Mirek Długosz personal website - found on webhttps://mirekdlugosz.com/2019-02-19T21:34:45+01:00My question on AB Testing podcast2019-02-19T21:34:45+01:002019-02-19T21:34:45+01:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2019-02-19:/blog/2019/my-question-on-ab-testing-podcast/<p>Question that I’ve asked has been covered in <a href="https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-97-questions-about-developers-and-tests/">recent episode of <span class="caps">AB</span> Testing</a>. Answer starts at around 9 minutes mark.</p>
<p>Question that I’ve asked has been covered in <a href="https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-97-questions-about-developers-and-tests/">recent episode of <span class="caps">AB</span> Testing</a>. Answer starts at around 9 minutes mark.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of podcasts. Most of them aren’t particularly interesting. In rare cases when I do find something that I would like to listen to, it’s hard for me to find enough time and right place. Usually when I try to listen to them on my computer, I get distracted, shift my attention to something else and eventually find out that recording has stopped and I don’t remember a single thing they said.</p>
<p>This has been changing this calendar year, as I was gifted one of these wireless headphones. I put them on when I do household chores or when I want to take a rest from looking at screen. This works rather well for me so far. One of the things that I have listened to was <a href="https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-94-modern-testing-meets-context-driven-testing/"><span class="caps">AB</span> Testing podcast episode 94: “Modern Testing meets Context-Driven Testing”</a>.</p>
<p>I was surprised by quality of it. One particular thing that stands out is the way that hosts discuss and debate. When they disagree, they do it in very civil and constructive manner. When they agree, they contribute useful point of view to each other thought. When they talk about differences between Modern Testing and Context-Driven Testing, they stress out whether disagreement is on fundamental level, or in wording that is used. I fully recommend listening to that episode, even if only to see how high-quality discussion might look like. We have way too few of these on the Internet.</p>
<p>I recommend listening to that episode also because it has couple of good points and thought-provoking statements on subjects of management and trust between manager and associate. Both hosts are at high level of their respective organizations, so their experience and points of view are worth considering.</p>
<p>Anyway, one of the subjects they touched was “skilled” and “unskilled” testing. I wanted to learn more about it, so I emailed couple of questions to Alan, one of podcast hosts. He decided to answer them over in the show. That episode is now live. If you are interested, listen to <a href="https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-97-questions-about-developers-and-tests/">“<span class="caps">AB</span> Testing Episode 97: Questions About Developers and Tests”</a>.</p>Found on web: Black Box Puzzles2019-01-18T01:30:34+01:002019-01-18T01:30:34+01:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2019-01-18:/blog/2019/found-on-web-black-box-puzzles/<p>Black Box Puzzles is one of few websites that actually can help you become better tester.</p>
<p>Black Box Puzzles is one of few websites that actually can help you become better tester.</p>
<p><a href="http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/">Black Box Puzzles by James Lyndsay</a>.</p>
<p>I have heard about this project in the past, but I didn’t use it until couple of days ago. Perhaps the link was outdated? Or I have found reference on my ebook reader, which doesn’t have Internet access? Or there was disclaimer about puzzles being in Flash and I haven’t even tried?</p>
<p>Black Box Puzzles are… well, puzzles. There are no instructions for them. You may use them however you like - it’s entirely up to you. You <strong>can</strong> use them to see how it is to use application without specification and to improve your model-building - and model-refuting - skills. You can play, you can explore, you can learn, you can understand, you can test. They are fun little brain-teaser to kill some time and to provoke a thought about how you work.</p>
<p>All puzzles are deterministic. They will provide the same output for the same input. To the best of their author knowledge, they are bug-free. There are no tricky parts to trip you over. Author promises they do simple things, but there is no guarantee that your definition of “simple” overlaps with his.</p>
<p>It’s not all roses, though.</p>
<ul>
<li>Out of 21 puzzles, 12 are in Flash. They won’t work on mobile device or any modern browser. In fact, I am not yet sure how to run them at all.</li>
