Tag: heuristics
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 paradox of why we automate
One of the most important challenges in test automation is figuring out what is actually worth automating. Not all things can be automated, not all things should be automated. But some can, and presumably some should. So inevitably we need to ask, why automate this thing and not that thing? That question came up in… Read more
The first Ministry of Testing meetup in Toronto
Last week I organized the first meetup in Toronto under the banner of the Ministry of Testing. There have been tester meetups in the city before, but they tended to be infrequent and or short-lived, with the event I was aware of almost a year ago. With Toronto as a fast growing tech hub, with… Read more
What you’re saying in a commit without tests
A corollary to last week’s post: A commit without a test can effectively be read as “It would be okay if somebody undid this, even unintentionally.” Sometimes that’s actually what you want; it might be inconsequential or a rapidly changing aspect or some internal implementation detail. You might be saying “this doesn’t directly impact the… Read more
Tests encode knowledge
I like collecting these little adages about testing. I didn’t come up with this one, but was reminded of it by a tweet yesterday: Lots of people (including myself) chimed in about having done this themselves in the replies. She eventually attributed the idea to Paul Grizzaffi. It’s not explicitly saying “tests encode knowledge”, but… Read more