Testing Blog

The 7th Plague and Beyond

Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook
Google
Labels: James Whittaker

8 comments :

  1. CindySeptember 2, 2009 at 11:41:00 AM PDT

    Plague of Entropy: As a tester, I consider all projects in the beginng the start of a game of of telephone. You stand in a line and wisper something in the ear of the person next to you. This is then repeated down the line. By the time it reaches the end, generally the message is completely different from what the first person said. Much like a development project. Project owner explains requirements. Developer interprets and gets to work. Project owner reviews, lists what they want different. Developer makes more changes. Final product gets to testing with original requirements. Tester wonders what the developers were thinking and fail the project. In our efforts to get our projects completed on time, as a team forget to update what we do and what changes we are making to the original requirements. So instead, the tester wastes time testing a project based on an incorrect requirements document. So instead of spending the time during the project, we wait until the end when it seems like we have bugs in our project to have the "Lets update the requirements" meeting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  2. Nick LarsenSeptember 2, 2009 at 1:26:00 PM PDT

    The Plague of Entropy: rare event cases which cannot be easily replicated. You make the same 5 clicks to get to the same point 22 times in a row and on the 23rd, everything goes haywire. The same process runs successfully 28 more times in a row immediately after that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  3. skimSeptember 2, 2009 at 8:04:00 PM PDT

    if you fail to continuously work to prevent the last eleven plagues of testing, entropy will gradually increase the chance of a system demise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  4. UnknownSeptember 2, 2009 at 10:59:00 PM PDT

    Here goes: the plague of entropy is the decay to disorder, the loss of discipline as the project goes on. Passing test cases because neighboring cases passed - etc

    next plague, the plague of groove.

    our minds tend to repeat patterns that are lead to success, so over time - as we find the most efficient way to use something, we fail to notice the groove we are in. We fail to stop at a point in the descision tree and take the road less traveled.

    That is why a tester learning a new product tends to find more bugs than someone who knows it well

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  5. UnknownSeptember 3, 2009 at 3:46:00 AM PDT

    Would the Plague of Entropy be accredited to Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. "Don't live with broken windows"?
    If you have a work (or living) situation in which things are normally broken (ie bad design, failing tests etc) then it also becomes normal to leave your own code/tests in the same state. Yet by cleaning up your code you encourage others around you to do the same and instil a sense of pride in your work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  6. UnknownSeptember 8, 2009 at 12:21:00 PM PDT

    The plague of entropy.
    As far as I know, I don’t live in a world in which glass unbreaks, coffee heats up spontaneously, or software gets simpler by changing it. Software is complex, and each new feature, bug fix, and code change risks breaking it.

    Entropy in software testing represents the chaos that is a software system. The second law of thermodynamics states that systems will increase in entropy until they reach equilibrium. To ship a good quality product, we need to reach equilibrium, and stop the natural increases in entropy. Software testers help the team reach equilibrium.

    When software projects go wrong, the schedule slips, features creep in, and small changes keep breaking core scenarios and derailing testing.

    The end-of-release bug triage process is an attempt to bring the software into equilibrium, by reducing and more heavily inspecting each change.

    Agile development is an attempt to keep the system in a steady state of equilibrium, by making small changes and keeping the software ready to ship.

    Having good automation makes it easier to make changes, since the automation system will help provide rapid feedback.

    Software testers need to embrace the entropy of their systems, communicate the current state of the system, and help with the risk assessment prior to release.

    Alan Myrvold

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  7. jarodzzSeptember 9, 2009 at 7:16:00 PM PDT

    Here's my shoot. the plague of endlessness.
    http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcr6gcwr_36c8hzsvdt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
  8. UnknownSeptember 16, 2009 at 9:20:00 AM PDT

    Plague of Entropy - Not having clear requirements and everyone is okay with it. The system requirements are squishy and test needs to extract the information for testing using what they currently know about the system. To find out later (usually 2-3 weeks before release) that they haven't tested the 'right' stuff. Hence delaying the release and losing credibility with Management.

    The kicker is the next time Management agrees that test shouldn't be testing without clearly defined requirements, but next time comes and goes and the same thing happens. Isn't this the defination of Insanity????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
      Reply
Add comment
Load more...

The comments you read and contribute here belong only to the person who posted them. We reserve the right to remove off-topic comments.

