September 2008
Where in the world is Matthew Robert Heusser →
For those who don’t know, the engineering team at Socialtext has been very very very busy putting the finishing touches on our next-generation product. And there’s video. You can sign up for a…
xUnit TeamCity Integration →
Last night I was doing some experiments with xUnit and TeamCity. TeamCity has a nice UI for reporting tests, however by default it only supports NUnit. Luckily, extending this to support other…
Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Skynet →
What’s wrong with advanced artificial intelligence systems these days?
It’s no surprise that self-aware systems will always turn on their creators - anyone could see that coming. …
Equivalence class partitioning: is it real or is... →
Last week I attended the Software Testing and Performance conference in Boston. I presented a workshop on Systematic Testing Techniques, as well as a talk on random test data generation, and…
Features and functionality in Virtual Lab... →
If you are in the market looking for/educating yourself on virtual lab automation solutions, this post might be useful for you. I’ll spend some time writing about basic capability that you are…
Testing for Broken Windows (The Glass Kind) →
Today I want to talk about broken windows, and I’m not talking about the popular operating system from Microsoft. Instead I want to talk about real actual windows - the glass kind you see on…
In Defense of Gallows Humor →
Keep this handy for the next time you’re called into a boss’s office because you’re mocking the developers openly: When the Going Gets Tough, The Going Crack Wise.
On the other hand,…
Why don't we? →
Who is the smartest person you know? Who is the smartest person you know that does what you do for a living? How much time do you spend with them? How much time could you spend with them? Why don’t…
Saying NO to ISTQB Software Testing Boards →
Back in 2005, I participated in an initiation discussion of a new “Bangladesh Software Testing Board” under ISTQB. It was a very disappointing discussion. Instead of giving attention to how…
(title unknown) →
Solutions for Automating and Managing Change →
What tools are the best for Change Management?
22,500 Paper Airplanes →
Rainn Wilson (Dwight K. Schrute from the Office) was the MC at this year’s Microsoft company meeting. Ever since they tore down the Kingdome, the meeting has taken place at SafeCo field. Sitting…
by Miško Hevery We talked about how it is... →
by Miško Hevery
We talked about how it is important to separate the new operators from the application logic. This separation forces your code to have factories which are responsible…
Has Google Changed the Meaning of “Beta?” →
A recent study has shown that 49% of Google’s products are in beta. That’s incredible, especially considering that these products include Gmail, Google Docs, and more. So what does beta really…
Test Suite Granularity Matters →
I just read a very interesting research paper entitled, “The Impact of Test Suite Granularity on the Cost-Effectiveness of Regression Testing” by Gregg Rothermel et al. In it the authors examine…
the empire at star west →
If you only attend one conference on testing, I recommend STAR (East or West). It remains the biggest conference and trade show in the industry and all the best speakers are on their keynote…
PEST - September 2008 →
Fantastic Stuff! PEST this month was another great event. Huge kudos go to Dan, Jess and Rachida for putting together such a fun event. The team tested the PEST portal, the new internal job board…
Chasing a Floating Advertisement →
That’s an advertisement that’s too interactive. Running on Reason.com, it asked me to subscribe or donate by overlaying the content. I always enjoy FatBoy, BadBoy, StupidBoy, and all the ads…
This Blog Makes Top 100 Software Development... →
Just barely, but I made the list. It is determined by Technorati authority, Alexa rank, Google page rank, etc. Check out the list as there are a lot of interesting blogs on it. The top 10 are:
Testing Certification – My experience of the ISEB... →
Recently, Red Gate sent me on the ISEB Foundation Testing certification course. I had heard a lot of reports about the certification from fellow testers, but the course was only two days, in…
Ahhhh Vista, you teach us so much →
Today I am a very grateful software tester. I am grateful for the developer lead on the project that I have been testing on during this latest RC cycle. Release time: T minus 6 hours. Issue: Huge…
Put That On My Business Card →
Briefly considered Qualitymonger, hoping it would sound like fearmonger and warmonger, but ultimately decided it would sound more like fishmonger.
So I guess I’ll go with Software Demolitions…
Python - Thread Synchronization and Thread-safe... →
This is the best article on thread synchronization in Python that I have come across: Thread Synchronization Mechanisms in Python
It is very clearly explained and just helped me solve a major…
OWASP Pelting →
I’m already back in the airport after a long day over at the world OWASP conference in New York. Among other things that were noteworthy was some extremely tacky marketing schwag from the ISC2 folks…
Script# talk tonight in london →
this might be a bit on a short notice, but I’m doing a talk tonight on
script# at skills matter. script# converts c# code into javascript and
is sort of a .net response to the google web toolkit….
