In my quest to build my own software credo, I’m starting out with writing an autobiography of my ...

Why I spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of automating tests – automated checks as explained by Michael Bolton. I call them ...

In some ways, October of 2009 feels like just yesterday. In others, it feels like a lifetime ago. I liken this period of time to ...

Last time, I wrote about the Tester’s job, so when I got the following request from James Waletzky, a Development Lead colleague, friend ...

There was recently a question on Stack Overflow about how you read a CSS property of an element that is defined in a stylesheet ...

One of the questions I have found hard to answer when I use exploratory test techniques in my project is how do you run regression ...

This poor girl from Ghana inherited many kilograms of gold and can’t get at it because she can’t pay the back due rent on the ...

For testers, being skeptical is generally a good thing. When someone says, “Our application doesn’t have any reliability errors”, I, for one, am skeptical. I’ll ...

fuck self help. you know what really helps ? kill joy whenever i feel decent or decently happy,i get suspicious i suspect that i have advanced & ventured ...

avoid,so like me avoid,islands of competence avoid, survival for another day avoid,volunteer-ism avoid, win win avoid,carrots provide,working styles provide,evolution provide,learning and across functions provide,opportunities scantly dressed provide,grow grow provide,fearlessness Image via Wikipaintings.org ...

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry I've gone missing all these weeks, hope you didn't miss me too much ;)Here's an info-graphic ...

Hi all,Here's todays EuroSTAR newsletter. Let me know if you're attending the conference this year, would be good to meet up.

Hi all, thanks for everyone who voted. Unfortunetely (for James Bond & Co.), the License to Test video didn't win."One doesn't realise how ...

The voting for the TeamSTAR competition is now open for today only (Thursday 29th) till 4pm BST.If you like my cartoons, I'm assuming ...

A team of testers and me submitted a video for this year's EuroSTAR TeamStar competition.Hope you like it! 

There are a number of ways of getting rid of boredom in testing. One is developing ...

What is more important:Knowing and understanding the application you’re testing  Or Being able to visualise how ...

I had the opportunity to talk with Gil Zilberfeld, product owner with Typemock, a software company whose products are designed to help developers with their ...

On December 13, SQuAD (Software Quality Association of Denver) members got together for a workshop to generate ideas that might help distributed teams succeed with ...

My new article “Story Mapping the Wrong Way”, a tale of how I messed up our team’s first attempt at story mapping but we learned ...

Gojko Adzic was voted “Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person” by his peers, in an award program sponsored by the Agile Testing Days conference. I ...

Someone on the agile-testing Yahoogroup mailing list posted a link to a blog post in which he proceeded to misuse, maul and maim the Agile ...

In my experience there can often be, especially amongst testers, a desire to hear the bad news, the gossip or the failings. Get to any ...

Testing is dead, that's what they said in the news.I disagree, but I think it's getting confused. There has been a lot of talk ...

When people start a new job it can often be daunting and for some, a little overwhelming. There is often so much to learn and ...

Always good to test systems, but testing the live system....for a long time.......at peak bus journey time.......at a busy ...

At EuroSTAR last week it was sad to see a "them versus us" culture still thriving in the software development community. I thought things were ...

In some ways, October of 2009 feels like just yesterday. In others, it feels like a lifetime ago. I liken this period of time to ...

On March 28th, 2005, I became employee #10 at ImmigrationTracker. That was also including a few people who had come and gone over the five ...

It's June of 2003. I had resigned myself to focusing on school, and I figured that would be the bulk of my time going forward, ...

"You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up ...

After three months of fruitless job searches, friends coming to bat, and me leaving empty handed each time, I was ready for anything. I mean, ...

I'll be in New York City Next week; there is a software testers meetup including a dinner sponsored by the Financial Services Special Interest Group ...

It's been a little quiet around here at Creative Chaos lately. Let me tell you a little bit about what's been going on ...

The Association for Software Testing recently announced a 2012 Grant Program designed to advance the cause of testing at local user groups and ...

The folks at Informit.com recently published my interview with Ken Auer, master instructor at RoleModel Software Craft Academy. We think you'll ...

