Software Testing – Quotes
“The last project generated a ton of paper and it was still a disaster, so this project will have to generate two tons.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware“)
“Testing is a skill. While this may come as a surprise to some people it is a simple fact.” (Fewster, Graham: “Software Test Automation”)
“To find the bugs that customers see – that are important to customers – you need to write tests that cross functional areas by mimicking typical user tasks. This type of testing is called scenario testing, task-based testing, or use-case testing.” (Brian Marick)
“The more you improve the way you go about your work, the harder the work will be.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“Testing a product is a learning process.” (Brian Marick)
“Most of us are pretty comfortable with the way we are, what we’re doing and how we operate. But today the typical organization is telling the middle manager that he has to be a different kind of manager. These middle managers have been promoted throughout their careers and gotten bonuses based on their performance, but that’s now history. …” (Carr, Hard, Trahant: “Change Process”)
“The projects most worth doing are the ones that will move you down one full level on your process scale.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“First law of Bad Management: If something isn’t working, do more of it.” (DeMarco: “Slack”)
“The real reason for the use of pressure and overtime may be to make everyone look better when the project fails.” (DeMarco, “The Deadline”)
“Projects that set out to achieve ‘aggressive’ schedules probably take longer to complete than they would have if they have started with more reasonable schedules.” (DeMarco, “The Deadline”)
“The real complexity in our jobs is that all planning is done under conditions of uncertainty and ignorance. The code isn’t the only think that changes. Schedules slip. New milestones are added for new features. Features are cut from the release. During development, everyone – marketers, developers and testers – comes to understand better what the product is really for.” (Brian Marick)
“Companies that downsize are frankly admitting that their upper management has blown it.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“Everything really interesting that happens in software projects eventually comes down to people.” (James Bach)
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, responding to change over following a plan.” (Agile Software Development Manifesto)
“But there’s more to defining processes and coordinating people than assigning someone to dream up a checklist and get it blessed in a staff meeting.” (James Bach)
“If the date is missed, the schedule was wrong. It doesn’t matter why the date was missed. The purpose of the schedule was planning, not goal-setting.” (DeMarco: “Slack”)
“Exploratory testing can be described as a martial art of the mind. It’s how you deal with a product that jumps out from the bushes and challenges you to a duel of testing. Well, you don’t become a black belt by reading books. You have to work on it. Happy practising.” (James Bach)
“Management involves heart, gut, soul and nose. So … lead with the heart, trust your gut …, build soul into the organisation, develop a nose for bullshit.” (DeMarco, “Deadline”)
“Process obsession is the problem. Process obsession is not just an anomaly that occurs now and again. It is an epidemic.” (DeMarco: “Slack”)
“… our basic ideas about what are better or worse practices are strongly influenced by people we perceive as knowing how to make software.” (James Bach)
“The danger of standard process is that people will miss chances to take important shortcuts.” (DeMarco, “Deadline”)
“I see design standards that don’t tell you how to come up with a good design (only how to write it down), employee evaluation standards that don’t help you build meaningful long-term relationships with staff, testing standards that don’t tell you how to invent a test that is worth running.” (DeMarco: “Slack”)
“It’s more about good enough than it is about right or wrong.” (James Bach)
“The ultimate management sin is wasting people’s time.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“We all tend to tie our self-esteem strongly to the quality of the product we produce – not the quantity of the product, but the quality.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“The only person who likes change is a wet baby.” (Carr, Hard, Trahant: “Change Process”)
“Documentation is not understanding, process is not discipline, formality is not skill.” (Jim Highsmith)
“A fool with a tool is still a fool.” (Grady Booch)
“We are still in the infancy of naming what is really happening on software development projects.” (Alistair Cockburn, “Agile Software Development”)
“Quality is free, but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it.” (Lister, DeMarco: “Peopleware”)
“A good model guides your thinking, a bad one warps it.” (Brian Marick)
“There is probably no job on earth for which an ability to believe six impossible things before breakfast is more of a requirement than software project management. …. The business of believing only what you have a right to believe is called risk management.” (DeMarco, Lister: “Waltzing with Bears”)
“Ever Tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
(Samuel Beckett, “Worstward Ho”)
“People can’t embrace change unless they feel safe. … A lack of safety makes people risk-averse.” (DeMarco, “The Deadline”)
“A day lost at the beginning of a project hurts just as much as a day lost at the end. … There are infinitely many ways to loose a day ..but not even one way to get one back.” (DeMarco, “The Deadline”)
“This is not the end of the world, although you sure can see it from here.” (The Tangent, “The music that died alone”)
“You can’t get people to do anythink different without caring for them and about them. To get them to change, you have to understand (appreciate) where they’re coming from and why. (DeMarco, “The Deadline”)
“If we fail, we fall. If we succeed – then we will face the next task.” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings”, Gandalf’s comment on IT projects).
“It is ever so with the things that men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer. and they fail of their promise.” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings”, Gimli’s comment on IT projects).
“Any process that tries to reduce software development to a “no brainer” will eventually produce just that: a product developed by people without brains.” (Any Hunt, Dave Thomas, “Cook until done”)
“Winners never talk about glorious victories. That’s because they are the ones who see what the battlefield looks like afterwards. It’s only the losers who have glorious victories.” (Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods”)
“No counsel have I to give to those that despair. Yet counsel I could give, and words I could speak to you. Will you here them? They are not for all ears. … Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings.” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings”, the IT-Consultant Gandalf persuades a new customer)
“If I understand aright all that I have heard, I think that this task is appointed for you, … and that if you don’t find a way, no one will. This is the hour of the QA, when they arise from their quiet cubicles to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck?” (Tolkien, “Lord of the Rings”, a motivational speech of CTO Elrond).