The Lucky Thirteen →
Harry McCracken has done a great post on The Thirteen Greatest Error Messages of All Time. This baker’s dozen rouge gallery should bring joy to any tester’s heart.
Slides: Agile Testing Webinar →
Did you miss our recent Agile Testing Webinar? We have the slides available for you to download now. A full video of the webinar will be up shortly.
Optimizing Your Agile Testing Processes
the future of software testing (part 6) →
Testing Culture
A couple of months ago I attended a lecture given by one of the Empire’s cache of Technical Fellows (maybe he was a Distinguished Engineer, I am not sure as they look so…
Comments Please →
I was reading about Chrome and how Google might have got themselves into trouble by reverse-engineering Windows The giveaway seems to have been a comment in the code // Completely undocumented…
Open Source Automated Tests →
Interesting… Google
Maps has open sourced their Selenium Test Suite and less than humbly asks
you to add to it!
Not only do we test Google’s Beta applications…NOW, we can help them…
Binding multiple NSArrayControllers: a fun fact →
This may be of use someday to someone trying to figure out their Cocoa bindings problem.
Summary: Do not bind some columns in a table to one array controller, others to another.
I’m using…
A New Version of WinTask - 3.5a →
The good folks at TaskWare have released a new version of the favorite tool in my toolbox - WinTask.
This is a minor release, but adds a few new features:
DelTree()
Deletes the…
Who Would Make Their Logo Look Like A Broken... →
Probably not TDAmeritrade; they’re honest professionals (or so the commercials would have me believe). I guess this is just an authentic broken image displaying on the print views:
Click…
No Defect Left Behind →
A developer turned tester doesn’t want you to be a “net negative producing tester” and says:
It wasn’t only poor bug reports that wasted time. The majority of the bug reports were low-hanging…
I (heart) my tests →
(This isn’t for you. This is a love letter to my unit tests, who deserve it, who deserve a 5 am stream of consciousness homage.)
Slow builds really bug me. And having lots of unit tests is no…
Pex and Pex Extensions 0.7.30916 →
A quick announcement to say that Pex 0.7 has been released. As such, I have also updated the Pex Extensions, which I have blogged about previous, allowing you to generate NUnit,…
Rewarding Quality →
Read a blog about The cost of (not) testing software It was not a new idea, by now everyone must know the theory that the later in the lifecyle a bug is discovered the costlier it is to fix What…
This isn't the agile you're looking for -... →
Unfortunately the industry has latched on to the word “Agile” and has begun to use it as a prefix that means “good”. This is very unfortunate, and discerning software professionals should be very…
News Flash: Microsoft Uses An... →
Friends, Romans, and QAing men, I often harp on paying attention to your document properties because they might betray you. Or at least identify your organization instead of highlighting your…
Notes from a couple of conferences - VMworld and... →
Like I mentioned in my previous post, we were at VMworld 2008 last week. It was a good experience and the conference was very well organized. I’m sure it was a wonderful learning and immersion…
A Softie Again →
I’m thrilled to announce that I’m about to become a Microsoftie, again! I have been given the opportunity to return to Microsoft as a senior test lead, working in the Management Division. No, that’s…
Stack Overflow Needs More Pythonistas →
Stack Overflow is a new community site for answering programming questions. It is very impressive to me, but there seems to be a very Microsoft (.NET, C#, etc) slant to the questions being asked.
Twitter poll for testers: How do you define your... →
I’m curious to know what testers think their job descriptions are. Please send me your replies via Twitter to @jasonbarile. In the spirit of brevity, this keeps your answers to <= 140 characters :)
BuildTweeter - TFS Build Publisher for Twitter →
If you’re looking for even more ways to get pinged by your build server, check out release v0.1 of BuildTweeter on CodePlex. It’s a handy little Windows service that monitors build events and…
Answering Your Own Question on LinkedIn.com →
Apparently, the user has answered his own question on LinkedIn.com:
The question posed with 6 problems of spelling and grammar, 0 answers.
The question, posed with 2 remaining…
Working with Gmail effeciently →
On somewhat of an off-topic, I wanted to talk about working with Gmail. Half the world’s civilization uses it, including myself, both at work and at home, but many of us don’t get it…
Tester Education - II →
The basic idea behind my tester education post was very simple - I would love to publish a book, and the time for it may be coming soon. At the same time, I’ve got a full-time day job working for a
Don't be a Negative Tester →
I was reading a blog post about the concept of a Net Negative Producing Programmer or NNPP A NNPP is a programmer who “inserts enough spoilage to exceed the value of their production” It made…
Another Maxim →
You cannot spell adequate without QA.
Seven Tips on Virtual Test Lab Automation →
We are back in the office after attending VMworld 2008 last week. The event was great, and it was a wonderful conference for VMLogix. Will get up a detailed post around this in a couple of days….
