You??™ve never met one? Lucky you.
See [Dixon 1] and [Dixon 2] for more on experts, novices, and, er, the others. There is no quick way to
become an expert. But there is a way of preparing for surprises, somewhere between expert and novice.
It??™s called strategy and planning. Writing all those Very Wonderful documents is a way of simulating the
project, getting it all down on paper, and thus externalizing it, like a script or a set of stage directions
or a program.
There are few things more embarrassing than reading something you wrote at a moment??™s notice
under great pressure. Revising what you jammed down last night is a great way of giving yourself time
to rethink, focus on essentials, and think through your plan so you know you are happy with it. This
way you give yourself space in which to ask
???. . .and what could go wrong here?
??? and work out a solution
beforehand.
Introduction
9
1.8.2 Let??™s Hear It for Strategy
Testing is a way of answering questions. Questions such as ???
Does it work? Is it any good? Can we use it????
are big, but they can be split into smaller questions such as
???Have we used it like the users will? Have we
tested it all? Did we build it the ???right??™ way? Is it fast enough????
These are all strategic questions but because testing as an activity is accepted as Something We
Ought To Do (more in principle than in practice), managers and testers tend to lose sight of them.
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