DevTalks: Whose Test Is It Anyway

This talk is one where I am learning the core message of the talk in clarity by delivering more of it. Dropping the things I layered for "clarity" that turned distraction, now it works as intended.

Whose Test Is It Anyway discusses - with an example of testing when large language model ("AI") is your programmer coming to three conclusions:
- We no longer care whose test it is because AI makes us all testers
- We do our best work when we get people from diverse backgrounds together and source and combine their ideas like I did for having an example for properly testing roman numerals
- Improv in exploratory testing is a great frame for putting together testing, ensembling and programming. Contemporary exploratory testing is not "non-automated whole product exploratory-focused" as some people framed exploratory testing of the past but very much "automated, all levels building up to whole products exploratory-focused" testing.

Transcript

1. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   by Maaret Pyhäjärvi
   Whose Test Is It
   Anyway?
   

   View Slide

2. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   Social
   Software
   Testing
   Approaches
   Exploratory
   Testing
   Programmatic
   Tests
   

   View Slide

3. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   This is a test.
   Whose test is it?
   

   View Slide

4. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   Improv
   performance
   External
   Imagination
   

   View Slide

5. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   Computer Assisted
   Software Authorship https://github.com/features/copilot/
   

   View Slide

6. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   WE are
   accountable
   1. Legal / Ethical
   2. Intent / Implementation
   3. Domain for the Layman
   4. Domain for the Expert
   5. Reference Implementation
   6. People Filtering
   7. Interesting side effects
   

   View Slide

7. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   Guessing with power to accept
   For Mood:
   https://aboutmonica.com/blog/how-to-make-your-vs-code-sparkle/
   

   View Slide

8. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   Who Am I?
   Guessing with power to accept
   What am I testing again? My
   program or the tool?
   

   View Slide

9. @maaretp
   @maaretp@mas.to
   Note:
   …pillaging digital content
   without consent, compensation
   and attribution
   Even if legal not ethical.
   

   View Slide

10. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    CTRL+enter for alternatives
    Code Review
    

    View Slide

11. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Say We Have This…
    Done?
    

    View Slide

12. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Some Tests
    Done?
    

    View Slide

13. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Shapes of Approaches
    Asserts
    Approvals
    

    View Slide

14. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    From One to Many
    Asserts
    Approvals
    

    View Slide

15. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Hypothesis
    

    View Slide

16. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Note:
    …developer intent. It might
    not do what you wanted it to
    do.
    

    View Slide

17. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Part I. Review for correctness and conciseness
    Part II. Input -> Output
    Part III. Rules of behavior boundaries
    Part IIII. Coverage
    Part IIIII. Sampling vs wide nets (approvals)
    Part VI. Properties
    Developer intent
    

    View Slide

18. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Domain rules: 1V à IIII in clock design as
    per orders of King Louis XIV of France
    https://www.amalgamsab.com/iiii-or-is-it-iv.html
    

    View Slide

19. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals
    

    View Slide

20. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    

    View Slide

21. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Upper Boundary?
    

    View Slide

22. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    

    View Slide

23. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    References…
    References…
    

    View Slide

24. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    References…
    

    View Slide

25. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    References…
    

    View Slide

26. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    ApprovalTests
    Done?
    

    View Slide

27. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Note:
    …business rules. You think you
    know them and yet you don’t.
    

    View Slide

28. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Part I. Be the resident expert. Ask around.
    Part II. Rules. More rules.
    Part III. Find better experts.
    Part IIII. Disagreeing with boundaries.
    Part IIIII. Oracles.
    Part VI. Find better oracles.
    Part VII. No user would do what users would do.
    Domain
    

    View Slide

29. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Part I. Dependencies.
    Part II. Interruptions. Both software and hardware.
    Part III. People.
    Part IIII. Scale. Reliability. Performance. Security.
    Environment
    “People are not pure functions; they have all sorts of
    interesting side effects.” - Engineering Management for the
    Rest of Us, Sarah Drasner
    … nor are pure functions if you grow the boundary of what might fail.
    

