[HN Gopher] Two sides of software testing: Checking and explorin...
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       Two sides of software testing: Checking and exploring (2011)
        
       Author : mooreds
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2024-01-25 20:59 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.agileconnection.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.agileconnection.com)
        
       | rqtwteye wrote:
       | Exploratory testing by experienced testers is extremely valuable.
       | I am a dev but have done some testing. I could break the systems
       | in various ways because I had a pretty good feel for what can go
       | wrong.
       | 
       | Beginner users are also very good because they do stuff you never
       | expected.
        
         | eru wrote:
         | > Beginner users are also very good because they do stuff you
         | never expected.
         | 
         | People using software for a while undergo operant conditioning:
         | consciously or subconsciously they quickly learn to internalise
         | what makes the software 'angry', and learn to avoid that. That
         | makes them more productive users, but also less useful as
         | explorers.
         | 
         | See https://blog.regehr.org/archives/861
         | 
         | > Have you ever used a new program or system and found it to be
         | obnoxiously buggy, but then after a while you didn't notice the
         | bugs anymore? If so, then congratulations: you have been
         | trained by the computer to avoid some of its problems. For
         | example, I used to have a laptop that would lock up to the
         | point where the battery needed to be removed when I scrolled
         | down a web page for too long (I'm guessing the video driver's
         | logic for handling a full command queue was defective). Messing
         | with the driver version did not solve the problem and I soon
         | learned to take little breaks when scrolling down a long web
         | page. To this day I occasionally feel a twinge of guilt or fear
         | when rapidly scrolling a web page.
         | 
         | > The extent to which we technical people have become
         | conditioned by computers became apparent to me when one of my
         | kids, probably three years old at the time, sat down at a
         | Windows machine and within minutes rendered the GUI
         | unresponsive. Even after watching which keys he pressed, I was
         | unable to reproduce this behavior, at least partially because
         | decades of training in how to use a computer have made it very
         | hard for me to use one in such an inappropriate fashion. By
         | now, this child (at 8 years old) has been brought into the
         | fold: like millions of other people he can use a Windows
         | machine for hours at a time without killing it.
        
         | switchbak wrote:
         | I've met Elisabeth, and i think she's a fantastic thought
         | leader for exploratory testing.
         | 
         | Sadly my efforts to promote this practice were met with a
         | dismissive response: "QA leads to lower quality, according to
         | this study". I just didn't have the energy to try to change
         | this person's opinion.
         | 
         | I have seen exploratory testing in concert with good developer
         | testing work extremely well. Old school SQA isn't really my
         | thing, but modern exploratory testers are tremendously
         | valuable.
        
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