Heuristic for when you get confused
James Bach gave me a sample application to test. It had some field interactions and some not so intuitive features. After a few minutes of testing, I started to have a hard time coming up with test cases. I was confused.
James offered the following heuristic:
Later I actually saw him use this heuristic on a problem I gave him. It worked.
OFAAT is something I have decided I need more practice with. It's a simple principle, but hard to make yourself do. At least it is for me...
James offered the following heuristic:
- Are you confused?
- Do you want to be confused?
- If you don't want to be confused then:
- return to a known state
- resolve to make more precise observations
- work with one factor at a time (or OFAAT)
Later I actually saw him use this heuristic on a problem I gave him. It worked.
OFAAT is something I have decided I need more practice with. It's a simple principle, but hard to make yourself do. At least it is for me...