Mike Harris' Testing and Quality Blog
W. Edwards Demings’s System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) is a valuable framework for leadership. SoPK provides a view, which Deming called a lens, “by which to understand the organisations we work in”[1]. The SoPK is “a framework for applying best efforts to the right tasks”[2]. There are four parts to the SoPK: The theory that …
Continue reading “First Thoughts on a System of Profound Testing”
When I gave the talks on “What is quality” I found it was not possible to provide a definition of quality on which everyone would agree. I recently read a book by Kaoru Ishikawa which included him describing quality using a cause-and-effect diagram[1]. It occurred to me that using a cause-and-effect diagram to describe something …
Continue reading “Use a cause-and-effect diagram to achieve consensus when defining quality”
Many teams, create a definition of done to clarify what putting a card in the Done column on a scrum or kanban board means. A good number of teams also have team agreements or ‘ways of working’ which define ways in which the teams work. Also, some teams have checklists of items that need to …
I enjoy working in an organisation where we are learning from the work we do. An example of this would be using retrospectives to enable the team to learn from their work and taking this knowledge forward to help the team. Until recently I have called this approach continuous learning. It sounded right, as it …
A tester’s job is to test, well that is what our job title says, however, we add value in a number of ways to features that we work on. We need to be able to communicate how we add value. Some time ago we had some new managers where I was working and I wanted …
Continue reading “How can we communicate what agile testers do?”
“Why did the tester miss that bug?” is a question I have heard in many places but it is the wrong question. W. Edwards Deming’s philosophy shows that if something has gone wrong we need to look at the process and not blame the individual. A tester can be working in a system that the …
Continue reading “Don’t ask “Why did the tester miss that bug?””
When I started as a tester I learned that test documentation, such as test plans, needed to gain approval from the Director and could be regarded as a project deliverable. I have learned that this is not helpful and that test documentation should support testing and the development. I remember that, before testing started, we …
Continue reading “I have changed my mind about…Test Plans and Test Documentation”
Jobs Theory gives us a way of understanding clients by asking what job did they “hire” a product or service for. An example of Jobs Theory is given in “Competing Against Luck”: by Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan. The example they give explains why people “hired” milk shakes. Research …
I have worked in lean or agile teams for a number of years and developing my knowledge of lean and agile has helped me. The Deming Cycle is something I have found helpful to understand because it is a part of agile and lean and it is also about continuous improvement of quality. Engineering teams …
W. Edwards Deming wrote that improving quality results in a chain reaction “lower costs, better competitive position, happier people…and more jobs”. Deming worked in Japan after World War Two where he helped rebuild the Japanese economy. He received honours from the Emperor of Japan and the President of the USA. His work underpins agile, lean …
Continue reading “Improving quality creates a chain reaction”
What does it mean when a card is put into the Done column? Done can mean that the coding is completed, it can also include that the code has been reviewed, that it includes unit tests and many other things. Teams sometimes create a “Definition of Done” to state exactly what “done” means and this …
Continue reading “Three short stories about the Definition of Done”
We want to create quality features, products and services. Using a framework to think through how to achieve this is helpful as the framework ensures that vital points are covered. Testers can provide value by understanding these frameworks and using them to shape their own thinking in order to be able to prompt and/or lead …
Continue reading “The Quality Trilogy helps discussions with your team”
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