I. M. Testy

Treatises on the practice of software testing is now located at http://testingmentor.com/imtesty

I.M. Testy is moving!

I started this blog about 3 1/2 years ago to share some ideas, observations, and lessons I’ve...

Date: 11/18/2009

Localization Testing Part IV

The past series of posts have focused on one of localization testing which describes the largest...

Date: 11/12/2009

Localization Testing Part III

Part 1 provided an overview of localization class issues, and Part II discussed issues with...

Date: 11/03/2009

Localization Testing – Part II

I should be of no surprise to anyone that localization testing generally focuses on changes in the...

Date: 10/30/2009

Localization Testing: Part 1

When I first joined Microsoft 15 years ago I was on the Windows 95 International team. Our team was...

Date: 10/26/2009

Adding Variability in Test Case Design

I love autumn! Yes, I am definitely a boy of summer and very much prefer warmer weather; however,...

Date: 10/19/2009

Randomizing static test data in automated tests

A significant percentage of static test data is stored in tabular comma delimited or tab-delimited...

Date: 10/10/2009

The primary goal of a tester should be to work themselves out of a job!

Software is knowledge. Software is the intangible product crafted by a team of people who have...

Date: 10/01/2009

Prevention is the best medicine

The past 2 weeks have been a bit rough. While in Israel I began to feel a bit congested. By the time...

Date: 09/23/2009

Best Practices – Philosophy vs. Practicality

I have spent the last week in Israel teaching our new SDET course in Herzillya and our Senior SDET...

Date: 09/12/2009

微软的软件测试之道(Microsoft核心技术丛书)

I am really happy to announce that our book has been released in China and available on the Chinese...

Date: 09/10/2009

Test Automation ROI (Part II)

Last week I talked about the silliness of wasting time calculating the return on investment (ROI) of...

Date: 09/02/2009

Measuring Test Automation ROI

I just finished reading Implementing Automated Software Testing by E.Dustin, T. Garrett, and B. Gauf...

Date: 08/25/2009

A different perspective on random name generation

My daughter made me laugh today when she offered a bit of her philosophy. She told me that her...

Date: 08/15/2009

Stupid Hammer!!!

I remember as a young lad working construction for my uncle one summer. The hours were long, it was...

Date: 08/11/2009

UI Automation Out of Control

When many people think of test automation they envision rudimentary scripts with hard-coded events...

Date: 08/01/2009

Random comments…

This week, I will keep this post quite short and redirect you to my answers to an interview by the...

Date: 07/22/2009

Testing is Sampling

It seems it is about this time of year that I need to detach a bit from the world to reflect back on...

Date: 07/16/2009

Better Bug Reports

When we report a bug our hope is that bug is fixed. But, of course we know that isn’t always the...

Date: 05/20/2009

Programming Paradigms in Test Automation

Regardless of the personal opinions of a few people, the simple fact is that the demand for software...

Date: 05/13/2009

Assessing Tester Performance

Using context-free software product measures as personal performance indicators (KPI) is about as...

Date: 04/28/2009

"Good enough" is not good enough!

This week I came across a discussion [regarding test design] in which a tester wrote, "…the main...

Date: 04/17/2009

Look below the UI for more effective and robust UI automated test case designs

Last month I wrote about simplistic views of UI test automation in which some people want to pretend...

Date: 04/14/2009

The quality quandary

I often find discussions about quality to be hypothetical, and in fact unless you define your...

Date: 03/27/2009

Exploratory testing inside the box

Much of the information about exploratory testing focuses on testing from an end-user perspective....

Date: 03/20/2009

GUI test automation is not child's play

There are many approaches to test automation from unit testing to system level testing through the...

Date: 03/12/2009

Basic Blocks Aren't So Basic

In the book How We Test Software at Microsoft I discuss structural testing techniques. Structural...

Date: 03/06/2009

Troubleshooting Test Data with String Decoder

I value static test data that is derived from historical failure indicators, or representative of...

Date: 02/25/2009

Random string generation…Update!

One of the biggest challenges in input testing is the sheer amount of potential characters and the...

Date: 02/17/2009

Thinking about fly fishing…

I am an avid fly-fisherman, and I am spending a few of these last winter evenings tying flies in...

Date: 02/06/2009

The Minefield Myth (Part 2) – The value of regression testing

Last week I discussed the fallacy of the minefield analogy misrepresented by some people to suggest...

Date: 01/29/2009

The Minefield Myth (Part 1)

In my studies at university I studied anthropology. Several courses I took surveyed folklore and its...

Date: 01/19/2009

Data-Driven Testing

I am generally not a big fan of static data in test automation, but being a pragmatic person, I know...

Date: 01/04/2009

The Ultimate Desktop Reference

I have a library of books and white papers on software testing, engineering processes and...

Date: 12/23/2008

Prescriptive vs. Descriptive 'scripted' tests

Something that raises red flags in my brain is hard-coded strings or test data in either a manual...

Date: 12/16/2008

How We Test Software At Microsoft

This past year has been quite busy for me. Too busy. Besides trying to keep up with my busy teaching...

Date: 12/06/2008

Temporary test files

There are occasionally times during an automated test needs to create a temporary file during the...

Date: 12/02/2008

Training is Controversial…Really?

I just returned from a business trip to Israel. I was a long time on the road (a week at EuroStar...

Date: 11/24/2008

Boundary testing isn’t guessing at numbers!

At a recent conference a speaker posed a problem in which a field accepted a string of characters...

Date: 11/04/2008

Thoughts on leadership

Last week I was at the Test2008 conference in India. The organizers from PureTesting planned a grand...

Date: 10/24/2008

Thoughts on Professionalism

As a young lad growing up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay I would often spend part of my summer...

Date: 10/08/2008

Equivalence class partitioning: is it real or is it a figment in our imagination?

Last week I attended the Software Testing and Performance conference in Boston. I presented a...

Date: 09/30/2008

Think before re-inventing the wheel

There are rare occasions when an exceptionally bright and innovative person comes along and actually...

Date: 09/18/2008

Test Automation: Simple Automated Test Case Templates

Templates can be useful tools to help increase individual efficiency and team consistency. Yet, I am...

Date: 09/09/2008

La rentrée

It has been some time since I posted. Quite frankly I was burnt out, and I finally realized that I...

Date: 09/02/2008

Functional techniques are more than black box techniques

Too often many tester's mistakenly assume that functional techniques such as equivalence class...

Date: 08/07/2008

Test Automation: Programmatic Platform Profiling

Occasionally, the execution or outcome of a test depends on the operating system version on which...

Date: 07/02/2008

Certification Wars

I started diving in the late 70's, and in1985 I became a PADI certified open water scuba instructor....

Date: 05/31/2008

Automation Foibles Unveiled: Saving random data

Now, many of you probably know that I am a big fan of computer generated random test data that is a...

Date: 05/13/2008

Email - the curse of productivity

It has been quite some time since I have posted. Part of that is due to personal distractions...

Date: 05/01/2008

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