I ask questions

At the moment I am reading Made to Stick (why some ideas survive and others die) from the two brothers Chip and Dan Heath (I got this input from Frank).

(this is not the books cover - I am to blame for this selection)

So, you might now think: “What has this to do with testing ?” A lot - e.g. you should always write a good bug story (to convince the developer and/or others to care especially for that important bug); mentoring new testers and increasing the learn effect; perhaps just for the fun of telling (remember how it was back then - when you lay in your bed and you listened to a story by your mother - hey, open your eyes again ) …

0. INTRODUCTION: WHAT STICKS ?
The two authors give examples of successful stories and start to analyze them. As they tell on page 15:
“There is no “formula” for a sticky idea … But sticky ideas do draw from a common set of traits, which make them more likely to succeed” (on page 21-24 they try to harden this by results from a research team).

They give a checklist for creating a successful idea - this is a
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story

But:
of course there is a problem to this - the Curse of Knowledge (page 20: “Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us“).
They demonstrate this with a simple game (I will not tell you what it is - buy the book or ask me in private).

But they say there are two ways to handle this Curse of Knowledge:
- not to learn anything or
- to transform your ideas (see the checklist above)

1. SIMPLICITY:
In the first chapter they talk about Simplicity (simple = core + compact) and demonstrate this with stories/examples (buy the book and read them ).
I liked the part where they gave examples from the Army - Commander’s intent (CI), “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” (page 25). Does this awake in you old testing memories ?

For compactness they advise to pack a lot of meaning into the sentences: proverbs, schema, concepts, categories, analogies, metaphors, associations, …
this is a clever substitution and will help transmitting info faster.

As they tell the book is a complement to Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (guess which book is on my buy list now ?).
Here you can also listen to two audio files:
interview (runtime: 40:55 mins, 18.7 MB, recorded 2007-01-09),
speech (runtime: 37:07 mins, 17 MB, recorded 2006-09-09)

I really can recommend this book !
What I personally like besides the content is, that I get to know background info on urban legends, proverbs (eventually soon also wartime rumors, conspiracy theories and jokes).

Erkan YILMAZ

I send this baton to blogs which cover the topic testing.

(this picture is by Mullenkedheim and is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License, source: Flickr)

Testing in my view is not limited to software testing - for me testing involves asking questions. And everybody can ask questions (not only software testers).

Here are now 5 questions, which you can answer in any length and with any statement you like. The only aim is: to get to know you more personally.

“Let the games begin…”

1. Could you tell something about your first tests ?
2. What would you like to highlight as an important thing of testing - from your personal experiences ?
3. Why is testing not trivial ?
4. What do you do after testing at work ?
5. How do you think testing will evolve in the next 13 years ?

1. Can you tell something about your first tests ?
(Please tell more than just a simple yes or no )
The best testing period was as a baby / child - unfortunately I do not remember all tests from that period.
When I think back, the first thing I remember is:
I played a doctor game with a girl in kindergarten. We were in a tent in the outside. Weather was fine. And when I wanted to approach my test object (yes, I mean the girl), our governess looked into the tent. So, I can not tell you, how this test session would have evolved.
The next one I remember is: one kid and I wanted to throw stones at each other (of course I do not know the exact reason anymore for this game You know certainly how children are.) And guess what: the other kid hit me with the stone so hard at my head, that I had to get sewed in the hospital.
And the next one: it was summer and there was planned an open air bath. Well, while the other kids wore their drawers or mini bikinis, Erkan wanted to test, how this experience would be when being naked. Here again the governess interrupted me in my tests

2. What would you like to highlight as an important thing of testing - from your personal experiences ?
You could read in books what kind of goals testing has, how you perhaps could approach to testing and various things more. Of course everybody himself/herself must decide, if reading alone is really sufficient to do good testing.

I would like to point out, that for me testing means playing with things. Do not misunderstand me - this does not mean I do not take testing for sincere. On the contrary: I truly identify myself as a tester. Testing for me involves the aspect of exploring and playing respectively. There are so many unknown things in software (and much more in life). And my opinion is, that the best way to tease more info out, is to play with it. Like a child would do - a child plays and asks so unbelievably many questions.
(The text is copied form here.)

3. Why is testing not trivial ?
There could be shown examples like …

the triangle example
Check, how many tests you can design for this simple program:

…but well, my simple argument is: try testing yourself and you will see.

4. What do you do after testing at work ?
Well, for me it does not mean I test only at work and then I stop. This is nothing that you just can stop and turn on again. A friend once told: I should not test everything and I should also enjoy things for just what they are. I am working on this bug
I will keep you informed about what I do after work here on the blog.

