1. What’s the fuss about? -Rajesh Mathur
Testing and Checking
What’s the fuss about?
-Rajesh Mathur

2. About me.. Tester Developer
Hong Kong & China Software Testing Group
Association for Software Testing (AST)
Fellow, Hong Kong Computer Society

3. Ketchup Or
Catsup?
The Truth is…
…there is no fuss!

4. About this talk..
This talk is based on the ideas refined by Michael Bolton and James Bach.

5. The debate started as testing vs. checking
Words = ambiguous and slippery.
Ad-hoc
Vs.
I use words from Rapid Software Testing namespace

6. But why even bother? Because.. We are passionate testers
We care about improving the craft of
testing
We want to bring positive change
We want to clean up the language .

7. Testing is..

8. Testing is..
Testing is the process of evaluating a product by learning about it through exploration and experimentation, which includes to some degree: questioning, study, modeling, observation, inference, etc.
Exercises:
2+2 = 4

9. Testing is.. - Michael Bolton
not about verification—certainly not exclusively;
about understanding the product we have, to see how it differs from the product we hoped we’d get.
not only about verifying special cases; it’s also about interacting with the product and considering how we’d identify a special case in the first place.
about more than using machinery to check a result produced by other machinery.
about investigating the product, looking for threats to value.
not only about confirming a predicted, expected result. It’s about exposing ourselves to the unpredicted and the unexpected.
isn’t only about writing and running theorem provers; it’s also about discovering how your first round of theorem provers missed things that were important to your or your customers.
not only about functional correctness; it’s also about asking and answering the question “is there a problem here?”
- Michael Bolton

10. Is there a problem here?

11. Or here..

12. Here..

13. Or here..

14. Or even here..

15. Checking is..
Checking is the process of making evaluations by applying algorithmic decision rules to specific observations of a product.
Three kinds of checking:
Human checking is an attempted checking process wherein humans collect the observations and apply the rules without the mediation of tools.
Machine checking is a checking process wherein tools collect the observations and apply the rules without the mediation of humans.
Human/machine checking is an attempted checking process wherein both humans and tools interact to collect the observations and apply the rules.

16. Testing encompasses checking
In experimentation, you might be applying algorithmic decision rules, but that’s not at the centre of the activity. There’s lots of other stuff going on too: modelling, conjecture, finding and applying resources on the fly, questioning, studying, hypothesizing, questioning, learning, making inferences, identifying risks… none of these things can be done algorithmically. In checking, the application of algorithmic rules IS the activity, and that at least in theory can be done by a machine.
Ref: Satisfice.com

17. Tacit & Explicit observations

18. checking by its nature depends on us having an observation to make and a rule or algorithm to apply.
Even though machinery and code can provide awesome assistance to humans, the simple fact is that machinery is incapable of making observations independently. Machinery can’t prove that something is good; it can only help a human to identify consistency or inconsistency with a proposition. A check cannot make an observation other than one that has been programmed. But humans can. For that stuff, we need another concept that includes the concept of checking: testing.

19. Keep May 2016 clear in your diary!

20. Rapid Software Testing (RST)
With Michael Bolton
Limited opportunity - max of 24 participants
3-day RST:
May 16-18
1-day RST for Managers:
May 19
Full details:

21. Australian Testing Days 2016

22. Australian Testing Days 2016
2-day event: May 20-21
World-class programme of speakers
Full details:

23. Australian Testing Days 2016

24. Resources
Perfect Software and Other Illusions about Testing, Jerry Weinberg
redefined/
merely-testing/