All posts by Mindful tester

Testers conferring

A Delegate Report about Agile Testing Day Netherlands 2016

A few weeks ago I had ordered the afternoon ticket which included the last sessions of the afternoon, a dinner, and the evening sessions. (I am still figuring out, what an afternoon actually is.) A complete day filled with sessions would spoil my appetite for knowledge.
Luckily I was right.

Open Space

One of the strangest elements of the conference was the Open Space. It was a group of testers looking for answers and testers willing to share those. It was a setting requiring special attention and a good moderator. Alex Schladebeck took her role seriously by pointing out the rules (Look mom. Without slides!) and using her candour to illustrate several examples. With more questions than available slots two groups started discussing their questions separately.

Once again I noticed that there was not a single right answer. Looking at the context was very important. Attendees go to a conference to get more insights or answers for questions. And an open space is a safe environment to exchange thoughts with other peers.

Nowhere And Back Again

Thom Bradford is An American in Berlin. He was using cue cards like Gambit. No special effects were used, so the stage was not damaged during his talk. He recalled his last decades as a software engineer, who had some unpleasant experiences. It was obvious that he was reluctant to switch company.

Thom described the symptoms of companies which he tried to avoid: “Monolithic piece of code” or “Working students” assigned to solve bugs. Then he mentioned Drive of Daniel Pink. Good companies looked at

  • Autonomy
  • Mastery
  • Purpose

It led to the following situation. He had to break mastery: he showed Clojure to appalled Java programmers.

Thom had real doubts about code coverage as KPI or Key Performance Indicator. During the presentation he started an automated test, which showed an impressive 100 % coverage and only positive test results. Clean Code and TDD were better than code coverage. This sounded like a SOLID advice to me.  (Pun intended).

The Need For Speed

Emanuil Slavov had somehow dehydrated his ATD 2015 talk to 30 minutes. And he had more to tell than it was humanly possible in the allotted time slot. So the speed was really necessary. It was Flash as a Speaker.

With impressive numbers he showed the reduction of automated tests from 3 hours to 3 minutes.
“Three minutes sounded nice, so we aimed on this limit.”
A lot of measures sounded logical in hindsight like a separate test environment and a test database, which had a minimal set of records. There was also an unexpected (temporary) setback like moving to containers.

Emanuil also referred to three books:

  1. The Goal:A Process of Ongoing Improvement
  2. Toyota Kata
  3. Flashboys

I had read only one. Number 3 was unexpected.

Collaborative Infrastructure Delivery

“This session will be more technical than the previous one.”, Christoph Lukas began.
I smiled inwardly.

Infrastructure as a code has the same characteristics as code. Using TDD he first developed a test. The first test run led to an error. Of course! Nothing was executed or set up. Using a flurry of Xterms (?) he slowly built the desired environment with components.

Workshop previously known as Understanding and testing RESTful Web Services

Mark Winteringham introduced the delegates to Postman, which can be dowloaded for free from getpostman.com. This tool looked to me as a small and compact tool. Ideal to explore the interface.

In the briefing Mark explained, how http is used. He introduced his thoughts about web testing and then encouraged the attendees to go to explore his example web service.

Because of some technical restrictions I paired with another tester. I fell in a familiar trap: test without note taking.
(What could possibly go wrong in 10 minutes? A lot.)
Mark did a debriefing which provided a decent way to catch up with my notes.

In between I discussed the use of SoapUI with another tester. It was a more powerful tool with a subscription.

How we connect to the Internet of Things

In the last keynote at 08:15 in the afternoon Bart Knaack and James Lyndsay had a look at the latest hottest topic IoT or Internet of Things. Or Ignore other Things :). They started to model the internet and then focused on Things.
“This is Thing”, Bart explained.
An orange super hero was shown on the slide.

