DevelopsenseLogo

It Might Be a Good Idea to Look Around

It occurs to me this evening that when test plans, test scripts, and testers look for particular problems with excessive focus, they do so at the expense of peripheral vision.

2 replies to “It Might Be a Good Idea to Look Around”

  1. A very astute observation in my opinion.

    I’ve worked with two kinds of tester in my career: the pragmatic kind who uses scripts as a guide deviating from them more or less depending on the nature of the product. And another kind who seem to think that a good solid test script and the rigid following of it is the end goal of the test process.

    Guess which projects have been more successful (and certainly less tense!).

    Reply
  2. When i was twelve, i read something from Bruce Lee about peripheral vision, so i *trained* myself to observe what was happening around the edges of what i was looking at. It helped alot in sport because i was able see the play evolve in a *broader* way (much like switching your viewing habits to a widescreen TV).

    I’ve tried to use test scripts as guide and quite often would deviate from the script if i noticed something. Other times when i’ve been stuck in a rut, the test script became a checklist to tick off and i missed anything that might be vaguely interesting.

    Today, i find that using an Exploratory Test approach helps resolve the lack of peripheral visin syndrome and if i have to use scripts, i am aware of becoming stuck in the ‘rut’.

    Reply

Leave a Comment