Poll: Guest lecture topics

One of our guest lectures considers tester's everyday life. It will be held in form of lightning talks: first a short talk on a topic and then questions/conversations for a while. We get to choose topics from a prepared list. Go and vote for 4 most interesting ones. The ones you would like to hear more about. Vote now!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNEMWVWMXlkeHAtYTc3R1ZpTjFMTmc6MQ#gid=0

In addition we can have a bonus topic. So if you have anything you would like to hear about, anything related to testing, add a comment to this post. We will then choose the best one together and ask it from our guests.

Reflections on the first dojo

It took a week to write my reflections

So, what did I learn at our first session at the Special Course on Software Testing?

Firstly, it was a really good move to cease the moment when there was a hassle on the projector. To have a break to have the projector ready. Start slow to move fast. Maybe, maybe we could do that again in our next sessions. To have a 5 minute break between the presentations. There would be another reason for that, but more on that later.

When we started with the dojo sessions, I came a bit unprepared. As-if I had the thought: "I've done this before, thus I can do it now too." Well, if I want to forget something really important, then I can do it unprepared. Being there, in front of the classroom, I often have some index cards with notes of the important aspects I need to describe. It could've been a good idea. I do that.

And it could've been a good idea to stop the hassle and concentrate on the beginning. To concentrate on the briefing of the dojo. Being first of it's kind - start slow to move faster (http://hbr.org/2010/05/need-speed-slow-down/ar/1)

Having said that, I apologise.

But the sessions were great. Even without the briefing that my role was that of the 'Customer' and that the group's role was to be a bunch of programmers/testers - developers, that is - they started to ask questions related to the product.

• "What if there was only one post?"
• "Are there specs too detailed? Should they be more abstract?"
• "We should ask this from the customer."

Those are just the questions we have, at work, while working on our examples. What if ...? Could it be...? With all these details, does the customer really understand these? Do we share ubiquitous language with developers and customer?

I have a dream. A dream of us almost experiencing something, but leaving a lot of questions floating around. 

Eating something 'half-baked' could leave us a crave for better. A feeling that there's something missing - but what it is? The group came with that too: "Should've we have started with specification workshop? You know, the event when we ask questions from you?"

Well, yes.

And that's what happens at work too. We try something and we find that - how should I say it - something could be better. What if we could try this and that.

What I often do at work is, I do first version of something. Then I show that to the persons I want to work together with and ask:

• "Would this help us?"
• "How would this help us to overcome this problem we have?"
• "How would this help us to create ubiquitous language for ourselves?"

Competition: Bug Advocacy

As mentioned in the course introduction there is an ongoing competition for finding bugs. Here's how to participate:

1. Read an article written by Cem Kaner on Bug Advocacy.
2. Find a bug (commercial products, open source, your own project, any software counts)
3. Create a bug report about it
4. Send the report to the authors of the software (so that the problem gets noticed)
5. Send the report to us (course instructors), as well as a short description on how you used the Bug Advocacy article and other sources to create the report.
6. Repeat as many times as you like before the competition deadline.
7. Wait nervously for announcement of the winner.

Everyone should report at least one finding. Course instructors will be the judges. Winner gets +1 to his grade. If you find a bug that gets you into news you get 5 as your grade.

Learning

One of my favourite blogs is a terrific blog by Katleena Kortesuo. In the blog, Ei oo totta, Katleena blogs with a personal flavour about mistakes she has done. One of her missions is to learn from her failures, and helping us, the readers, to learn how not to do the same mistakes.

In her blog, Katleena tells about her own experiences, taking a moment to stop to reflect on what happened. In her reflections, she studies her actions, thoughts and tries to emphasise how the other feel on her reactions.

Reflection is one of the critical parts of learning when considering learning as something that can be explained with Kolb cycle. Writing the result of the reflection on a paper/diary, or a blog, often helps us in creating structure to our thoughts and how we perceive the issues.

The other day, I read Katleena's blog on Tietokirjat ja koulutukset eivät opeta juuri mitään - roughly translated as 'Nonfiction books and trainings teach us nearly nothing'. In the post, she describes what they (writers and trainers) could try to make learning more efficient.

On the post, Katleena mentioned few specific thoughts: training courses should have more and more action and discussion based learning. What it means for us attending to the Special Course on Software Testing? First and foremost we have made a decision to limit the scope of our workout to contain only 4 topics. Those topics will be studied by you (action), presented to the audience by you (action, presenting & listening). Then we all get into real action and try to bring the learning into concrete actions (action). And every session is closed in a closing circle - one way of having a group reflection (discussion).

And not only that, we have given opportunity for us all to have a learning journal. Either in a blog like we, or a personal learning journal. I believe, while being time-consuming and hard, keeping a journal gives us an excuse to stop and reflect on our learning journey.

And there's a chance for lot of learning on this course. You (hopefully) learn something on finding information, presenting it efficiently, cooperating with fellow students and on reflection skills with a bigger group.

All important aspects also in work life.

And my own reflection as 'Wilderness Guide'? We have this blog that I haven't used that much. I do hope that I have learned since last year. I hope that I have learned the importance of reflections.

Maybe this would be a good time to stop and reflect on my reflection skills. Or lack thereof.

I don't eat my dog food. I drink my own champagne.

Course Introduction

Course introduction material is now available: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16MdceAvlRSAExirqsxmnBpZpUJp874mff5rJs1kN4-Y/edit

Testing Techniques

As discussed in the first lecture the warm-up task is to pick a testing technique and give a short description of it. Publish the description as a comment to this blog post. You can use Finnish or English. Include links to reference material if relevant. If possible give a concrete example. If you are having problems in finding material to a technique, please contact us (course instructors).

List of techniques (mark your first name and first letter of last name after your selection): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ak7z0t62SOIkdDdXT3JlVm42T2FPREZUb3FJQnU2dUE#gid=0

A couple of good places to start hunting materials:
http://www.testingeducation.org/BBST/
http://www.satisfice.com/
http://www.developsense.com/resources.html

Course Schedule

Important Dates:
30.10. 08-10 First lecture
31.10. 12-14 Second Lecture
15.11. Plans/presentation for Session1 returned
19.11. TestTechnique returned
20.11. Session1
22.11. Plans/presentation for Session2 returned
27.11. Session2
29.11. Plans/presentation for Session3 returned
04.12. Session3
06.12. Plans/presentation for Session4 returned
11.12. Session4
13.12. BugAdvocacy reports returned
18.12. 10-12 (lambda) Guest lecture: Antti Kervinen: Model-based Testing
18.12. 13-15 (lambda) Guest lecture: Anssi Lehtelä: Tales from the Testers Crypt.

It looks like we are doing it again

The schedule is all set. First guest lecturer is arranged. Rough outline for the course is handed out. I'm at least excited. This time it will be even better. Two months to go...