Rapid Thinking: When Time is Tight

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Rapid Thinking When Time is Tight

• Jon Bach
• Manager, Corporate Intellect and Methodology
• jonb_at_quardev.com
• STARWest 2006

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London Underground ticket states

• Scenario You enter your ticket into the kiosk
  and "Seek Assistance comes up on the display.
  On the left-hand side of the display, theres a
  two-digit code which a member of staff uses to
  diagnose what's wrong with your ticket.
• What are the states that the designers built in
  to the system to trap and diagnose error
  conditions?
• http//www.faqs.org/faqs/uk/transport-london/sect
  ion-6.html

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How do you think?
(1-minute exercise)
How many kinds of fruit are yellow?
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Triggers
Remember taste
Shape
Look at websites
Go through the alphabet
Picture a fruit stand or produce section
Talk with others
Look at your existing list
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The reveal
Banana
1)
Melon
2)
Pineapple
3)
Mango
4)
Star Fruit
5)
6)
Lemon
Grapefruit
7)
Pear
8)
Canteloupe
9)
Papaya
10)
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AFIs 100 greatest film quotes
What's in the top ten?
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The reveal
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
1)
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
2)
I coulda been a contender.
3)
Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas
anymore.
4)
Here's looking at you, kid.
5)
6)
Go ahead, make my day.
All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
7)
May the Force be with you.
8)
Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy
night.
9)
You talking to me?
10)
all 100
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Triggers

• Watch TV for an hour
• Talk to other people (spouse)
• Internet
• Actors
• Top movies
• Quotes w/ questions
• Eras
• Famous characters
• Voices (e.g. John Wayne)
• Famous directors
• Sequels
• Words (mommy, lucky, punk...)
• Greatest" according to whom?
• Past Academy Awards

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Words greater than 4 letters?
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Debrief
How did you spend your time?
What was the longest word you found?
Did you need to consult the dictionary?
Do you think you found all the words?

• Do you like dislike word games?

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How did you do?
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The software context
(5-minute exercise)
Mission Find a crashing bug
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The software context version 2
Mission Find a crashing bug
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What I did
Demo
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Triggers for test ideas

• Look at bug database
• Talk with testers (paired testing)
• Talk with Programmers (different domain
  expertise)
• Look at design docs
• Web MSN Search
• Look at discussions for similar or competing
  products
• User documentation
• Existing tests!
• Help files
• Manuals
• Tech support
• Customer issues
• Side of the box -- claims made by marketing

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Rapid Thinking Polarities
Exploratory dynamics
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Rapid thinking Sequence

• Just-in-Time Research
• Your Ideas?

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Rapid thinking Sequence

• Add a step
• Change a step
• Swap a step
• Take out a step
• Reinterpret a step
• Write alternate steps
• Backwards To From, From To (Google maps)
• Slower
• Faster
• First time new eyes
• Have a machine do it
• Have a machine do it a zillion times

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Rapid thinking SCAMPER

• (from Thinkertoys)
• Substitute
• Combine
• Adapt
• Modify
• Put to another use
• Eliminate
• Reverse

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Rapid thinking other explanations
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Rapid thinking brute cause analysis

• Think of any error state
• Think of a function
• Force a connection between the two

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Other heuristic triggers
Test Plan Evaluation Model Test Planning
Checklist Heuristic Test Strategy Model
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Have We Thought of Enough?
1) Sufficient benefits
2) No critical problems
3) The benefits outweigh the problems
4) All things being equal, further design and
testing is more harmful than helpful
The answer must be Yes to all four in order to
ship
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Contextual considerations

• Good enough for who?

• Good enough for what?

• Good enough for when?

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Test, now!

• Physical / mental check-in (i.e. breathing)
• Use / create a heuristic (or a procedure)
• Ask questions
• Check your expectations
• It might work, but does it work well
• Conformance or non-conformance?
• Try a PIQ cycle
• Pair up
• Alternate tactics (i.e. dimensional analysis)
• What did I do last time?
• WWJD?

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Sources / More info

• Jon Bach (jonb_at_quardev.com)
• Quardev, Inc.
• http//www.quardev.com
• James Bach (james_at_satisfice.com)
• Satisfice, Inc.
• http//www.satisfice.com
• Thinkertoys, Michael Michalko
• ISBN 1-58008-773-6