How might we use a GPT in testing? Some have suggested that we could use GPTs to generate test data. Randomized test data can help to reduce patterns of certain biases in our testing. We might assume that getting a bot to produce random data based on a straightforward prompt would be easy. So here’s a little one-off, first-hurdle experiment I performed July 24, 2025 using Google’s Gemini 2.5. Here, … Read more
Last week, while preparing material for some upcoming Rapid Software Testing (RST) classes focused on testing AI, I was re-reading Stephen Wolfram’s article What Is ChatGPT Doing… and Why Does It Work? If you want to understand what’s going on it with any form of generative AI that extrudes text, it’s a superb summary. In the article, there’s a section that explains how machine learning works, using a classic example: … Read more
In Rapid Software Testing namespace, critical thinking is thinking about thinking with the goal of avoiding being fooled. We have a quick mnemonic to trigger critical thing: WHeReAS. Ask: Who? Huh? Really? And? So? For a long time, we had only the latter four items on the list. Evaluating an observation or a claim depends on making sure that we’ve understood the statement or idea we’re examining. That’s “Huh?” “Really?” … Read more
In our forthcoming book, Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Approach, James Bach and I have included a chapter on AI. AI is fraught with risk, but writing about it is too. All through its history (since the 1950s, NOT just since 2022 or 2012), “AI” has not been an engineering term, but a marketing term, without clear notions of what “artificial intellience” really means. And all along, the … Read more
There’s a lot of focus over the last several years on “shift left” testing — that is, testing that happens before we have a product to test. Wait… how can we test a product before we have a product? In the Rapid Software Testing namespace, testing is the process of evaluating a product by learning about it through experiencing, exploring and experimenting, which includes to some degree questioning, studying, modeling, … Read more
That’s a question that people often ask in exasperation when some piece of technology fails to fulfill its purpose, or has some obvious problem. It’s not a question that people on the outside can answer for sure. After all, something can be tested and a problem can be reported, but management might decide that there are bigger fish to fry and that, despite the problem, the product is good enough. … Read more
Over the last 35 years in the software business, I’ve heard the expression “You can’t test quality into a product.” To support that statement, I’ve seen this quote — or a part of it — repeated from time to time: Inspection does not improve the quality, nor guarantee quality. Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product. As Harold F. Dodge said, “You can … Read more
Read more here: Testing and Checking Refined – by James Bach, Michael Bolton [https://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/856] On Testing and Checking Refined – by Michael Bolton [https://developsense.com/blog/2013/03/testing-and-checking-redefined] Testing, Checking, and Changing the Language – by Michael Bolton [https://developsense.com/blog/2009/09/testing-checking-and-changing-language] Professor Harry Collins was mentioned in this video. Please see this link regarding him: https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/collinshm Watch more at the Rapid Software Testing YouTube Channel
Join David Carty of Applause, and Michael Bolton, as they discusses the importance of comprehensive testing, the importance of open communication between teams and the effect of AI on software development. https://www.applause.com/resources/podcasts/ep-28-rethinking-software-testinghttps://www.applause.com/resources/podcasts/ep-28-rethinking-software-testing
There’s a popular trope in the software development world these days that suggests that everybody on the team is responsible for testing. With that idea in mind, some people take an extreme position: since everyone tests, no one needs dedicated testers any more. Developers can do all the testing; or business analysts can do all the testing; or the customers can do all the testing. Then there’s another notion (which, … Read more