Teaching Testing to Non-Testers
Talkat CAST 2016 · on Tuesday, 2016-08-09· at 14:30· Fletcher Challenge Theatre (1900), Simon Fraser University Vancouver 515 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3·
summary
Monthly 90‑minute workshop trains non‑testers via hands‑on activities (requires a laptop, Hangouts for remote), scheduled with Doodle and promoted through internal Honey posts. Core lessons: stapler exercise to surface diverse test ideas, exploratory testing vs checking distinction, using oracles and a heuristics cheat sheet, plus how to file actionable bugs in JIRA (full‑page screenshots, environment, expected vs actual). Outcome is anecdotal but measurable: better project planning, shifted resource allocation, improved developer–QA collaboration (example: 8 devs + 1 QA project succeeds after training).
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:16Teaching Testing to Non-Testers.
- 2:15The Workshop.
- 2:55Goals: 1. Better understanding of what testing is as a skill. 2. Deeper respect for testing role. 3. Able to more effectively and safely help test if/when needed.
- 13:02What else could you use?
- 13:29What is and isn't testing.
- 16:02Checking. is the process of making evaluations by applying algorithmic decision rules to specific observations of a product.
- 16:46Concepts to discuss: 1. During the first stapler exercise which were tests and which were checks? 2. Why does the difference matter? 3. Is one better than the other? 4. How does this concept practically apply to them on a project level? 5. How does this apply to automation strategy?
- 19:39Exploratory Testing is simultaneous learning, test design and execution.
- 20:11Concepts to discuss: 1. How this is a viable option for testing 2. How does this concept practically apply to them on a project level? 3. How does this concept tie into the first?
- 24:081. How does this help you think about testing? 2. How does this concept practically apply to them on a project level?
- 26:25Example Activity Learn heuristics with Variables
- 26:41Variables.
- 32:30Importance of Testing Skill.
- 33:32Questions?
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