  

Labels


  • TotT 104
  • GTAC 61
  • James Whittaker 42
  • Misko Hevery 32
  • Code Health 31
  • Anthony Vallone 27
  • Patrick Copeland 23
  • Jobs 18
  • Andrew Trenk 13
  • C++ 11
  • Patrik Höglund 8
  • JavaScript 7
  • Allen Hutchison 6
  • George Pirocanac 6
  • Zhanyong Wan 6
  • Harry Robinson 5
  • Java 5
  • Julian Harty 5
  • Adam Bender 4
  • Alberto Savoia 4
  • Ben Yu 4
  • Erik Kuefler 4
  • Philip Zembrod 4
  • Shyam Seshadri 4
  • Chrome 3
  • Dillon Bly 3
  • John Thomas 3
  • Lesley Katzen 3
  • Marc Kaplan 3
  • Markus Clermont 3
  • Max Kanat-Alexander 3
  • Sonal Shah 3
  • APIs 2
  • Abhishek Arya 2
  • Alan Myrvold 2
  • Alek Icev 2
  • Android 2
  • April Fools 2
  • Chaitali Narla 2
  • Chris Lewis 2
  • Chrome OS 2
  • Diego Salas 2
  • Dori Reuveni 2
  • Jason Arbon 2
  • Jochen Wuttke 2
  • Kostya Serebryany 2
  • Marc Eaddy 2
  • Marko Ivanković 2
  • Mobile 2
  • Oliver Chang 2
  • Simon Stewart 2
  • Stefan Kennedy 2
  • Test Flakiness 2
  • Titus Winters 2
  • Tony Voellm 2
  • WebRTC 2
  • Yiming Sun 2
  • Yvette Nameth 2
  • Zuri Kemp 2
  • Aaron Jacobs 1
  • Adam Porter 1
  • Adam Raider 1
  • Adel Saoud 1
  • Alan Faulkner 1
  • Alex Eagle 1
  • Amy Fu 1
  • Anantha Keesara 1
  • Antoine Picard 1
  • App Engine 1
  • Ari Shamash 1
  • Arif Sukoco 1
  • Benjamin Pick 1
  • Bob Nystrom 1
  • Bruce Leban 1
  • Carlos Arguelles 1
  • Carlos Israel Ortiz García 1
  • Cathal Weakliam 1
  • Christopher Semturs 1
  • Clay Murphy 1
  • Dagang Wei 1
  • Dan Maksimovich 1
  • Dan Shi 1
  • Dan Willemsen 1
  • Dave Chen 1
  • Dave Gladfelter 1
  • David Bendory 1
  • David Mandelberg 1
  • Derek Snyder 1
  • Diego Cavalcanti 1
  • Dmitry Vyukov 1
  • Eduardo Bravo Ortiz 1
  • Ekaterina Kamenskaya 1
  • Elliott Karpilovsky 1
  • Elliotte Rusty Harold 1
  • Espresso 1
  • Felipe Sodré 1
  • Francois Aube 1
  • Gene Volovich 1
  • Google+ 1
  • Goran Petrovic 1
  • Goranka Bjedov 1
  • Hank Duan 1
  • Havard Rast Blok 1
  • Hongfei Ding 1
  • Jason Elbaum 1
  • Jason Huggins 1
  • Jay Han 1
  • Jeff Hoy 1
  • Jeff Listfield 1
  • Jessica Tomechak 1
  • Jim Reardon 1
  • Joe Allan Muharsky 1
  • Joel Hynoski 1
  • John Micco 1
  • John Penix 1
  • Jonathan Rockway 1
  • Jonathan Velasquez 1
  • Josh Armour 1
  • Julie Ralph 1
  • Kai Kent 1
  • Kanu Tewary 1
  • Karin Lundberg 1
  • Kaue Silveira 1
  • Kevin Bourrillion 1
  • Kevin Graney 1
  • Kirkland 1
  • Kurt Alfred Kluever 1
  • Manjusha Parvathaneni 1
  • Marek Kiszkis 1
  • Marius Latinis 1
  • Mark Ivey 1
  • Mark Manley 1
  • Mark Striebeck 1
  • Matt Lowrie 1
  • Meredith Whittaker 1
  • Michael Bachman 1
  • Michael Klepikov 1
  • Mike Aizatsky 1
  • Mike Wacker 1
  • Mona El Mahdy 1
  • Noel Yap 1
  • Palak Bansal 1
  • Patricia Legaspi 1
  • Per Jacobsson 1
  • Peter Arrenbrecht 1
  • Peter Spragins 1
  • Phil Norman 1
  • Phil Rollet 1
  • Pooja Gupta 1
  • Project Showcase 1
  • Radoslav Vasilev 1
  • Rajat Dewan 1
  • Rajat Jain 1
  • Rich Martin 1
  • Richard Bustamante 1
  • Roshan Sembacuttiaratchy 1
  • Ruslan Khamitov 1
  • Sam Lee 1
  • Sean Jordan 1
  • Sebastian Dörner 1
  • Sharon Zhou 1
  • Shiva Garg 1
  • Siddartha Janga 1
  • Simran Basi 1
  • Stan Chan 1
  • Stephen Ng 1
  • Tejas Shah 1
  • Test Analytics 1
  • Test Engineer 1
  • Tim Lyakhovetskiy 1
  • Tom O'Neill 1
  • Vojta Jína 1
  • automation 1
  • dead code 1
  • iOS 1
  • mutation testing 1


