December 6th, 2007 — Tech thoughts
My friend Kenney recently introduced me to the concept of stumbling. This a concept where the Internet goes democratic. You as user of the internet now have the right to vote for content/ information on the internet that you think is more precise and relevant than other websites that talk of the same thing. I believe that this brings us one more step closer to harnessing the collective intelligence of users on the internet. This is a great place to start stumbling:
This is what you need to do to get stumbling:
- Register at the site
- Download the stumble toolbar for your Mozilla or IE.
- Visit the sites you like and vote for them by pressing the “I like it” button.
You can also register for types of information that generally interests you and when you click the stumble! button on the toolbar it will fetch a random page from the interests you have registered. Trust me it makes for some cool reading. You can also invite friends to join this network and stumble on pages that your friends have voted for.
It was a really welcome sight to see stumble votes affecting google listings also. As a stumbler my mouse pointer drifts to google results that have a “stumble thumb” next to it 
So what are you waiting for…… “Get Stumbling NOW !!!!!!”
And hey….. dont forget to vote for me on stumble 
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October 26th, 2007 — QA Process, Testing Methodologies
A picture is worth a thousand words…… Presenting the synopsis of what i mean
The nut bolt analogy would give u a small idea of how this is relevant to testing. There is always a set of N possible ways to test and application/product. This is the “superset of all solutions”. Out of this a small subset can be derived by using filters like
- Feasibility
- Compatibility
- Efficiency
- Capability
- Time
Once this subset has been derived, we reach the set of n possible testing solutions. Now in most delivery models that i have encountered, the focus of the testing group is to find out “a” solution rather than “the” solutions. Especially in the Indian IT scenario testers are highly susceptible to the “tunnel vision syndrome” where the first solutions that rings a bell is pursued.
What do I do about it?
Well for starts here are a few pointers:
- To start creating an overall strategy, have the best testers on-board work in silos.
- DO NOT rely on the collective intelligence of the team at this stage. That will come in later.
- DO NOT interfere with the independent thought process of the the “silo’ed testers”.
- Once individual approaches are derived, bring the team to the table.
- Battle mode: This is where “collective intelligence” begins. Discuss the various approaches on table.
- Survival of the fittest: Darwinian theory will do the rest for you. The best will emerge as none of the “silo approaches” but as the common maximum of the best approaches put forth by each tester.
This is how you can ascertain the “best fit” test approach and NOT pursue the first stray thought.
Testing principle: Excellence is always instilled never inbuilt.
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