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Treatises on the practice of software testing is now located at http://testingmentor.com/imtesty
I.M. Testy is moving!
I started this blog about 3 1/2 years ago to share some ideas, observations, and lessons I’ve...
Date: 11/18/2009
Localization Testing Part IV
The past series of posts have focused on one of localization testing which describes the largest...
Date: 11/12/2009
Localization Testing Part III
Part 1 provided an overview of localization class issues, and Part II discussed issues with...
Date: 11/03/2009
Localization Testing – Part II
I should be of no surprise to anyone that localization testing generally focuses on changes in the...
Date: 10/30/2009
Localization Testing: Part 1
When I first joined Microsoft 15 years ago I was on the Windows 95 International team. Our team was...
Date: 10/26/2009
Adding Variability in Test Case Design
I love autumn! Yes, I am definitely a boy of summer and very much prefer warmer weather; however,...
Date: 10/19/2009
Randomizing static test data in automated tests
A significant percentage of static test data is stored in tabular comma delimited or tab-delimited...
Date: 10/10/2009
The primary goal of a tester should be to work themselves out of a job!
Software is knowledge. Software is the intangible product crafted by a team of people who have...
Date: 10/01/2009
Prevention is the best medicine
The past 2 weeks have been a bit rough. While in Israel I began to feel a bit congested. By the time...
Date: 09/23/2009
Best Practices – Philosophy vs. Practicality
I have spent the last week in Israel teaching our new SDET course in Herzillya and our Senior SDET...
Date: 09/12/2009
微软的软件测试之道(Microsoft核心技术丛书)
I am really happy to announce that our book has been released in China and available on the Chinese...
Date: 09/10/2009
Test Automation ROI (Part II)
Last week I talked about the silliness of wasting time calculating the return on investment (ROI) of...
Date: 09/02/2009
Measuring Test Automation ROI
I just finished reading Implementing Automated Software Testing by E.Dustin, T. Garrett, and B. Gauf...
Date: 08/25/2009
A different perspective on random name generation
My daughter made me laugh today when she offered a bit of her philosophy. She told me that her...
Date: 08/15/2009
Stupid Hammer!!!
I remember as a young lad working construction for my uncle one summer. The hours were long, it was...
Date: 08/11/2009
UI Automation Out of Control
When many people think of test automation they envision rudimentary scripts with hard-coded events...
Date: 08/01/2009
Random comments…
This week, I will keep this post quite short and redirect you to my answers to an interview by the...
Date: 07/22/2009
Testing is Sampling
It seems it is about this time of year that I need to detach a bit from the world to reflect back on...
Date: 07/16/2009
Better Bug Reports
When we report a bug our hope is that bug is fixed. But, of course we know that isn’t always the...
Date: 05/20/2009
Programming Paradigms in Test Automation
Regardless of the personal opinions of a few people, the simple fact is that the demand for software...
Date: 05/13/2009
Assessing Tester Performance
Using context-free software product measures as personal performance indicators (KPI) is about as...
Date: 04/28/2009
"Good enough" is not good enough!
This week I came across a discussion [regarding test design] in which a tester wrote, "…the main...
Date: 04/17/2009
Look below the UI for more effective and robust UI automated test case designs
Last month I wrote about simplistic views of UI test automation in which some people want to pretend...
Date: 04/14/2009
The quality quandary
I often find discussions about quality to be hypothetical, and in fact unless you define your...
Date: 03/27/2009
Exploratory testing inside the box
Much of the information about exploratory testing focuses on testing from an end-user perspective....
Date: 03/20/2009
GUI test automation is not child's play
There are many approaches to test automation from unit testing to system level testing through the...
Date: 03/12/2009
Basic Blocks Aren't So Basic
In the book How We Test Software at Microsoft I discuss structural testing techniques. Structural...
Date: 03/06/2009
Troubleshooting Test Data with String Decoder
I value static test data that is derived from historical failure indicators, or representative of...
Date: 02/25/2009
Random string generation…Update!
One of the biggest challenges in input testing is the sheer amount of potential characters and the...
Date: 02/17/2009
Thinking about fly fishing…
I am an avid fly-fisherman, and I am spending a few of these last winter evenings tying flies in...
Date: 02/06/2009
The Minefield Myth (Part 2) – The value of regression testing
Last week I discussed the fallacy of the minefield analogy misrepresented by some people to suggest...
Date: 01/29/2009
The Minefield Myth (Part 1)
In my studies at university I studied anthropology. Several courses I took surveyed folklore and its...
Date: 01/19/2009
Data-Driven Testing
I am generally not a big fan of static data in test automation, but being a pragmatic person, I know...
Date: 01/04/2009
The Ultimate Desktop Reference
I have a library of books and white papers on software testing, engineering processes and...
Date: 12/23/2008
Prescriptive vs. Descriptive 'scripted' tests
Something that raises red flags in my brain is hard-coded strings or test data in either a manual...
Date: 12/16/2008
How We Test Software At Microsoft
This past year has been quite busy for me. Too busy. Besides trying to keep up with my busy teaching...
Date: 12/06/2008
Temporary test files
There are occasionally times during an automated test needs to create a temporary file during the...
Date: 12/02/2008
Training is Controversial…Really?
I just returned from a business trip to Israel. I was a long time on the road (a week at EuroStar...
Date: 11/24/2008
Boundary testing isn’t guessing at numbers!
At a recent conference a speaker posed a problem in which a field accepted a string of characters...
Date: 11/04/2008
Thoughts on leadership
Last week I was at the Test2008 conference in India. The organizers from PureTesting planned a grand...
Date: 10/24/2008
Thoughts on Professionalism
As a young lad growing up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay I would often spend part of my summer...
Date: 10/08/2008
Equivalence class partitioning: is it real or is it a figment in our imagination?
Last week I attended the Software Testing and Performance conference in Boston. I presented a...
Date: 09/30/2008
Think before re-inventing the wheel
There are rare occasions when an exceptionally bright and innovative person comes along and actually...
Date: 09/18/2008
Test Automation: Simple Automated Test Case Templates
Templates can be useful tools to help increase individual efficiency and team consistency. Yet, I am...
Date: 09/09/2008
La rentrée
It has been some time since I posted. Quite frankly I was burnt out, and I finally realized that I...
Date: 09/02/2008
Functional techniques are more than black box techniques
Too often many tester's mistakenly assume that functional techniques such as equivalence class...
Date: 08/07/2008
Test Automation: Programmatic Platform Profiling
Occasionally, the execution or outcome of a test depends on the operating system version on which...
Date: 07/02/2008
Certification Wars
I started diving in the late 70's, and in1985 I became a PADI certified open water scuba instructor....
Date: 05/31/2008
Automation Foibles Unveiled: Saving random data
Now, many of you probably know that I am a big fan of computer generated random test data that is a...
Date: 05/13/2008
Email - the curse of productivity
It has been quite some time since I have posted. Part of that is due to personal distractions...
Date: 05/01/2008