Could exploring diverse disciplines and industries lead to dramatic improvements in your effectiveness as a tester? The craft of testing has its origins in the social sciences. The characteristics that we seek to develop as testers include communication, creativity, critical thinking and curiosity. Typically we focus on metaphors from engineering and manufacturing and learn about the disciplines of these industries. There is so much to gain by learning about other industries such as Aviation and Health Care, and studying other disciplines, for instance, heuristics originated from behavioural economics and mind mapping was developed over centuries by philosophers and psychologists. In this talk, I will share my journey of being transformed from a regimented confirmation tester to a context-based exploratory tester. These changes occurred by the challenges faced by testing software in different industries and more importantly studying non-engineering disciplines.

1. Testing Biscuits:
Benefits of Exploring other
Industries and Disciplines
Conor Fitzgerald
conorfi.com
@conorfi

2. Magic @conorfi
Thanks Michael Bolton and Alan Richardson
@michaelbolton @eviltester

3. ● Checking (known unknowns)
● Automated Checking
● Exploratory (unknown unknowns)
Magic and Testing @conorfi

4. Controlled, Conservative and
Checking @conorfi

5. TPS
Reports
Testing
Procedure
Specifications
@conorfi

6. Manufacturing and
Construction
Testing Biscuits
@conorfi

7. CHANGE @conorfi

8. Bean Bags, Beers and
Bongs
Energy, Empathy
and Exploring @conorfi

9. Autonomy, Anarchy and
Automation @conorfi

10. Controlled, Conservative and
Checking @conorfi

11. 1. Controlled, Conservative and Checking
2. Energy, Empathy and Exploring
3. Autonomy, Anarchy and Automation
4. Controlled, Conservative and Checking
Which companies experienced large project failures?
Quiz Time
@conorfi

12. 1. Controlled, Conservative and Checking
(Large Project Failure)
2. Energy, Empathy and Exploring
(Huge Success)
3. Autonomy, Anarchy and Automation
(Steady Growth, Well funded)
4. Controlled, Conservative and Checking
(Large Project Failure)
Quiz Time
@conorfi

13. The Value of Pain @conorfi

14. Culture and Testing @conorfi

15. Principle 4. Projects unfold over time in
ways that are often not predictable
The Seven Basic Principles of the Context-Driven School
Cem Kaner, James Bach,Brian Marick, Bret Pettichord
@conorfiContext Driven

16. A Journey of Exploration
@conorfi

17. Test Gurus
@conorfi

18. Other Gurus
@conorfi

19. Aviation @conorfi

20. Checklist
”They came up with an ingeniously simple
approach: they created a pilot’s checklist."
The pilots went on to fly the Model 299 a total of
1.8 million miles without one accident."
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Atul Gawande
@conorfi

21. Pairing
● Pairing
● Mobbing
● Bug Bash
“Fresh Eyes Find Failures”
Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach
Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord @conorfi

22. Blameless Culture
● Report Errors
● No blame
● Correct Errors
Quickly
@conorfi

23. Etsy’s Blameless Culture
1. Assume Goodwill
2. Identify Causes not Culprits
3. Take your Time
“We instead want to view mistakes, errors, slips, lapses, etc.
with a perspective of learning.”
John Allspaw – Former CTO (Etsy)
@conorfi

24. A Culture of Questioning
● Cultural
Reorientation
● Speak Up
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
@conorfi

25. A Culture of Questioning
“Programmers like to talk about their work,
ask them questions.”
Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach
Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord
BDD
“Biscuit Driven Development”
Alexandra Schladebeck
@conorfi

26. HealthCare @conorfi

27. Mnemonics
@conorfi
SAMPLE
Signs/Symptoms
Allergies
Medications
Past illness
Last Oral Intake
Events

28. Heuristics
A heuristic is a fallible
method of solving a problem
or making a decision.
“Rule of Thumb”
“Intuitive Judgement”
“Fast and Frugal”
@conorfi
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman

29. Test Heuristics
• CRUD Create, Read, Update, Delete
• Sequences Vary Order of Operations
• Count 0, 1, Many
Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet (Elisabeth Hendrickson, James Lyndsay, and Dale Emery)
Heuristic Test Strategy Model (James Bach)
@conorfi

30. Oracles
Oracles are simply the
principle or mechanism
by which we recognize
a problem
HICCUPPSF(Michael Bolton)
History
Image
Comparable Product
Claims
User Expectations
Product
Purpose
Standards
Familiarity
@conorfi

