The Irrational Tester

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November 6, 2009

Summary

Testers make decisions every day that are just as irrational as those made by the managers about whom they complain. In this video, James Lyndsay presents his view of tester bias, such as: why we so often labor under the illusion of control, how we lock onto the behaviors we're looking for, and how two testers can use the same evidence to support opposing positions.

Topics:

test management testing

About The Author

James Lyndsay

James Lyndsay is an independent Test Strategist, based in London. He's spent well over ten years in software testing, and has been the principal consultant at Workroom Productions since its formation in 1994. As a consultant, he's worked in a variety of businesses and project styles; from retail to telecommunications, from rapidly-evolving internet start-ups to more traditional large-scale enterprise. He's worked to technical requirements for companies that make and sell software, to commercial requirements for companies that buy and use software, and to unexpected requirements everywhere. Aside from consulting work, James works with testtoolevaluation.com to independently evaluate test tools, runs a mentoring scheme for test managers, and continues to be an internal irritant to ISEB/ISTQB. James is becoming a regular speaker at international test conferences, delivering keynote talks at STAREAST and AsiaSTAR in 2003. He received "Best Paper" at STARWEST 2002 and at EuroSTAR 2002 for Adventures in Session-Based Testing. See www.workroom-productions.com for more details. James is also a director of The Manual, a not-for-profit organization whose aim is to gather and publish basic skills.