December 2009
Trinidad 20091121 and the future →
I just packaged and released Trinidad 20091121 to maven repository maven.neuri.com. this version is compiled and linked against the latest stable Fitnesse version 20091121 (which is also deployed to…
People Learning →
Nearly everything in software involves some humans doing the job. Today I got a phone call:
Caller: Do you have some resources for me? Me: Sorry, I don’t have resources for you here. Just people.
http_rrd_profiler - HTTP Request Profiler with RRD... →
http_rrd_profiler is an HTTP testing/monitoring tool written in Python. It uses Python’s httplib to send a GET request to a web resource and adds performance timing instrumentation between each…
Two new BDD workshops available →
I’m launching two new Behaviour-Driven Development workshops in late January.
Introduction to BDD is an intensive one day workshop which introduces behaviour-driven development to developers,…
Selenium 2.0 and Beyond! →
For those of you that are fans of Selenium, you’ll probably want to hear what Simon Stewart (Google) and Jason Huggins (Sauce Labs) have to say about Selenium 2.0 and beyond. In particular, the…
About Gender Preference →
This post isn’t about bias, but it is about something far less insidious. What if you just prefer what feels familiar to you or what is easier to read or you relate to naturally more? I’ve had some…
Saved By Zero... →
It’s not just a song by the Fixx!
If there is a single concept in software testing that I always have difficulty teaching to new testers, it is the concept of “null” vs. zero or blank. Even…
On Thick Skin →
We have several teams here at work, and every week those teams have a team meeting. The topics range from escalations to design discussions to estimations, etc. Some of the team meetings are kind of…
Psychic-ology and the Art of Managing Expectations →
Do you expect the people you interact with most often to know what you’re thinking? If so, watch out, because….
More…
Electromind and Atlantis Software Selenium... →
On Saturday 5th December I attended the Electromind and Atlantis Software Selenium workshop. I enjoyed the workshop and learnt a few things to get me started with Selenium. This is pretty much…
ISEB Test Analyst Practitioner - Done it! →
Well they say the best laid plans of mice and men often go askew - I really had intended to post more about the course, revision and subsequent exam but in the end time got the better of me.
I went…
Nice Thoughts for the Wintry Season →
I wrote a blog post on StickyMinds about my views on the importance of being nice. I particularly like some of the stories that commenters have shared about how they were able to get a good…
How to generate unique file name (QTP, VBScript) →
Parent page: Service Functions – System (QTP, VBScript)
How to generate a unique file name
if the file name already exists in the given folder
(That often happens, if you need to create a…
December SIGIST →
It was the last SIGIST (special interest group in software testing) run by the BCS last week in London. It was reasonably well attended with the Key Note being from Tom Gilb. I’ve seen Tom Gilb…
The Secret Seasonings of Punctuation →
A Welcome e-mail to the restaurant San Francisco Oven’s e-mail list is chock full of quotation marks and punctuation errors. For flavor!
Click for full size
Let’s see, we have:
…
Talent imitates, Genius steals →
Talent imitates, Genius steals
A very pertinent phrase for what’s been happening in the testing world recently. There’s been some high profile stealing or imitating of ideas and concepts but…
On Virtue →
It seems that lately the testingsphere has been all atwitter about virtue. That is to say, that at the same time, we’ve got people talking about plagarism, inappropriate behavior, kindness…
Transition to a Test Management Role →
So, this week, I place my individual contributor hat aside and I join the ranks of management. It’s actually quite overwhelming because my first instinctive reaction is to open the software and…
RST in Gothenburg 22-24 March 2010 →
When someone tosses you a program and says “you have one hour to test this” can you do it? Are you confident in your work? Can you explain what you did and why?
This unique 3-day course…
Don’t be a paperweight →
Picture a boat anchor made out of stacks of paper.
That’s what I call a paperweight - a tester who literally drags down projects because of the amout of paperwork they generate and/or require. They…
Games and Agile Software Development →
Agile software development practices have been finding their way in to various industries; finance, education, government, and even games.
More…
mutation testing →
Dear friends.
Can you please express your views regarding below question.
Can mutation testing be successfully used to improve TDD from a defect reduction perspective ?
Thanks in advance. …
The Irrational Tester - video and new version of... →
Here is version 1.06 of my paper “The Irrational Tester”. SQE have kindly posted a video of (one version of) the talk that goes with it; keynote at STARWest 2009. TestLab stuff coming soon…
Not all testing is software testing →
In many discussions about testing methods, courses, techniques, approaches etc it is usually software testing that is in focus. I cannot see why the limit is set to just software. For…
Testing and Testing Management tools - Can we... →
It sounds like a strange question and although it is related to my “day-to-day” work for pretty long time, I have only recently started to systematically invest in such deeper theoretical analysis.
Most organizations are using several products, in order to perform and manage their testing process.
