rude. Below I've copied a representative quote and my response.

Quote: But the way he handled it, and because I know that James Bach is a very experienced person in answering forum like questions, it looks as if Bach planed it all and maneuvered the poor guy to this corner, maybe to show him how he should behave. The way Bach handled it is IMHO was one of the worse that I have seen. Instead of getting healthy results (the guy understands his mistake, apologizes and learns from it) it looks like Bach did what ever he could to insult the guy in order to get that kind of reaction. I can learn a lot from James Bach but I am not going to take this approach as a good example to learn from. As Linda said, it doe’s him no credit. :EndQuote