Fiona Charles

Has the agile world’s insistence on collaboration blown away the need for testers to be independent? What do we mean by “independence,” anyway? Consultant Fiona Charles argues that tester independence is essential, but that it is a state of mind that can thrive only when the whole organizational culture supports it.

Testers are people who ask questions, think critically about the answers, and then ask more questions—repeatedly. Fiona Charles reminds testers that their success depends on maintaining a healthy skepticism.

We need to test infrastructure upgrades carefully to avoid disruptions to our applications—whether still under development or running in production. A good regression test suite can do most of what’s needed, but what if you don’t have one? You can take the time to create a new regression suite, but consultant Fiona Charles recommends an alternative: Use a cross-functional team approach to identify and target upgrade risks directly.

Typically, industry software testing practice is to separate load testing from functional testing. Different teams with different skills and expertise do their testing at different times and each evaluates the results against its own criteria. We don’t always need to do this in pre-release testing. When time to market is more important than strict accuracy the pilot system can become the load test system while the test team does routine checks during pilot to mitigate risk. 

In "Growing Your Career in Tough Times," Fiona Charles writes about some of the free and low-cost things testers can do for professional development when money isn't available for courses and conferences. In this column, she describes two examples of the amazing things some testers get up to on the weekend to practice their craft, develop their skills and knowledge, and have a great deal of fun.

In these tough economic times, many testers can't access formal training. In this column, testing consultant Fiona Charles describes the wealth of low- or no-dollar resources available for professional development and invites readers to share their ideas.

Untruths about software testing are common. Managers, programmers, and other people on software projects don't always mean to deceive. Quite often, they fool themselves into believing what they want to believe. But sometimes they lie deliberately and even pressure testers to lie. And testers can also practice deceptions and self-deceptions of their own. In this column, Fiona Charles describes four categories of common deceptions and self-deceptions in testing and outlines what testers need to do to address them.

Back in the day of cross-Atlantic boat travel, luggage that wasn't needed during the long journey was labeled "Not Wanted on the Voyage" and stowed away below decks. In this column, Fiona Charles suggests that testers can also be viewed as heavy baggage and not exactly welcome by some parties during the journey of software development. To understand why others might think this way, Fiona takes a good, hard look at what testers do that could possibly make them undesirable team mates.

The names we give to things can have a powerful influence on how we think about them and also on how we get others to think about them. In thiscolumn, tester, test manager, and consultant Fiona Charles examines names we have given to two essential roles in software development and explains why at least one of them is both inaccurate and a problem for testers.

Testers and test managers who come equipped with their own practices and tools can save time and effort and get a head start on their projects. In this column, test manager and consultant Fiona Charles describes the "go with me" collection she has built over many years and projects to help leverage her varied experience and provide a quick start on new deliverables.

Bug logs and testing dashboards are great reports for testers, but sometimes these reports simply fall short of communicating key information, to stakeholders, such as why testing is blocked. In this column, Fiona Charles explains that when sharing information with stakeholders, it's best to use their language and create a report that maps out the system's current status. Fiona's solution: survey reports.

Who likes working on troubled projects? Fiona Charles does. In this column, find out why Fiona sometimes seeks out such projects and how she maintains the right frame of mind to allow her to solve problems creatively and devise tactical solutions to project issues. More importantly, you, too, can learn how to enjoy troubled projects and develop your project skills.

What can a test manager do when a project manager says, "Test faster!" or tries to cut the amount of testing to meet a project release date? Fiona Charles says that you can argue for the time and resources you need by incorporating the endgame into your estimations. In this week's column, Fiona details how to structure a winning argument by paying close attention to all the activities that occur during testing.

What are the attributes of a good tester—of a great tester? As every test manager knows, identifying the right people for a test team can be a struggle. In this column, Fiona Charles describes the qualities of mind she looks for in testers, and the interview questions she asks candidates so that she can evaluate how they think.

Regardless of where you find bugs, they can be downright nasty. How you deal with them determines whether the infestation turns into a crisis or something that is dealt with swiftly. In this column, Fiona Charles explains how two hoteliers dealt with an infestation of some unwanted guests and the crisis management lessons she learned from the experience.