Then the gentlemen connected an electronic device with the Internet utilising IFTTT or IF This, Then That. This rule based web service was used to change the behaviour of the device i.e. flashing in the assigned colour in the assigned frequency. A Twitter message led to pink flashing LEDs laid out in a circle. It was cumbersome to connect with the smartphones of the attendees. Establishing the right connection for testing was really difficult.

Was IoT really different from other systems under Test? There was no difference with GSM testing on a higher level: protocol testing was demonstrated by 3 processes impersonated by Bart, James, and Alex.

Then I got the message:

  • Look at the differences in technologies.
  • Find a way to address them.
  • Look at tests performed in the past and
  • Reuse those test ideas.

And then

I hurried to catch my bus. I did not wait until the last one. This one was big enough for me.

Mind mapping

How to Speed Up Mind Mapping

A few days after giving a brief introduction to mind mapping I met one of the attendees. The test consultant told me, how she used mind mapping during an interview. The most remarkable sentence I still remember, was:
“Excuse me. I have to change my marker.”
She had paper and enough colour markers. But not enough time.

Mind Mapping For Colour Blind People or Another Way To Mind Map Fast

Mind maps made by beginners often lack colours and pictures. These errors are so basic, that I should point them out. You might call it Standard Teaching Mode. My first mind map teacher had a refreshing look: if the mind map serves the purpose, then it is all right.

Years ago I found an intriguing question on a mind map forum:
How can you make mind maps for colour blind people?
Colours could not be used in a normal way. So I gave it some thought:

  • Draw the edges of the branch.
  • Fill the branch with a pattern.

Patterns for branches

Here are other patterns and a way to grow branches:

Other patterns for branches

Of course different colours can be used: dark and light colours.

Coloured branches

For a colour blind person this looks like this:

Black and grey version of branches

During my holiday I was preparing for my lecture about mind mapping and testing. I had only one pen and a notebook. A multi coloured mind map was out of the question. There was enough time though. I had to wait for a washing machine and a drying machine. I used some of the patterns described above.

Hybrid Mind Mapping
I had a paper with a mind map and a pen. The mind map generated by a mind map program contained test ideas for a test session with the supplier. I could not walk to my desktop to update the mind map, so I extended the image on the hard copy with my pen. I checked the used test ideas and discovered a new one:
“Would you please enter the following input?”
Four people including Yours Innocently saw the program crashing within seconds.

Things to explore

What I like about mind map programs:

  • It is easy to move branches by selecting and releasing them on the right spot.
  • Notes are great to add detailed information to branches. It saves me time to remember things.
  • I like icons and relationships to add an extra layer of information.
  • I like XL Copy & Paste between the mindmap program and other programs.Before the meeting I had copied the contents of some cells of a table to a text editor. A row of items were shown. At the beginning of the meeting I announced to my colleague:
    “I have to show you something.”
    I selected the text in the text editor, then I moved my mouse to the central idea or center of the mind map and released the left mouse button.
    The mind map program added new branches with the names of the items. I heard: “Wow.”
    Disclosure: first I tried to copy the data directly from the spreadsheet to the mind map, but I got a lot of empty branches. So I changed my demonstration. It just took me some exploration to save some time and score a Wow.

Did you notice that?

The program manager was not pleased, that I interrupted her during the meeting. Her anger increased, when I told, that a test environment was not available on time. So I was drawn in a new meeting.
“You make a short report about this meeting.”, was the undeniable request to me .

Minutes later two managers were discussing a test environment in the hallway. I had no pen and no paper. My hand automatically reached for my smartphone (Muscle memory in action!). I opened a mind map program and started adding branches with key words. I had enough time.

Lean, Techie Stuff

Q&A A Fistful of Spreadsheets

[Note from the author: after some fact checking I discovered that I used the Red Card in a wrong way in this blog post. The red card must be used to raise issue like low volume or high temperature in the room, which can lower the quality of the gathering of information. For normal interruptions the yellow card should be used.

