I am now a married man. I married my darling wife, Jenna a few weeks ago and went off on a well-deserved honeymoon.
I’ll look to putting some pictures up on the Jenna And I page as and when I can.
Thanks to all our families, friends and other supporters for their love and support.
Kind Regards
Glenn
Hey
A few years ago, I would hang out in C++ and C# channels on IRC. I went there to learn from other people’s questions or from my own questions. Sometimes, I could even answer people’s questions. The culture of the channel meant that answers would normally be just enough to set people on the right track rather than postulating one’s own knowledge. So for instance, if someone wanted to know what the name of the function first called is, we’d say, take a look at “main” rather than giving them the whole rundown; of course, my illustration is for C++.
One thing I’d often find is people coming in tired and stressed. Very often, people would beg for answers saying, “Please help me, I’ve been working on this problem for 6 hours! It’s 2 AM and I need to get to sleep!” The answers were consistent from the IRC channel: “No. Go to sleep and work on it in the morning. If you still can’t get it working then we’ll help you.” This was the best possible answer the channel could ever provide; people eventually got the message and went to bed. Invariably, the next day the same people would come back in to the IRC channel and say, “Guess what! This morning I figured it out in 20 minutes!”
The interesting thing in all of this is that somehow, the channel knew people would find the solution themselves the next morning. You see, they understood a fundimental rule in software development:
People solve more problems and create less new problems when they get their sleep and feel comfortable with their workload.
This is an important thing to remember: software is an intellectual pursuit. Without sleep and rest, people will not perform anywhere near as well as what they would normally!
So, how does this affect quality? Well, as you would imagine, you get more defects, more defects are intermittant, and the general quality of builds goes down.
When testing, we need to be aware of these factors. They have an impact on the quality we should expect.
Kind Regards
Glenn
Hey
I realise I haven’t blogged much recently; not surprising really. Lately I’ve been working very hard as test lead on a project here at DWS. This has left me without much time to blog or pretty much have a life; still, I’ve managed to continue planning my up-coming wedding and building a new house! I’ve had lots of ideas for Quality in Software, too.
Coming soon, I’ll be introducing a new series called Q-Ticks. These feature posts will contain tips and hints on how to get the most quality out of your projects.
Other things I’m looking towards are getting in to my study for the ISTQB (International Software Testing Quality Board) certification, blogging more about some of the basic principles of testing, and continuing on with my plan for Quality in Software this year.
Currently, Quality in Software gets its traffic from search queries and word of mouth. This year I’ll be making this site more publicly known. Some ways I’m considering are publishing on a blog listing web site as well as being a guest blogger on other sites.
Kind Regards
Glenn
Hey
Earlier this year, I was away for a Christian conference. A regular of Quality in Software, Scott, asked that I talk some more about it. I don’t want to go in to too much detail as this forum is really focused on software quality but there is always some margin to escape that, so here goes…
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Christian conference before. They are essentially opportunities for people around the nation and beyond to learn and mingle.
The conference was about being the change within the community. Focusing on immersions and lectures, it sought to give delegates a good idea of how people struggle around the world; it was intended delegates would take the story back home with them.
I personally didn’t get a lot out of it. I wanted to attend the conference so that I would have a better understanding of some of the struggles people face in the world and a better understanding of how the Bible was understood back when it was written; I didn’t feel I came away with either of those. What I did get out of it was a better understanding of myself and who I am. I think that is of some value to me.
Kind Regards
Glenn
Hey readers
I haven’t blogged much recently. With Christmas, a week long break and my very busy work schedule, it’s understandable why I haven’t had much to say of late.
Today, I have an interesting situation. I’ve been in this situation before but it’s important yet again so I thought I’d share.
Normally, test cases are written to be reproducible, unambiguous, and properly cover the appropriate requirements. All fair enough. Today, I’m looking at branching.
What’s branching? Well, it’s a word that I just decided well describes where test cases explore different execution paths from the same point.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. If for instance, you want to test functionality to save a record when the window is closed. Say your application displays this record as a popup window and has both a Close button on the canvas and a X button in the top-right corner. Branching would be to test for both the Close button and the X button.
So, now you know what I’m talking about, let me put the problem to you. How do you feel about branching inside a test case? What’s more, the branching is at the discretion of the tester? This is the issue that is facing me again today.
Here’s the instructions for the step exercising the scenario I put above…
“Close the window using either the Close button or the X button“
This is what I’m facing as part of a review. I did look on Google for an answer to this but after little success, I thought I’d talk to all of you.
For my part, I have always felt this discretionary branching within a test case fails the reproducible requirement of every test case, so I always avoid it. Tell me what you think, leave a comment and we can have a discussion or use the poll below.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Kind Regards
Glenn
Well, lately, I’ve been developing. One of the things I enjoy about being in a consultancy is that I don’t have to do just one role.
Of late, my work has found me doing all sorts of things. At one stage, I was contributing to a test spreadsheet that is used to calculate given figures; and who says you don’t need Calculus when you leave school! I’ve also been using a scripting language called Jelly.
All this work has kept me very busy, hence the lack of posts. I’m still around but I don’t have as much time as I once did.
So, Christmas is coming; I won’t have any holidays over the break. I do have a conference I’m going to in early January that I have time off for but it’ll be pretty full-on; i.e., not a break!
So, with the new year, what will happen within the Quality In Software blog?
Also next year is the year I get married to my sweetheart Jenna!
Next year will be big for me and for Quality In Software.
Stay tuned!
Kind Regards
Glenn
