Test Obsessed

A reader wrote me to ask: I know what metrics to use to manage a traditional phased project. But what metrics do you use on Agile projects? I started drafting my answer in a private email but I decided that it was time to put my answer on the record. This is a great question. [...]

Dale Emery has taught me an enormous amount about using resistance as a resource. I’m grateful. I use his ideas every time I set foot in a classroom or start consulting with a new client. In particular, I channel my inner Dale whenever discussing any of the various controversial things I advocate, such as: The [...]

Happy New Year! A funny thing happened on my way to inbox 0 last week: I wrote a book in 4 days. I didn’t mean to. And actually it’s not true to say that I wrote it in just 4 days. I assembled it in 4 days; I wrote it over 15 years. Allow me [...]

In 1935, physicist Erwin Schrödinger proposed a thought experiment to explain how quantum mechanics deals only with probabilities rather than objective reality. He outlined a scenario in which a cat is placed inside a sealed chamber. Inside the chamber is a flask containing a deadly substance. There is a small bit of radioactive material that [...]

This is a guest blog post by Daniel Frank, my assistant. Daniel took on the challenge of updating the QA/Test job study for 2011, just in time for making New Year’s resolutions. Enjoy! Elisabeth It’s been a little over a year since Elisabeth published “Do Testers Have to Write Code,” the results of an in-depth [...]

I’ve been writing a lot lately. Writing for long stretches leaves me mentally drained, nearly useless. The words dry up. I stop making sense. I find it increasingly difficult to form coherent sentences that concisely convey my meaning. Eventually I can’t even talk intelligibly. I recall attending a party after a week of solid writing [...]