Matt Heusser’s Blog
Testing at the Edge of Chaos
Test This – The Entries
In many performance disciplines, the assumption is that students will, yes, do a lot of practice, but also study the masters – both what they created and how they perform the work. We even do this in mathematics; my highest course at Salisbury was Math 480: History of Mathematics, where we basically studied the proofs of ancient mathematicians, from Euclid to Euler.
Yet, as I’ve said before, in software testing, our canon of sample tests include the triangle problem and maybe the insurance problem(it’s on page 51), which haven’t changed since they were introduced in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
I was hoping, with this challenge, to change that a little, and there’s good news. Not only can you work through the problem, but in many cases, you can see how others worked through it:
* Several people left comments on the initial blog entry with test strategies.
* Several went on to post their own blog entires:
** Marlena Compton
** Joe Harter
** Justin Rohrman (with a follow-up)
** Markus Gaertner (with a Part II)
** And, last but not least, the a truly unique reply came from Phil Kirkham. If I don’t give Phil second place, I may have to invent a prize category for “humor.”
I also received private entries from Justin Hunter, Ajay Balamurugadas, Parimala Shankaraiah, and Sharath Byregowda. (Justin Generated his with his Hexawise tool. It’s /very/ interesting and collapses the exercise into something like twenty test cases.)
Needless to say, I have a lot of reading to do. If you would like to help me out, please, feel free to check out the public entries and vote with comments.
Over the next few days I will list my strategy, test plan, the actual bugs we found in the software, and yes, the winning entry. Keep it tuned here …
Comments (1)
at October 18, 2009, 3:04 pm:
After going through the comments on your initial blog entry and the responses you listed here, I have two favorites in two categories and one outstanding reply from Phil Kirkham on the funny scale.
Favorite plan: Joe Harter
Favorite short answer: Henrik Andersson
Why Joe Harter?
His write-up is great as a guide for performing tests. His charters give good advice while leaving out too much detail to leave the tester in exploring mode. In addition I liked the structure which was very intuitive for me. Marlenas write-up and Justins answer were also very good, but Joes got my full credit there.
Why Henrik Andersson?
The five minute write-up was great. I liked the way he approached the unknown with a Whole Team approach. Getting everyone together to clarify what will be tested is an asset we need more in testing and it really was well written. Great guide for the general strategy. Patrik Welsh and Rikard Edgren did also a good job, but Henrik amazed me.
Oh, and I haven’t not yet read your follow up approach nor have I considered my own answer for the ranking. No kittens were harmed for this reply.