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MP PM Tutorial
4/29/13 1:00PM
Creative Techniques for Discovering
Test Ideas
Presented by:
Karen Johnson
Software Test Management, Inc.
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com
Karen Johnson
Karen N. Johnson is a software test consultant, working on-site and remotely to help her clients build testing teams and strengthen their testing practice. Karen is considered an expert in software testing and has been part of the context-driven software testing community for a number of years. She is a frequent speaker at testing conferences; a contributing author to the book, Beautiful Testing; and co-founder of WREST, the Workshop on Regulated Software Testing. Karen has published numerous articles and blogs about her experiences with software testing. Visit Karen’s website at karennjohnson.com.
Crea%ve Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas
Karen N. Johnson Copyright 2013
Crea%ve Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas v4 © Karen N. Johnson, 2013 1
Karen N. Johnson
• SoFware Test Consultant • Published Author • Teach SoFware Tes%ng • Co-‐founder of WREST, the Workshop on Regulated SoFware Tes%ng • Site: www.karennjohnson.com • TwiTer: karennjohnson
Crea%ve Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas v4 © Karen N. Johnson, 2013 2
Is there space in our work for crea%vity?
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What stops us? Mental locks
1. The right answer 2. That’s not logical 3. Follow the rules 4. Be prac%cal 5. Play is frivolous 6. That’s not my area 7. Avoid ambiguity 8. Don’t be foolish 9. To err is wrong 10. I’m not crea%ve
– Roger von Oech, “A What on the Side of the Head”
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Breaking free
“Once a rule gets in place, it’s very difficult to eliminate even though the original reason for its genera%on has disappeared. Thus crea%ve thinking involves not only genera%ng new ideas, but escaping from obsolete ones as well.” – Roger von Oech, “A What on the Side of the Head”
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Crea%ve solu%ons
• Mind mapping • Empty the cup • Brainstorming
• Heuris%c card deck • $100 constraint matrix • Phoenix Checklist
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Exercise: the cup
The premise We all get overloaded with demands and distrac%on. A solu.on Empty what is on your mind onto the paper provided. You do not need to share or discuss the paper, it is yours.
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Brainstorming basics
• Originated by Alex F. Osborn • Start with a specific ques%on • Guidelines: 1. Defer judgment 2. Quan%ty is wanted 3. “Free-‐wheeling” is welcome (the wilder an idea, the beTer) 4. Combina%on and improvement to ideas
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Brainstorming Blockers
• Free riding -‐ not contribu%ng because you feel the group has it “covered "without your input • Cri%cism -‐ fear of your idea being evaluated harshly • Social matching effect -‐ shuong down your contribu%ons to match the produc%vity of the group • The illusion of group produc%vity -‐ thinking the group has found enough ideas
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Exercise: Brainstorming
1. Break into teams 2. Choose a problem 3. Make the problem specific 4. Collect a quan%ty of ideas 5. In a second session you
will have %me to go back and evaluate ideas
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Brainstorming varia%ons
• Group passing -‐ write an idea, pass your paper onto the next person un%l the paper is back to the originator
• Team idea mapping -‐ brainstorm alone
then share with the group, build a map together of the ideas (may form an affinity map).
• 6-‐3-‐5 -‐ 6 par%cipants, 3 ideas every 5 minutes.
• 3-‐12-‐3 -‐ 3 minutes for genera%ng a pool of observa%ons, 12 for combining observa%ons to ideas and 3 for presen%ng concepts to the group.
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heu·∙ris·∙.c
Defini%on of HEURISTIC : involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-‐solving by experimental and especially trial-‐and-‐error methods <heuris%c techniques> <a heuris%c assump%on>; also : of or rela%ng to exploratory problem-‐solving techniques that u%lize self educa%ng techniques (as the evalua%on of feedback) to improve performance
a Greek word meaning "find" or "discover"
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Exercise: Heuris%c card deck
1. In groups, use the heuris%c card deck. 2. Work through a tes%ng problem. 3. Make a note of heuris%cs that helped. 4. Share your observa%ons with the class.
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There are constraints on nearly all projects. Typical constraints: • %me • money • resources • deadlines
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Exercise: $100 constraint matrix
1. Complete the $100 matrix as a team. 2. Your team has $100 to spend and more than $100 of items
to “fund.” 3. Your team will need to choose what to fund and what not to
fund. 4. When your team is done, have a representa%ve from your
team explain what your team chose and how your team made those decisions
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The Phoenix Checklist
The Phoenix Checklist is list of ques%ons developed by the CIA to encourage agents to consider a problem from different angles by using a series of ques%ons. Process: 1. Determine the problem you want to resolve. 2. Write the problem down. 3. Use the ques%ons to resolve the problem.
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Resources Books • Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko • Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni
Brown and James Macanufo • Applied Imagina%on by Alex F.
Osborn
Blogs • Phoenix Checklist: Rob Lambert blog:
hTp://blogs.imeta.co.uk/RLambert/archive/2008/10/17/issoFware-‐tes%ng-‐like-‐being-‐in-‐the-‐cia.aspx
• Cem Kaner & Andy Tinkham: hTp://www.kaner.com/pdfs/ExploringExploratoryTes%ng.pdf
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Thank you For being here! Your feedback is appreciated.
Karen N. Johnson Copyright 2013
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