    View Slide

30. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    WE are
    accountable
    1. Legal / Ethical
    2. Intent / Implementation
    3. Domain for the Layman
    4. Domain for the Expert
    5. Reference Implementation
    6. People Filtering
    7. Interesting side effects
    

    View Slide

31. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    A majority of the
    production failures (77%)
    can be reproduced by a
    unit test.
    https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/osdi14/osdi14-paper-yuan.pdf
    Through https://www.slideshare.net/Kevlin/the-error-of-our-ways
    

    View Slide

32. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Everything that does not
    need to be automated gets
    done while automating.
    * Programming with thinking – quality of thinking matters
    

    View Slide

33. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Stakeholders happy,
    even delighted
    –Quality Information
    Good Team’s Output
    –Quality Information
    Less than Good
    Team’s Output
    –Quality Information
    Results Gap
    Surprise!
    Results Gap
    on a Team that thinks
    Testers == Testing
    Pick up the pizza boxes…
    ”Find (some of) What Others May Have Missed”
    

    View Slide

34. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    How Would You Test This?
    https://todomvc.com/examples/vanillajs/
    Visual Functional Purpose?
    

    View Slide

35. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    No Todos
    ✓ should hide #main and #footer
    New Todo
    ✓ should allow me to add todo items
    ✓ should clear text input field when an item is added
    ✓ should trim text input
    ✓ should show #main and #footer when items added
    Mark all as completed
    ✓ should allow me to mark all items as completed
    ✓ should allow me to clear the completion state of all items
    ✓ complete all checkbox should update state when items are completed
    Item
    ✓ should allow me to mark items as complete
    ✓ should allow me to un-mark items as complete
    ✓ should allow me to edit an item
    ✓ should show the remove button on hover
    Editing
    ✓ should hide other controls when editing
    ✓ should save edits on enter
    ✓ should save edits on blur
    ✓ should trim entered text
    ✓ should remove the item if an empty text string was entered
    ✓ should cancel edits on escape
    Counter
    ✓ should display the current number of todo items
    Clear completed button
    ✓ should display the number of completed items
    ✓ should remove completed items when clicked
    ✓ should be hidden when there are no items that are completed
    Persistence
    ✓ should persist its data
    Routing
    ✓ should allow me to display active items
    ✓ should allow me to display completed items
    ✓ should allow me to display all items
    ✓ should highlight the currently applied filter
    Developer
    Intent
    

    View Slide

36. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Driver (Hands)
    Designated
    Navigator (Voice)
    Navigators (Brains)
    

    View Slide

37. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Testing is too important to
    be left for testers. Testing is
    too important to be left
    without testers.
    

    View Slide

38. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Agency.
    Pull.
    * sense of control
    * timely for use
    

    View Slide

39. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    Observe Ideate
    Let Go
    Be
    Impressed
    Support
    others
    Do
    Something
    Yes,
    and…
    1. Observe: notice more
    2. Ideate: stop censuring
    3. Let go: trust the process
    4. Be Impressed: react
    5. Support others: make them shine
    6. Do something: experiment culture
    7. Yes, and: combine
    * Metaskills of Improv, Simo Routarinne, proimpro.fi
    

    View Slide

40. @maaretp
    @maaretp@mas.to
    2020 2016
    MIATPP
    Most Influential Agile Testing
    Professional Person
    #PayToSpeak #TechVoices
    #EnsembleTesting #EnsembleProgramming #StrongStylePairing
    #ExploratoryTesting #TestAutomation
    #ModernAgile
    #AwesomeTesters
    Maaret Pyhäjärvi
    (from Finland)
    Email: maaret@iki.fi
    Twitter: @maaretp
    Web: maaretp.com
    Blog: visible-quality.blogspot.fi
    (please connect with me through
    Twitter or LinkedIn)
    2019 - 2022
    https://exploratorytestingacademy.com
    Ohjelmistotestaus ry
    https://techvoices.org
    

    View Slide