5. How do you think testing will evolve in the next 13 years ?
It is in our own hands how it evolves.
What I really hope is, that people do respect testing as what it is - a creative, challenging, thrilling task which makes fun. It should not be seen as a stupid task.
And we should not wait 13 years to make this happen.

6. Did you hear my voice ?
Weird, there should have been only 5 questions, ain’t ? Well, as you know, during testing there are always surprises.
So, back to the question: Did you listen to my voice on this page (you can listen really to it by clicking somewhere on this page) ?
- If not, check this page more thoroughly ! If you listened then to my audio files: why didn’t you notice this earlier ? Well, bugs or features do not tell you always, that they exist, or do they ?
- If you (of course) noticed it at beginning and listened to the audio files then: congratulations
- If you noticed it at beginning, but did not investigate more: why ? Surely there is an explanation for this.

So, it is getting late now and I throw this baton first to these German speaking blogs: Frank Westphal, Christian Günzl, Christoph, Eddie, Tom, Hans Martin Kern, Der Tester and Nico Rühlemann

Erkan YILMAZ

Start with reading the blog and the questionnaire with my answers.
BTW: if this is not sufficient for you (e.g. for me this would not be sufficient), the most important thing - just ask.

Erkan YILMAZ

Today I created a new category: playing and asking questions

Here you will find my test reports - actually more correct - my game reports. Now you are certainly going to ask, why I then don’t call it “test reports” ?

Well, I want to show with this, that testing for me involves the aspect of exploring and playing respectively. There are so many unknown things in software (and much more in life). And my opinion is, that the best way to tease more info out, is to play with it.

Like a child would do - a child plays and asks so unbelievably many questions.

(this picture is by Pamela Adam and is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License, source: Flickr)

Testing is really fun - not only my profession.
I hope, you see it the same way (or you will see it like this one day hopefully).

Erkan YILMAZ

I am not so happy with my web provider.
Seems, always when I want to post something, there happen problems - hm, or are there always problems? .

I just had this error 500 message:
“In case you have the opinion this is a failure due to the server, contact the webmaster.”

Of course they are right - there can be different reasons for this error, but still: at that moment I just want my task to be done.
If I email the webmaster, this will eventually take even longer. So I retry. And thank God: it works.

But how about, if you place yourself for one moment into your customer ?
E.g. Orkut seems having done this.
When there appears an error, it is told:
Bad, bad server. Today there are no sweets for you.
…
We apologize for the trouble and for the “ruthless” behaviour of our server

I liked this - I even smiled.
But the standard message from my provider is so sh.t.
The request I have to you: make me as customer happy. Even if it is only with an inventive error message. Or better: don’t let even such errors happen.

Erkan YILMAZ

Yesterday I asked the ‘great firewall of China’ a few questions. And the answers were interesting. Have a look HERE !

And today I wanted to check for a long domain name, but could not input it, because there is a limit of 75 characters in the input field

Well, I shortened it then to 71 characters: www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com
but I got: Can’t start the test. Can’t open URL.

Erkan YILMAZ

I read about the safari browser for mac. Since I do not have a mac, I am trying now Swift (which uses Apples Rendering Engine WebKit).

First experience: I could not download swift from the swift site:

Ok, the web is big and I found version 0.2 somewhere else.

I installed swift and then wanted to mail developers about the broken download link.
I went in swift to Help > About swift,
then I thought: click on www.getswift.org
and I am forwarded to a site where I am told:
“The domain getswift.com is for sale. To purchase, call…”

Probably I am not the only one, who has such problems with the websites, or?

Well, I closed this tab then and my about-tab is not presented correct:

Nevertheless I will use swift a little more and see what else will happen.
But as you know the first impressions are the important ones.

I will email now the developers and tell them about this (my good deed for today). And if wanted, I can provide then a bug report (this is not the intention of this post)

Erkan YILMAZ

edit:
I emailed developer Chris and wanted to leave also a message on his blog. And found something else: swift does not offer to switch with the tabulator key to the second field. From usability point of view not nice.

A friend told me that I use one certain word (let’s call it xyz) very often. This would generate a certain kind of feeling for him. Since the communication is not face to face, I had no chance to see his mimic in these situations. Of course people perceive things different and pay attention to different things, which are important (only) for them. So, I am wondering, is he right with the frequency or does he perceive it different ?

I decided to start an experiment: I want to see, which words I use more frequently. And which words cause which reactions in the people. With this I learn something about me and also about others.

