Hiccupps

I just wrote a LinkedIn recommendation for one of my team who's leaving Cambridge in the new year. It included this phrase unafraid of the difficult (to ask and often answer!) questions  And he's not the only one. Questions are  a tester's stock-in-trade , but what kinds of factors can make them difficult to ask? Here's some starters: the questions are hard to frame because the subject matter is hard to understand the questions have known answers, but none are attractive  the questions don't have any known answers the questions are unlikely to have any answers the questions put the credibility of the questionee at risk the questions put the credibility of the questioner at risk the questions put the credibility of shared beliefs, plans or assumptions at risk the questions challenge someone further up the company hierarchy the questions are in a sensitive area - socially, personally, morally or otherwise the questions are outside the questioner's...

Metascience, according to this article in Nature , is "the science of science ... It has its roots in the philosophy of science and the study of scientific methods" with a primary focus being the study of the reproducibility of experimental findings. The article points out "the decline effect , an idea ... that the size of an effect decreases over repeated replications," acknowledges experimenter expectancy effects and the power of double-blinding and expects that "self-examination can only strengthen the scientific process for all." And when we try something new in our testing, we subject that thing to testing, don't we? Don't we? Image:  https://flic.kr/p/q1ic