I ask questions

Pradeep created some time ago this screen saver “Heuristics and Testing” (download here).

I like the idea very much and here is now the opportunity to judge yourself.
BTW: it “… has been officially installed on all testers machines in 2 organizations in India so far.” (Pradeep Soundararajan)
needed OS: Win2K or XP

Here you can find the PPS version.

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

Before you read this, keep in mind, that I speak the German language better, because I grew up with it.

I try to give you as reader articles which are as good as possible (of course considering cost and value). Lately I have started to translate my English articles into German (reason here). While doing this, I recognized, that I could have written some articles better.

So, if you think you have nothing to add anymore (well, there is always a better version possible) to an article or you do not want to continue or other reasons, then translate it into another language.

This is my first article which I wrote multilangual on the same day:
1. first in English and
2. then translated into German
3. while doing step 2, I had some new ideas on the result of step 1

I think this will help you to think again more on some words. Because while translating, you are forced to think more on the meaning of one word.
Sometimes I see, that I use English words by instinct – perhaps because I read them a lot and I am used to them (you see the vicious circle?). But when I try to translate them, I sometimes stop, because I do not immediately find the pendant in German. I know what it means, but the German translation hangs on my lips. Somehow it does not find the way out
Then I use a tool – e.g. I use an online translation service (LEO). I am offered several translations. And since German is a language where you can express with different meanings, this gets interesting. With this I get other associations activated in my brain.

You could say, it costs time – this is true. But try it and tell me, if you and your article profit from it or not.

Erkan YILMAZ

I got this idea from Mike Kelly’s blog What’s your credit score?

Please read it and then come back (if not, no problem, testingreflections has lots of good blogs).

I implemented this technique also and I see some positive effect.
I have a blackboard in the company where I paint my share price for different aspects (won’t tell you now what
aspects exactly - this is my secret for now. But if it helps you: also nobody else knows it, it is in coded form ).
On the X-axis I have my aspects and the Y-axis has 3 values: good, middle, bad

The great thing with this is:
Every time I see it, I think of how to improve my share value, so that at the end of the day I am a top seller
As it was told in the posting above, sometimes it is hard to maintain your value on top. But no worries, there is always a next day at the stock exchange.

I can recommend this - get yourself a blackboard or alike immediately.

Erkan YILMAZ

Imagine you are binding your shoe laces.
Now close your eyes for a moment and really imagine this !

1st question: With which shoe lace do you begin?
2nd question: Do you start most of the time with the right or the left one?
3rd question: Did you ever think of starting with the other shoe lace?
4th question: If not, why?

Question 3 I had, when binding my shoe laces. So, I select always another shoe lace than the day before.
I think when you start with small things like this, this can help to not take the usual paths and also take other ones, which you do not take anymore.

Imagine since how long you always have this habbit with the shoe laces.
What would be different when starting with the other one first? Would this cost a little more time? Could your brain get activated a little more? What do you think?

How about, if you extend this to other things like:
Writing with the other hand. Well, this would be difficult at beginning. But it will let you think of situations which you normally not think of: e.g. people who are disabled.
Wouldn’t this change perspective for you? When was the last time you thought of disabled people?

How about entering the car from the co-driver side?
This takes probably more time. Probably others could think: “This (wo)man is crazy.” or “When does (s)he repair the other door?”
But don’t you think you would see your car from another perspective? When did you sit the last time on the co-driver side of your own car?

I guess you get the idea…
You always have the choice which way to take - would it be that bad to take also other ways?

Erkan Yilmaz

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