Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I remember as a young lad working construction for my uncle one summer. The hours were long, it was hot, and I would much rather have been somewhere else. But, I was saving up for my first motorcycle, so I did whatever jobs I could find. Perhaps it was because [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Friday, February 06, 2009
I am an avid fly-fisherman, and I am spending a few of these last winter evenings tying flies in preparation for the new year. The lakes are still too cold so the trout are deep and lethargic, and many of the rivers are closed and too damn cold and swollen [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Friday, October 24, 2008
Last week I was at the Test2008 conference in India. The organizers from PureTesting planned a grand event with workshops in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, and Pune. Then the main conference was then held outside of New Delhi. When I arrived in Delhi at the conference I was told I would [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Wednesday, October 08, 2008
As a young lad growing up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay I would often spend part of my summer vacation from grade school helping my grandfather work the crab pots on the north shore. Now, don’t think “Dangerous Catch,” crabbing in the Chesapeake is much different than crabbing [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Thursday, May 01, 2008
It has been quite some time since I have posted. Part of that is due to personal distractions (getting my garden planted and my sailboat ready for the upcoming season), and part of that is being ‘in the zone’ working on some special projects at work. DeMarco and Lister [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Monday, January 28, 2008
The debate over whether testers need to at least understand programming concepts is still raging within the discipline. To me this debate is puzzling because it seems to suggest that as a professional, I don’t have to really understand or be completely proficient in critical aspects of my trade. Even [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Originally Published Monday, January 21, 2008
"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his [...]
Friday, November 13, 2009
Originally Published Friday, December 28, 2007
The easiest thing to criticize is that which one does not fully comprehend.
There has been a lot of discussion lately about Jerome Groopman’s book How Doctor’s Think and a correlation between doctors in the medical profession and software testers. The book is an excellent read, and provides readers with valuable [...]
Friday, November 13, 2009
Originally Published Sunday, December 23, 2007
It never ceases to amaze me that every time we see a calamity involving software the immediate reaction of the sensationalist media types and other people who are generally misinformed is to blame inadequate testing. Recently, it seems that Joel Spolsky not only fell victim to rumors and misinformation, but [...]
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Originally Published Tuesday, February 06, 2007
When some people talk about “expert testers” they often refer to the personal traits such as curiosity, passion, dynamic, detail oriented, strong constitution, honesty, integrity, etc. We can describe the characteristics of these traits that we admire and we certainly look for when hiring new testers. People can strive to [...]