Too Many Tests and No Computer to Run Them; Wil Shipley’s Mac Cops an Attitude

A friend passed me this set of recent tweets from Wil Shipley, a Mac developer with 11,743 followers on Twitter as of today. Wil recently encountered the familiar problem of what to do when you’ve got more software tests to run than you can realistically execute.

I love that. Who can’t relate?

Now if only there were a good, quick way to reduce the number of tests from over a billion to a smaller, much more manageable set of tests that were “Altoid-like” in their curious strength. 🙂 I rarely use this blog for shameless plugs of our test case generating tool, but I can’t help myself here. The opening is just too inviting. So here goes:

Wil,

There’s an app for that… See www.hexawise.com for Hexawise, a “pairwise software test case generating tool on steroids.” It eats problems like the one you encountered for breakfast. Hexawise winnows bazillions of possible test cases down in the blink of an eye to small, manageable sets of test cases that are carefully constructed to maximize coverage in the smallest amount of tests, with flexibility to adjust the solutions based upon the execution time you have available. In addition to generating pairwise testing solutions, Hexawise also generates more thorough applied statistics-based “combinatorial software testing” solutions that include tests for, say, all possible 6-way combinations of test inputs.

Where your Mac cops an attitude and tells you “Bitch, I ain’t even allocating 1 billion integers to hold your results” and showers you with taunting derisive sneers, head-waggling and snaps all carefully choreographed to let you know where you stand, Hexawise, in contrast, would helpfully tell you: “Only 1 billion total possibilities to select tests from? Pfft! Child’s play. Want to start testing the 100 or so most powerful tests? Want to execute an extremely thorough set of 10,000 tests? Want to select a thoroughness setting in the middle? Your wish is my command, sir. You tell me approximately how many tests you want to run and the test inputs you want to include, and I’ll calculate the most powerful set of tests you can execute (based on proven applied statistics-based Design of Experiments methods) before you can say “I’m Wil Shipley and I like my TED Conference swag.”

More info at:
hexawise.tv/intro/
or
https://hexawise.com/Hexawise_Introduction.pdf
free trials at:
http://hexawise.com/signup

– Justin Hunter

13 Great Questions To Ask Software Testing Tool Vendors

There are good reasons James Bach is so well known among the testing community and constantly invited to give keynote presentations around the globe at software testing conferences. He’s passionate about testing and educating testers; he’s a gifted, energetic, and entertaining speaker with a great sense of humor; and he takes joy in rattling his saber and attacking well-established institutions and schools of thought that he disagrees with. He doesn’t take kindly to people who make inflated claims of benefits that would materialize “if only you’d perform testing in XYZ way or with ABC tool” given that (a) he can always seem to find exceptions to such claims, (b) he doesn’t shy away from confrontation, and (c) he (rightly, in my view) thinks that such benefits statements tend to discount the importance of critical thinking skills being used by testers and other important context-specific considerations.

Leave it up to James to create a list of 13 questions that would be great to ask the next software testing tool vendor who shows up to pitch his problem-solving product. In his blog post titled “The Essence of Heuristics,” he posed this exact set of questions in a slightly different context, but as a software testing tool vendor myself, they really hit home. They are:

1. Do they teach you how to tell if it’s working?
2. Do they teach you how to tell if it’s going wrong?
3. Do they teach you heuristics for stopping?
4. Do they teach you heuristics for knowing when to apply it?
5. Do they compare it to alternative heuristics?
6. Do they show you why it works?
7. Do they help you understand when it probably works best?
8. Do they help you know how to re-design it, if needed?
9. Do they let you own it?
10. Do they ask you to practice it?
11. Do they tell stories about how it has failed?
12. Do they listen to you when you question or challenge it?
13. Do they praise you for questioning and challenging it?

