Risk Archives — Rapid Software Testing

Exploratory Testing

Mary Alton — Fri, 14 May 2021 18:45:05 +0000

Do you perform any exploratory testing on APIs? How do you do it?

Here’s an in-depth version of the reply I gave, with the benefit of links to deeper material.

To begin: application programming interfaces (APIs) are means by which we can use software to send commands to a product to make it do something. We do perform some testing on APIs themselves; interfaces represent one set of dimensions or factors or elements of the product. In a deeper sense, we’re not simply testing the APIs; we’re using them to control and observe the product, so that we can learn lots of things about it.

Now, there’s a problem with the first question: it implies that there is some kind of testing that is not exploratory. But all testing is exploratory. The idea that testing isn’t exploratory comes, in part, from a confusion between demonstrating that a product can work and testing to learn how it does work, and how it might not work.

https://www.developsense.com/blog/2018/07/exploratory-testing-on-an-api-part-1/

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Reframing Requirements Analysis

Mary Alton — Sun, 16 May 2021 02:28:40 +0000

REQUIREMENTS REVISITED In generally accepted software development practice, requirements analysis is supposed to happen before design, and design is supposed to happen before coding and testing. Some kind of document is supposed to come out of requirements analysis. The IEEE 830-1993 Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications includes a list of quality attributes for requirements: correct, complete, unambiguous, consistent, ranked for importance, verifiable, modifiable, and traceable. The specification is supposed to guide the engineering activities that follow. The so-called generally accepted practice, however, isn’t generally practiced.

https://www.satisfice.com/download/1115

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Test Framing

Mary Alton — Sun, 16 May 2021 02:16:09 +0000

To test is to tell three parallel stories: a story of the product, a story of our testing, and a story of the quality of our testing. James and I believe that test framing is a key skill that helps us to compose, edit, narrate, and justify the story of our testing in a logical, coherent, and rapid way.

https://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/09/test-framing/

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