Cem's Blog
The Association for Computing Machinery’s Computers & Society Special Interest Group just honored me with their “Person Who Made a Difference” award. Here’s what it’s about:
Making a Difference Award
This award is presented to an individual who is widely recognized for work related to the interaction of computers and society. The recipient is a leader in [...]
I finally found some time to update my website, posting links to some more of my papers and presentations. This post highlights the themes and posts the links to 28 publications over the past couple of years.
“The Proposed Final Draft of the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts was approved, subject to the discussion at the meeting and to editorial prerogative. Approval of the draft clears the way for publication of the official text of this project.” (from a report to members on the actions taken this week at the [...]
James, Bret and I published our definition of context-driven testing at http://www.context-driven-testing.com/.
Some people have found the definition too complex and have tried to simplify it, attempting to equate the approach with Agile development or Agile testing, or with the exploratory style of software testing. Here's another crack at a definition:
Context-driven testers choose their testing objectives, techniques, and deliverables (including test documentation) by looking first to the details of the specific situation, including the desires of the stakeholders who commissioned the testing. The essence of context-driven testing is project-appropriate application of skill and judgment. The Context-Driven School of testing places this approach to testing within a humanistic social and ethical framework.
Ultimately, context-driven testing is about doing the best we can with what we get. Rather than trying to apply "best practices," we accept that very different practices (even different definitions of common testing terms) will work best under different circumstances.
Ed Foster just died.
Ed was one of the great journalists of Silicon Valley. He listened. He read. He asked probing questions. He changed his mind when the evidence proved him wrong. He understood the computer and information industries from (at least) a dozen perspectives. And he could explain their perspectives to each other.
Ed was part [...]
This year’s theme at CAST was multidisciplinary approaches to testing. Tying my experience in psychological research, legal practice, and testing, I gave the keynote address: The Value of Checklists and the Danger of Scripts: What Legal Training Suggests for Testers. At its core, the talk says this:
In the hands of professionals, checklists facilitate the exercise [...]
In January, 2006, several of us worked on definitions of exploratory testing at the Exploratory Testing Research Summit (another link), with follow-up work at the Workshop on Heuristic and Exploratory Techniques in May. We didn’t reach unanimous agreement at that meeting. However, later discussions based on the meeting’s notes yielded this definition:
“Exploratory software testing is [...]
You’ve read about the Association for Software Testing's free software testing courses. Now find out how you can get involved in teaching these for AST, for your company, or independently. This workshop will use presentations, lectures, and hands-on exercises to address the challenges of teaching online: Becky Fiedler, Scott Barber and I will host the Live! AST Instructors’ Orientation Course Jumpstart Tutorial On July 17, 2008, in conjunction with this year's Conference of the AST (CAST).
To register for this Tutorial, go to https://www.123signup.com/register?id=tbzrz
To register for CAST (early registration ends June 1) go to http://www.cast2008.org/Registration
There are still sponsorship opportunities available for CAST08, the annual conference of the Association for Software Testing.The AST is a non-profit professional association with a mission of advancing the understanding and practice of software testing through conferences, LAWSTâ„¢ style peer workshops, publications, training courses, web sites, and other services.
This is an exciting year for CAST. [...]
“LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - A computer coding error led Moody’s Investors Service to assign incorrect triple-A ratings to a complex debt product that came to mark the peak of the credit boom, the Financial Times said on Wednesday. (see www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/05/21/2008-05-21T075644Z_01_L21551923_RTRIDST_0_MOODYS-CPDOS.html. For more, see blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/2008/05/moodys_rating_bug_gives_credit.html and www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c82561a-2697-11dd-9c95-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 or just search for Moody’s software error.
This is [...]
