• Constraints and Cynefin

  A short reminder of Cynefin and the difference between domains: Obvious situations can be categorized and have fixed constraints. Complicated situations can be analyzed and have governing constraints. Complex situations can be probed (trying something out that’s safe-to-fail) and have enabling constraints. Chaotic situations require you to act, and have no constraints. The fixed constraints of the obvious are easy to understand. Think of putting a plug into the wall. There’s really only one way to do it, and it’s very hard to get it wrong! Chaos is caused by a lack of constraints; meeting constraints will cause it to dissipate. Think of fire burning until it runs out of fuel or oxygen. This is what makes Chaos transient and short-lived; it will rapidly grow until it meets constraints, at which point the situation resolves (but not necessarily in your favour). Robust constraints In complicated situations, the governing constraints provide limits to what can be done. In terms of our policies and processes, these are hard-and-fast rules. They are context-free, which means they apply to everything, regardless of context. In one of his later articles on constraints Dave Snowden refers to governing and fixed as robust constraints, which survive by becoming stronger and which, when they fail, do so catastrophically. Think of things which snap, shatter, or result in someone being immediately fired. Resilient constraints Enabling constraints, though, are contextual. That means that they can be adapted or escaped for context. In policy and process terms, they’re guidelines or heuristics. Dave uses the analogy of a salt marsh, as opposed[…]

  9.12.2019 | 4:38 קרא עוד...

• How to install a test app onto your mobile device

  In this post I'll describe how to actually get test versions of the app onto a device. But first let's discuss whether you should test on an actual device or on an emulator. An emulator is a desktop application that mimics the hardware and OS of a mobile device. The developers will generally do their app development on an emulator and you can use them for early stage testing but when it comes to meaningful end to end testing, a device is a must have. There is no other way to get a feel for the performance of the app and how users will use it real life. Of course you will probably need to test on multiple devices as they vary not only by OS (iOS and Android) but also OS version, device make (e.g. Samsung or Motorola), and screen size. We also now have a new OS for iPads called iPadOS. In a future blog post I'll look at device fragmentation and how to handle it. For now let's assume you are only testing on one iOS device and one Android device. Your developers have developed the first version of the app and you want to try it out. How do you get it onto your test device? Native mobile apps are delivered as .apk files for Android and .ipa files for iOS. There are ways to install these file directly onto your device but generally you would use a third party app that links in with your[…]

  9.12.2019 | 12:16 קרא עוד...

• The Little Tester #74

  These are the made up stories of a team working in an Agile environment. Their daily struggles and successes are presented in a comic/parody/satirical way. Click on the image to see it in full size. The team members are: Little, the main character. The team’s tester. Coffee, the team’s Java developer. Mr. Fancy, the team’s UI developer. Senor, the Senior Developer of the team. Kitty, the Scrum Master. Glasses, the Business Analyst. And the manager. Disclaimer This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, situations presented are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. The sole purpose of this comic strip is to be humorous. The drawings are made by hand on paper, by means of pencils and fine liners, except for the outline, by the author. Hence their imperfection.

  8.12.2019 | 10:56 קרא עוד...

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