I just spent an extended weekend working with James Bach. By working with I really mean that James was kind enough to let me come out so we could work on some testing problems together. One of his goals was to work on his training material and one of mine was to be trained. What a coincidence! As a result, I have a lot of notes and ideas. Over the next couple of weeks, I plan on blogging about some of the things we talked about.
During the four days that I was there, James asked me to make a list of the skills that I could identify as the skills we were spending our time talking about. Here is that list (no particular order). James was quick to point out that most of the skills relate to modeling and systems thinking. He also pointed out that some of the skills I identified aren't really skills, but are activities that really have skills hiding behind them.
I identified the following abilities as being key for a Rapid Tester:
More to come.
During the four days that I was there, James asked me to make a list of the skills that I could identify as the skills we were spending our time talking about. Here is that list (no particular order). James was quick to point out that most of the skills relate to modeling and systems thinking. He also pointed out that some of the skills I identified aren't really skills, but are activities that really have skills hiding behind them.
I identified the following abilities as being key for a Rapid Tester:
- minimize cognitive load
- factoring
- representation
- testing rhetoric
- explanation generation
- identify dimensions
- generate datasets
- logic
- pattern matching
- extrapolation
- interpolation
- systems thinking
- identify biases
- identify and articulate how you are thinking
- articulate the problem
- gather information
- recognize when you need information
- identify assumptions
- identify and use heuristics
- work closely with developers
- identify and articulate risk and cost
More to come.