AH, MY BEAUTIFUL WICKEDNESS….

Do you remember the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz when she’s brought down by a little girl? She laments the loss of her beautiful wickedness….

Well, the Evil Troll is writing a book report, and I have to say that it’s not very evil this time. I’d be afraid I was losing my edge, but fortunately, I’ve read all the recent blogs/articles regarding the differences between “testing” and “checking” and realize all my usual critical synapses are still there. I find the constant attempts to make “the way I think testing should be done is the only Real Way and everyone else sucks rocks” pathetic, to say the least. As far as I can tell, the latest is that anyone who uses specs and doesn’t follow one author’s vague ideas as to what constitutes real testing is a “checker”. The dictionary says testing is “the trial of the quality of something” (the author of the blog would gag), and that checking is “to verify, examine, or investigate”. So it seems to me this all semantics and frankly, it doesn’t help anyone become a better tester, manager, or person and just feeds a bunch of rifts that aren’t necessary. It does not, in my opinion, add anything to the field, unless you want to consider blog fodder a service.

I have, however, just read something that does add something to the field. Don’t want to be associated with “old school” testing, but unwilling to toss your specs, your test cases, or everything else you’ve found works for you away? Like to think about the work you do in some different ways and try a few new techniques?

Enter “Exploratory Software Testing” by James Whittaker.

Dr. Whittaker was kind enough to send me part of this book because of my interest in tours; when I commented back, he asked if he could use the comment along with those of other reviewers for his book and I said yes. Those of you who read this blog know how anal I am about promoting work I don’t support or feeling obligated to say nice things when I want the freedom to be honest. Well, Dr. Whittaker understood that too and knew that comments on a few chapters of the book wouldn't necessarily guarantee I'd like the rest. In all honesty, I genuinely liked this book a lot and it gets a 5 out of 5 on the Wilkinson Scale of Goodness. That’s right; while it hasn’t toppled “Lessons Learned in Software Testing”, it’s right up there with it and it’s the best book I’ve read so far this year. And I read a LOT.

That does not mean I agreed with every single thing that was said. I rarely agree with every single thing someone has to say and I would hope all of you are the same way. I don’t expect others to agree with everything I say either. I’d be bored.

I have to admit right here that I’ve been a James Whittaker fan for years. I’ve heard him speak at least 5 times and I have all of his books. You want to know WHY I like him? First of all, he makes me laugh while he’s proving a point. Secondly, he’s smart and innovative without being impractical. I can DO the stuff he’s talking about. I can apply it to my everyday job. So can my staff. That doesn’t mean I’ve loved everything he’s ever written. I found his first book mighty dry and hard to read, even though the ideas were good. So is it still possible I'm prejudiced in his favor in terms of reviews? Maybe. But it's not really in character.

I guess that all I have to say is wait until you read this one. It starts with general concepts and moves into specific ideas as to how to find specific types of errors. It goes from there into the future of testing. Even the appendices are interesting, amusing, and worth reading. It doesn’t try to get you to throw away your specs or test cases, but gives you ideas as to how to modify what you do now to make your testing better. It has ideas for very structured testers and ideas for very agile testers; concepts that can be applied across the board. And that, overall, is what I liked about this book. No one is trying to “convert” you. The Nice Doctor is trying to help you. And the man loves to help you find bugs. That’s my kinda guy. And you can throw away your dictionaries, old philosophy books, or anything else that makes you want to take a Tylenol. The language is accessible and the concepts clear.

What I’m saying is that the book is sane. What’s more, it’s filled with phrases and situations that will either make you smile, or make you laugh at loud.

The only area in which I disagree and advice I won’t even consider is hiring degreed engineers for test positions. I have no prejudice either for or against degrees or certifications, but I have to say that a piece of paper is no guarantee of intelligence, ability, or technical competency. I understood the “why” of his advice, but won’t be taking it. I would have missed out on some extraordinary talent that way.

It’s refreshing to be able to heartily recommend something and to have invested some time in something that will be of use to me and to my team. My team and I are going to be working on some of the concepts, specifically tours, found in this book and I’ll certainly be sharing some of our successes and failures through my blog. Why will we be doing that? Our regression test case base is getting too big to manage effectively. While the “problem” we had starting out was too many errors in production due to insufficient testing and understanding of existing features, we solved those and our “problems” now are the time and expense required for regression testing and how to pass on our domain/testing knowledge both amongst ourselves and to new staff. In other words, we think we’re good, but we think we can be even better. As many of you know, I support metrics and we’ll be able to tell whether we’re improving or degrading our service through those metrics.

It’s US $39.95, folks, and I think it’s worth the time and money. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

As a final note, I rarely talk about my guilty pleasures and some of my favorite reads, and I don’t like to maintain blog lists, since I feel obligated to support anyone I advertise for (it affects what I can say and how) and to make sure they blog on a regular basis and I’m not recommending some link with nothing new since 2006. Since my general mood today is Totally Mellow after reading something I really liked, I’d like to at least mention my own “regular” reading list. I’ve already said I like James Whittaker. I read QAHATESYOU regularly (that site epitomizes the meaning of the word “tester”, including the sardonic humor). I read BJ Rollison, Alan Page, and James Bach. Yup, you read that correctly. One of my favorite writers of all time is Cem Kaner, although he doesn’t write as much for general consumption as I wish he would. I like Erik Peterson quite a bit. Scott Barber and Anne-Marie Charrett are on my list. I like Corey Goldberg. I belong to the “School of Joe” (Joe Strazzere) And if I were going to pick one person in the field right now that I’m going to keep an eye on (I think he’s going to be great), it would be Rob Lambert. I like the fact he feels free to comment on whatever he thinks and I like the way he makes those comments. He’s manages to be a bit more PC (politically correct) than most without being timid; an unusual quality.

If you blog regularly, chances are I’ve read or do read your work. These are just favorites off the top of my head; part of the reason I hate to post these kinds of things is that I have a lot of friends in this field and no desire to insult anyone. Considering the nature of some of my posts, that might surprise you. But the reason I feel free to say what I think is that I'm so reluctant to align myself with any one person or group. My list has nothing to do with whether you’re “good”. It has to do with what I normally check out regularly and what I remembered in five minutes.

By the way, lest you think I truly have lost all my Beautiful Wickedness, I’m through with the love-fest for the day. I’m about done with my first “Metric of the Month”, so I doubt I’ll be feeling especially mellow afterwards. Plucking arrows out of my back (or forehead) is usually not conducive to “mellow”. And I have two less…um…sweet and kind blog posts waiting for just the right moment to publish. I'm really fond of one of them; it's a fairy tale.

Hope you read “Exploratory Software Testing” and check out some of my favorite bloggers (some of whom will want an adult beverage when they find out they’re on the list – and not to celebrate!); love ‘em or hate ‘em; MADE YOU LOOK!!! Enjoy…