Category: General testing
The myth of “unstable” code
The most common reason I get for people delaying test automation is that the code is “unstable”, and automating too soon will result in a lot of re-work of automation. Better to only automate after a feature is “stable”, i.e. development work is all done, they say, so you won’t have to rework any of… Read more
Three ways that “Manual Testing” is a waste*
* when done at the wrong time, and depending on how you define “manual testing”. Callum Akehurst-Ryan had a post recently that broke down much better ways of thinking about manual testing, but I’m using it here how it’s used at my current company and presumably many others: scripted tests that have to be run… Read more
Bad reasons to test
“Complete” testing is impossible, so we have to do the best we can with the time and resources we have. Often, that comes down to making sure that there’s a good reason for each test to exist. If there isn’t, then you should remove it and spend that time on something more valuable. When evaluating… Read more
Testing in 2021, according to my Twitter bookmarks
My annual roundup of all the things about testing (and working as a programmer more generally) on Twitter that I found interesting enough to bookmark. “A picture is worth a thousand assertions“, quoting Angie Jones from the Test And Code podcast (but remember that all those assertions happen at once without being itemized) Angie Jones… Read more
The Gambler and other fallacies in Testing
I just listened to Episode 3 of the Ministry of Testing’s TestSphere Roulette podcast series, and something about the conversation irked me. The discussion was centered on the Gambler’s Fallacy card, which says: The human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data. Specifically, it usually refers to a gambler playing a game of chance… Read more