Three weeks ago, I helped break the news that Conference for the Association for Software Testing (CAST 2012) would be in San Jose, California, July ...

So in my last post I'd got my book list ...

There was an interesting post from the prolific TESTHEAD about Reviewing his bookself - spending 15 minutes a day every day going through his ...

This time last year I was enjoying an extended Xmas break and was using the time to learn Selenium and Java. I'd installed Eclipse on ...

I have to admit to getting hooked on a reality TV show - Masterchef Australia ( who knew there were so many ways to cook ...

An old friend of mine from uni days has an interesting blog about HR and the workplace. His latest piece was on the grilling ...

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 ...

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 ...

I originally wrote this for the AYE website in 2007. It’s no longer published there so I’m posting it here. Despite itching to tweak some ...

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 ...

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 ...

A workaround was quickly found, although on the long run, it wasn't the most comfortable position.

A reference to compatibility in general. For instance, browser compatibility. What works for FF, doesn't necessarily work for ...

Whenever possible, I try to draw cartoons which win a smile from a general audience. This time it ...

One of the most reliable "bugs" we meet regularly in our test department, is the so called "Umlaut" ...

I dare to ask about the consequences of an eventually failing asteroid observation software.I think the ...

" #softwaretesting #testing #modelling "Subtitle: Model Based Testing: What Aren't You Telling Me?Full DisclosureI worked on a project that used 'formal' ...

" #softwaretesting #testing #swet3 #peer #conference "Date: 19-20 November, 2011Place: Ringsjöstrand, Skåne, SwedenWeather: FogAttendees: Johan Jonasson, Ola Hyltén, Anders Claesson, ...

" #softwaretesting #testing #LetsTest "Let's Test 2012, 7-9 May, Runö Conference Centre, north of StockholmSite: http://lets-test.com/Five guys ...

" #softwaretesting #testing #cognition "I saw a post on the STC, here, about best-in-context practices. I started thinking about 'best-in-show' (a la ...

" #softwaretesting #testing "October, Halloween, pranks, scary stuff, ritual and various forms of deity-worship is nothing new to software testing.But, hopefully, ...

Here’s the heartwarming story of an advertising agency that was on top of the world five years ago, but isn’t any more: The King’s Comeuppance: ...

Another week, another war. Or at least another heroic sacrificial holding action. “Wars” by Hurt.

The guy doesn’t build UIs, but he does use them. And he doesn’t like some elements of them. I don’t normally work in the UX/UI ...

The application could handle it. The business behind the application? Not so much. You need to be careful about what you promise—especially when you make ...

Find some of my other work elsewhere on the Web: “Trouble Tickets Are Your Business” in ST & QA Magazine. Book recommendations in The Testing ...

In a recent blog entry over at 8thLight’s blog Angelique Martin points out to 8 things you ought to know if you do not know ...

A while ago I put up a challenge for software testers. Here is the mission I used back then: Product: Regression Test Calculator Mission: Test ...

One of my colleagues made a claim yesterday which I would like to put some numbers on. I raised the question on twitter, and received ...

Last year I started to dive into the theory behind complexity thinking. What puzzled me ever since is the relationship between complexity thinking and the ...

Yesterday James Bach rumored around a link to a test case execution time calculator. Besides the fact that it’s complete non-sense to use such a ...

CAST 2012 is fast approaching!  Well, some folks may think that JULY is not all that "fast approaching" in January - HOWEVER - ...

Last year was really incredibly busy for me.  Work stuff happened that was crazy hectic, then the "speaker" thing moved from 1st to 2nd gear. ...

One of the benefits of taking four years of Latin is that you pick up all kinds of interesting things that many other folks may ...

This has been an interesting year.  There have been many fantastic things happen this year that at times it seemed like I was an observer, ...

Our family has a lot of traditions around the winter holidays, Christmas and New Year.  One tradition is working on a massive 1,000+ piece jigsaw ...

Well, CAST 2011 has shipped. A few minor bugs, but it looks like the value far outweighed the problems. James and I wanted it to ...

In the movie “The Right Stuff” there’s a scene where character Chuck Yeager is barreling up to the sound barrier in the Bell X-1.  He’s ...

