“Thinking in Systems: Primer” is a great resource that can help you whether you are beginning, or have already started your systems thinking journey. Meadows helps us understand what a system is. “A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organised in a way that achieves something”[1]. “Once we see the relationship …
Category Archives: Systems Thinking
Collaborative customer-focused systems thinking – a review of Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne
In this book, Bob Browne recounts how he drew on ideas from both the East and the West, including the philosophies of W. Edwards Deming and Eli Goldratt, to make the Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company a success. In 1980, Bob Browne, with the help of a few others, acquired the Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling …
Exploring Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is an important part of a tester’s skill set. I really enjoyed discussing systems thinking on the Ministry of Testing’s Testing Planet with Simon Tomes, Sarah Byng and Rachel Kibler. It was great to learn from everyone on the broadcast. Thank you, Ministry of Testing, for inviting me to talk on Testing Planet …
We need cooperation between testers and developers
Sometimes there can be competition between testers and developers. Cooperation between testers and developers is better for the company and the customer. “A system must have an aim”[1]. A company is a system and so has an aim. Testers and developers are components of the company’s system and so share the company’s aim. “The obligations …
Continue reading “We need cooperation between testers and developers”
How do you decide which tests to automate?
An end-to-end test pack needs to run quickly so that it does not slow developers, and at the same time provide useful feedback to the developers. This makes deciding which categories of tests to include in the test pack challenging. A ten-minute video from Russ Ackoff has helped me better understand my decisions on one …
Continue reading “How do you decide which tests to automate?”
Cooperation helps to improve testing, helps testers and helps the company
Testers can help increase cooperation across the company, and cooperation will help us and the company. Testers give feedback to developers when we test. We should also get feedback from other departments and customers on our work and the product we are testing. The feedback we get from cooperating with other departments brings the perspectives …
Continue reading “Cooperation helps to improve testing, helps testers and helps the company”
How to deal with a complaint about quality
How a company responds to a complaint about quality needs careful consideration. A model that we can use to explore this issue is Dr Deming’s Red Beads Experiment. We can extend the Red Beads Experiment to include a complaint from customers. I explored the Red Beads Experiment in a previous blog post The blog post …
Continue reading “How to deal with a complaint about quality”
I am learning about systems thinking to help me test
I want to improve my understanding of systems thinking as this will help my testing. My friend John Holmstrom recommended the work of Peter Senge and so I have just read “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge. The book contains many useful insights about system thinking, learning and leadership. Some of the points about systems …
Continue reading “I am learning about systems thinking to help me test”
TestAndAnalysis 