minor requirements changes over the time that I start testing because I want to know, do I have to add any tests to my current suite of tests, whether they are automated or manual? I just want to know. How many things do I need to keep adding tests as I go? So, I track that and I track the number of tests that I have planned to run, that I have actually run, and that have passed. Because, just because you can run a test doesn't mean that it passes.
Carol: Right.
Johanna: And I want to know how far off am I? Did I plan to run 35 tests, did I plan to run 1,000 tests? Am I increasing the number of tests that I plan to run on a weekly basis because I am uncovering more and more of the product, or am I increasing the number of tests I want to run because the requirements are changing and we are already past something that might be called feature freeze?
Carol: Interesting.
Johanna: So, where are we in the project and how do I know what I need to do for more or less testing?
Carol: Right. We will be back with more of Johanna Rothman and her advice on measures and more of Test Management 101 when we get back from these short messages...Welcome back to Quality Plus! E-Talk. I am Carol Dekkers. I am president of Quality Plus Technologies. If you are looking for a show schedule of our upcoming shows, you will find that we do have the cream of the crop of guests coming on this show. You can find it at StickyMinds.com, www.StickyMinds.com, and you can also find it at my home site which is www.qualityplustech.com. We are back with Johanna Rothman, who is a frequent speaker and author on managing high technology product development. She has written articles for just about every industry journal that is out there. She has a really exciting thing coming up. She is the chair of the Software Management Conference which is going to be held together with the Applications of Software Measurement Conference that Software Quality Engineering is going to be running. I am speaking and doing a tutorial at that conference. And Johanna is the chair of the software management side of the conference. It runs February 12th to 16th in San Diego. If you would like more information about that, you can go to www.sqe.com.
And before we went into the break, we were talking about Test Management 101. Johanna was talking about the measures that she uses on projects to figure out if testing is good. One of the questions that was hanging on me was when she was talking about it, there was something that used to be called be-bugging which was somebody came up with this great idea that they could test or they could measure the effectiveness of testing if they purposely injected bugs, purposefully injected defects before it got to the tester, and then based on how many of these bugs would actually be found out, they could tell whether, you know, if it is 40% efficient, 20% efficient, or something like that. Johanna, what is your view on be-bugging?
Johanna: I think it stinks. How is that for blunt and direct? I have never felt comfortable with purposefully putting defects in. The developers do a good enough job putting defects in unintentionally, putting them in intentionally seems to me to be a waste of time. Trying to find them is not necessarily the best
About the author
Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” helps organizational leaders see problems and risks in their product development. She helps them recognize potential “gotchas,” seize opportunities, and remove impediments. Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the technical editor for Agile Connection and the author of these books:
- Manage Your Job Search
- Hiring Geeks That Fit
- Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
- The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
- Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
- Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
Johanna is working on a book about agile program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com and projectmanagementcom and blogs on her website, jrothman.com, as well on createadaptablelife.com.
