Author: Paul Holland
Instructor of Rapid Software Testing courses. Context-driven software testing consultant. 17+ years of experience in software testing

Hitting the Pothole of Trying to Automate Everything

One particular client wanted to automate as much of their testing as possible. I thought of a metaphor to help describe how trying to automate almost all “regression testing” is a difficult path to success. There are benefits and weaknesses

Functional Specification Blinders

During my last few years as a test manager at Alcatel-Lucent, I decided to try a slightly different approach to the development of test ideas. Before this experiment my testers would be given a feature to test and they would

Reply to Human and Machine Checking

The last couple of days have had some posts regarding the difference between testing and checking – in addition to a further comparison of machine checking compared to human checking. The posts that I have seen so far are from

Killer Interview Questions

I have been interviewing and hiring testers since 1999. I like to think that I am pretty good at finding testers who can think, communicate, and fit into the team. I have three questions that I like to ask that

How to Describe Test Coverage to non-Testers

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to explain why you can’t test everything or why sometimes bugs escaped your best efforts to find them. When I am talking to (most) people involved in the technical aspects

Reinventing yourself – Remain useful

There are some jobs in the world that have routines that do not change much (they involve repetitive steps without much modification) and some jobs that require frequent new approaches and more thought (changes to what is done on a

A Guide to Peer Conference Facilitation

Peer Conference Facilitation Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a facilitator of LAWST-style peer conferences? Are you interested in knowing how the facilitators keep track of so many threads? How they decide who gets to speak next?

The history of K-Cards

The History of K-cards – a Revolution in Peer Conference Facilitation Before I can talk about the “K-cards” I feel it is necessary to explain how I became a facilitator of peer conferences. If you just want to read about

Bad Metrics

I have talked about and against bad metrics during my Rapid Software Testing courses and at conferences for a couple of years now. The “Lightning Talk” metrics rant that I did at CAST 2011 is available on YouTube (click here

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