Making Fünf Myself

The first post on Hiccupps was published five years ago this week. It's called Sign Language and, reading it back now, although I might not write it the same way today, I'm not especially unhappy with it. The closing sentence still feels like a useful heuristic, even if I didn't present it that way at the time:

Your audience is not just the target audience, it's anyone who sees what it is you've done and forms an opinion of you because of it.

I've looked back over the blog on most of its anniversaries, and each time found different value:

I Done the Ton: After two years I compared my progress to my initial goals and reflected on how I'd become a tester and test manager
It's the Thought That Counts: After three years I began to realise that the act of blogging was an end in itself, not just a means to an end
My Two Cents: After four years, the value of time series data about myself and the evolution (or lack of evolution) of my thoughts and positions became clearer

And so what have I observed after five years? Well, by taking the time series data to Excel (see the image at the top), I find that this has been a bumper year in terms of the number of posts I've produced.

I think it's significant that a year ago I attended and spoke at EuroSTAR in Maastricht and came back bursting with ideas. In November 2015 I wrote eight posts, the largest number in any month since November 2011. This year I've achieved that number three times and reached seven posts in a further three months.

But I don't confuse quantity with quality ... very often.

In fact, if I look back over this year's posts I see material that I am ridiculously proud of:

Joking With Jerry: Jerry Weinberg - yes, that Jerry Weinberg - asked me to organise a discussion on something that I'd written that he enjoyed. I think Jerry is the person I have been most influenced by as a tester and a manager and it's no exaggeration to say that, while nerve-wracking, it was a labour of love from start to end.
Bug-Free Software? Go For It!: An essay I wrote in preparation for CEWT #2 which, I think, shows a biggering in my capacity to think bigger, and which I like because it reminds me that the Cambridge Exploratory Workshop on Testing is a thing. I set it up. It works. Other people are getting value from it. And we're doing another one in a couple of weeks.
Toujours Testing: This one simply because it is a kind of personal manifesto.
What is What is Professional Testing?: An essay I wrote in preparation for MEWT #5 which, I think, reflects the move I've been making over the years to perform what I might call exploratory retrospection. By this I mean that I will try to test my testing while it is ongoing rather than waiting until afterwards - although, of course, I reserve the right to do that too. What I like about this is that I can and do use the same kinds of tools in both cases.
Tools: Take Your Pick: It's got ideas and tools up the wazoo. From the seed of a thought I had while cleaning the bathroom through the thicket of ideas that came pouring out once I started to scratch away at it. From the practical to the theoretical and back. I found it challenging to arrange the ideas in my head but immensely satisfying to write.

I'll stop at five, for no other reason than this post is for the fifth birthday. I wouldn't be so crass as to say they're presents for you. But when they pop out, completed, they do sometimes feel like presents for me.

Comments

Can Code, Can't Code, Is Useful

The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester , which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective . It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter , LinkedIn , Mastodon , Slack , and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory. I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be. Perhaps you'd like to join me? --00-- "If testers can’t code, they’re of no use to us" My first reaction is to wonder what you expect from your testers. I am immediately interested in your working context and the way

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The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester , which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective . It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter , LinkedIn , Mastodon , Slack , and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory. I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be. Perhaps you'd like to join me? --00-- "Stop answering my questions with questions." Sure, I can do that. In return, please stop asking me questions so open to interpretation that any answer would be almost meaningless and certa

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The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester , which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective . It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter , LinkedIn , Mastodon , Slack , and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory. I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be. Perhaps you'd like to join me? --00-- "Testers are the gatekeepers of quality" Instinctively I don't like the sound of that, but I wonder what you mean by it. Perhaps one or more of these? Testers set the quality sta

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The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester , which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective . It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter , LinkedIn , Mastodon , Slack , and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory. I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be. Perhaps you'd like to join me? --00-- "When the build is green, the product is of sufficient quality to release" An interesting take, and one I wouldn't agree with in general. That surprises you? Well, ho

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The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester , which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective . It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter , LinkedIn , Mastodon , Slack , and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory. I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be. Perhaps you'd like to join me? --00-- "What's the best format for a test plan?" I'll side-step the conversation about what a test plan is and just say that the format you should use is one that works for you, your coll

Test Now

The Association for Software Testing is crowd-sourcing a book, Navigating the World as a Context-Driven Tester , which aims to provide responses to common questions and statements about testing from a context-driven perspective . It's being edited by Lee Hawkins who is posing questions on Twitter , LinkedIn , Mastodon , Slack , and the AST mailing list and then collating the replies, focusing on practice over theory. I've decided to contribute by answering briefly, and without a lot of editing or crafting, by imagining that I'm speaking to someone in software development who's acting in good faith, cares about their work and mine, but doesn't have much visibility of what testing can be. Perhaps you'd like to join me? --00-- "When is the best time to test?" Twenty posts in , I hope you're not expecting an answer without nuance? You are? Well, I'll do my best. For me, the best time to test is when there

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