Foreword xxiii Reader Support of This Book xxvii Part I Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Why Another Book About Testing? 3 Many Cultures of Testing 3 Why Us? 6 Why Testing? 7 Why Testers? 9 By The Way, Now Everyone is a Tester. 11 Why Not "Traditional Testing?" 11 Part II Rapid Software Testing Methodology 15 Chapter 2 Foundation 17 The Meaning of Testing 17 Testing vs. Checking 18 Testing vs. Performing a Test 20 Deep vs. Shallow Testing 20 Narrow vs. Broad Testing 21 Our Vision for RST 22 Design Features 25 Foundational Ideas 26 Who We Are 27 Practitioners and Clients 28 Students and Experts 30 What We Study 32 Systems and Models 32 Products and Users 35 Quality and Risk 36 How We Manage 39 Context and Mission 39 Process and Methodology 41 Roles and Trading Zones 43 Tacit and Explicit Knowledge 45 Freedom and Formality 48 Spontaneity and Deliberation 50 Iteration and Emergence 52 Control and Legibility 54 Stories and Strategy 56 Heuristics and Skills 57 Activities and Enoughness 59 How We See 61 Stance and Distance 61 Focusing and Defocusing 64 Experience and Instrumentation 65 Sensemaking and Unconscious Bias 66 Experiments and Demonstrations 70 Assessment and Measurement 71 Chapter 3 How to Do a Test 75 The Process of Testing 75 Our View of the Scientific Method 76 The Fundamental Method of Testing 77 Why Do We Say "Explore" Instead of "Record" or "Measure"? 80 How Is the Reality of the Product Explored? 81 The Anatomy of a Check 84 The Meaning of a Check 86 Fail Is Not an Option (for Good Reporting) 88 The Anatomy of a Test 89 Coverage 90 Intentional Coverage 92 Incidental Coverage 93 To Cover Is to Sample 94 How Not to Think About Equivalence Classes 95 A Better Way to Think About Equivalence Classes 97 A Better Way to Think About Boundaries, Too 98 Pushing Limits 100 Oracles 103 Oracles May Take Many Forms 105 Procedures 108 Designing a Test Procedure 109 Anatomy of "One Step" of a Procedure for a Test 112 How To Go Wrong When Performing a Test 116 The Art of Bug Reporting 118 Normal Bug or Enhancement Request? 118 How to Investigate a Bug 119 How to Investigate Intermittent Problems 120 Be Comforted: The Cause Is Probably Not Evil Spirits 121 General Suggestions for Investigating Intermittent Problems 122 Considering the Causes of Intermittent Problems 123 How to Report a Bug 128 Formal vs. Informal Bug Reporting 130 Elements of a Basic Formal Bug Report 131 Give the Bug Report a Good Focus 133 Assessing the Significance of a Bug 133 The Bug Pipeline 134 Chapter 4 How to Do a Test Strategy 137 The Structure of Test Strategy 138 Welcome to Your New "Normal" 142 Pleasing vs. Disturbing 143 Easy vs.

Stressful 143 Acceptable vs. Disallowed 144 Natural vs. Contrived 144 Us vs. Them 145 Typical vs. Unusual 145 Standard vs. Special 146 "This Is Fine." 146 First of All Things: Center Yourself 148 Developing a Strategy Is an Ongoing Exploration 149 Twelve Test Strategy Entry Points 150 What Are You Here For? 150 What Do You Need to Learn? 150 What Is Happening Right Now? 150 How Is Your Testing Constrained? 151 What Testing Has Been Done Already? 151 How Is the Product Being Built? 152 What Is the Product? 152 How Important Is Your Testing? 153 How Will People Most Likely Use the Product? 154 What Testing Is Easy to Do? 154 What Do People Expect You to Do? 155 What''s Fun to Do? 155 Seasons of Testing: Strategy Throughout the Project Cycle 156 Regression Testing May Not Be What You Think 158 The Challenge of Alignment: Strategy Is Different for Testers and Builders 159 Testability Enables Test Strategy 163 Good Test Strategy Is More Than Just Following Behind Development 164 Practices Worth Practicing 167 Make a Product Coverage Outline 167 Apply the Heuristic Test Strategy Model 169 Organize Strategy According to Risk 171 Risk Analysis Is Mostly Conversation and Consensus 173 Brainstorming Using the Four-Part Risk Story 175 Putting It All Together: Lenses of Testing 179 Be a Problem-Solver, Not a Task-Doer 181 A Strategy Example: Bibliography Generator 181 Context 182 Strategy 182 Strategy Example #2: A More Normalized Version 184 Activity Types Mentioned in the Table 186 What About Oracles? 187 Final Thought 187 Chapter 5 How to Account for Your Work 189 Telling a Compelling Story 190 Note-taking Is a Core Testing Skill 193 Jon Bach''s PROOF Heuristic 194 Safety Language 195 Telescoping Reports 195 James''s Low-Tech Testing Dashboard 196 Stories Mediate Software Projects 198 High Alignment vs. Low Alignment 200 The Temptation to Coerce 201 Artifact-based vs.