<li>There are no instructions, no specification and no oracles. That means you can’t be really sure if your work is done. If you can predict response of system to every action you take, is this due to high predictive power of your model, or is it because you are really bad at thinking about tests that might refute your model?</li>
<li>That also means that if you can’t figure out what is going on, you are screwed. There is no hint that you could take or solution that you could look up. You will learn that you don’t know something, with no indication what that something might be or how to fill that gap.</li>
<li>You can’t read source code of puzzles. Of course reading inner workings of puzzle out of their code could be considered cheating, but comparing conclusions that you can reach using black-box approach and white-box approach could be useful exercise as well.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Takeaway</strong>: Go to <a href="http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/">this website</a> and do some puzzles.</p>Found on web: AST blogroll2018-08-14T15:38:07+02:002018-08-14T15:38:07+02:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2018-08-14:/blog/2018/found-on-web-ast-blogroll/<p>I grabbed a list of blogs aggregated on Association for Software Testing website, so you don’t have to.</p>
<p>I grabbed a list of blogs aggregated on Association for Software Testing website, so you don’t have to.</p>
<p>Have you heard about Association for Software Testing (<span class="caps">AST</span>), <span class="caps">US</span>-based non-profit organization? I probably did hear the name before, but dismissed it as something akin to <span class="caps">ISTQB</span>. Only recently I learned how wrong I was - it is actually association of Context-Driven testers, created by Cem Kaner himself!</p>
<p>One of the hidden gems on their website is planet / blog aggregator / blog syndication feature. On the right side of their blog there is a black box with links to posts written by some of the members of <span class="caps">AST</span>. While you can use that box directly, or subscribe to <span class="caps">AST</span> blog feed (which is union of posts from all tracked blogs), I wanted to see a full list of all aggregated blogs. This makes it harder to miss people who don’t blog anymore, but have rich collection of past writings.</p>
<p>Since I couldn’t find such list, I decided to create it myself. Blogs are sorted in descending order by the publication time of newest posts.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://syrett.blog">syrett.blog | Neil Syrett | Software Tester</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.stickyminds.com">StickyMinds | Software Testing <span class="amp">&</span> <span class="caps">QA</span> Online Community</a></li>
<li><a href="https://always-fearful.blogspot.com">אשרי אדם מפחד תמיד Happy is the man who always fears</a></li>
<li><a href="https://qahiccupps.blogspot.com">Hiccupps</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mkltesthead.com"><span class="caps">TESTHEAD</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://blog.tentamen.eu">tentamen blog – Blog that makes software testing interesting and exciting.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.satisfice.com">James Bach - Satisfice, Inc.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.aclairefication.com">aclairefication</a></li>
<li><a href="https://mrslavchev.com">Mr.Slavchev - The cave of the testing troll</a></li>
<li><a href="http://nickytests.blogspot.com">Nicky Tests Software</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.kenst.com">Chris Kenst</a></li>
<li><a href="https://beaglesays.blog">@Beaglesays – a nose for testing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org">Association for Software Testing | Software Testing Professional Association</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shino.de">Markus Gärtner | Software Testing, Craftsmanship, Leadership and beyond</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bernieberger1.blogspot.com">Bernie Berger</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.brendanconnolly.net">Assert.This – Testing, Automation, and Exploration</a></li>
<li><a href="http://xndev.com/creative-chaos/">Creative Chaos | Excelon Development</a></li>
<li><a href="https://thepainandgainofedwardbear.wordpress.com">The Pain and Gain of Edward Bear</a></li>
<li><a href="http://elementalselenium.com">Elemental Selenium: Receive a Free, Weekly Tip on Using Selenium like a Pro</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tnridgeback.com">Testing Bites</a></li>
<li><a href="https://roadlesstested.com">Road Less Tested – thoughts on mastering the craft of software testing, delivering quality software and agile practices</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.huibschoots.nl">Huib Schoots – Software Tester – Trainer – Coach – Writer – Speaker – Leader – Storyteller</a></li>
