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Category Archives: QA
The Treasure Hunt for a Programmable, Testable Spec
A spec that can’t be tested is a starting pistol in a treasure hunt. The treasure is information, but not any old bit of information – you, as a tester, must get the same information that was given to the programmers.
New to QA? Don’t Be a Lone Tester
From time to time I teach people some QA basics. I do this at start-up companies, since most established companies have someone in-house to train QA. A couple of times I trained experienced testers who only had to transition to … Continue reading
Testing Information Architectures
Usability testing for your information architecture – before you code.
Do not Hire This Person: QA Edition
Written in collaboration with Efrat Wurzel Three things some testers say that should serve as a warning sign that you may not want to hire them: “I can’t understand a feature or start thinking about its tests until I use … Continue reading
Recommended Reading: Code Injections Where you Least Expect Them
If you’re testing HTML5 mobile apps, you might want to read about code injections through the bar-code scanner, videos, Bluetooth and more.
UX Review: Emergency Measures
If you’re working on a product and have no particular understanding of UX, you can still do a basic UX review to stop the most obvious disasters. This will not be as good as getting a UX expert or experienced … Continue reading
The Testing Script is Only the Beginning
Ever see a bad actor? One who reads the lines in the weird, stilted intonation of an automated phone system without any emotion or thought? If you test only by the testing script, without ever re-writing it or improvising around … Continue reading
Lessons I Learned as a Tester, 6: The Secret Usefulness of Bad QAs
We’ve all worked with testers who were bad at their job; it was frustrating and felt like a giant waste of time and effort. But hold on to those bad testers: they’re more useful than you think.
Lessons I Learned as a Tester, 5: It’s not a Feature, it’s a Bug: Fixing Bugs Your Users Enjoy
Some bugs, even quite severe ones, can seem to your users like very nice features. Bugs that are likely to reach this status are those that make work smoother at the expense of security (for example, not enforcing part of … Continue reading
QA: Need Help Finding UX Faults? Ask the Technical Writers
Technical writers have a very clear goal: explain the interface. That means they notice, instantly, when it’s inexplicable. If your interface is a confusing mess with overly-complicated procedures, buttons that make no sense, important options hidden in sub-menus and related … Continue reading
