Test Obsessed

Sometimes teams that run through my WordCount simulation succeed wildly beyond anyone’s expectations. They go beyond the limits of the simulation, achieving a level of effectiveness and efficiency that’s off the charts. I’m always delighted by such occurrences. One such happy surprise occurred at a private, onsite offering. Before running the simulation, one of the [...]

I’ve been reading accounts of how Agile has ruined lives. It’s quite the hot topic at the moment. Initially I thought it was yet another Agile backlash. But unlike some of the previous anti-Agile rhetoric I’ve encountered, this isn’t by Traditional Consultants accusing Agile Consultants of playing with post-its instead of doing “real software engineering.” [...]

On Friday August 13, I accepted the Agile Alliance’s Gordon Pask award at the Agile 2010 conference in Orlando. I wasn’t even aware that I had been nominated, so when David Hussman called me at home shortly after 7:30AM on Tuesday August 10 to tell me that I had won, I was beyond surprised. Gobsmacked? [...]

Some years ago I had lunch with a QA specialist who invited me to visit him at work. He wanted to show off how he had used a macro recorder to automate his testing. Over lunch I offered the opinion that test automation is a programming activity. The QA specialist vehemently disagreed with me. “I [...]

There’s a discussion going on over on the software-testing discussion group about a customer’s delivery requirement that the software be handed over with an acceptance test script. I want to illustrate my perspective on this topic with a short story. If stories aren’t your thing, skip to the end of the post. I make my [...]

“We can’t automate everything. It costs too much.” I’ve heard that concern—that test automation costs too much—multiple times when talking with folks in the middle of an Agile transition. They know that automated regression testing is important in an Agile context. But they’re concerned about the costs. And they can’t even imagine getting to a [...]

So what have I been up to for the last 7 months? There’s the usual stuff: a fair bit of client work, some conferences, and a whole lot of travel: Finland, Germany, Japan, and various locations in the US. But the most exciting news is that Agilistry Studio is open! We’ve held a bunch of [...]

Not everyone agrees with my definition of Agile. Dave Nicolette commented that he thinks my definition actually describes Lean. He defines Agile in terms of the Agile Manifesto. I replied to Dave elsewhere, but wanted to post my response here too since this is a topic that comes up frequently. I have trouble defining Agile [...]

I knew I should have updated my WordPress installation. But it seemed like I always had something more urgent on my plate. I’ve been living in Quadrant 1 for too long. Quadrant 2 tasks—those that are important but not (yet) urgent—have languished until, through the natural course of events, they became urgent. Like, oh say, [...]