Discovering New Test Ideas: Getting that Burst of Creativity

TE AM Tutorial

10/1/2013 8:30:00 AM

"Discovering New Test Ideas:

Getting that Burst of Creativity"

Presented by:

Karen Johnson

Software Test Management, Inc.

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073

888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com

Karen N. Johnson

Software Test Management, Inc.

Karen N. Johnson is a software test consultant, working on-site and remotely to help her clients

build testing teams and strengthen their testing practice. Karen is considered an expert in

software testing and has been part of the context-driven software testing community for a

number of years. She is a frequent speaker at testing conferences; a contributing author to the

book, Beautiful Testing; and co-founder of WREST, the Workshop on Regulated Software

Testing. Karen has published numerous articles and blogs about her experiences with software

testing.

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Discovering New Test Ideas

Karen N. Johnson Copyright 2013

Discovering New Test Ideas v6 © Karen N. Johnson, 2013 1

about: Karen N. Johnson

• Software Test Consultant

• Published Author

• Teach Software Testing

• Co-founder of WREST, the Workshop

on Regulated Software Testing

• Site: www.karennjohnson.com

• Twitter: karennjohnson


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Is there space in our work for

creativity?


What stops us? Mental locks

1. The right answer 2. That’s not logical 3. Follow the rules 4. Be practical 5. Play is frivolous 6. That’s not my area 7. Avoid ambiguity 8. Don’t be foolish 9. To err is wrong 10. I’m not creative

– Roger von Oech, “A What on the Side of the Head”


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agenda

• Introduction

• Exercise: the cup

• Brainstorming explained

• Exercise: brainstorming

• Heuristics explained

• Exercise: heuristics

• The Phoenix Checklist explained

• Exercise: The Phoenix Checklist

• Tours Explained

• Exercise: tours

• $100 Test explained

• Exercise $100 test

• Exercise: Brainstorming Part 2

• Team Debriefs 5

Exercise: the cup

The premise

We all get overloaded with demands and distraction.

A solution

Empty what is on your mind onto the paper provided. You do not need to share or discuss the paper, it is yours.


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about: Brainstorming

• Originated by Alex F. Osborn

• Start with a specific question

• Guidelines:

1. Defer judgment

2. Quantity is wanted

3. “Free-wheeling” is welcome (the wilder an idea, the better)

4. Combination and improvement to ideas


Brainstorming Blockers

• Free riding - not contributing because you feel the group has it “covered "without your input

• Criticism - fear of your idea being evaluated harshly

• Social matching effect - shutting down your contributions to match the productivity of the group

• The illusion of group productivity - thinking the group has found enough ideas


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Exercise: Brainstorming

1. Break into teams

2. Work with the problem assigned to your team

3. Refine the problem. Make the problem specific.

4. Collect a quantity of ideas

5. In a second session you will have time to go back and evaluate ideas


heu·ris·tic

Definition of HEURISTIC : involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods <heuristic techniques> <a heuristic assumption>; also : of or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self educating techniques (as the evaluation of feedback) to improve performance


a Greek word meaning "find" or "discover"

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Exercise: Heuristic card deck

1. In groups, use the heuristic card deck.

2. In groups, review the heuristics cheat sheet.

3. Make a note of heuristics that helped.

4. Make a note of confusions and apprehensions using either "tool."


The Phoenix Checklist

The Phoenix Checklist is list of questions developed by the CIA to encourage agents to consider a problem from different angles by using a series of questions. Process: 1. Determine the problem you want to resolve. 2. Write the problem down. 3. Use the questions to resolve the problem.


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13

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The "tourist" metaphor

Here's a list of tours from Michael Kelly. FCC CUTS VIDS is the mnemonic he devised for: • Feature • Complexity • Claims • Configuration • User • Testability • Scenario • Variability • Interoperability • Data • Structure


Tours from James Whittaker

• business district: where the business gets done

• historical district: legacy code

• tourist district: novice users

• entertainment district: supportive features

• seedy district: unsavory and illegal operations

• landmark tour: create a landmark coverage map

• FedEx tour: where data moves through

• morning commute: startup tasks and procedures

• after hours: maintenance tasks, backup files

• intellectual tour: ask the software hard questions


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Exercise: tours testing

1. In groups, review the tours testing concept

2. Make a note of tours you feel would be helpful

3. Make a note of confusions and apprehensions using the tours concept.


There are constraints on nearly all projects. Typical constraints: • time • money • resources • deadlines


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Exercise: $100 constraint matrix

1. Complete the $100 matrix as a team.

2. Your team has $100 to spend and more than $100 of items to “fund.”

3. Your team will need to choose what to fund and what not to fund.

4. When your team is done, have a representative from your team explain what your team chose and how your team made those decisions


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Exercise: Brainstorming Part 2

1. Return to your teams

2. Review all the materials provided today as well as the idea list your team created at the start of the class.

3. What testing techniques do you feel your team can implement?

4. Now is the time to judge the ideas~

5. Designate a speaker(s) to provide a team debrief.


Resources

Books

• Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko

• Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo

• Applied Imagination by Alex F. Osborn

• Exploratory Software Testing by James Whittaker

Phoenix Checklist

• Cem Kaner & Andy Tinkham: http://www.kaner.com/pdfs/ExploringExploratoryTesting.pdf

• Michael Bolton

• http://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/11/context-free-questions-for-testing/


http://www.kaner.com/pdfs/ExploringExploratoryTesting.pdf



http://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/11/context-free-questions-for-testing/











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Brainstorming variations

• Group passing - write an idea, pass your paper onto the next person until the paper is back to the originator

• Team idea mapping - brainstorm alone

then share with the group, build a map together of the ideas (may form an affinity map).

• 6-3-5 - 6 participants, 3 ideas every 5 minutes.

• 3-12-3 - 3 minutes for generating a pool of observations, 12 for combining observations to ideas and 3 for presenting concepts to the group.


Thank you For being here! Feedback is appreciated.

Karen N. Johnson Copyright 2013


Discovering New Test Ideas: Getting that Burst of Creativity

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