Yes, I know, Brendan Connolly again. Out of the ten blogs I have gone through so far, his are the only ones that I have continued to read until the end. His blogs are straight to the point and that keeps my attention. Anyway, onto the blog.
First of all, let’s take a broad look at the purpose of testing. In a very general sense, we test to reveal problems. Then those problems are reported so that they can be resolved. In his blog, Connolly asserts that, “A tester needs a clear understanding of what a problem is in their context in order to effectively relay their findings to stakeholders.” He relates the his model to the Scientific Method, so even if you don’t know much about testing, you can get a grasp on the idea behind it.
Connolly suggests a good way to grasp testing is to have groups of two working together, with one person as the tester, and the other as an observer. The key for this to work is verbalization. The tester needs to relay to the observer the actions he is taking and the thought behind his actions. The observer is not silent, he must be paying attention, adding his or her input, and watching for bugs. The important factors the tester and observer must agreed upon are the coverage of the project and the tempo at which the individuals work.
From the blog cs443 – TayNock's Blog by taynock and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
