Other day I was quoting following from Jerry’s new book on testing to one of my colleague who is a “best practice” proponent.
…..The risks in these two situations are vastly different, so do you think I recommended the same testing process I used for finding a personal web-writing application? Do you imagine I recommended that my client install random freeware pacemakers into live patients until he found something he liked, or didn't dislike? Why not?
I took above sentences as reference and told him.. “Can you use software testing strategy that one uses for web application writing to that of an embedded software in a heart pace maker? Hence best practices are such a junk thing ...”
To that he was silent for a while answered --- I agree with your point that test strategy or approach used for web application cannot be applied for embedded software in pace maker … How about picking the practice from a same field/domain – will that not save the time, energy and effort for my client ? Let us say I develop a list of practices for a given field (embedded software used in human bodies) and keep “selling” them as best practices (jump start kit) for those clients who deal with such software? What is your opinion? Would you still say … best practices (in a context) are junk?
I did not have a good answer for him …. Then we discussed about “universal best practices” (I am not sure if such phrase exists as all best practices are universal in nature by default and context less??) such as “walking is good for health”,”Test considering end user scenarios”, “Do unit testing” “Do code review”, “Aspirin is good for heart”, “Drunken driving leads to accidents”, “Do meditation to calm your mind” etc. I told him about at least 3 contexts for each of these best practices where following best practices can lead to harmful effects.
After listening to me … he said … Shrini … you appear to be "making up" all these contexts to prove your point …I want you to answer my question – Are all generic best practices recommendations are worthless or fake? When customers want something readymade that will help them to jumpstart the work, they would like to see if I, as a consultant, can bring some “best practices” from my previous similar experiments. Is that expectation unreasonable?
I am thinking ... I don’t have a good answer for him … do you? I hope Jerry would have some answer …
Are there any "universal best practices" or by default all best practices are universal and context free? Will a best practice cease to remain as bet practice once it comes with a context?
[update] Quoting from Jerry's book again - "As humans - we are not perfect thinkers, we are affected by emotions and we are not clones. We are Imperfect, irrational, value driven,diverse humans - hence we test software and test our
testing AND hence test "best practices" that sales and marketing folks associate with software testing.
No comments:
Post a Comment