Submission done, Backlog & Inbox Zero struggle... →
I finally got a submission posted for consideration for the STC magazine. A few weeks ago I thought this was going to be easy - I had two articles planned for submission (one serious and one…
It’s bubbly for me darling! (or cocoa…) →
With the festive season approaching latest research points out to the benefits of a daily tipple of bubbly, red wine or cocoa.
Clipped from www.guardian.co.uk via Google Reader
…
Bandwidth Throttling for testing →
Not every one has the luxury of using high bandwidth connections, you can witness and see the difference in the internet connection speed in your office and the one at home. These variations which…
Observation, A skill every testers needs →
After a short gap CWT had its 6th session where a game was played to test the observational skill of testers. Observation plays a vital role for every tester, a tester has to observe each and…
Multiple facets →
As a swimming trainer I was taught that I reach some of my students with some exercises, some of my students with some tactile impulses while some others need to be taught the model by showing them…
Enough Lurking Around – Start Engaging! Take the... →
“Lurking” is the term used for people that read but don’t participate on online forums, chats, networks, etc. I usually advice people to “lurk before you leap” when joining a new community….
Selenesse, nee WebTest →
Marisa Seal and I have officially taken over maintenance of Gojko Adzic’s ‘WebTest’ project. If you want to know why, I wrote about it here. Marisa is doing the coding (so far; I’ve never…
It's My Fault →
Many years ago when I was in university, a friend approached me one day to ask if I’d be interested in going skydiving with her. She said she wanted to go but she wanted the company. I went. It was…
Matrices to understand large projects →
When working large test projects, I have a couple of matrices that I try to develop early on to better understand who’s doing what, where are they doing it, and when they are doing it. These include…
497 to read →
After a long absence from blogging due to work being totally manic, I find that I have 497 feeds on my blog reader to be read so another absence from blogging as I catch up with reading them all …
Lightning strike over Salak Selatan in Malaysia →
A lightning strikes over the beautiful downtown of Salak Selatan, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia. Shot with a Sony DSLR-A200 Camera in March, 2008.
Selenium-ToTW: Capturing Screenshots vs.... →
Capturing screenshots of your tests is one of the most important features you can give to an automation engineer. It’s the easiest way to actually understand from a report, why a test failed and how…
A Smattering of Selenium #11 →
Sauce RC Released for Mac – Sauce Labs released the Mac version of Sauce RC — with support for Firefox on Snow Leopard and Google Chrome
Selenium 2.0 alpha 1 – Simon announces the first alpha…
Good Enough →
What’s good enough for you
Is good enough for me
It’s good enough
It’s good enough for me - Cyndi Lauper, The Goonies R Good Enough
We are the problem with quality. I don’t mean software…
Can’t We Just Be Nice? →
It’s really important to me to be a nice person. I like to be nice to people. I help out, I smile, I answer questions without making people feel stupid, and I bring treats to work. I thank teammates…
NetApp SNMP monitoring with Nagios →
Here are some tips regarding the monitoring of NetApp filers with Nagios. First off, the Nagios Exchange includes many NetApp-specific monitoring scripts, all based on SNMP. I ended up using …
Oracle-Sun hearing starts today while Sun ships... →
The European Commission has started to listen to Oracle argument for its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems. All eyes will be on Sun’s MySQL business unit as the talk held last month…
Technorati →
Quick post to register with Technorati: PU5N5VB8JFPH
Scary Moments In Testing →
Yesterday we had to roll back some production code to its previous build. It was essentially a performance problem. The new bits kept timing out for the types of requests users were making from the…
Automated Report Testing - JART Expansions →
I brainstormed with my report dev and we came up with two valuable JART expansions. The first is coded and has already found two bugs (and saved me from days of bordom). Comprehensive data…
Tom Pinckney on how to survive the Slashdot effect →
Tom Pinckney, co-founder of Hunch, recently prescribed some tips on how to survive being Slashdotted. While Slashdot is no longer the biggest online driver of spikes of traffic, there was a time…
Eurostar 2009 – A Trip Report →
I am just back from EURO STAR at Stockholm. As a ritual, and like an obedient delegate and speaker, I am narrating the experience. It was my first visit to Sweden, home for Alfred Nobel. The…
Selenium-IDE 2.0 – The Great Pluginification →
With Se 2.0’s first alpha out yesterday, it is really time to start looking at Se-IDE 2.0. I strongly think the first thing that should happen is to take the approach Firebug did and remodel it as…
Autistic Testers? →
I recently saw an article about a company in Chicago training people with autism to be testers. There are some real doozies in there, like this:
Aspiritech — whose board includes Brix, now…
Four Stages of Testing Competence →
I have Chris Ashton to thank for this little piece of inspiration. He refers to levels of competence in a recent post of his. I was intrigued by the reference and went off to check out what the…