But since it is not easy to observe yourself objectively, I will use for this experiment as much help as I can get:
ask my friends and tell them to observe such behaviour more;
I will use tools (e.g. if you have text in written form you can use the freeware program AntConc)

I am curious about, what the experiment will show. Perhaps that I am using in different situations different type of words? Do I use the word xyz while speaking more? (I just analyzed only our chats and I used the word xyz only 34 times over a long period.) Do I use it much more with a certain person ? I can tell you certainly more about that in the future.

So, if you observe that I am repeating something too often, please tell me. Make me happy ! I also will try to make you happy with diversifying my usage of words and telling you what I observe from you.

Erkan YILMAZ

I have returned all of my software testing books to the library. Since I am not reading them any longer. Please don’t confuse this now that I am not interested anymore in software testing – on the contrary: TESTING MEANS A LOT TO ME.

With the benefit of hindsight now – I would associate reading these software testing books with watching a black and white slide show about animals. But now I feel like I am visiting a zoo. I can see the animals now in colour, with their natural sounds, their own special smell, can touch them to get a much better experience.
Well, this is of course only my subjective opinion.

I believe that these “other” books have a much better impact on me than the books which I read before. I will just list a few things and perhaps – from your perspective - not necessarily important ones:
e.g. Bach’s advice: when you need help for a decision: to open any book and ask that page. Feynman and Weinberg show me, how to approach different topics. Heath, McCloud (and Goodman) show interesting aspects on story telling. Von Oech has some interesting ideas (e.g. try to find 5 benefits of sleeping in your clothes) and Barrie helps me in being a kid again.

Erkan YILMAZ

BTW: the picture is blurry isn’t it? I did this on purpose so you must guess some book titles. Who knows perhaps on the search you discover some other interesting books or things?

I wanted to draw a cat. But when trying this caused a problem. So, here is the picture, so you can judge for yourself:

As I see the problem is: I know what a cat is, but I could not imagine a cat. Could be because normally I do not have contacts to cats.

So, I see two choices now:
- find a cat nearby in real life and get some detailed view on it or (since cats do not want to stand still when I want this)
- perhaps easier: search in Google for some cat pictures and study these and draw after this (but the danger could be that it will be more copying than imagination).

This brings me to the subject, that people have to observe more details from their environment.
In that way that you can imagine objects really when closing the eyes. OK, you could now say: “I do not have the time to have a close look on everything so detailed.” - true. But why not try first with one object?
E.g. while walking stand still and watch your environment. You will see much more, when you hold on for a moment - instead of rushing. Observe your environment ! Then later try to draw what you have selected. And when you have done this, take the picture with you where this object is and compare it.
Did you catch with the picture the object? If not, aren’t you eager to make it better?

Perhaps this will help you to observe much more like a detective or police officer. They can list many details when being asked later for specifics. And if you do not want to be a detective or police officer, be a painter or dreamer or something else what you want to be.
I am sure this will help you in testing.

Erkan YILMAZ

At the moment the Languages of Europe group is collecting some greetings and proverbs in different (European) languages: see here.
So far the list contains 15 languages (sorted alphabetically) - 3 languages with sounds (marked with green color):

Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish Chilean, Turkish.

If you would like to help, please drop a message (e.g. with another translation; providing some sound files - you can also give some links to other already existing online files; finding errors; …).

The web is so monotone without sounds, give it some taste with your voice.

Erkan YILMAZ

BTW:
here is a great page for getting much more languages for some greetings.
BBC offers essential holiday phrases - with mp3 sound files.

At the moment I am reading Peter Pan (original edition title: Peter and Wendy) by J.M Barrie. There is an interesting place in the book when Peter, Wendy, John, Michael and Tinker Bell reach Neverland. The pirates can see them because of Tinker Bell’s light and they get the big gun out to let it fly eventually. First, Wendy, John and Michael want Tink to go away. But of course Peter does not abandon her (good Peter).

“Then tell her,” Wendy begged, “to put out her light.”
“She can’t put it out. That is about the only thing fairies
can’t do. It just goes out of itself when she falls asleep, same
as the stars.”
“Then tell her to sleep at once,” John almost ordered.
“She can’t sleep except when she’s sleepy. It is the only
other thing fairies can’t do.”
“Seems to me,” growled John, “these are the only two things
worth doing.” (from Project Gutenberg)

I like this part. Because you see that it is not the only thing fairies can not do, but the info was not given at first by Peter. It is similar to testing: you should not believe only what you get to know at that moment. Explore it more. Then you can put Tinker Bell in the hat or find another solution.

