The Cartoon Tester Book

The Cartoon Tester Book is now available for purchase at LeanPub and Amazon!

If I could recommend a supplier, I suggest you order it via LeanPub as they are more flexible with the price and the file format.

The book contains nearly 200 cartoons about software development, testing, bugs and everything in between.

If you like the cartoons, please write up a review in Amazon! Love you x

EXTERMINATE

A mnemonic is used to help people remember.
Using images or drawings can also help people remember...
Putting those two together, you get a visual mnemonic, even easier to remember!

The mnemonic in today's cartoon was created by Dan Billing.
There are many software testing mnemonics. Lynn McKee has created a long list of them.
Why don't you create your own visual mnemonic?


Would you like to learn about visual thinking and how using images can helps us during testing? At the end of March I'm running a half day tutorial on Visual and Creative thinking at TestBash (U.K.). Hurry and book while tickets are available: Be-creative: a visual testing workshop.
I'm also running a shorter version of this at RTC 2014 (Romania).

Do check my Facebook page for any updates on the up coming The Cartoon Tester ebook: https://www.facebook.com/cartoontester 

I'm a wrecking ball

But of course we don't break software... the software is already broken before we get to test it (see http://www.developsense.com/blog/2013/09/very-short-blog-posts-3-the-software-is-already-broken/)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

For the latest news on the book, check The Cartoon Tester Facebook page.

Test Leadership

What came first?

Yesterday marked Grace Hopper's 107th birthday. She was one of the first computer programmers and is famous for spotting the first ever bug (a moth to be precise). My question is, did the bug come first which then lead to testers doing testing or was it other way round? I think testers came first otherwise the bug would have never been 'raised'. You need someone (i.e. a tester) to identify an issue or a problem which can then be confirmed as a bug (or something else like a new feature!).

I have two NEWS items:
1st) I will be leading a workshop in May 2014 at Test Bash 3 about being creative as a tester and visualising the testing which can help with test planning and design as well as reporting. More details here: http://www.ministryoftesting.com/training-events/be-creative-a-visual-testing-workshop/

2nd) The 1st draft of the Cartoon Tester book is nearly ready. You can follow the progress here: https://leanpub.com/thecartoontester

3rd) This isn't news, but don't forget to follow The Cartoon Tester Facebook page :) https://www.facebook.com/cartoontester

Sometimes we need a little encouragement

Beware of the tester

I'm in the middle of organising my cartoons and found this one which never made into the blog, until now:

Field of Dreams rip off

... In case anyone thought they could build perfect software... please don't get me started with defect prevention :)

NEWS:
I'm off to EuroSTAR next week. The conference has become a highlight for me in the testing calendar, it will be my fourth year attending. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and meeting new ones. I'll be running a workshop on Visual Testing, here are the details: http://www.eurostarconferences.com/conferences/session/464/visual-testing

Software Eggs and other graphs

I really like the thisisindexed.com site which makes fun of some things and tries to make sense of others using simple graphs and illustrations.

Recently I was reminded of the site by reading 'Explore It' by Elisabeth Hendrickson as she used one of the graphs to help describe exploratory testing. This triggered me to create some simple and slightly quirky testing graphs of my own. See below, what do you think?

As a testing exercise, it would be great if you could draw one or two graphs or illustrations, take a photo of it and either uploaded to twitter with hash tag #testindex or uploaded it to the cartoon tester Facebook page.

Go on, it would make you think about testing which is never a bad thing (especially if you’re a tester!).

ISO/IEC 29119 SOFTWARE TESTING STANDARD

The diary of a troubled software tester

I've started doing 'grown-up' blog posts in my works' blog site, Exco InTouch. I will be blogging over the coming weeks around the theme of testing in the pharma industry. Do check it out and leave some comments! The first post is titled 'The diary of a troubled software tester: Day 1 - You cannot serve two masters', you can find it here:

http://www.excointouch.com/news/blog/exco-intouch-blog/2013/10/11/the-diary-of-a-troubled-software-tester-day-1---you-cannot-serve-two-masters

Cheers, Andy (also known as the Cartoon Tester!) 

Situational Driven Tester

Bug reporting

I got the idea for today's cartoon from reading a uTest blog:
http://blog.utest.com/the-repercussions-of-poorly-written-bug-reports/2013/08/

One thing I would like to add about this cartoon (and its message) is that on some occasions all you need to do is point to the bug, or take a screenshot or write one simple sentence for a summary. Sometimes you need a lot more than that. That's all I wanted to add.

