The Beard of Experience

Today's cartoon was designed by Adam Brown (thanks Adam!)

Adam's contact details:

Website: http://testing.gobanana.co.uk/
Twitter: brownie490

 

Who are you calling a tool?

Today's cartoon was designed by Nancy Kelln (thanks Nancy!)

Nancy's contact details:
Website: www.unimaginedtesting.ca
Twitter: nkelln
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/nkelln/

About Nancy:
Nancy Kelln is an independent consultant with 12 years of diverse experience within the IT industry. Nancy is motivated by working with teams who are implementing or enhancing their testing practices; providing adaptive testing approaches in both agile and traditional testing teams. She has coached test teams in various environments and facilitated numerous workshops and presentations.

DO NOT DISTURB, I'm testing

At my work, I’ve recently introduced Session Based Test Management (created by James Bach). It has been piloted in an Agile project. I could be biased, but I think the pilot is working extremely well. There are lots of positives from it, which I hope one day to share, but there’s one thing we’re struggling with so I thought I would come up with some ideas and then open it to the rest of you for your suggestions and comments.
The problem is that when a tester is in the middle a testing session, it’s best if they are not interrupted. But with all the talk on being collaborative, the testers are getting interrupted all time. I need a solution where testers remain part of the team but are left to do testing when required without appearing rude. Please let me know your ideas :o)

Cleaner

Due to contract changes in our facilities department, our lovely cleaner has decided to start a new job elsewhere. Today is her last day and some of us will be taking her out for a well earned drink down at the pub!

Just a reminder to send your cartoons by the end of next week. I have a couple of cartoons already but would be great to have more cartoons submitted. For more info, check out an earlier post:

http://cartoontester.blogspot.com/2010/09/over-last-few-months-ive-received-few.html



If Metrics Ruled the World (part II)

My second favourite testing article that I have ever read must be the Metrics article by Cem Kamer and Walter P. Bond:
Software Engineering Metrics: What Do They Measure and How Do We know?

How to spot a tester in the kitchen

Create your own cartoons

Over the last few months I’ve received a few emails/comments were people have said they are inspired to create their own cartoons. I really think this is great and I would love to use this blog over the next month or so for people to post their own testing related cartoons. Are you up for the challenge? It would be really good if we get lots of people to create and submit cartoons!

Hints and Tips:
Concentrate on the content of the cartoon. Unless you’re a really good artist, the text and dialogue are more important than the drawings, so try an avoid drawing complicated images (e.g. drawing some facial expressions is really hard)
Give yourself an hour or two to complete the cartoon.
Don’t re-invent the wheel. Have a look at other cartoons on the web and see what you can learn from the way they draw them. Some examples to check out:
• Xkcd
• Hyperbole and a Half
• The Oatmeal
• Not invented here
• Geek and poke

Email me your cartoons at cartoontesting@googlemail.com by Monday, 20th September.

I will review the cartoons before posting them, as I don’t want anything that is inappropriate/rude/offensive on the blog.

Let the fun begin!


... On a similar note, here's a cartoon that Markus Gärtner designed and I created. Check out his post on why blaming doesn't help