I ask questions

The toilet paper heuristic:

Happened just to me: I have produced big work - well this one I did at the toilet. First, I felt eased.
But I did not look before, if there was enough paper left. Perhaps I was still sleeping, because I woke up recently.
When I grabbed the paper, I thought: “Will this be sufficient?”

You could now say: “Man, don’t you buy/store enough paper in the toilet?” Well, I did not buy any before, because I thought it would suffice until today.

So, in that situation I hoped: “This must suffice.” And used then the paper wisely.
I was alone for the time being in the appartment. So, I could have also gotten a substitute from the kitchen. But you could imagine, how I would look like: pants down walking through the appartment. Since nobody was there at that time, also no problem
Well, I could also use water to clean my a..

This incident let me rethink my visits in the toilet lately. I do not always use the paper wisely - I take too much often. If I think about it now: I can save even money with this (well, it may be not much money, but still…) and also help the environment.

So, the toilet paper awakes an analogy for me to the ressources in testing. We plan wisely our ressources for testing, but there are situations, where you have no toilet paper anymore.
So, either accept this fact always and hope that the ressources will suffice - but well this can have shitty outcome (I do not want to get in a situation where I have to use water).
If you are in such a situation, try then to find substitutes. There are always substitutes - you just have to imagine, how you can use xyz to fulfill your needs.
Or do not wait until it gets to that: start using the toilet paper wisely and plan in advance by observing.

Erkan Yilmaz

edit on 2007-03-31:
“One of life’s most overvalued pleasures is sexual intercourse; and, one of life`s least appreciated pleasures is defecation.” (Mark Twain)

This heuristic I call: never forget your keys
BTW: I like the term “keys”, because it is similar to “key” (=main/important thing).

If I leave my appartment, I am always sure, that I can go back inside again.
I learned as child: always check - before closing the door - if you have your keys with you.

And with time, I do this now intuitively - just a short check in my pocket, until I hear sound or feel there is a bow (not what you think now ).
The result is, that I always can go inside the appartment again (well, I could also by kicking in the door - but this would cause other problems).
Also other things come to mind, e.g.:
When I am with someone else and I hear key sound or we are standing at the door - I watch them and ask: “Do you have your keys?” So, this can help others too. But it could also be seen as redundant, because the other person already checked - this also has to be observed.
Or it could be said: “You are insecure/not self confident. You must do mechanical repetition.” Just a question: Do you know me well enough, to say so? How would you approach it? Don’t you condition/train yourself like this?

What does this mean?
If you want to learn something, start it by training yourself. Take really the time to do it. If you invest now, you will profit in the future from this. It all begins with the first step and repetition to stay on track.

In this case I want to learn to use heuristics more efficient.
So, reading about it is fine, but writing about it will help me more. Probably this will cost me more time. But I think I will profit from this a lot (when seeing it under cost and value).
So, as Confucius said 450 BC: “Tell Me and I Will Forget; Show Me and I May Remember; Involve Me and I Will Understand.”
Now I try to involve myself more with heuristics and blog about it.

Erkan Yilmaz

At the moment I am attending the class Rapid Software Testing by James Bach and Michael Bolton.

Now I would like to add heuristics of my own (though we did not cover the topic itself yet - but I have seen some heuristics/mnemonics recently by others and now I am eager to also approach this topic).
Reading about heuristics is fine, but you better make your own ones, so you can take them in.
So, if you see, that my heuristics can be improved, please tell me, so I can improve them (and me).

Forgive me, if I select sometimes topics which are not polite. But I think with these I can better remember. And also: this is my way of doing it

So, what is a heuristic ? (see James’ slides v 2.1.1 page 49)
a heuristic is “a fallible method for solving a problem or making a decision.”
Heuristics bring useful structure to problem-solving skill.

“Heuristic reasoning is not regarded as final and strict but as provisional and plausible only, whose purpose is to discover the solution to the present problem.” - George Polya, How to Solve It

Or as David Gilbert tells:
“Fallible?”, you may ask, “Why would I want to use something that’s fallible?” Well, lets look at a slightly different wording of that same idea…a heuristic is a general rule of thumb that works most of the time. Now we can begin to see the value. It is general, and works most of the time, so it can provide a solution quickly, without thinking very hard or very long about it.

Where can I see some example heuristics? You can start here.

Erkan YILMAZ