Comments for Marlena's Blog http://marlenacompton.com Testing and Coding...Concurrently Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:44:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Comment on WTANZ 08: Writing a Failing Test with Watir by paul rogers http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1864&cpage=1#comment-5858 paul rogers Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:44:07 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1864#comment-5858 Are you going to do a follow up on how this day went. Id love to know. Are you going to do a follow up on how this day went. Id love to know.

]]> Comment on The Tester’s Paradox by Matthew Heusser http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834&cpage=1#comment-5852 Matthew Heusser Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:26:21 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834#comment-5852 Hey Marlena. Great post. Reading your description of the bad tester (looking for problems, blame, etc) made me cringe. Yup, I've had days like that. Reading you suff made me wonder - have you ever looked at "Punished by Rewards" by alfie Kohn? Some interesting stuff in there. All my best! Hey Marlena. Great post. Reading your description of the bad tester (looking for problems, blame, etc) made me cringe. Yup, I’ve had days like that. Reading you suff made me wonder – have you ever looked at “Punished by Rewards” by alfie Kohn? Some interesting stuff in there. All my best!

]]> Comment on The Tester’s Paradox by Catherine Louis http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834&cpage=1#comment-5847 Catherine Louis Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:12:28 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834#comment-5847 Hi Marlena, I've been playing with mapping "good leader" and "bad leader" traits to B.F Skinner's 4 quadrants of behavior. I slideshared them here for folks to use and play with...it's exactly as you say- we forget how to focus on the quadrant of "positive (added) reinforcement", and we also forget how to focus on "removing the bad thing!" (negative reinforcement = removing the frakking impediments that slow us down!!). Anyway long story short: it's a quick 30 minute exercise you can play with to point out traits of...awful leaders, and have some structure for how to talk about it vs saying "you're an awful leader." Slides for sharing are here: http://www.slideshare.net/jujucath/shaping-behaviors-agile-carolinas Hi Marlena,

I’ve been playing with mapping “good leader” and “bad leader” traits to B.F Skinner’s 4 quadrants of behavior. I slideshared them here for folks to use and play with…it’s exactly as you say- we forget how to focus on the quadrant of “positive (added) reinforcement”, and we also forget how to focus on “removing the bad thing!” (negative reinforcement = removing the frakking impediments that slow us down!!). Anyway long story short: it’s a quick 30 minute exercise you can play with to point out traits of…awful leaders, and have some structure for how to talk about it vs saying “you’re an awful leader.” Slides for sharing are here: http://www.slideshare.net/jujucath/shaping-behaviors-agile-carolinas

]]> Comment on The Tester’s Paradox by marlena http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834&cpage=1#comment-5846 marlena Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:38:26 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834#comment-5846 Zeger's paper points out a few more paradoxes in testing and is well worth a read. Adam Goucher ("@adamgoucher") had a great comment on twitter regarding this post: "respect vs fear is also important" This may be a bit out of left field, but Rob Austin's book on measurement, "Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations" has great things to say about that point. What stuck in my mind was the idea that people who are motivated out of fear tend to practice "quiet non-compliance" In the world of dogs, this is the classic poop-on-the-floor-when-no-one-is-looking-so-I-won't-get-smacked. I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to decide how this happens in the workplace. Zeger’s paper points out a few more paradoxes in testing and is well worth a read.

Adam Goucher (“@adamgoucher”) had a great comment on twitter regarding this post: “respect vs fear is also important” This may be a bit out of left field, but Rob Austin’s book on measurement, “Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations” has great things to say about that point.

What stuck in my mind was the idea that people who are motivated out of fear tend to practice “quiet non-compliance” In the world of dogs, this is the classic poop-on-the-floor-when-no-one-is-looking-so-I-won’t-get-smacked. I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to decide how this happens in the workplace.

]]> Comment on The Tester’s Paradox by Trish Khoo http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834&cpage=1#comment-5845 Trish Khoo Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:41:49 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834#comment-5845 Great post! I've had an unfinished draft about positive reinforcement sitting in my draft stash for months now. You've said everything I wanted to say, and said it very well. Great post! I’ve had an unfinished draft about positive reinforcement sitting in my draft stash for months now. You’ve said everything I wanted to say, and said it very well.

]]> Comment on The Tester’s Paradox by shilpa http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834&cpage=1#comment-5844 shilpa Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:06:41 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834#comment-5844 very interesting. Like your comparison. Everytime I find defects especially show stoppers... I expect everyone to be as excited as me and I guess to your point I dont think the deverlopers are going to share the dance with me when I am telling them their work has defects. very interesting. Like your comparison. Everytime I find defects especially show stoppers… I expect everyone to be as excited as me and I guess to your point I dont think the deverlopers are going to share the dance with me when I am telling them their work has defects.

]]> Comment on The Tester’s Paradox by Zeger Van Hese http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834&cpage=1#comment-5842 Zeger Van Hese Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:51:07 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1834#comment-5842 There are great lessons to learned from dog training - didn't know that. The test team paradox you mention is indeed a tricky one... We need to be critical, even negative and yet we are also supposed to be the 'glue' in the team, the translators between customer and developer. It's a thin line. It's good to read something about that paradox again. 3 years ago, I wrote a paper about paradoxes in software testing, and the test team paradox is also in there: http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S13517_ART_2 -- Zeger There are great lessons to learned from dog training – didn’t know that.
The test team paradox you mention is indeed a tricky one… We need to be critical, even negative and yet we are also supposed to be the ‘glue’ in the team, the translators between customer and developer. It’s a thin line.
It’s good to read something about that paradox again. 3 years ago, I wrote a paper about paradoxes in software testing, and the test team paradox is also in there:
http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S13517_ART_2

– Zeger

]]> Comment on CAST 2010: Software Testing the Wiki Way by Anna Baik http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1566&cpage=1#comment-5836 Anna Baik Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:33:16 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1566#comment-5836 Oops, the second prezi was meant to be session. Think I need to get some sleep... Oops, the second prezi was meant to be session. Think I need to get some sleep…

]]> Comment on CAST 2010: Software Testing the Wiki Way by Anna Baik http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1566&cpage=1#comment-5835 Anna Baik Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:32:34 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1566#comment-5835 Wow. I hope you do end up blogging about this, because I really liked that prezi, but would love to hear about the rest of that prezi too. Esp as I'm in a "greenfield" situ right now (new job! First tester in the company!) and so I'd love to make sure I get some good foundations down. Wow. I hope you do end up blogging about this, because I really liked that prezi, but would love to hear about the rest of that prezi too. Esp as I’m in a “greenfield” situ right now (new job! First tester in the company!) and so I’d love to make sure I get some good foundations down.

]]> Comment on CAST 2010: Software Testing the Wiki Way by Matthew Heusser http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1566&cpage=1#comment-5650 Matthew Heusser Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:41:37 +0000 http://marlenacompton.com/?p=1566#comment-5650 "I hope y’all bring your laptops to the session charged and ready." Ok. "After I breeze through the prezi, the rest of the session will be all testing. it will be done through a wiki. It will be fun." Mission Accomplished. Thank /you/! :-) “I hope y’all bring your laptops to the session charged and ready.”

Ok.

“After I breeze through the prezi, the rest of the session will be all testing. it will be done through a wiki. It will be fun.”

Mission Accomplished.

Thank /you/! :-)

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