Creative Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas

MP PM Tutorial

4/29/13 1:00PM

Creative Techniques for Discovering

Test Ideas

Presented by:

Karen Johnson

Software Test Management, Inc.

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073

888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com

Karen Johnson

Karen N. Johnson is a software test consultant, working on-site and remotely to help her clients build testing teams and strengthen their testing practice. Karen is considered an expert in software testing and has been part of the context-driven software testing community for a number of years. She is a frequent speaker at testing conferences; a contributing author to the book, Beautiful Testing; and co-founder of WREST, the Workshop on Regulated Software Testing. Karen has published numerous articles and blogs about her experiences with software testing. Visit Karen’s website at karennjohnson.com.

Crea%ve Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas

Karen N. Johnson Copyright 2013

Crea%ve Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas v4 © Karen N. Johnson, 2013 1

Karen N. Johnson

• SoFware Test Consultant • Published Author • Teach SoFware Tes%ng • Co-‐founder of WREST, the Workshop on Regulated SoFware Tes%ng • Site: www.karennjohnson.com • TwiTer: karennjohnson


Is there space in our work for crea%vity?


What stops us? Mental locks

1.  The right answer 2.  That’s not logical 3.  Follow the rules 4.  Be prac%cal 5.  Play is frivolous 6.  That’s not my area 7.  Avoid ambiguity 8.  Don’t be foolish 9.  To err is wrong 10.  I’m not crea%ve

– Roger von Oech, “A What on the Side of the Head”


Breaking free

“Once a rule gets in place, it’s very difficult to eliminate even though the original reason for its genera%on has disappeared. Thus crea%ve thinking involves not only genera%ng new ideas, but escaping from obsolete ones as well.” – Roger von Oech, “A What on the Side of the Head”


Crea%ve solu%ons

•  Mind mapping •  Empty the cup •  Brainstorming

•  Heuris%c card deck •  $100 constraint matrix •  Phoenix Checklist


Exercise: the cup

The premise We all get overloaded with demands and distrac%on. A solu.on Empty what is on your mind onto the paper provided. You do not need to share or discuss the paper, it is yours.


Brainstorming basics

• Originated by Alex F. Osborn • Start with a specific ques%on • Guidelines: 1. Defer judgment 2. Quan%ty is wanted 3. “Free-‐wheeling” is welcome (the wilder an idea, the beTer) 4. Combina%on and improvement to ideas


Brainstorming Blockers

• Free riding -‐ not contribu%ng because you feel the group has it “covered "without your input • Cri%cism -‐ fear of your idea being evaluated harshly • Social matching effect -‐ shuong down your contribu%ons to match the produc%vity of the group • The illusion of group produc%vity -‐ thinking the group has found enough ideas


Exercise: Brainstorming

1.  Break into teams 2.  Choose a problem 3.  Make the problem specific 4.  Collect a quan%ty of ideas 5.  In a second session you

will have %me to go back and evaluate ideas


Brainstorming varia%ons

•  Group passing -‐ write an idea, pass your paper onto the next person un%l the paper is back to the originator

•  Team idea mapping -‐ brainstorm alone

then share with the group, build a map together of the ideas (may form an affinity map).

•  6-‐3-‐5 -‐ 6 par%cipants, 3 ideas every 5 minutes.

•  3-‐12-‐3 -‐ 3 minutes for genera%ng a pool of observa%ons, 12 for combining observa%ons to ideas and 3 for presen%ng concepts to the group.


heu·∙ris·∙.c

Defini%on of HEURISTIC : involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-‐solving by experimental and especially trial-‐and-‐error methods <heuris%c techniques> <a heuris%c assump%on>; also : of or rela%ng to exploratory problem-‐solving techniques that u%lize self educa%ng techniques (as the evalua%on of feedback) to improve performance

a Greek word meaning "find" or "discover"


Exercise: Heuris%c card deck

1.  In groups, use the heuris%c card deck. 2.  Work through a tes%ng problem. 3.  Make a note of heuris%cs that helped. 4.  Share your observa%ons with the class.


There are constraints on nearly all projects. Typical constraints: • %me • money • resources • deadlines


Exercise: $100 constraint matrix

1.  Complete the $100 matrix as a team. 2.  Your team has $100 to spend and more than $100 of items

to “fund.” 3.  Your team will need to choose what to fund and what not to

fund. 4.  When your team is done, have a representa%ve from your

team explain what your team chose and how your team made those decisions


The Phoenix Checklist

The Phoenix Checklist is list of ques%ons developed by the CIA to encourage agents to consider a problem from different angles by using a series of ques%ons. Process: 1. Determine the problem you want to resolve. 2. Write the problem down. 3. Use the ques%ons to resolve the problem.


Resources Books •  Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko •  Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni

Brown and James Macanufo •  Applied Imagina%on by Alex F.

Osborn

Blogs •  Phoenix Checklist: Rob Lambert blog:

hTp://blogs.imeta.co.uk/RLambert/archive/2008/10/17/issoFware-‐tes%ng-‐like-‐being-‐in-‐the-‐cia.aspx

•  Cem Kaner & Andy Tinkham: hTp://www.kaner.com/pdfs/ExploringExploratoryTes%ng.pdf


Thank you For being here! Your feedback is appreciated.

Karen N. Johnson Copyright 2013


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Creative Techniques for Discovering Test Ideas