Matt Heusser’s Blog
Testing at the Edge of Chaos
It’s march!
And that means it’s time for the March Issue of Software Test&Performance Magazine! With Ross Collard as the guest editor, the issue includes articles on lessons learned in simulation, security testing, testing financial applications, and, yes, ST&Pedia, by yours truly and Chris McMahon. This month’s column, on page seven, covers techniques for extremely low-defect software.
On another note, every now and again someone will ask me “how I find time” to write so much. I find that fascinating. I mean, besides the day job, for the most part, we always find time to do what’s important to us. People who “can’t find the time” to write (or whatever it is they are waxing poetic that they are sad they can’t do) are, in effect, saying with their choices that everything else is more important.
I’ll put that a different way: If I asked my brother in law how he finds the time to watch so much University of Michigan football, he’d likely say … no. He’d likely punch me, because he’d feel I just insulted him.
I do think of there are real questions about how we do creative work, and how to get started, and how to do more of it. But first of all, you’ve got to be serious about it. If you are serious, you’ll be compelled to do it, like the engineer and his cup of coffee.
It doesn’t take discipline for me to write; it takes discipline for me to not write. Sometimes, especially right before a speech (or if I quit work with some critical tests undone), it takes discipline for me to be present.
One of the people I like to listen to about creative work is Merlin Mann, because he is both serious about creative work and an entertaining read. And he’s got a blog post about the #1 thing to do to maintain focus and get a project done, called “First, Care.” I thought this audience might appreciate it.
Merlin also did an appearance at MaxFunCon last year, that has audio up on the MaxFunCon blog. Note the conference is part serious conference on creative work, part sketch comedy, so expect an R-rated romp and a fair amount of swear words. You can find the audio here here (MP3).
If you find this kind of content interesting, let me know, I’ll provide more of it – and I’ll look for shorter snippets on the PG side. If not, let me know, we’ll swing back to testing.
Something old …
I just got back from the wedding of a collegue.
In that spirit, I am reminded of the talk I gave last year at the Indiana Quality Conference – something James Bach recently refered to as a “Kick-Ass Podcast.” (No really, his words, not mine.)
It’s at the very bottom of the stack for Creative Chaos, so I thought I would let it bubble up -
The title is “So You’re Doomed” – Here’s a link to the PowerPoint (5MB)
And the Audio (45MB).
The audio is forty-five-ish minutes. I look forward to your feedback!
Real Time Software Development
New PodCast – Download it here.
And now the explanation …
Right now I have article ideas coming out of my ears, and no time to write them down. If I _try_ to write them down on index cards, then in six months I will have a bunch of unreadable index cards. If I try to write them in Microsoft word, I will end up staying up all right, writing a few of them.
No, what I need is a good way to save the context of the idea onto the stack, and perhaps retrieve it later.
To that end, Sean McMillan and I have recorded a brief (14 minute/12MB) podcast that dicusses one of those ideas – Real Time Software Development.
Please let me know what you think of this format; we view it as an experiment. If the format proves popular enough, I may record and stream other presentations on the podcast.
If you have iTunes, you can subscribe to the podcast here. If you are a regular creative chaos reader, don’t worry about it; all episodes are posted right here, so you don’t need iTunes to get your fix.
Also, I have switched web-hosting for www.xndev.com and related media files to GoDaddy; if you have any problems with your downloads, please let me know.
Interview with Chad Fowler
I’ve blogged a bit about a presentation Chad Fowler made to XPWestMichiga two weeks back. There were several interesting points on marketing yourself and choosing a career in technology. Eventually, the talk will be on Google video and I’ll link to it, but I am getting tired of waiting to post something.
In the mean time, there is an interview with Chad on perlcast.com which covers some of the main points; you can download it here.
