1. http://www.testalways.com/2010/07/05/find-bugs-and-patterns/
   This is a puzzle that was found to be relevant for testers as an exercise and I have received for it a good amount of positive feedback
2. http://www.testalways.com/2010/07/18/another-test-puzzle/
   This is again another puzzle, not as good as the previous one, but still an application that can be observed and questioned in order to evaluate it.
3. http://www.testalways.com/2010/06/13/testing-flash-and-flex-applications/
   This is my view on how to take flash application when testing.
4. http://www.testalways.com/2010/07/24/test-magazine-spoof/
   A spoof magazine with all the too often less pleasant happenings in testing
5. http://www.testalways.com/2010/05/28/test-triangle/
   This is an implementation of a classical exercise.

From my top 5 posts that raised apparently the most interest, 3 are puzzles, one is a spoof magazine and one is about testing flash applications.

In testing, as in other areas, there is a bureaucracy  that usually is not very good. I think the main focus is to develop a personal approach and use it, to do a good job and be self-motivating. Only following procedures, without presenting changes that will work for everybody, is not very good or productive in the end.

This doesn’t mean to break every rule and just attack everything. First its good to try to understand why are those procedures in the first place, what is the purpose of it. Usually its there because of the need to measure work, coverage, risk. When  choosing the procedures keep in mind that who makes it needs to use a “common language”. Since in testing this is not too much of it or there are the approaches like “test case”,  which assumes simple linearity in the craft, its still what is used by default.

Solution is to present clear examples of how things are not working as supposed to work, are not efficient or motivating for the people who perform it, and in general are not very good. But this is only half of the work. The other half is to present proper replacements.

Another puzzle based on TicTacToe

The link for the puzzle is here:

The mission is to find patterns and bugs, but also to describe the application. You can post questions in the comments section but please send proposed solutions to eusebiu.blindu@testalways.com