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A month ago Michael Bolton sent me an article that underscores the problem of “all tests being deterministic” and “we have to cover all the functions in this application.” Something I was thinking about while I read the article was how a checkup or physical at a doctor’s office works and how that compares to [...]

I wrote an article for the January AST Community News, you can find it here. Enjoy!

Let me start by saying that normally I’m proud to be seen as a software tester. I understand how challenging, rewarding, and interesting this job is. However, there is a dark side to being seen as a tester. Testers can be treated differently by people who don’t understand or don’t see testing the same way [...]

I attended CAST this year in Grand Rapids and as usual it didn’t disappoint. For most returning CAST’ers the reason they come back year after year is the high level of interaction or conferring. And while that is very true of CAST what I find interesting is the transformations that occur in the matter of [...]

I regularly work with hardware that interacts with the software (not off the shelf PC hardware, custom hardware device). Over the years the hardware I work with has gotten more complex, which also means the firmware has gotten bigger and more complex. What’s interesting is that some people view firmware and software as unrelated and [...]

Last year was my first CAST. I had heard countless good things from the community testers I interact with, this in combination to the cost savings were the main drivers for my attendance (employers like the fact that its 1/2 the cost of a larger conference). Once I got there I discovered why it was [...]

I’ve always been intrigued by how and why testers think and do the things they (we) do. Each day I get the opportunity to see this tester uniqueness played out, and it is always interesting and often thought provoking. Lately I’ve been thinking about the differences between new or novice testers and more experienced testers. [...]

When did compatibility become something other than a bug (defect)? Especially when its a mission critical system with older devices in the field.
US Military GPS compatibility issue

As testers we talk a lot about bugs and how they can/do reduce value in our products and projects. Well here is an example of a bug that incorrectly increased a monetarily value, which decreased the software’s value.
Woman Wins $20.18 instead of …

It seems to me that an awful lot of people treat automation like duct tape. Duct tape tends to be the miracle cure for all kinds of problems (there are websites dedicated to this premise). If the bumper on your car falls off “duct it”, if your plumbing leaks “duct it”, if you need a [...]