#contemporaryexploratorytesting — Public Fediverse posts

Teaching #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting with AI today.

What we did:
- Started with a repo with application code
- Tested remote control by creating list of participants while doing introductions
- Generated a list of features by access to code
- Generated a list of bugs (11) by access to code
- Installed playwright and playwright agents
- Generated a list of bugs (21) by access to the UI

Going back to a mandate levels model I used in building up teams with two different mandate levels at previous place of work.

#ExploratoryTesting has always been an idea about increasing agency in testing by keeping things together that should stay together (design - execution), and #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting was adding automation and deciding.

A lot of our salary models are based on ideas of having beginners in low mandate roles.

Going back to a mandate levels model I used in building up teams with two different mandate levels at previous place of work.

#ExploratoryTesting has always been an idea about increasing agency in testing by keeping things together that should stay together (design - execution), and #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting was adding automation and deciding.

A lot of our salary models are based on ideas of having beginners in low mandate roles.

Going back to a mandate levels model I used in building up teams with two different mandate levels at previous place of work.

#ExploratoryTesting has always been an idea about increasing agency in testing by keeping things together that should stay together (design - execution), and #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting was adding automation and deciding.

A lot of our salary models are based on ideas of having beginners in low mandate roles.

Going back to a mandate levels model I used in building up teams with two different mandate levels at previous place of work.

#ExploratoryTesting has always been an idea about increasing agency in testing by keeping things together that should stay together (design - execution), and #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting was adding automation and deciding.

A lot of our salary models are based on ideas of having beginners in low mandate roles.

Going back to a mandate levels model I used in building up teams with two different mandate levels at previous place of work.

#ExploratoryTesting has always been an idea about increasing agency in testing by keeping things together that should stay together (design - execution), and #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting was adding automation and deciding.

A lot of our salary models are based on ideas of having beginners in low mandate roles.

@maaikees I look at plenty of people who do work as test automation experts, and they get the chance of doing testing. In fact, I observe that some of them get all things testing done while creating automation.

In creating a world where automation would no longer mean giving up something on testing, I have been discussing #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting to differentiate from what I see too much: automators who don't know how to test; testers who don't know how to automate.

A test colleague with a few years of experience turns out to be "most wanted" this week. Three projects have offered her a job, asking if she could start next week even. The interesting phenomena is that while she is most wanted, others without her personality characteristics may not be.

We talk about demand for skilled people, but we don't do so great growing folks like her I frame with #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting.

One of my colleagues read my #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting book, currently holding my Foundations of Exploratory Testing (in contemporary frame). She liked it, and was the first person to energetically come to me explaining what she learned, and what insights it gave her on how she tests.

I appreciate the world for her.

Post-ranting, had a lovely collaborative conversation with @joeposaurus and notes on #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting and understanding what may lead to the differences we are experiencing. If random notes are your thing to look at, we'll later turn our notes mural to something useful. https://app.mural.co/t/maaretp9875/m/maaretp9875/1712320495550/51265bff427e7a786717104d1eefd11970706c03?sender=ucddf1bed5813fc32aa588827

You know that split to builders and testers? You can’t hold on to that because your job is to leave behind a system of programmatic tests and finding identity as not a builder leads you astray these days. #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting

Two years of documentation as output. The practice I have been experimenting with is to add story, acceptance criteria and the NOT list while working from a one liner, and make sure it’s done when work completes. This matches #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting idea of treating documentation as output of testing after learning, not input from a team we knew the least. I find myself with routine and discipline this requires and struggle getting others to care for their future colleagues and self.

Had this conversation of "testing does not improve quality" and how the two of us disagreed on it with a colleague. First of all, neither of us would test just to produce information that no one acts on. The information and doing something with it are paired. Second, just existing in a team, holding space for quality makes people address things you would tell them about.

Yet another of those things where our thinking is that #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting is different.

Some days I find it hard to explain how versatile my day is. From getting employees phones and approving user rights, to strategizing high availability deployment design choices, to testing latest changes and documenting scopes, to fixing bugs.

Third consecutive day of testing. Damn it felt good to hear the testing I shared was exactly what the team had been hoping the testers would step up to. There’s quite a difference in #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting and what most testers are taught to do.

