Today I saw yet another info-byte on the perils of multi-tasking. I too, think that multitasking is rarely (if ever) as productive as multitaskers believe it is (note: my favorite study compares bong hits with multitasking…ymmv) – but we’ve all seen stuff like this over time. What’s missing from many of the studies and stories…
Last week, I posted a small testing challenge (in short, an application wouldn’t launch).Shmuel Gershon has a wonderful write up of how he found the problem here. For those too lazy to read, the problem was that the application attempted to read a reg key on launch, and failed to launch (with no diagnostics) if…
Some updates and clarification below. And a NEW HINT below too Recently, I was discussing the diagnostic, debugging, and troubleshooting aspects of software testing, and this morning, while playing with Visual Studio 2012, I created a quick little exercise where the solution relies on these skills. This zip file contains an app (theapp.exe), and the…
I come across this frequently enough that I’m sure I’ve blogged about it before, but context dictates that I do it again. The story I hear goes pretty much like this: My team really needs to improve X, but nobody is taking responsibility for it. The fix is obvious – we need our exec /…
Recently, I was helping another part of the team with a project. Or at least it ended up that way. There’s a particular bit of what they’re doing where I have some expertise, so I volunteered to take care of a chunk of the work where I thought I could help out. One thing I’ve…
Joey McAllister (favorite hashtag: #expectpants) recently talked with me (electronically) about critical thinking and learning. The interview is here in case you’re curious.
After my last post, I thought I was done commenting on stack ranking (for at least another year), but two things inspired me to write just a bit more. First, a few people flat-out asked about my opinions for alternatives; and secondly, a consultant added some ignorance to the discussion that gave me just enough…
In my last post, I tried really hard to focus on the message of employee reviews, and how that message shouldn’t be a surprise. I said things like: “I’m not a fan of the system…”, and “It doesn’t matter how messed up the system is…” – yet the mention of the dreaded-curve of the MS…
I’m two months into my 18th year at Microsoft, and I still really enjoy it – most of the time at least. My job is great, I work on amazing technology, and with people smarter than you can imagine. But, for two months or so every year, the dreaded MS review monster comes out from…
As I write this, I’m waiting (literally, waiting on hold) to give a webinar for Swiss Testing Night. It’s a twenty minute presentation – which I love (see my last post for another twenty minute presentation from me. I would love to see a test conference filled with nothing but 20-30 minute presentations someday (and…
If you read my blog, you’re probably already sick of me, but I’ll share a few links anyway. I gave a webinar a few weeks ago for the fine folks at EuroSTAR. Embedded recording is below. It’s a twenty minute ramble on ideas in testing. My laptop with the presentation was in front of me…
When serendipity strikes, I know it’s something I should try to write about. At least three times in the last week I’ve had discussions about vision, tactics, and the necessary balance needed between the two. Without vision, your daily work is just work – a grind that takes you in no particular direction at all….
Our family spent a bunch of time this weekend cleaning out the garage and taking care of a variety of long neglected household tasks. One thing I’d been meaning to do for over a year now is to get my Ducati up and running again. Between picking kids up (need a car for that), and…
I apologize in advance for yet another exploration of what testers do. More and more, I feel that Brent is right, and Test is a 4 Letter Word, but I feel we (whatever we want to call ourselves) can advance through discussion of our roles and responsibilities. A few weeks ago, I was talking to…
I was checking out test conference programs, and found a list of talk titles I found intriguing (this is a sampling of titles from the conference). I’m curious to know how interesting and innovative you think this conference would be. The Art and Science of Load Testing Internet Applications Model-Based Testing for Data Centric Products…
In case you missed it, I blogged about testers at MS over at the Expert Testers blog (which is probably a blog you should add to your blog roll if it’s not there already).
I’m not quite sure why, but once again I’m writing about test roles. I don’t know of another job in the world where discussions like these are common. On the other hand, I don’t know of a job in the world where people are so passionate about what they do (and don’t do) as part…
Earlier today, Ron posted the following about the Microsoft Tester Center: So Long, Tester Center. There’s nothing I can say that Ron didn’t say – it was a fun effort – just hard to do without any full time support (and as our individual jobs got more complex and demanding). The good news, is…
Probably not news to most of you, but the local company that sells everything under the sun just bought a robotics company (Amazon Acquires Kiva Systems). Normally, I don’t blog about news stories, but on the way to work this morning I heard an interesting discussion on a local talk radio station. It turns out…
Here’s a story I hear often. The names have been changed to prevent the guilty. Jake had barely taken a sip of his steaming coffee when he saw that thirty-two of the automated tests failed in last night’s test pass. “Crap, I’m slammed today”, thought Jake, “I don’t have time to look at thirty-blanking-two failures”….