Here is Day Two’s notes from TWST4 – Deception and Self-Deception. If you missed them yesterday, here are Day One’s notes.

  • Testing is a skill of the mind, not a software tool that glows red or green with news of the trivial – James Bach
  • The narcotic comfort of the green bar. Note that I didn’t say ‘addictive’; I said ‘narcotic’ – Michael Bolton
  • Giving something a name does not make it that something. Just because it is called a unit test does not mean that it is a unit test
  • Is it really a walkthrough or is it a walkaround? Or a walkover?
  • How does one stop playing deception games with ‘smart’ builds
  • Are people trying to build good code, or keep their job?
  • We shape our tools; thereafter our tools shape us. – Marshall McLuhan
  • We are tools of our tools – Henry David Thoreau
  • It is not the map that counts, it is the creation of the map
  • Even with a map, following the territory is often more important than following the actual map
  • Know the audience for any sort of communication
  • A strategy cannot be complicated else it cannot be called a strategy
  • Are the documented facts correct or are the incorrect facts documented correctly?
  • A plan is only as good as its assumptions and the ability to replan when those change
  • Malicious obedience (or compliance): obeying a boss’s order when they know for a fact it is wrong
  • A good process helps hide poor testers
  • Is a large process designed to seek success or prevent failure?
  • Could it do both?
  • Null Hypothesis
  • Asch experiments
  • They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it – Confucius