Category: Terminology
Gatekeeping in testing
We often talking about gatekeeping in testing as a problem in the sense that testers shouldn’t be the ones that decide when something goes out to production. But “gatekeeping” can also be used in the sense of excluding others. In fan communities you might hear “you aren’t a real Marvel fan if you’ve only seen… 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
Regression and Functional tests are meaningless
I have a major pet peeve with any test strategy that includes something called “regression tests”. I recently saw someone ask, “Do we need to run regression tests on a project where the CI/CD pipeline runs all tests on any git commit?” On a different project, someone asked, “Now that we run this new test… Read more
Lumpers and Splitters in Testing
I find myself getting frustrated a lot with the online discourse around testing. Often, it comes down to what language we choose to use to describe what we do as testers. I have a running list of “debates I no longer care about” in my notes app, but this post isn’t about airing those grievances…. Read more
Don’t “check” or “verify” in your tests
Clearly communicating intent is an underrated skill in writing tests. In automated tests especially it is tempting to think that since the code defines what gets checked, the human-readable parts of the test — the description or the method names — aren’t as important to get right. I often see people define custom assertion functions… Read more