In One Sentence, Define Quality, Bug, Testing

At CEWT #7 today I surprised the participants by asking them for some definitions as they arrived. I used the definitions in my talk, which I've blogged about, but for now here's a simple list. Add your own definitions in the comments if you like.

Quality

How well someone perceives something works and meets a set of requirements.
Value to someone who matters at some time.
Quality is value to some person that matters.
You'll know it when you see it - when something is good, shiny, runs smoothly.
External quality is a positive characteristic of software encompassing robustness, correctness, and lack of bugs.
An outcome that satisfies all stakeholders + customers.
The extent to which any given attribute of a "thing" meets its intended or desired purpose.
A positive attribute of something (as in "a quality of ..")
Quality is subjective and hence hard to define as what's quality for some is not for others. Initially I was going to say when a product follows a specification but what if the specification is low quality? So yes, James, you are right. I am a tester and I don't know how to define quality.

Bug

The difference between something as desired and something as perceived that's an unwanted incongruity.
Something that "bugs" someone.
A bug is a piece of unintended behaviour in software that negatively affects a user - or will do so, when the software is released.
A perceived failure to meet an expectation.
An entry in Bugzilla.
An unforeseen reaction to an event/interaction that causes an undesirable reaction.
Anything that threatens the value of a product.

Testing

Ascertaining whether software does something/meets a requirement.
Assessing the integrity of specific functionality using as many perspectives as any any potential user that might ever utilise it.
Uncovering unknowns, experimentation and problem solving.
A process to ensure the software/product behaves and gives the expected outcomes.
Some process between development and end-of-life software use.
A verb! The activity of assessing an object/person (thing) to determine the quality of one or more of its attributes.

Image: James Coombes

Comments

Unknown said…

The one that I use 'Anything that threatens the value of a product.' It was hard to teach developers why everything is reported as a bug - real bugs, change requests, UX improvements etc. At the end everything is 'The Change' to manage. Test Oracles help to justify expectations.

May 21, 2020 at 9:02 AM

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