At CAST 2008, I heard Adam Goucher share a mnemonic he uses to determine what to test first when the schedule is short and he needs to test the important stuff first. I took the following notes:

• Security: the first thing to test


• Languages: internationalization


• Requirements: new features, not regression


• Measure: performance, stress, and scalability


• Existing: regression testing

You can see more on this topic on Adam's blog.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be mysterious about my notations.

The short answer: I use the letter "T" next to ideas. I know my notes well enough (in terms of my own writing style) to be able to scan a notebook and find those ideas.

The point about notations is much like managing a calendar, it doesn't matter where or how you keep it but that you keep it predictably and stick with one format.

Here's a link to my blog with a long list of what and how I keep notes:  http://www.testingreflections.com/node/view/6536

When I'm in meetings and pick up a testing idea, I record the idea in my project notebook. Later when I'm looking for ideas or I'm ready to test, I scan through my noteook. I have a notation shortcut that helps me tag ideas and makes reviewing notes easier.

When I'm testing something thats pretty current - like social bookmarking or rss feeds which I've done recently, I troll forums using the same and different technologies looking for bugs that other people have found.  Sometimes I collect some pretty helpful ideas this way.

Estimation is a tricky subject. It happens at the macro level (projects) and micro level (test cases or sessions). When you're asked to estimate how long it will take to test something, do you have a framework you use to build your estimate? Here's the one I use when estimating how long it might take for me to test a feature:

• How long will it take me to wrap my head around what I'm being asked to test (review documentation available, hallway conversations, etc...)?


• How long will it take me to draft my initial test charters?


• How long will it take me to review those charters with the programmers working the feature, other testers in the group, and make any necessary updates?


• What environment setup is required to prep my testing? Do I need hardware? Firewall ports opened? Will I need to find or create specialized data? Do I have the tools I need? Will I need to write test code? How long will it take me to get all this stuff pulled together?


• How many charters do I think I'll execute before testing for the feature is "done?"


• How much time should I build into my estimate for when I'm delayed (code not ready, need a bug fix before I can go further, environment not available, etc...)? This estimate likely depends on the project or my manager's preference...


• How much documentation do I need to do to wrap up my testing and do I need to estimate that separately? (For example, in a regulated environment I might add time for checking all the boxes.)