<li><a href="http://carstenfeilberg.blogspot.com">Let’s go explore</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dogmatictesting.com">The Pragmatic Testing | Agile, Testing, Sense-making</a></li>
<li><a href="https://mewtblog.wordpress.com"><span class="caps">MEWT</span> | Midlands Exploratory Workshop on Testing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://testingthoughts.com">Testing Thoughts – A focus on context-driven testing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.questioningsoftware.com/">Questioning Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scott-barber.blogspot.com/">Peak Performance</a></li>
<li><a href="http://tattooedtester.blogspot.com">A tester in Tennessee</a></li>
<li><a href="http://markwaite.blogspot.com/">Mark Waite</a></li>
</ul>Found on web: Mark Blyth2018-07-24T23:35:39+02:002018-07-24T23:35:39+02:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2018-07-24:/blog/2018/found-on-web-mark-blyth/<p>Mark Blyth is economist-turned-political scientist that you should definitely check out.</p>
<p>Mark Blyth is economist-turned-political scientist that you should definitely check out.</p>
<p>I discovered his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQuHSQXxsjM">lecture on austerity</a> by complete incident - I wasn’t even looking for anything related, but the context suggested that he talks on how anti-social economic policy is doing more harm than good in Europe, so I checked it out. I was immediately won over by his confidence, usage of data to support his points and by his holistic view.</p>
<p>Or take his lecture on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUqCrtg-wNY">risk in the world with Trump</a> as another example (it’s from early 2017 - back when Trump has not yet assumed the office). He very skillfully introduces basic concepts and builds on them to prove his thesis. He draws from statistics, modelling, risk analysis and some smaller, standalone ideas (black swans, intelligent yet idiot) to create coherent, well rounded message. It’s also funny at times!</p>
<!-- example: "This is what happens when you think you know what's going on, you really are sure how the world works, and it comes up and black-swans you right in the ass" -->
<p>Even if Blyth is not talking about testing, he uses many tools that testers should be at least familiar with. He is exemplary in how he takes abstract concepts into their very practical implications and in how he connects and elevates basic ideas to understand complex phenomena of real world. His work is something we could all admire and aspire to.</p>Found on web: Premises of Rapid Software Testing2018-06-22T23:04:17+02:002018-06-22T23:04:17+02:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2018-06-22:/blog/2018/found-on-web-premises-of-rapid-software-testing/<p>Head on to Michael Bolton blog to read about fundamentals of Rapid Software Testing.</p>
<p>Head on to Michael Bolton blog to read about fundamentals of Rapid Software Testing.</p>
<p>I am big fan of <a href="http://www.satisfice.com/blog/">James Bach</a> and <a href="http://www.developsense.com/blog/">Michael Bolton</a> work on testing. As I was reading through their blogs archives - something you might consider to do as well, but be warned that Michael is very prolific writer - I stumbled on three-part series called <em>Premises of Rapid Software Testing</em>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.developsense.com/blog/2012/09/premises-of-rapid-software-testing-part-1/">Part 1</a>,
<a href="http://www.developsense.com/blog/2012/09/premises-of-rapid-software-testing-part-2/">Part 2</a>,
<a href="http://www.developsense.com/blog/2012/09/premises-of-rapid-software-testing-part-3/">Part 3</a>.</p>
<p>This series explains eight core principles of Rapid Software Testing. They are rather uncontroversial and I feel that every working professional will agree with them, including people who do not agree with some of the other works by James and Michael. I also feel it’s good idea to learn them by heart, or print them out and put someplace close, so you can check them out when working. It’s all too easy to lose touch with fundamentals when you are deep in some detail, like checking framework development. You can only benefit from taking a step back once in a while and reflecting on your work as a whole.</p>
<p>There are three parts, but reading them will take you maybe five minutes, so do it right now. They are great source of inspiration and thinking about their implications might take a good chunk of an hour, so do it when you have some more time.</p>Found on web: Radiologist are testers, too2018-02-25T15:14:28+01:002018-02-25T15:14:28+01:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2018-02-25:/blog/2018/found-on-web-radiologist-are-testers-too/<p>Luke Oakden-Rayner, PhD candidate in field of radiology, explains why certain X-ray images database is not really fit to task of training medical systems to do diagnostics. His observations stem from questions that apply to pretty much any dataset used to train machines.</p>
