Chris McMahon's Blog

So I had a brief conversation on Twitter with Noah Sussman about testing a software system designed as a "Big Ball Of Mud" (BBOM). We could talk about the technical definition of BBOM, but in practical terms a BBOM is a system where we understand and expect that changing one part of the system is likely to cause unknown and unexpected results in other, unrelated parts of the system. Such systems are notoriously difficult to test, but I have tested them long ago in my career, and I was surprised that Noah hadn't encountered this approach of using a "Golden Image" to accomplish that. Let's assume that we're creating an automated system here. Every part of the procedure I describe can be automated. First you need some tests. And you'll need a test environment. BBOM systems come in many different flavors, so I won't specify a test environment too closely. It might be a clone of the production system, or a version of prod with fewer data.  It...

I sent the following by email contact pages to Senator John McCain, Senator Jeff Flake, and Representative Martha McSally of Arizona in regard to Agile Testing Days cancelling their US conference on 13 February. Agile Testing Days is a top-tier tech conference about software testing and Quality Assurance in Europe. They had planned their first conference in the USA to be held in Boston MA, with a speaker lineup from around the world. They cancelled the entire conference on 13 February because of the "current political situation" in the USA. Here is their statement: https://agiletestingdays.us/ Although I was not scheduled to attend or to speak at this particular conference, it is conferences such as Agile Testing Days where the best ideas in my field are presented, and it is from conferences such as Agile Testing Days that many of my peers get those ideas, and I rely on conversations from those who do speak and attend in order to stay current in my field. As a residen...