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KEY IDEA

KEY IDEA. Testing is science. Develop your scientific mind. Testing is in Your Head. Ah! Problem!. Specifications. Technical Knowledge. Critical Thinking. Domain Knowledge. Problem. Product. Communication. Experience. Problem Report.

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KEY IDEA

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  1. KEY IDEA Testing is science. Develop your scientific mind.

  2. Testing is in Your Head Ah!Problem! Specifications Technical Knowledge Critical Thinking DomainKnowledge Problem Product Communication Experience Problem Report The important parts of testing don’ttake place in the computer or on your desk. Coverage

  3. Welcome to Epistemologythe study of knowledge

  4. Epistemology Epistemology is the study of how we knowwhat we know. The philosophy of sciencebelongs to Epistemology. All good testers practice Epistemology.

  5. Basic Skills of Epistemology • Ability to pose useful questions. • Ability to observe what’s going on. • Ability to describe what you perceive. • Ability to think critically about what you know. • Ability to recognize and manage bias. • Ability to form and test conjectures. • Ability to keep thinking despite already knowing. • Ability to analyze someone else’s thinking.

  6. Epistemology Lesson:Abductive Inference Abductive inference means finding the best explanation for a set of data. • Collect data. • Find several explanations that account for the data. • Find more data that is either consistent or inconsistent with explanations. • Choose the best explanation that accounts for the important data, or keep searching.

  7. Epistemology Lesson:Conjecture and Refutation • We never know product quality for certain. • We conjecture about quality. To conjecture is to explore plausible realities. • A good conjecture is falsifiable: we can imagine facts that would refute the conjecture. • A conjecture can never be proven, only corroborated. Corroborating evidence is most interesting when gained as the result of a genuine attempt to refute. • Good testing is a serious attempt to refute and corroborate conjectures about product quality.

  8. Epistemology of Magic Magic tricks workfor the same reasonsthat bugs exist • Our thinking is limited • We misunderstand probabilities • We use the wrong heuristics • We lack specialized knowledge • We forget details • We don’t pay attention to the right things • The world is hidden • states • sequences • processes • attributes • variables • identities Studying magic canhelp you developthe imaginationto find better bugs. Sufficiently advancedtechnology isindistinguishablefrom magic.

  9. Tester vs. Tourist:Testers Ask Critical Questions • How well does the product work? • How do you know how well it works? • What evidence do you have about how it works? • Is that evidence reliable and up to date? • What does it mean for the product to “work”? • What facts would cause you to believe that it doesn’t work? • In what ways could it not work, yet seem to you that it does? • In what ways could it work, yet seem to you that it doesn’t? • What might cause the product not to work well (or at all)? • What would cause you to suspect that it will soonstop working? • Do other people use the product? How does it work for them? • How important is it for this product to work? • Are you qualified to answer these questions? Is anyone else qualified?

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