One of the reasons why I started this blog was to be able to flush out my thoughts and arguments for things in a more public forum than the back of my brain. After complaining in the last post about lifting ideas without full understanding I figured I needed to have some backup in case I was challenged on that position. So, with no amount of irony after also mentioning my monoculture fears, hear is a post on heuristics which cites a very limited amount of references.

Slide 50 of the RST slides as a list of 3 heuristic types (lifted with full credit below).

  • Guideword Heuristics: Words or labels that help you access the full spectrum of your knowledge and experience as you analyze something
  • Trigger Heuristics: Ideas associated with an event or condition that help you recognize when it may be time to take an action or think a particular way. Like an alarm clock for your mind
  • Subtitle Heuristics: Help you reframe an idea so you can see alternatives and bring out assumptions during a conversation

Heuristics then are A representation of an idea, object, or system that helps you explore, understand, or control it (also from slide 50).

For me, what really made me say ‘a-ha! I get it now’ was the Dead Bee Heuristic. Elisabeth Hendrickson‘s great cheat sheet has the Goldilocks heuristic listed: too big, too small, just right. Oh, and to promote myself, I’m added the ‘Build your own lightsaber heuristic to the mix.

Now all of those are cleverly named, but heuristics no not have to be. Take ‘performance’ for instance. That could be considered a ‘trigger heuristic’ because it gets you asking the product questions regarding it’s speed in doing whatever it does. As could ‘i18n’ and ‘usability’.

One final thing. A tester’s heuristics will evolve over time. They cannot just be handed over in bulk. This is because heuristics involve individual thinking. I think James said in the RST class I took that his won’t (necessarily) work for me, as mine wouldn’t for him. This is I think the critical component that people forget when they start to learn about context based testing and testing with heuristics.