I am wondering what other things Tink and the other fairies are not able to do? For your info: I am reading the book now for the first time, but I watched the movie. I will continue adding at the end of this post, what Tink and/or the other fairies can not do.

The other reason I liked this part was that fairies are limited creatures. If fairies can not do everything, can there be concluded that other creatures can not too?

You can read Peter Pan at Project Gutenberg

Erkan YILMAZ

What fairies are not able to do:
- Tink can not come out from a drawer alone
- Tink can’t go a twentieth part of the way round
- Tink can not fly so slowly (because Wendy, John and Michael can not keep up the speed in flying)
- Tink can only recover from drinking poisoned medicine, when kids believe in fairies.
- When a child says, `I don’t believe in fairies’, one fairy does not survive this and falls down dead.
- Fairies do not live very long (but they are so small, that a short time appears for them very long)
- There is no fairy for every boy and girl.
- There are fairies who have a blue color and they are just little sillies who are not sure what they are.

Interesting title, isn’t it?
So far I thought I knew some things (there were also times, when I believed I knew many things). I also told from time to time the following Socrates saying: “I know that I do not know.” - without really understanding it.

I am reading at the moment children books, fairy tales and other interesting things. And the more I read, the more I wish I could forget what I have learned so far.

Best would be, if someone would erase my brain so that I can start fresh again. But perhaps this way is even better: now with this attitude perhaps the learning experience can be much better?

Let me find this out.

Erkan YILMAZ

BTW: do not tell right now that I am crazy or dumb or both - wait a few months Perhaps you also would like to be like this then?

I wanted to call someone by Google Talk. But the person was not available. So I heard the answering machine text - implemented on a Googlish way: “The person you are trying to reach isn’t available, please leave a message after the meep… MEEEEEP” (actually I talk in the following mainly about this MEEEEEP implementation and the ideas I have about this)
Please: to get the idea of this post at least try to experience this also by listening to the Googlish answering machine text yourself - watch the HOWTO. Perhaps I will add later only the female Google voice, if I have asked about the copyright.

And here my live comment.

I immediately informed the person to send me this voice mail. This was a very original comment and I wanted to listen how this sounds. It is interesting what kind of things can make you drift away, laugh or rethink. Of course this is depending on the person; the moment; the things I did just before…
So, you may not find this any interesting at all – right - but think about it: What has recently taken YOUR attention - in this way? Please tell me: there was a moment like this. Also: do you have the possibility to rehear, relive such a moment again?

Let me try to explain why I blog now about this:

- to get to know Erkan better
- one small thing alone can really change something

1.
Getting to know Erkan better:
You remember this article (story telling and pictures) ? I thought that I should add some other elements to make the stories more personal. So, this is the first sound I introduce in my blog. And the first one should be something original - something which shows Erkan live. So this is me. Towards the end of the recording you see how my brain is returning slowly back again - don’t let you irritate by that

2.
One small thing alone can really change something:
Normally I expect - from my experience with other standard answering machine texts - a standard text + standard beep sound (I expected the text “Please leave your message after the beep.” or some other text like: “OK, you now know the routine.”).
So, this was a different way to approach this. How interesting it really is to exchange / implement one small thing and achieve such a reaction by a user (OK, I do not know now the intention of Google of doing it like this - but I liked it).

I am also thinking now of buying me a technical device with which I can record video or take pictures while I am on the road. So I can put these into the future blog articles.

Erkan YILMAZ

BTW: if you know someone implementing a similar style of an answering machine text, please tell me.

I was searching German testing blogs - during this I found Frank Westphals blog and there I read some good things about story telling (btw: this is the Maytag repairman which Andy Goodman talks about in the podcast) and visual aspects of stories.

As Goodman tells: story telling is powerful, because of:
- the history as a species, that has made us a story telling people since 10000s of years
- our identity, which is comprised of stories – literally who you are is just a group of stories
- there are the cultures that we belong to, which are just stories we all agree are true
- stories help us remember better

So, a good story will catch you or you will not continue reading. So I thought why not include more pictures? This will help you to remember the stories better. I will think of other ideas to tell you even better stories.
I do not (yet) know if I am a good painter or not. But I will try to learn this skill also (have just ordered a book to help me), by adding more pictures to the stories. I am no Picasso, so you will see in the following picture only copy and paste

I think the picture is self explaining, or? You see, what I have done since yesterday evening.

What does the sign ? mean in the picture? Well, I have some plans already for today, but you never know, what will happen next.

See you,
Erkan YILMAZ