In a presentation titled Skilled Testers and Their Enemies, James Bach identifies the steps involved in skilled bug investigation:



The following post is part of a 13-part series illustrating those points using A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Is there someone else who can help us?

“I telegraphed to the head of the police at Cleveland, limiting my inquiry to the circumstances connected with the marriage of Enoch Drebber. The answer was conclusive.”

or perhaps the help of street kids:

“There’s more work to be got out of one of those little beggars than out of a dozen of the force,” Holmes remarked. “The mere sight of an official-looking person seals men’s lips. These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear everything. They are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organization.”

In a presentation titled Skilled Testers and Their Enemies, James Bach identifies the steps involved in skilled bug investigation:



The following post is part of a 13-part series illustrating those points using A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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How do we know this is really a problem?

Holmes’s user community was the police force. It was his problem because it was theirs:

“Still I recognized that justice must be done, and that the depravity of the victim was no condonement in the eyes of the law.”

In a presentation titled Skilled Testers and Their Enemies, James Bach identifies the steps involved in skilled bug investigation:



The following post is part of a 13-part series illustrating those points using A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Is this problem, or any variant of it, already known?

“‘Then, of course, this blood belongs to a second individual — presumably the murderer, if murder has been committed. It reminds me of the circumstances attendant on the death of Van Jansen, in Utrecht, in the year ‘34. Do you remember the case, Gregson?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Read it up — you really should. There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.’”

or perhaps:

“The forcible administration of poison is by no means a new thing in criminal annals. The cases of Dolsky in Odessa, and of Leturier in Montpellier, will occur at once to any toxicologist.”

In a presentation titled Skilled Testers and Their Enemies, James Bach identifies the steps involved in skilled bug investigation:



The following post is part of a 13-part series illustrating those points using A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Is it important to investigate this problem right now?

While not the answer we might look for, this topic does come up. Holmes does make a conscious decision of determining if the problem is important to him:

"I was amazed at the calm way in which he rippled on. 'Surely there is not a moment to be lost,' I cried, 'shall I go and order you a cab?'

'I'm not sure about whether I shall go. I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather — that is, when the fit is on me, for I can be spry enough at times.'

'Why, it is just such a chance as you have been longing for.'

'My dear fellow, what does it matter to me? Supposing I unravel the whole matter, you may be sure that Gregson, Lestrade, and Co. will pocket all the credit. That comes of being an unofficial personage.'"

In a presentation titled Skilled Testers and Their Enemies, James Bach identifies the steps involved in skilled bug investigation:



The following post is part of a 13-part series illustrating those points using A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Do we know enough about the problem to report it?

“I have now in my hands,” my companion said, confidently, “all the threads which have formed such a tangle. There are, of course, details to be filled in, but I am as certain of all the main facts, from the time that Drebber parted from Stangerson at the station, up to the discovery of the body of the latter, as if I had seen them with my own eyes. I will give you a proof of my knowledge.”