This basically means that I had to rewrite the blog post on certain points. This task was more complex than I had expected. The whole flow of arguments had to be restructured while preserving the spirit of this post. So I only added this note.]

Facilitator: Welcome back to another round of questions and answers. This Q&A will focus on the serie Smart Use of Spreadsheets of Mindful Tester.   K-cards will be used in order to structure the flow of thoughts.

I’ve got green cards from numbers 43, 25, and 9. Number 43, you can ask your question.

Attendee number 43: I only read instructions. Why do you not add more clarification?

Writer: It is important to discover things myself. This way I get a better understanding of spreadsheets. In this serie I wanted to share this experience with you, the reader.

Facilitator: I’ve got yellow cards from numbers 31 and 16. Number 31 it’s your turn.

Attendee number 31: That’s pretty abstract. I don’t get that. Would you provide an example?

Writer: In the last episode I described the use of Remove duplicates in order to get a set of pizza brands or a list of names, which are mentioned only once. During the test I needed a way to make a set. I explored the spreadsheet program to find an easy way. By letting the reader follow my steps she or he might see some functions of spreadsheets, which are unknown and useful in the future.

Facilitator: Number 16.

Attendee number 16: How did you find it?

Writer: By selecting a tab, which might contain an interesting set of functions.

Attendee number 16: Just curious. Did you know the function before the test?

Writer: No.

Attendee number 16: So you stumbled upon it during the test?

Writer: Yes, I did.

Attendee number 16: Is it not strange to start testing without an exact set of instructions?

Writer: No. Let me elaborate.

Attendee number 16: Sure.
[Facilitator relaxes.]

Writer: Is it possible to make a test strategy, which does not change? I think: “Not”, so making test cases should be postponed as long as possible or skipped when possible. Nothing is worse than hours spent for nothing. The same is also applicable for the use of tools to determine the most easy way to test the system under test.

Facilitator: A yellow card from number 33. Number 33 it’s your turn.

Attendee number 33: When do you skip test cases?

Writer: There are other alternatives like checklists and exploratory testing.

Facilitator: this is going off topic, so I am closing this thread.

I’ve got green cards from numbers 25 and 9. Number 25, you can ask your question.

Attendee number 25: In your blog post you are using a spreadsheet program. Why did you not use a database tool or Python? They are better equipped to handle data.

Facilitator: I see a red card from number 493. You have a question about the question?

[Attendee number 493 nods.]

Facilitator: Number 493.

Attendee number 493: what is Python?
[Facilitator looks for a snake.]

Writer: For me is Python a strong light weight programming language. Do you need more information?
[Attendee number 493 shakes his head. Facilitator relaxes.]

Writer: The question was: “Why did you not use a database tool or Python?”I have to take additional steps: install tools and figure out, how to use them. It would have taken me extra time.

Facilitator: I’ve got yellow cards from numbers 1 and 24. Number 1 it’s your turn.

Attendee number 1: This could have been a nice starting point to explore another tool?

Writer: Yes, but… The but is to look for long term benefits. For simple data manipulation spreadsheets are good enough. I did not expect complex data analysis in the near future, so I did not even consider using other tools.

Facilitator: Number 24

Attendee number 24: why did you not use the experience report to tell your story? This would provide more insight in the way you work.

Writer: it is nonlinear and it would confuse the reader, who is looking for a fast and linear solution.

Attendee number 24: Could you be more specific? I mean: could you share an experience?

Writer: The first time I used Remove duplicates I got the wrong combination of pizza brands and phone numbers. So I did a manual check for the remaining wrong numbers. Later I discovered that I ordered the phone numbers from A to Z instead of Z to A. So I used System 1.

Facilitator: I see a red card from number 493. Number 493.

Attendee number 493: what is System 1?

Writer: System 1 is used for automatic and fast decisions like walking to the supermarket. System 2 is used for the complex operations, which need thoughtful thinking like buying items on the shopping list.

Attendee number 24: So?

