From D to Q to C with plenty of T

2006-Aug-19 - Chicken Finger Testing

No, I haven't got a job with The Colonel tasting his new recipes.

I have though found one of the problems that can happen when testing the same program for a while - repetition.

Not the boredom of seeing the same dialogs day after day but the problem that you can end up using the program the same way every time - when creating a user you always enter the address first and then their job and then you go to the next screen where they are assigned a function.

I realised I was doing this when I was doing some regression testing and followed the steps to reproduce and found a bug before I'd even got to testing the original bug. The steps to reproduce had me doing things in a different order than I'd got into the habit of doing.

The next realisation of this occurred when we had some customers in for a demonstration from the sales guys. The customers are well looked after and provided with a tasty lunch but they mustn't have been too hungry as there was some leftover for us to pick at.

Two chicken pieces on skewers in hand I went back to my testing - and with one hand holding the chicken I had to use the keyboard to drive the app under test and not the mouse..

and voila

a bug

Fortunately the bug was not in the chicken but in the code

So more learning experience for me:

1) vary the steps you take to test and I'll try to get another person involved as well to supply a fresh pair of eyes and approach to the tests

2) remember to include keyboard driven testing as part of the test plan

How do you get past the repetition problem ?

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2006-Aug-19 - How do you get past the repetition problem?

Posted by strazzerj

Q: How do you get past the repetition problem ?
A: Occasionally switch your mouse for a chicken.

Actually, I sometimes find it useful to get a fresh set of eyes on the project somewhere in the testing cycle.

I like to give that person little more than the "Getting Started" manual, or Help file, and let them perform some Ad Hoc testing.

Often, when a new person joins the team (sometimes a new hire, sometimes a COOP student, I ask them to note anything that seems odd to them. Their fresh viewpoint turns up things that us old-timers have longs since passed over.

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2006-Aug-21 - Possible solution...

Posted by whollymindless

... don't become repetitive.

If you have to do it more than three times - automate. That way you don't get in a groove - or is it a rut?

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2006-Aug-23 - Definitely a rut...

Posted by michaeljf

I had thought you were talking about what I call "Chicken Finger Testing" where you just sit and with one hand peck at the keys. Since you have done it before, many times, its just second nature.

I just wish in the past I had time to automate, but we were always getting ready for the next build.

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2006-Aug-28 - It's Deja Vu all over again

Posted by jimhazen

This is what I have called "Tester Habituation", where you get into the habit of doing something the same way everytime. And it can cause you to miss something right in front of your eyes. You get so used to doing something that you're on autopilot and not paying attention.

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