If you do pair testing on a regular basis, try this and see what happens. Take a look at the list of different test polarities and try using them when you pair. Explicitly call out in advance, "I'll approach this session from this side of the polarity, you approach it from the other." Some polarities that work particularly well for this include: doing vs. describing; or doing vs. thinking; 0r data gathering vs. data analysis; or working with the product vs. reading about the product.
When you charter your tests, see what happens when you use different test polarities to develop your test charters. For each test idea, run it past some of the different polarities. How would your testing change if you focused on individual tests vs. general lab procedures; or coverage vs. oracles; etc… I find that doing this helps me generate far more test ideas than I otherwise would. While they aren't always high priority, the ideas come. That's important for overproduction and abandonment.
When you charter your tests, see what happens when you include polarities explicitly in your mission. For example, look at testing vs. touring; or feature vs. feature; etc… After you've done this for a few charters, note how it changes your testing. Does it help you focus? Is it distracting? I find that doing this sometimes helps me better focus when testing. Especially if I'm chartering a shorter charter (20-30 minutes).
For those who didn't see Karit's comment on yesterday's post on having a backup browser when testing with a proxy, I wanted to share the tool he mentioned. Karit suggested using FoxyProxy, a Firefox extension which automatically switches an internet connection across one or more proxy servers based on URL patterns.Looks to be a cool little plug-in. Thanks for the tip Karit. I'll likely end up trying it out next week.
There are many times as testers that we end up using proxy servers. For me, I find I use them a lot when doing performance and security testing, but I've even had the occasion to use them when doing functional testing. This can sometimes create issues:
A simple way to solve this is to have a backup browser. I almost always test with Firefox, so that means that (depending on my machine) I'll have Internet Explorer or Safari as a backup. This may seem like a really simple tip, but ask yourself this: Is your backup browser setup to do everything you'd need it to do if you couldn't use your main one?
For me, that would include: equivalent toolbars, up to date bookmarks, saved passwords for common sites (like JIRA, SharePoint, etc...), and making sure all updates/patches are in place. I hate it when I have to stop testing to get my backup browser in a place where I can actually use it. So I try to make sure it never gets too far out of sync.
- sometimes changing the proxy settings makes it impossible for you to use the browser for other tasks (for example, if you're intercepting all the outgoing requests so you can edit them)
- sometimes using the browser for other tasks will mess up what you're testing (for example, if you're recording HTTP traffic for a load test)
A simple way to solve this is to have a backup browser. I almost always test with Firefox, so that means that (depending on my machine) I'll have Internet Explorer or Safari as a backup. This may seem like a really simple tip, but ask yourself this: Is your backup browser setup to do everything you'd need it to do if you couldn't use your main one?
For me, that would include: equivalent toolbars, up to date bookmarks, saved passwords for common sites (like JIRA, SharePoint, etc...), and making sure all updates/patches are in place. I hate it when I have to stop testing to get my backup browser in a place where I can actually use it. So I try to make sure it never gets too far out of sync.