Beware of Agile Hucksters (Nov 2010)
Q&A With Rex Black
There's a big difference between "agile" and "Agile" says testing author Rex Black - and he should know. The 25-year industry veteran and former president of ISTQB sat down with us for our latest Testing the Limits interview. Here are some highlights:
On the hype of Agile: "Yes, there's hype - and dogma. Hucksters gull the gullible with tools and services promising instant agility. People ignore Fred Brooks' warning, buy (and sell) the silver bullets, and insist that process alone will fix everything. However, agile includes many proven best practices - continuous integration, automated unit testing, code coverage, and more - though many were proven best practices before people spelled agile with a capital 'A'."
On the coming skills shortage: "The skills glut comes from the tremendous number of people, with lots of enthusiasm but no experience, entering testing. The skills shortage comes from the lack of sufficient, seasoned people to mentor, manage, and lead this cadre of entry-level folks, so the shortages are at the upper echelons."
Read the two-part interview from the beginning >>>
The Bug Olympics
You won't find any gold medals, burning torches or curling rocks - but you WILL find a ton of interesting software bugs as part of our Bug Olympics competition on Facebook.
Between now and December 6, testers from around the world will be competing to see which country can submit the most bugs. The three individual finishers from said country will receive an iPad, iPod Touch and iPod Nano. To enter, just go to our wall and post a screenshot of a software or website bug you've discovered, along with the following comment: 'This bug was found in (country name).'
For more info on the competition, read the official rules on Facebook.
Quality Quotes
"Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes
"A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing." - Emo Philips
"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done." - Robert A.Heinlein
Like these quotes? You can find more on BrainyQuote.
Time Travel: There's An App For That
Perhaps you've seen this crazy video from 1928 that claims to show a time-traveler speaking into a cell phone. It's been all over the net. There are plenty of theories attempting to explain this apparent anomaly, but none have passed the sniff test so far.
Our theory: The mysterious figure is a software tester from the distant future, who has been sent back in time to test Apple's latest device. The mystery continues >>>
Free Whitepaper:Creating Apps and Sites That Sell
The online holiday shopping season is well underway, so it's critical that your sites and apps are optimized for e-commerce. In this free whitepaper we provide today's online retailers with a step-by-step approach to launching apps that keep your users coming back, including:
- Usability and Design - Why your users are NOT the best source of feedback
- Data Overload - How to spot actionable information, and ignore the rest
- User Security - Tips for finding XSS, injection flaws and other security threats
- Mobile Matrix - Operating systems, carriers, handsets and other mobile considerations
uTest Customer Spotlight: Answers.com
Question: What would be the easiest way to test a website, iPhone app and Facebook app in less than three weeks' time?
Answers.com has a suggestion: uTest's global community. In this customer case study we demonstrate how companies of all sizes can leverage uTest's web and mobile services to launch a higher quality application for far less time and money.