<p>Luke Oakden-Rayner, PhD candidate in field of radiology, explains why certain X-ray images database is not really fit to task of training medical systems to do diagnostics. His observations stem from questions that apply to pretty much any dataset used to train machines.</p>
<p>Read <a href="https://lukeoakdenrayner.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/the-chestxray14-dataset-problems/"><em>Exploring the ChestXray14 dataset: problems</em> by Luke Oakden-Rayner</a>.</p>
<p>It’s worth your time for few reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>He clearly demonstrates that quality of automated predictions is based solely on quality of input data; how they sometimes call it: garbage in, garbage out.</li>
<li>He stresses out that automated diagnostic systems are only as good as they are useful in the context of established medical practice; but since they cannot learn medical practice and meaning behind text labels, there is danger of spending considerable resources on creating something that is not particularly useful, or, even worse, is actively harmful.</li>
<li>He shows that reducing complex, multidimensional reality to single performance metric might lead to erroneous conclusions.</li>
</ul>
<p>However, I wanted to highlight one quote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Radiology reports are not objective, factual descriptions of images. The goal of a radiology report is to provide useful, actionable information to their referrer, usually another doctor. In some ways, the radiologist is guessing what information the referrer wants, and culling the information that will be irrelevant.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Isn’t this exactly what good testers do, too?</p>Everything you need to know about artificial intelligence2018-02-06T21:48:02+01:002018-02-06T21:48:02+01:00Mirek Długosztag:mirekdlugosz.com,2018-02-06:/blog/2018/everything-you-need-to-know-about-artificial-intelligence/<p>Last week I have written about automated translation system gone awry in the midst of Polish international relations crisis. Today I have discovered extremely good article explaining important parts of artificial intelligence in layman’s terms.</p>
<p>Last week I have written about automated translation system gone awry in the midst of Polish international relations crisis. Today I have discovered extremely good article explaining important parts of artificial intelligence in layman’s terms.</p>
<p>Read <a href="https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/asking-the-right-questions-about-ai-7ed2d9820c48"><em>Asking the Right Questions About <span class="caps">AI</span></em> by Yonatan Zunger</a>.</p>
<p>I would like to put it in context of testing in particular. Using Yonatans terms, testing is mix of indirect and undefined goals in an unpredictable environment. It’s in the group of problems that are the hardest to solve by machine learning systems. Testing won’t be taken over by <span class="caps">AI</span> (“automated”, as they say in our industry) in coming decades; possibly it will never be.</p>
<p>It doesn’t mean that testing won’t change at all and doesn’t have to adapt. All roles where agency is primarily given to non-human actors (erroneously referred as “manual testing” by huge part of industry) will slowly disappear. Testers will need to learn how to make better use of machines they are working with. Testers will need to better understand results given by machines and quickly catch situations where machine is answering question different than the one that was asked - things that will be very hard without better understanding of statistics and machine learning. It’s hard to tell whether industry as a whole will need more or less testers in the future.</p>
<p>And one more thing - when discussing ethical choices that autonomous car will have to make, Yonatan claims that society will have to make a choice and state it explicitly. As sociologist, I disagree. Getting societies to reach consensus is extremely hard, if not impossible. That’s why successful societies are build on rather vague principles (so everyone can agree on them, but interpret them a bit different) and have built-in “venting” mechanisms that allow people to express their disagreement and desire for change.</p>
<p><strong>Takeaway</strong>: read <a href="https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/asking-the-right-questions-about-ai-7ed2d9820c48">this article</a>. Do situations described in section “Ethics and the Real World” have anything in common with testing? What? How can testers apply lessons learned by <span class="caps">AI</span> researches to their own jobs, even if they don’t use any <span class="caps">AI</span>?</p>