Archive


  • ►  2025 (1)
    • ►  Jan (1)
  • ►  2024 (13)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (3)
    • ►  Mar (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
  • ►  2023 (14)
    • ►  Dec (2)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (5)
    • ►  Sep (3)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Apr (1)
  • ►  2022 (2)
    • ►  Feb (2)
  • ►  2021 (3)
    • ►  Jun (1)
    • ►  Apr (1)
    • ►  Mar (1)
  • ►  2020 (8)
    • ►  Dec (2)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Aug (2)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  May (1)
  • ►  2019 (4)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  Jan (1)
  • ►  2018 (7)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
  • ►  2017 (17)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jul (2)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Feb (1)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2016 (15)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Sep (2)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (1)
    • ►  Mar (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
  • ►  2015 (14)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (2)
    • ►  Aug (1)
    • ►  Jun (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Mar (1)
    • ►  Feb (1)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2014 (24)
    • ►  Dec (2)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (2)
    • ►  Sep (2)
    • ►  Aug (2)
    • ►  Jul (3)
    • ►  Jun (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Mar (2)
    • ►  Feb (1)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2013 (16)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (1)
    • ►  Oct (1)
    • ►  Aug (2)
    • ►  Jul (1)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Mar (2)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2012 (11)
    • ►  Dec (1)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (3)
    • ►  Sep (1)
    • ►  Aug (4)
  • ►  2011 (39)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (5)
    • ►  Sep (2)
    • ►  Aug (4)
    • ►  Jul (2)
    • ►  Jun (5)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  Apr (3)
    • ►  Mar (4)
    • ►  Feb (5)
    • ►  Jan (3)
  • ►  2010 (37)
    • ►  Dec (3)
    • ►  Nov (3)
    • ►  Oct (4)
    • ►  Sep (8)
    • ►  Aug (3)
    • ►  Jul (3)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (3)
    • ►  Mar (3)
    • ►  Feb (2)
    • ►  Jan (1)
  • ▼  2009 (54)
    • ►  Dec (3)
    • ►  Nov (2)
    • ►  Oct (3)
    • ▼  Sep (5)
      • TotT: Literate Testing With Matchers
      • Checked exceptions I love you, but you have to go
      • The Plague of Entropy
      • It is not about writing tests, its about writing s...
      • The 7th Plague and Beyond
    • ►  Aug (4)
    • ►  Jul (15)
    • ►  Jun (8)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  Apr (2)
    • ►  Feb (5)
    • ►  Jan (4)
  • ►  2008 (75)
    • ►  Dec (6)
    • ►  Nov (8)
    • ►  Oct (9)
    • ►  Sep (8)
    • ►  Aug (9)
    • ►  Jul (9)
    • ►  Jun (6)
    • ►  May (6)
    • ►  Apr (4)
    • ►  Mar (4)
    • ►  Feb (4)
    • ►  Jan (2)
  • ►  2007 (41)
    • ►  Oct (6)
    • ►  Sep (5)
    • ►  Aug (3)
    • ►  Jul (2)
    • ►  Jun (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  Apr (7)
    • ►  Mar (5)
    • ►  Feb (5)
    • ►  Jan (4)

Feed

  • Google
  • Privacy
  • Terms