Activity-based Management 204 Artifact-Based Management 204 Beware of Counting Incommensurable Artifacts 205 The Basic Problem of Artifact-Based Management 207 Activity-based Management 208 Session-Based Test Management 209 Thread-Based Test Management 212 Please Don''t Fake Your Testing 213 Chapter 6 How to Apply Automation in Testing 215 Robots! Help! 216 The Trouble with "Automation" 217 In RST, we don''t call it test automation 219 yet we explore many ways to use tools 220 Consider Augmented Experiential Testing 222 Beware of Oversimplified Output Checking 223 we incorporate tools incrementally and opportunistically 229 Consider Applying a Blink Oracle 231 Notice the Hidden Costs of Automation 232 Consider Recruiting a Dedicated Toolsmith 235 How Testers and Toolsmiths Can Work Together 236 .and we promote testability, so tools work better 237 Classic Traps of Automation in Testing 237 Traps of Ignorance 237 Scripting Trap 238 Trusting Trap 238 Atrophy Trap 238 Obscurity Trap 239 Traps of Economy 239 Shallowness Trap 239 Testability Trap 240 Maintenance Trap 240 Sunk Cost Trap 241 Learning Curve Trap 241 Traps of Alignment 241 Rathole Trap 242 Legibility Trap 242 Harmony Trap 242 Considerations for GUI-level Automation 243 First Things First 243 Programmatic Access to the GUI Can be Difficult to Achieve 244 Variation in the GUI Multiplies the Cost and Trouble 245 GUI automation means you are simulating users. How good is that simulation? 247 Considerations for Adopting a Tool 249 Capabilities and Power 249 Effort to Operate 250 Feasibility of Adoption 251 Learning, Troubleshooting, and Support 251 The Golden Rule of Tool Adoption 252 Chapter 7 How to Approach AI and Testing 255 What If We Could Test by Magic? 255 How Is Modern AI Special? 259 Problems to Look For with AI in Testing 262 Transpection: A Basic Skill for Collaborating with AI 264 Beware of the Productivity Paradox 267 Are People Magic Boxes? Can Be 267 Part III Application and Customization 269 Chapter 8 Prospective Testing 271 Notice Something Before We Say Anything More 275 But Why Bother Doing This at All? 277 How to Do Prospective Testing 278 Who Is Involved in Prospective Testing? 278 What Does Prospective Testing Look Like? 280 When Does Prospective Testing Happen? 282 How Can a BA or Developer Prepare for Prospective Testing? 282 How Can You (the Tester) Deal with Resistance to Questions during Meetings? 284 "Analysis Paralysis" or "Go Fast and Break Things?" 286 A Cheat Sheet for Prospective Testing 288 What exactly are we talking about? 288 Is this worth discussing here and now? 288 What exactly are we trying to achieve? 288 What influences must we consider? 289 What other features or requirements will be affected? 289 What specific data or conditions must this feature be able to process or work with? 289 What are the merits of different ways of designing or implementing this feature? 290 How will the new feature handle errors or recover from failure? 290 How will we test the new feature once it exists? 291 Chapter 9 Test Reporting (Without Pretentious Metrics) 293 Metrics Are Nothing Without a Story 293 Bad Metrics 295 Elements of Bad Metrics 295 Coverage 297 A Simple Story for Coverage 299 Release Coverage Outline 300 Better Test Reports 300 Sample Test Report 302 Chapter 10 Working with Quality Characteristics 305 Developing the Model 306 Quality Characteristics 308 Internal Quality Characteristics 312 Using the Model 314 Epilogue 315 Chapter 11 Adventures in Testability 317 Testability on the High Seas 318 Advocating for Testability 320 Step 1: Identify Things That Make It Difficult to Test 320 Step 2: Determine Who Can Help You Solve the Problem 321 Step 3: Sell It ("W.