Wow, what a New Year already… Opportunities are sometimes fleeting, but this one wouldn’t let me go… In two weeks, I’ll be in California to ...

Last week, the Software Association of Oregon hosted a one-day Open Space conference. Accompanied by Andrew Richards, Stephanie El-Hajj, and a cadre of SAO and ...

I spoke at a panel at Edmonds Community College today.  It was designed to help students get ideas to increase their chances of finding a ...

This year I created a Christmas present for all my faithful readers. It's about one of the characters ...

Today, I'm revisiting a post I put here almost exactly three years ago. At that time, I was announcing the resumption of PSL (Problem ...

A book (or a blog) can give you only what the author has to tell. But the learning that comes through self-knowledge has no limit. ...

There's nothing more practical than a good theory. - Kenneth BouldingReading a book is one thing. Applying what you learn is quite another. ...

The liberation of a tree is not the freedom from its roots.- Rabindranath TagoreThe Grand Tour shows you what's going on now, but perhaps ...

If you didn't know how Part 4 came up? Here is how it came. I first wrote Part 1, then Part 2 and then Part ...

Not that you don't know. Truth About Test Plan Documents 98% of test plan documents that are created are not updated, maintained or cared beyond sign off. The ...

I know you think I am an expert tester.  I am, safely. One of the ways in which I remain as an expert tester is by ...

Oredev conference was super duper. The people I met and what I could learn from them was amazing. Siggie got a bunch of speakers for ...

Oh my! I was reminded of this story. It is a hard to digest story for me but I can't just hold myself from telling ...

TweetWhat drives people to take up my offer of free Skype coaching? Most testers when asked give on of the following reasons: 1) they want ...

TweetSome of my testers have become embedded on a newly formed agile team. Its been a roller coaster ride for sure. Lots of fun, thrills ...

I left the coaching session with a clear sense of how powerful coaching an be in this environment and I see this type of coaching ...

There's no such thing as a new year. The way we measure time is entirely artificial. The only time that counts is right now. Worrying ...

Social Engineering Attack The art of tricking vulnerable and unsuspecting people into revealing confidential information like passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, login credentials to ...

Claims Testing P.S : This is in continuation with an old blog post on Claims Testing. Regards, Parimala Shankaraiah

I was teaching math to one of my cousins who's about to get certified as a 10th grade pass out. I now figure pass out rhymes with drop ...

 Bangalore Workshop on Software Testing – 3 Theme : Personal Excellence and Skill Development 6th August, 2011 @ S hotel, Bangalore T-shirt Sponsor: Moolya Photo courtesy : Santhosh Tuppad Ever ...

This poor girl from Ghana inherited many kilograms of gold and can’t get at it because she can’t pay the back due rent on the ...

Announcing the Rapid Testing Intensive seminar. This is something new. From July 24 to 28, my brother and I are going to run a short, extreme ...

Hey, I’ll be doing a public class in England, once again. This time in Cambridge. See the details, here. This year I also have public classes ...

Michael Bolton is accused of hand-waving in this thread on LinkedIn. (See the comment by Peter). Michael and I talk a lot about cognition and exploration. ...

Michael Bolton has gone off like a volcano in Iceland, writing a series about what exploratory testing isn’t: http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/12/what-exploratory-testing-is-not-part-1-touring http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/12/what-exploratory-testing-is-not-part-2-after-everything-else-testing http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/12/what-exploratory-testing-is-not-part-3-tool-free-testing http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/12/what-exploratory-testing-is-not-part-4-quick-tests http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/12/what-exploratory-testing-isnt-part-5-undocumented-testing Another thing I would add to this: Exploratory testing ...

The Evil Tester Question Time is back! This is your chance to ask a very Evil Tester a question and get some scrumptious and devious ...

We recently came across a new test management tool, TestPad, which takes a different approach to test management.  Along our journey we met and spoke ...

[View the story "The Monday Times" on Storify]

[Got a testing tip? Why not share it?] This is a follow up to the previous article - Documentation and The Tester. Proof Read for Spelling ...

[Got a testing tip? Why  not submit it and get published?] I’m sure we’ve all had days where we need a bit of help coming up with ...