Shmuel's Software Stuff

Things to share about Software Testing

He Who Can Not Be Tested

Aug 18

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in Bug of this Time, Test Insight | 7 Comments

Well… No, you won’t get this prize either.
Read the previous BotT (about a bug in the lottery software) in order to be in the mood for this one.

This BotT tells a story. A story about a car dealership that had the great idea of mailing thousands of scratch-off games to promote their business. What they did not know is that, by mistake, all of the 50000 cards had a winning notice behind the scratch-off layer. Instead of having to pay a US$1.000 prize, they soon discovered that they had to pay US$50.000.000!!
Go to this link to read the story, or at least to see the videos of the angry customers that came to demand their US$1.000: Koat News link.

I am not pointing a finger at any culprit, it is clear that it was a big confusion. And although it is an interesting story, the point that I want to emphasize is: How do you test a system that can not be executed?

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All might be free!

Aug 15

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in Test Insight | No Comments

Welcome!

If you are an avid reader, and read the first post of this blog, you know that this blog is was password protected.

Since last week, the page is accessible to all, and may be read by everyone. As of now, no other page on the net links to Testing Thoughts, so it will be a calm place for a while. Read the rest of this entry »

3 things I learned at Sigist Conference, day 2

Jul 12

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in Test Annotations, Test Insight | No Comments

Sigist Israel logoAnnotations from day 11/0702007 of the Sigist conference on Software Testing. Read the rest of this entry »

4.5 things I learned at Sigist Conference, day 1

Jul 10

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in Test Annotations, Test Insight | No Comments

Sigist Israel logoAnnotations from day 10/0702007 of the Sigist conference on Software Testing. Read the rest of this entry »

The Triangle problem as a starting point – FitNesse Series (Part 1)

Jul 4

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in FitNesse, Nerd T35t1ng, Test Insight | 1 Comment

  • Which came first, the chicken or the egg? And after all, why would any of them cross the road?
    That question is as old as time.
  • How would you test a program which can return the type of a triangle based on the side widths?
    That question is as old as me.

The Art of Software Testing cover imageIn 1979 (yes, I am that young 😉), Glenford J. Myers wrote what was to be the first classic book on Software Testing.
Called “The Art of Software Testing“, this book is very old, and written with old software in mind – most technologies and methodologies existing today were not dreamed of back then.
Well, it turns out the principles of software – from writing it to testing it – are still pretty much the same. Software is still written on sort of punchcards, the punchcards just got more complex and flexible… The book content is surprisingly relevant for today’s testers – so much, that it was updated only once in almost 30 years.
If you haven’t, read the book. Unfortunately, I have read it only partially meanwhile.

Maybe the most known contribution of Mr. Glenford in this book is the testing self-assessment challenge in the introduction.

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BotT: No multi-million dollar prize for you. Again.

May 9

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in Bug of this Time | 3 Comments

On our BooT of this time, a silly and expensive bug.

Do you play lottery? Did you ever win?
No?? Well, maybe the reason of you not being yet a millionaire may be a nasty bug in your favorite lottery system…

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Annotated Joel on Software – (Bad) Reasons not to test

Apr 25

Posted by Shmuel Gershon in Test Annotations, Test Insight | 6 Comments

Now it is my turn!
I have the honor to disagree with Joel. I’ll pick up an easy subject: Private walled offices. 

Joel says that nothing improves morale and efficiency like private walled offices. I’ve worked in both way, and in two occasions companies I worked switched methods (from closed environments to open spaces) – in this experience, the gains of working on wall-less and open spaces are visible. Suddenly, everything is quick and everything is clear. No more leaving things to deal later. No more company-wide procrastination.
My advice: break those doors and those walls.

Everybody loves Joel.

Everybody loves his articles, his jokes and his books.
More than that, people love to disagree with him, so they can look smart and judgmental. The funniest part is seeing the judgmental faces they do.

In 2000, Joel wrote a cool article on “Top Five (Wrong) Reasons You Don’t Have Testers“.
He’s got some great information there, and in this post I’ll just comment it (see the ‘Annotations’ tag?).

Ok, so go on (link) and read the paper.
In his paper, Joel debunk 5 miths of companies who won’t hire testers:

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