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Do you trust your mental models?

Henrik Emilsson Let’s Test 2012

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Agenda

1.  About me 2.  First example 3.  Definitions 4.  Second example 5.  Exploratory testing 6.  Third example 7.  How to sharpen your mental models 8.  Closing up 9.  Questions

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About me

" Henrik Emilsson, born 1975. "   Lives in Värmskog. "   Spare-time musician and gardener;

with a special interest in electronic music and Honeysuckles.

"   Started with software testing in 1999 and has also been User Experience Team Lead. "   Organizing Let’s Test 2012. Ran the EuroSTAR TestLab 2011. "   Teacher at Karlstad University and the higher vocational study colleges in Karlstad and

Gothenburg. "   Runs the internationally known blog thetesteye.com together with Rikard Edgren and

Martin Jansson. Have published posters on Software Quality Characteristics and 37 Sources for Test Ideas.

"   Is currently managing the test team at Qamcom Research & Technology in Karlstad.

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First Example

"   What is your model of a year?

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Models

"   A model is anything used in any way to represent anything else

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Mental Models

"   A mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world.

"   Jay Wright Forrester defined general mental models as: "The image of the world around us, which we carry in our head, is just a

model. Nobody in his head imagines all the world, government or country. He has only selected concepts, and relationships between them, and uses

those to represent the real system.”

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Mental Model Characteristics

A mental model is generally: "   founded on obscure, or incomplete facts "   flexible – is considerably variable in positive as well as in negative sense "   information filtering – causes selective perception, perception of only selected

parts of information "   very limited, compared with the complexities surrounding the world

"   Or in plain English:

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Second Example

"   An application - RedNotebook "   Look at the user interface for a couple of minutes "   How would you test this?

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Second Example

"   An application - RedNotebook "   Look at the user interface for a couple of minutes "   How would you test this?

"   Do your models include any of the following dimensions? "   Capabilities "   Data "   Technologies "   Competitors "   Quality Characteristics "   Users / Usage Scenarios

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Exploratory Testing

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Exploratory Testing

"   Freestyle ET imply using mental models "   Good ET require using many/diverse mental models "   Good ET benefit from having a blend of mental and conceptual models

"   Mental "   Implicit "   Explicit "   Invisible

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SFDPOT – Product elements

From Bach/Bolton

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CRUCSPIC STMP– Quality Characteristics

From TheTestEye

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CIDTESTD – Project Environment

From Bach/Bolton

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Capabilities

Failure Mode

Models

Data

Surroundings

White-box

Product History

Actual software

Technologies

Competitors

Purpose

Image

Business Knowledge

Legal aspects

Creative Ideas

Internal Collections

You

Project Background

Information Objectives

Risks

Test Artifacts

Debt

Conversations

Context Analysis

Many Deliverables

Tools

Quality Characteristics

Fears

Usage Scenarios

Field Information

Users

Public Collections

Standards

References

Searching

From Edgren & Edgren/Jansson/Emilsson

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Third Example

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How to sharpen your mental models

"   Awareness of biased thoughts

"   Don’t let biased thoughts and fallacies dominate your models…

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How to sharpen your mental models

"   Create explicit models "   Before "   In the meantime "   After

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How to sharpen your mental models

"   Step out of your consciousness

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How to sharpen your mental models

"   Force yourself to think in several dimensions

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Closing up

"   Can you trust your mental models? "   Yes!

"   You use them every day.

"   But… "   Be aware of biases and fallacies "   Use tools to guide your thinking "   Shut out thoughts that are inappropriate (for your task) "   Diversify your information dimensions

"   Skilled software testers aren’t just lucky…

"  They use many rich and diversified mental models in order to be successful.

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Questions

Henrik Emilsson, Test Manager

henrik.emilsson@qamcom.se +46 733 80 24 29

Twitter: @henrikemilsson Blog: www.thetesteye.com