Painting like an engineer Skills in testing Alexandra

Heuristic! Heuristic! Heuristic! Heuristic! Heuristic! Heuristic!

The engineering method: Use heuristics…..to cause the best change....in a poorly understood situation....within the available resources

Where are the skills? The Knowledge Dimension The Cognitive Process Dimension RememberUnderstandApplyAnalyzeEvaluateCreate Facts Concepts Procedures Cognitive Strategies Models Skills Attitudes Metacognition

How do I know I have acquired a skill?

“Any art or skill is possessed by those who have formed a habit of operating according to its rules.” How to read a book

How do I know I have acquired a skill? “What you do very imperfectly at first, you gradually come to do with the kind of automatic perfection that an instinctive performance has. You do something as if you were born to it, as if the activity were as natural to you as walking or eating. That is what it means to say that habit is a second nature. ” How to read a book

How can I work on my skills? Cem Kaner : I think the best way for people to develop skills is to do something, get feedback on how to do it better, improve it (or do something similar), get feedback, and keep doing this with problems that are increasingly difficult or that apply the technique in new ways.

The necessary conditions for developing skills Predictability of outcomes Good feedback Attitude Motivation Deliberate practice Amount of experience

“Most judgments and most choices are made intuitively.” Maps of bounded rationality: Psychology for behavioral economics – Daniel Kahneman

Let’s apply all this…

A taxonomy of skills Signatures of the heuristic: 1. A heuristic does not guarantee a solution, 2. It may contradict other heuristics, 3. It reduces the search time for solving a problem, and 4. Its acceptance depends on the immediate context instead of an absolute standard

My personal testing skills categories Human-Human Interaction skills Risk controlling skills Rule of thumb skills Information visualization skills Attitude determining skills

asking questions (in a simple, non-offensive manner) have an empathetic approach be appreciative, considerate have the ability to explain my train of thoughts collect info effectively from team members offer my availability give useful feedback receive and incorporate useful feedback write effective bug reports Human-Human Interaction skills

think critically use counterfactual reasoning deal with uncertainty and incompleteness prioritize work in a timeboxed manner decide when to stop analyze existing data Risk controlling skills

focus defocus break a problem into multiple smaller problems have diverse view points stick with a consistent view point use curiosity fix variables and vary one at a time exercise stubbornness don't use stubbornness create disconfirmatory experiments Rule of thumb skills

describe coverage make maps of features under test create valuable documentation Information visualization skills

learn from experiences generate functionality flows analyze information recognize patterns read actively create models use models read and write code make logical connections change how testing is done and seen in the team collect relevant information from different sources handle complexity well evaluate the testing work self-asses my work adapt my working style to the team I am part of Attitude determining skills

learn from experiences generate functionality flows analyze information recognize patterns read actively create models use models read and write code make logical connections change how testing is done and seen in the team collect relevant information from different sources handle complexity well evaluate the testing work self-asses my work adapt my working style to the team I am part of Attitude determining skills asking questions(in a simple, non-offensive manner) have an empathetic approach be appreciative, considerate have the ability to explain my train of thoughts collect info effectively from team members offer my availability give useful feedback receive and incorporate useful feedback write effective bug reports Human-Human Interaction skills think critically use counterfactual reasoning deal with uncertainty and incompleteness prioritize work in a timeboxed manner decide when to stop Risk controlling skills focus defocus break a problem into multiple smaller problems have diverse view points stick with a consistent view point use curiosity fix variables and vary one at a time exercise stubbornness don't use stubbornness create disconfirmatory experiments Rule of thumb skills describe coverage make maps of features under test create valuable documentation Information visualization skills My personal testing skills state of the art

Some examples Working on new skills (repeatedly) Skills atrophy Overlooked skills Transferring skills to someone else

Working on new skills (repeatedly) 1

Let’s introduce some automation.. 1

Defocus from my current task Work in a timeboxed manner Use my curiosity Write code Read code Change how I do testing Change how testing is seen in the team Create valuable documentation 1

The ‘repeatedly’ part 1

Skills atrophy 2

On a previous project 2 Working with APIs Verifying validity output in the DB Monitoring http requests Verifying output in json files Testing social crawlers algorithms

On another previous project 2 Communicating a lot in writing Limited, timeboxed contact with the team Collaborate tightly with the business team Get mentoring from the test manager Make pair testing sessions with another tester

On the current project 2 Work closely with the development team Participating in root cause examination Communicate face-to-face with the team Help in discovering the business needs

Some skills I could have used 3

Logging invalid bugs 3

3

3 Re-evaluate the model Analyze existing data

Transferring skills 4

Part 1 4 So much talking…

Part 2 4 Applying a framework in a mindmap

4

3 Be appreciative Give useful feedback Decide when to stop Learn from experiences Adapt my working style to the current situation

Conclusions

It’s about skills interaction An overwhelming accumulation of interactions

Learn by doing

Skills are a procrustean bed

How did this help? The 3 questions that effective feedback answers: Where am I going? (What are the goals?) How am I going? (What progress is being made toward the goal?) Where to next? (What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress?)

Each with their own experience No “lecturing birds how to fly”

Nurturing skills Choose a few areas which I want to improve Learn the queues that lead to the mistakes I want to eliminate When I recognize such a situation, slow myself down And recognize when I need help

Nurturing skills “Peace comes with the realization that the world in which we live is an acquired taste - one we all, as artists, paint in our own chosen styles.”

References Discussion of the method - Billy Vaughn Koen How to read a book – Mortimer J. Adler, Charles van Doren Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics – Daniel Kahneman Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree – D. Kahneman, G. Klein The BBST courses edX Thinking 101 course The power of feedback – John Hattie and Helen Timperley Illustrations: (slide 2) (slide 3) (slide 5) (slide 43) (slide 44) (slide 45) (slide 48)

@coveredincloth