Open Sourcing Testing

OPEN SOURCING TESTING EUROSTAR 2012 CONFERENCE

08 NOV 2012

JULIAN HARTY Contact me: julianharty@gmail.com

MY AIM… To answer, in part

What sorts of things would help us be better testers and do better testing?

OPEN SOURCE

DEFINITIONS & SCOPE

OPEN SOURCE Public Available for Study, Use & Modification The Open Source Definition http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd

OPEN SOURCE TESTING Publish •  Charters, Tests, … •  Environment •  Data •  Techniques •  Results •  Assessment •  Code

PERMISSIVE COLLABORATIVE

HEADLINES

STATE OF THE NATION

HEADLINES Certification schemes

Best Practices

Death of the Tester: James Whittaker •  StarWest 2011 - All That Testing is Getting in the Way of Quality •  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOrPuMCdVXA

The Future of Quality: Goranka Bjedov •  http://www.belgiumtestingdays.com/program.php?p=12

The growth of open source test automation tools •  Mobile test automation •  Web test automation

WHY? Enlightened self-interest

Professionalism / Engineering Practices

Improving the craft

Renovate our testing

Feedback loops

SIMILAR PRACTICES

OPEN SOURCE TESTING

SIMILAR PRACTICES EXPERIENTIAL

Peer Workshops Let’s Test Conference

EVIDENCE

Scientific Method (in Software Testing)

Open Data

PRACTICE

Code Retreats Test Automation Workshop Hackathons

SHARING

Open Innovation Blogs Open publications

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

C Weidemann’s material at Let’s Test 2012

OPEN DATA Government Initiatives •  http://data.gov.uk/ •  Freedom of Information Act

Scientific Initiatives

•  Distinguish Publishing Data from Publishing Papers http://www.springerlink.com/content/m15520un02772l61/fulltext.pdf

WE’RE SPECIAL!

CONTEXT

WE’RE SPECIAL… REALLY? We like to believe we are •  special, •  unusual, •  better than average[1]

[1] "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average," Garrison Keillor: Lake Woebegon http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/

I’M SPECIAL REVISITED…

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

MORE CONTEXT

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Exhilaration Stimulating Exhausting Scary?

CONCERNS

Political aspects? Who are our competitors? Who are we competing with?

EFFECTS

Acceleration First among equals

WHO ARE WE COMPETING WITH?

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

BENEFITS

OPEN SOURCE TESTING

BENEFITS SCOPE

Me Team Project Company Country Community Industry

STAKEHOLDERS

Testers Business Boss Customers End Users

BENEFITS Repeatability Review Correction Refinement & Enhancement Community education Attracting better people to your organisation? Freedom to invest & reap the rewards of the investment Evolution vs. Repetition

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

OPEN SOURCE TESTING

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? Levels 0. Sufficient to assess and reproduce 1. Permit modification and enhancement

2. Encourage competition

Minimum Investment?

•  Multiples of 30 minutes[1] •  Flows of investment

[1][ http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/book/

THINGS TO CONSIDER

OPEN SOURCE TESTING

CONCERNS TO CONSIDER Protecting •  Privacy •  Secret Sauce

Overcoming •  Stiction, Lethargy, Vested interests, Employment contracts

Risking •  What are we gambling? •  What are we afraid of?

New practices and business models Not a panacea •  Open not necessarily High Quality!

SUCCESS FACTORS

Sustainability

Benign Dictators

What do you want to optimise situations and outcomes for?

Merit-based feedback

Ask “What can I share?” that doesn’t risk “too much”

Maintaining and encouraging good quality

sqa.stackexchange.com

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

OPEN SOURCE TESTING

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

Legal Structures

•  Creative Commons

•  Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Licenses

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

OPEN SOURCE TESTING

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder

IF NOT YOU, WHO?

Opening the Kimono •  Be open and be open to correction •  The tester, tested?

http://www.hackingwork.com/wp-content/uploads/HWChaps1-4.pdf

Breaking stupid rules for smart results

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18735/18735-h/18735-h.htm

OVER TO YOU

THE UNASKED QUESTIONS

Contact me: julianharty@gmail.com