It doesn't make sense.

I stole this, I changed two words:

People work with one set of ideas about how the software is. Everything they do, be it experimental or theoretical work, is informed by, and framed within, that set of ideas. There will be some evidence that doesn't fit, however. At first, that evidence will be ignored or sabotaged. Eventually, though, the anomalies will pile up so high they simply cannot be ignored or sabotaged any longer. Then comes crisis.
13 Things That Don't Make Sense - Michael Brooks.

To me, this is a pretty good explanation of software development, although of course, not in all cases of software development.

It's also a pretty good reason why things like agile, devops, devs, bdd, etc have come about.

We do approach things with a set of ideas and we do frame things with that set of ideas in mind.

We stick to our own ideas, even though some of our ideas have been born out of others' ideas and thoughts and words and we've blindly made them our ideas and thoughts.
- For more on this train of thought refer to Leprechauns of Software Development or various kinds of certification.

When we have ideas that we have actually conceived it can be a good thing because we all have different experiences, we all have different thoughts, we can all add something.

I think the problems occur when we don't let go of theses ideas (when beneficial) and learn from others experiences and listen to others ideas.

A lot of time we don't conceive ideas together for something we are supposed to be working on together.

What's wrong with us?

Doesn't make sense to me.

Make sense to you?

Continuing with the excerpts from 13 Things That Don't Make Sense The next paragraph starts with the sentence:

Crisis, Kuhn said, is soon followed by the paradigm shift in which everyone gains a radically new way of looking at the world.

Does it? Not for software development, not as much as needed.

In the context of software development the sentence would read:

Crisis, Kuhn said, is soon followed by a attempt to throw more people at, work longer hours to stem and follow the procedures that caused the crisis in the first place until the next crisis arrives.

What's wrong with us?

Total awareness of conditioning

How do I free myself from my conditioning of the culture in which I was born? First, I must be aware that I am conditioned; not somebody telling me that I am conditioned. You understand the difference?

If somebody tells me I am hungry, that’s something different from actually being hungry. So I must be aware of my conditioning, which means, I must be aware of it not only superficially, but at the deeper levels. That is, I must be aware totally.

To be so aware, means that I am not trying to go beyond the conditioning, not trying to be free of the conditioning. I must see it as it actually is, not bring in another element, such as wanting to be free of it, because that is an escape from actuality. I must be aware. What does that mean?

To be aware of my conditioning totally, not partially, means my mind must be highly sensitive, mustn’t it? Otherwise, I can’t be aware.

To be sensitive means to observe everything very, very closely; the colours, the quality of people, all the things around me. I must also be aware of what actually is without any choice. Can you do that?

Not trying to interpret it, not trying to change it, not trying to go beyond it or trying to be free of it; just to be totally aware of it?

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Awakening of Intelligence

Weeknight Testing....BRB..

So a while back a bunch of clever people started this thing called Weekend Testing. 

About us
WT formerly known as Bangalore Weekend Testers is the acronym for Weekend Testers. We are a group of testers who have synergy towards testing software and learning from it. We also belong to the group of testers whose vision is to improve the craft. We are bringing Weekend Testing through our first chapter – Bangalore Weekend Testers, to find people with similar synergy.
Mission of WT
A platform for software testers to collaborate, test various kinds of software, foster hope, gain peer recognition, and be of value to the community.

You should already be aware of it, if not, look into it. Good times.
 
And out of it grew Weeknight Testing.

Weeknight Testing slowed down as we all got busy with life and there hasn't been a session for quite while.

Sharath has been in contact and we're looking at reviving it.

If there is anything you would like covered or if you're interested in running a session let us know.

I think (tbc) we're going to be looking at running it in different ways, not sure exactly yet but I think we'll mix between in person and on-line sessions.

Details on a couple of past sessions:

WNT – Black Box Security Testing

Week Night Testing: Requirements analysis & testing traps

Weeknight Testing #04 – an experience report

Agile Testing UK:Weeknight Testing Live 

  - Live video streamed between Germany, San Francisco and London.

Get involved.

Test. Learn. Contribute.


Cheers

Tony.

LTG Talk - Testing Without Testing - James Marcus Bach

James Marcus Bach spoke at the November London Tester Gathering which was sponsored by Test Partners Ltd and hosted by Skillsmatter.

Skillsmatter have podcast the talk.

I'm supposed to be negative?

So I've overheard recently  (over the last year or so) things like: 'It gets tiring being negative all the time and pointing mistakes and people flaws.'

And it confused me.

Is that what I'm supposed to be doing?!

Crap!

I've been doing it wrong!

Should I be negative?

Should I be pointing out flaws in peoples work?

Should I be pointing out flaws in peoples ideas?

Should I be stating that people are doing shoddy work?

Am I there to break things?

Am I there to find the breaks?

I thought I was part of a team and we worked together on creating something.

I thought I approached things differently and could add valuable input because of that.

I thought we were solving a problem and approaching it from different angles.

I thought I was there to provide information.

I thought  we evolved together.

Did I think wrong?

Ted talk: Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds

London Tester Gathering - Thurs 13th September - The Shooting Star

The September London Tester Gathering will be on Thursday 13th September at The Shooting Star.

Address:
Function Room 125-129 Middlesex Street London E1 7JF 0207 929 6818

The plan:
We have the function room from 5:30pm onwards.

Talks:
Neotys demo

Extending the page object pattern with widgets and reflection - Rob Fahey

Negotiation - Patrick Esson

http://www.aransa.co.uk

Sponsorship:
Neotys


RSVP here.

Hope to see you there.

Cheers and Kind Regards

Tony Bruce.

Testing? Thoughts? Idea? What?

Yesterday I tried a experiment I'd been toying with in my head.

I've been with a organisation for roughly 8mths now and I've not actually had a lot of time to spend with the Testers as we've all been busy and I wanted to know more about how they think and what they think about what they do.

My role has changed slightly now and I have more time to work with the Testers and so yesterday was the first of the 'sessions' I'll be running.

I had 3 Testers on the exercise and essentially just asked them to write down thoughts on testing.

We then discussed what they had written down and wrote it on a whiteboard.

I then added to it with my thoughts which we also discussed.

There were notes being taken and thoughtful nods and comments.

Mine are in red.

Francesco, a colleague who wasn't on the exercise later pointed out that we'd not written anything about 'who'.

What else did we miss?

I think the session was a success as it seemed to get the guys thinking and I learnt about their thinking.

I would like to punch it up a bit, not sure what I could add to jazz it up a little.

Have you run anything similar? Or taken part in something similar? How did you get on?

It might have worked a little better if thoughts had been written the night before and then we got together to discuss as I'm thinking of new stuff to add all the time.