I'm still open for more suggestions for the Cartoon Tester book title, please leave a comment with your suggestion/s.
My original idea was calling the book either "Buggy software and other facts about testing" or "Buggy software and other cartoons about testing" but I was kindly recommended to ask my blog readers instead!
Anyone know where I got the idea for those two book tittles... it's of course the greatest book about software testing - have you read it yet?

Did I ever tell you about the time...

I drew the above cartoon (in draft) at last year's Eurostar during the evening while chatting with other testers. Bart Knaack, a very cool tester and in charge of the Test Lab at the conference, came up with the idea of he cartoon, all I had to do was draw it.

Have you seen my Facebook page yet?
Thanks everyone who have suggested a title for the Cartoon Tester book, please keep the suggestions coming! You can add your ideas to the comments below.

Book

So the other day I was flicking through Michael Bolton’s blog (developsense) looking for a specific article, the one about visualising your work day as a tester. It was taken much longer than I expected to find the article and I started to think that Mr Bolton should really write and publish a software testing book so it’s easier to read and to find the topics he has written about, it would certainly make life easier for me anyway… and then it hit me! I was being a hypocrite as I should do the same with my cartoons! So decision made, I shall create and publish a Cartoon Tester book!

I hope you’re excited, because I am!

First things first. I need a title for the book and I trust you can help me. Please add a comment to this post (or Facebook, see details below) with your suggested book title. Whichever one I choose will get the book for free! Give as many suggestions as you please, the more the merrier.

For the book, I would love to print comments from the Cartoon Tester fans. Here’s what you do:

I have created a Cartoon Tester page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cartoontester

Go there and make comments, either general comments or comments for a specific cartoon that I will upload over the coming days (I’ll upload the more popular ones). Along with your comment, please leave your initials, name or pseudonym, as well as your city and country. By posting your comment, you’re allowing me to include it in the book. Thank you! Feel free to leave the comment using your native language (I plan to print both the original and translation - I think it would be cool to create a multicultural and multi-lingual book).

Summary and Actions:

• Cartoon Tester Book – Yay! – Action AG
• Leave comments for a title – Action All
• Leave comments about Cartoon Tester – Action all

Project Timelines:

• Book Title by end of August
• Upload 1^st draft of book on Leanpub by 1^st of September
• Final version of book by end of September
• Send book to printers by end of October
• Read book

Thanks all

P.S. this is my first book, so I might be a bit optimistic with the project timelines.

Here's a cartoon that never made it past the first draft. I probably drew it over 3 years ago. My original idea was to leave the lined paper background on all cartoons

You can do it

This cartoon was printed in the latest (and last) Testing Planet. I can’t imagine anyone would disagree that the Planet was the best software testing magazine/newspaper out there. I’m very proud to have been involved in each and every issue. I still remember sending an email to Rob Lambert prior to the 1^st issue with a bunch of cartoons (way before this blog ever existed)… I was nervous that the STC team wouldn't like them… clearly there was nothing to worry about.

Anyway, I hope Rosie and the STC team gave a final toast to a fantastic run of the Testing Planet.

skyscrapers of the world

On occasions, I’ve noticed that we testers are not very confident in our role. Maybe we feel undervalued, who knows why,  but I think that can lead to a defensive approach in the way we work with others in the project team or department. Sometimes that can lead to writing overly long test cases, test policies or test strategies – as if that makes us look better! Sometimes we write lots of test automation because that will impresses our developers or our boss! Actually, that does usually impress them but have you thought about the MONEY? Or using management speak - Return of Investment?

NOTE: I decided to user a large image for this cartoon... hope you can see it all!

Diet and exercise... is all the rage now

I read lots of software testing blogs and articles. Some I skim read, some I read twice. I must have read thousands by now. But I don't recall ever reading about keeping fit or following a strict diet to improve your testing. But it must do... a healthy body is a healthy mind, and our work is all about the mind.
A few years ago I read a short biography about a famous theologian in the USA, Jonathan Edwards. In 1727, at the age of 21 he wrote a diet resolution for himself (which I think he pretty much kept to):

 By a sparingness in diet, and eating as much as may be what is light and easy of digestion, I shall doubtless be able to think more clearly, and shall gain time; 1. By lengthening out my life; 2. Shall need less time for digestion, after meals; 3. Shall be able to study more closely, without injury to my health; 4. Shall need less time for sleep; 5. Shall more seldom be troubled with the head-ache.

I think he was way ahead of his time, and a little crazy too.

I wonder if any testers out there have ever started a diet or increased their exercise for the main purpose of finding more bugs!!!

Test Is Dead is dead

If you've not heard of the term 'Test is dead' then Google [did] it.


Test Is Dead is dead... Long live Test!!