Writer: When I heard the word Order, I picked the order from A to Z. For System 1 this is the default choice. I had to use System 2 (Is the order really from A to Z?), before continuing the test. Adding this experience is likely to add confusion for the reader.

Attendee number 24: I think that you are smart enough to make a smart formula to automate the manual check.

Writer: Thank you for your compliment. There were only foursome numbers to check. I actually made an attempt to use a formula, but that costed me too much time.

Facilitator: Are there any more questions on this thread? Apparently not.

I’ve got green cards from numbers 9, 10, and 11. Number 9, you can ask your question.

Attendee number 9: Why did you not use a programming language supported by the spreadsheet program?

Writer: I didn’t know the language.

Facilitator: Number 10.

Attendee number 10: Why did you not use a blink test to compare?

Facilitator: I see another red card from number 493. Number 493.

Attendee number 493: what is a blink test?

Writer: A blink test is a test, during which the tester processes a lot of information in incredible short time or in a blink of an eye. In this particular case you can switch fast between the two spreadsheets. Differences can be noticed: characters change.
[Attendee number 493 nods.]

Writer: The blink test has some disadvantages. Spreadsheets can be so big, that you need a lot manoeuvring. Some spreadsheets have cells with default width, so not the complete content is shown to the tester. Non-readable characters can be contained in cells. My favourite is that trailing spaces cannot be spotted with the naked eye. “Text” looks the same as “Text<space><space>”.

Facilitator: Number 11. You can go ahead.

Attendee number 11: You copy the calculated values instead of the formulas to the last worksheet. [Speaker nods.] That is a smart move, but it looks like a redundant step to me.

Writer: if everything is OK, then you are right. It there is more than 1 NOK, then odds might change for me. In this case I have to verify the formulas. If they are right, then I have to analyse the data. Values can better be manipulated than formulas.

Attendee number 11: Like?

Writer: Spreadsheet programs support auto filter, which contains nice features.

Facilitator: I’ve got green cards from numbers 21, 562, and 23. Number 21, you can ask your question.

Attendee number 21: You already advocated against the use of database tools and programming language in this context. Why did you not use spreadsheet comparison tools?

Writer: It would only save me one step: to learn the tool. I have to admit that I am not familiar with these tools.

Facilitator: I’ve got green cards from numbers 562 and 23. Number 562.

Attendee number 562: Why do you not change the background colour of the cell to red, if the cell contains a NOK?

Writer: It is an extra step. For analysis of complex patterns of NOKs it can be considered.

Facilitator: Number 23.

Attendee number 23: I found a neat trick. If I have to compare a new sheet with one in the map, then I copy the sheet in the map and rename the tab. What about that?

Writer: It is a tricky one: after months it is not clear, which spreadsheets have been compared. More particular: what were the sources of the sheets? Also there is a risk of different numbers of rows. You actually have to refactor the spreadsheet.

Facilitator: A yellow card from number 21.

Attendee number 21: Could you give an example of refactoring?

Writer: I would an extra row above the table and add a text with information over the source. You still have to watch the formulas though.

Facilitator: A green cards from number 372. Number 372.

Attendee number 372: Why do you not use the standard compare function of the spreadsheet programs?

Writer: Good question. I’ll have a look.

Attendee number 372: Sounds like a new blog post?

Writer: The last blog post about spreadsheets took a considerable amount of time.

Attendee number 372: Why?

Writer: I was refactoring the solution.

Attendee number 372: Is that not contradictory with your previous statements about being lean?

Writer: You’re a smart girl. I blog in my free time.

Facilitator [a bit surprised]: I see a green card from number 493. Number 493.

Attendee number 493: What do you mean with “=b”?
Writer: “=” is an underarm and “b” a hand.
Attendee number 493: Thanks. =b.
Writer: Thanks.

Facilitator: Thank you for all questions about spreadsheets, testing, and… Hey, I miss the pizzas. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this Q&A.

Keep on questioning things!