31. Oracles
@conorfi
“Oracles help me to discover the real
reason that I think there is a problem.”
Katrina Clokie

32. Business @conorfi

33. Marketing
● Models
● 7 Ps of the
Marketing Mix
● Unique Selling
Proposition (USP)
● Brand Positioning
Map
@conorfi

34. Models
“All testing is based on models”
Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach
Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord
“Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything
everyone knows, is only a model.”
“Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others
to challenge your assumptions and add their own.”
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Donella H. Meadows @conorfi

35. Models
“#2. We accelerate the team, and use models like Lean
Thinking and the Theory of Constraints to help identify, prioritize
and mitigate bottlenecks from the system.”
Modern Testing Principles
Alan Page and Brent Jensen
@conorfi

36. Mind Maps
@conorfiSFDiPOT (San_Fransico-Depot Structure Functions Data Interfaces Platform Operations Time)
Heuristic Test Strategy Model (James Bach)

37. Ecommerce
@conorfi

38. Data
“#6 We use data extensively to deeply understand customer
usage and then close the gaps between product hypotheses
and business impact.”
Modern Testing Principles
Alan Page and Brent Jensen
@conorfi

39. Personas
● Use of Data
● User Journeys
● Personas
@conorfi

40. Economics
● Law of Unintended
Consequences
● Law of Diminishing
Returns
@conorfi

41. Unintended Consequences
“Small changes don’t necessarily manifest
immediately, but compound effects can be
huge.”
Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Tests
Gojko Adzic, David Evans, Tom Roden, Nikola Korac
@conorfi

42. Diminishing Returns
“Will these tests cost more to execute than their answers will
be worth?“
“Good testing involves balancing the need to mitigate risk
against the risk of trying to gather too much information.”
Perfect Software: And Other Illusions About Testing
Gerald M. Weinberg
@conorfi

43. Yoga, Mindfulness and CBT@conorfi

44. Being in the moment
● Patterns
● Cognitive Biases
● Confirmation
Bias
● Availability
Heuristic
@conorfi

45. Emotions
“Confusion is a
Test Tool”
Lessons Learned in Software Testing:
A Context-Driven Approach
Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord
@conorfi

46. Kindness
Kind to yourself
Kind to others
“If you miss something, check whether the miss is surprising
or just a natural outcome of your strategy”
Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach
Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord
@conorfi

47. Wrap Up
@conorfi

48. Checking vs Exploratory
“Tested = Checked and Explored”
Explore It! Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing
Elisabeth Hendrickson
Checking can be automated
Not equivalent to a Tester checking
Exploring done by Humans
Passion for the Craft of Testing
Can be supported by Automation @conorfi

49. Culture
Blameless Culture
Culture of Questioning
5C’s
1. Critical Thinking
2. Curiosity
3. Collaboration
4. Communication
5. Creativity
@conorfi

50. Culture
@conorfi
“People, not methodologies or tools, make
projects successful.”
Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams
Lisa Crispin
”No matter how it looks at first,
it's always a people problem.”
The secrets of consulting
Gerald M. Weinberg

51. Learnings
• Checklists
• Pairing
• Models
• Data analytics
@conorfi
• Personas &
User Journeys
• Heuristics &
Mnemonics
• Cognitive Biases

52. Explore other Industries and
Disciplines @conorfi

53. Magic
The Testing Magic is in your Head
@conorfi

54. Q&A
@conorfi

55. Books
● Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach
Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord
● Explore It! Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing
Elisabeth Hendrickson
● More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team
Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin
● Perfect Software: And Other Illusions about Testing
Gerald M. Weinberg @conorfi

56. Books
● An Introduction to General Systems Thinking
Gerald M. Weinberg
● Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Tests
Gojko Adzic, David Evans, Tom Roden, Nikola Korac
● Outliers:The story of Success
Malcom Gladwell
● Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt , Stephen J Dubner
@conorfi

57. Books
● The Checklist Manifesto: How to get Things Right
Atul Gawande
● The Goal
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
● Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
@conorfi

58. Blogs/Web
● satisfice.com
Michael Bolton and James Bach
● eviltester.com
Alan Richardson
● Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet (Elisabeth Hendrickson, James Lyndsay, and Dale Emery)
http://testobsessed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/testheuristicscheatsheetv1.pdf
● http://katrinatester.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
Katrina Clokie
@conorfi