If you’re a tester or a test manager, you’ve probably heard statements like these touted as universal, unquestionable truths about testing. At best, these bits of mythology and folklore are useful heuristics—fallible methods for solving a problem or making a decision. At worst, they’re potentially dangerous simplifications or outright fallacies that can threaten a tester’s credibility, a product’s value, or an organization’s business.
Testers live in a world of enormous complexity, scarce information, and extraordinary time pressure. In order to deal with this, they need skills of critical thinking—thinking about thinking, with the intention of not being fooled. This one-day workshop, presented by Michael Bolton, is designed to teach strategies and skills—questioning skills, critical thinking, context-driven thinking, general systems thinking—that can help testers deal confidently and thoughtfully with difficult testing situations.
In the workshop, we’ll question the myths of software testing; examine common cognitive biases, and the critical thinking tools that can help to manage them; learn modeling and general systems approaches to manage complexity and observational challenges; and work through exercises that model difficult testing problems—and suggest approaches to solving them.
Participants are encouraged to bring a Windows-based laptop computer to the workshop.