Oh well true. Antonym for contemporary or modern is outdated. #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting

In its 36+ years of existence, we have learned that people think about it differently. I still to this day struggle explaining the the brand I am teaching is founded on extensive use of automation, but not just regression automation - there is so much more to programmatic testing. So I called my learning brand #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting

Asked my teams’ testers to share their prepared plans for performance, reliability and recovery testing. While I’ve been nudging building the capabilities last year to finish them this year, seeing the four who are now testers eloquently build things forward was a proud moment. #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting most definitely, threading something that really is off-sync in terms of building up a capability.

Seeing this org that loved test cases announcing that manual testing is geared towards exploratory testing is just happy news. I hope they'd stop adding the word manual, and start to frame attended and unattended forms of testing within #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting but I take my wins where I find them.

This year I was thinking of reading / classifying the test cases I inherited and writing a research paper on usefulness. 11 days to read with 1 minute each.

In-sync / off-sync testing is split I introduced in 2003 to teach myself and my colleagues that some testing you do as response to change becoming ready, while other types require you to plan ahead. It helped me then, and it helped me today.

Similarly, I have used attended / unattended testing to discuss automation in context of #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting.

In recording of the Test Case Scenario podcast, Marcus Merrell reminded me of this keynote I did in 2018 on showing exploratory testing with a demo of writing code without centering the code or automation. This was early stages of really digging into #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting. Still relevant even though I stopped repeating this talk and wrote some hundred of more framings since. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es4SfYog5VA

I work with a tester who has before only written system test automation code in Python, based on tasks including detailed scenarios. I moved her to a project with TypeScript (new language), solid developer testing (new mode of operating automation) and refused to give her a task but said to explore a little and then contribute.

It's like I have now the tester I always wanted. Great work, and great example of #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting.

Test management in this continuous style is the work we do ensuring that the sum of all things testing leads to the results it should. It seems like a product owner not knowing testing can water it down. It seems like a functional test case or ad hoc tester can water it down. So I call for #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting and a map of things different people can do.

A tale of three testers but entirely different frames of reference. #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting and we knew coverage, found bugs and hit schedules. #DomainSpecialistTesting and we covered only requirements, insufficient testing, fuzzy communication on status. #ProgrammerTesting got road blocked to fixing, leaving coverage low and missing bugs.

Thinking out loud as usual. If I say we have been failing at finding a #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting profile, I don't by all means think we have talked to every possible candidate. But I find it fascinating how people would think the ones they employ and hold on would be so much better than the excellent people on free market we have not yet found.

I believe there are a lot of good people. But also a lot of mismatch correctable by training.

We have been unsuccessful at recruiting a tester for a team building embedded devices. We've looked for seniors. We've looked for promising juniors. But the leap of faith on believing their background knowledge would help them succeed has been quite extensive.

So today I am dreaming of a whole team of newbie testers to train. If only I had the time and the budget.

#ContemporaryExploratoryTesting - resultful testing - is hard to find.

Modeling #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting, bits worth remembering.

Meeting another company's managers reminded me that we model what and where is #ExploratoryTesting very differently. Instead of drawing the box of exploratory testing that includes all worthwhile parts of test case -based testing, I split this to timeline of activities.

I've been identifying with the #ContextDrivenTesting crowd professionally for decades while stepping away from the pair of individuals who make appearances of it being their thing. Seeing CDT described as
- non-automated
- whole-product
- exploratory-focused
helps me see difference that lead me to #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting that is:
- automating
- all levels leading up to whole products
- exploratory-focused centring agency and learning

Slides for a new improved version of Whose Test Is It Anyway for #DevTalks uploaded at https://speakerdeck.com/maaretp/whose-test-is-it-anyway

It strips away the parts of messaging I confused myself and audiences with a week earlier, and comes to yet another framing I have for #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting in intersection of Improv in Testing, Ensemble/Pair Testing and Programmatic Tests.

Next week I introduce to the test conferencing world my best addition to testing, my lifelong gift that keeps on giving and a brilliant senior tester: @Mii who also happens to be my sister. She will join me at #EuroSTARConf where I keynote.

She advanced in her career titles at a record pace, and excels in what I have come to speak of as #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting.

If you are around, come and talk to us on all things testing and some beyond.

Episode highlights article from #QATherapy episode with me on #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting. https://www.getxray.app/blog/contemporary-exploratory-testing-podcast-highlights

[Blog] Tale of Two Teams #testing - #ContemporaryExploratoryTesting #TraditionalTesting https://visible-quality.blogspot.com/2023/04/tale-of-two-teams.html