Chronicles Of Testing

Submitted the below problem statement as an abstract to speak at ConTEST NYC . Apart from gathering test ideas by referring to the requirements specification document, a new tester is at loss. What are our goto sources of test ideas? Why do we stop at the explicit sources of knowledge? How else can we testers/non-testers generate ideas to test? What has come to my rescue is being invested in learning from more than one source to gather test ideas. Diverging t o learn by observation, by questioning the requirements by donning the thinking hats, testing the design, implemented code, learning from all, and from different fields of study such as cognitive biases, prior experiences that a user and a tester has had testing in the same or similar domain helps to search and find ideas to test (by collecting information relevant to the application under test). W hat best way to learn than by asking relevant questions which translates to subjecting the application to tests that ...

It is interesting to analyze what we subscribe to and are involuntarily subscribing to, especially when we are in the beacon-range of active signals. In one such encounter, I overheard two people conversing on the pathway. Person A to B says, ‘with an additional 10000 rupees neither are you going to become rich nor I will become poor by lending it to you’. Bringing this analogy to testing, with every idea generated while testing how greatly the quality of the product can be improved. The quest for test ideas is unending for anyone who is test-obsessed. The generation of ideas is limited to the current know-how we have of the domain, technology, hardware supported, implementation technique used. Testing can be performed with this limited knowledge. To deep dive, a tester needs to extend the know-how and generate more such ideas by integrating lessons from different schools of testing, refer knowledge work of expert testers and themselves contribute to this body of work. An...