[Side note: Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought of Hexawise and pairwise / combinatorial test design approaches when they saw these 13 questions. I was amused that after I drafted this post, I saw Jared Quinert’s / @xflibble’s tweet just now:]

Where do I come down on each of James’ 13 questions with respect to people I talk to about our test design tool, Hexawise, and the types of benefits and the size of benefits it typically delivers? Quite simply, “Yes” to all 13. I enjoy talking about exactly the kinds of questions that James raised in his list. In fact, when I sought out James to ask him questions at a conference in Boston earlier this year, it was because I wanted his perspective on many of the points above, particularly #11: (hearing stories about how James has seen pairwise and combinatorial approaches to test design fail), and #7 (hearing his views on where it works best and where it would be difficult to apply it). I’ll save my specific answers to another post, but I am serious about wanting to share my thoughts on them; time constraints are holding me back today. I gave a speech at the ASQ World Conference on Quality Improvement in St. Louis last week though that addressed many, but not all, of James’ questions.

I’m not your typical software tool vendor. Basically, my natural instincts are all wrong for sales. I agree with the premise that “a fool with a tool is still a fool”; when talking to target clients and/or potential partners, I’m inclined to point out deficiencies, limitations, and various things that could go wrong; I’m more of an introvert than an extrovert, etc. Not exactly the typical characteristics of a successful salesman… Having said that, I believe that we’ve built a very good tool that helps enable dramatic efficiency and thoroughness benefits in many testing situations but our tool, along with the pairwise and combinatorial test design approaches that Hexawise enables both have their limitations. It is primarily by talking to software testers about their positive and negative experiences that our company is able to improve our tool, enhance our training, and provide honest, pragmatic guidance to users about where and how to use our tool (and where and how not to).

Tool vendors who defend their tools (and/or the approaches by which their tools helps users solve problems) as magical, silver bullet solutions are being both foolish and dishonest. Tool vendors who choose not to engage in serious, honest and open discussions with users about the challenges that users have when applying their tools in different situations are being short-sighted. From my own experiences, I can say that talking about the 13 topics raised by James have been invaluable.

What Software Testers Can Learn from the Game of 20 Questions

Dave Whalen posted a good piece here asserting that software testing, done well, requires a blend of “Science” and “Art”. I recommend it. (He also has a good post about testing databases here).

He includes the statement below which I agree with. If you are a software tester and any doubts about whether all of these methods work (pairwise software testing in particular), I would encourage you to conduct a pilot project on your own and measure the results achieved with and without the technique applied.

From the scientific side, testing can include a number of proven techniques such as equivalency class testing, boundary value analysis, pair-wise testing, etc. These techniques, if used properly, can reduce test times and focus on finding the bugs where they tend to hang out – much like a porch light on a summer night.

My response to Dave’s post, included below, is not especially profound or even well-written, but, hey, I’m in a hurry in the pre-Thanksgiving rush and the topic hit close to home so I couldn’t resist jotting a little something. Enjoy. Please let me know your thoughts / reactions if you have any.

Dave,

Very well said!

I wholeheartedly, enthusiastically agree with your premise. I also wish that more people saw things the same way.

My father co-wrote Statistics for Experimenters which describes the “art and science” within the Design of Experiments (“DoE”) field of applied statistics. Well-run manufacturing companies use DoE techniques in their manufacturing processes. Many companies, such as Toyota see them as an absolutely fundamental part of their processes (yet unfortunately, software testers, who could use DoE techniques such as pairwise and other forms of combinatorial testing, are often ignorant about how to use them properly and the software testing industry as a whole dramatically under-utilizes such techniques…. but I digress).

I brought the book up because it opens up with a good example relevant to the points you made. To win at the game of 20 questions, it is useful to know “the science” of game theory and DoE; choose questions so that there is a 50/50 chance that the answer will be Yes. Someone who knows this technique, all else being equal, will be win more because of their “scientific” approach than someone who doesn’t know the technique. And yet… other stuff (whether the subject matter expertise in this example, or subject matter expertise and “artistic” Exploratory Testing in your example) is indispensable as well.

You can’t truly excel at either 20 Questions or software testing unless you have a good mix of “science” (governed by mathematical principles, proven methods of DoE, etc.) and and “art” (governed by experience, instincts, and subject matter expertise).

– Justin