Chris McMahon's Blog

I was presented with a PNG screen capture of an application some time ago and asked to brainstorm test ideas based on the static representation of a limited section of the application UI. I think I acquitted myself reasonably well at the time, but I've been thinking about the situation since then, because there is an interesting aspect to this particular application: if this software has defects, the repercussions of such defects could have a drastic effect on the physical health of users. Assume that this application exists in order to tell the difference between snakes, so as to warn people if they are dealing with one that is poisonous or not. This is a very far-fetched analogy, but it serves to make my point. Right now, the development is in early stages, and the software is able to tell the difference between rattlesnakes, cobras, and coral snakes. Tests for those are easy: rattlesnakes have rattles, cobras have hoods, coral snakes are red, yellow, and black. But somed...

Welcome back Mr. Caputo ... A number of people have been commenting on Martin Fowler's " Transactionless " essay. I didn't realize how unusual that approach seems. I've said a number of times in public that if I had not begun my career by reading COBOL instead of, say, Java, I probably would not have gotten so far so fast. Likewise, if I had not begun my career dealing with ISAM files instead of relational databases, I would probably have a much shallower understanding of what databases are and how they work. In fact, of all the projects I've ever been a part of, one of the most impressive, most critical, and most educational was converting several enormous databases full of life-critical 911 location information from what was essentially a fancy ISAM arrangement to a true SQL database. Even at the time, though, our target SQL db did not have full support for referential integrity, so I became quite familiar with code that handles both referential-integrit...

I would be very interested in hearing if anyone other than Kent Beck has stories about telecommuting for software development projects, particularly agile-ish software projects, with high-bandwidth communication requirements and short iterations and such. My original assumption was that it was a widespread practice, but now I think it's much more rare than I had assumed. Which is strange, considering the savings to the business on office infrastructure, etc. and the availability of communication tools like IM, Skype, VPN s etc. Not to mention cheap airfare when you have to make that site visit. I am also interested in promoting the practice-- if you are a telecommuting wannabe, you should say so as well. I want to live in paradise and no one else seems to want to (although, if you all did, it wouldn't be paradise any more) -Kent Beck (on the extremeprogramming mail list)

Most serious software testers of my acquaintance object to the term "Quality Assurance". There are any number of specific objections to the term, but the general objection is that competent software testing goes far beyond the definition of Quality Assurance. However, searching for jobs online is a heck of a lot easier using the string "QA".

In case you ever want to navigate your way through all of the help available in Google SketchUp, here's a quick guide: There is the Help Center with really basic information about downloading and installing, links to major areas, high-level FAQs and such. The User's Guide (which interestingly enough looks fine in Firefox but gives me an "Error on page" in IE) has the real nuts-and-bolts of what each control does and how to use it. This is deep information about all aspects of the UI. The Help Groups which is a link to all of the Google Groups that have to do with SketchUp. Video tutorials which are fun to watch but might be a little slow for some tastes. But there are 26 of them, so if something is perplexing, the answer might be here. Examples (actually model structures) of both realistic and wireframe buildings. Quick Reference Card a one-page PDF describing in shorthand how to use all of the UI widgets SketchUp Community with a link to the public Google G...