Can something be context free?
eh?
but...context is always important isn't it??....
aha....maybe not....or maybe not initially?
I remember a blog post a while back (time for you bounce buddies...if anyone can jog my memory as to who's blog that was..that would be great..), where I think Mr. Bach asked someone to post a blog about when context isn't important.
I racked my brains for ages, thinking about that question, like context isn't important when things are so generic, or maybe so routinized.
However I stumbled across an old blog post by Andy Tinkham that gave me a different angle on this. Is Andy still blogging?
Questions can be context-free. What? Yeh...Context doesn't need to be important for some types of questioning. hmm...
I think in a way it's so obvious that I take it for granted, like you have to start somewhere to find information. Can this be used to focus and de-focus? Even Heuristics prompt context-free questions don't they? So can heuristics be context-free?
Andy Tinkham mentions the Phoenix Checklist in his post, and produced a paper with Cem Kaner that mentions this. Rob Lambert also mentions the Phoenix Checklist in his blog post about the subject. However being a 'Double 0' do I want to use a CIA checklist?? How about Box 850 questions??
Joe Strazzere has also posted some context-free questions in his blog post about asking great questions.
I think I use context-free questions to get a 'handle' on things or get a greater idea of the context..or more ultimately identify risk..Who are the stakeholders? What is the product? What is the schedule? etc etc
Are context-free questions just prior to testing?
Some of these questions I kinda call getting in your stakeholders head(s)...customers head(s)....developers head(s), fellow tester(s) head(s)...there are some generic questions that you can ask as initial guides before delving into context aren't there?
What is this project for? What are the benefits? to whom? What is the application written in? How is this built? Delivered? Can I see the code? What is it supposed to do?
I'm not advocating context-free testing (well I don't think I am), I think all testing has to be driven by context (i.e once you have an intial view - the context? Then you will want to ask contextual questions), adaptable to whatever your situation is right now. (Oh no - does that mean I have succumbed to a group/school - I so wanted to be schooless, oo-ahh my own Bucaneer! Anyway, Those context-people have probably just pinged that brain cell of mine too many times...)
Are you using context-free questions? Is everyone using context-free questions?
What questions are you asking?
Sunday, 21 March 2010
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Interesting post!
ReplyDeleteYes, context-free questions are all around us. I guess you could use them context-less and "with" context - the first case when the context doesn't matter and the second case when you use the question to dig into the specifics of the problem at hand.
A set of guidelines or heuristics to help you analyze a situation.
Hopefully the context-less part of the question is not a factor of not using the information that you should have: "Why are you asking THAT question when you've been working with the product for 6 months?" Ooops...
A while back I wrote about a conversation I had with James about a year ago. I related context-driven thinking to methodology construction - as I learned it from Alistair Cockburn and Jerry Weinberg. Here is the link to the blog post:
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.shino.de/2009/12/07/context-driven-projects/
I'm not sure, if you meant this one.
Hi Simon,
ReplyDeleteGood points.
Maybe what I'm getting at is, how do you derive the context that your testing will be driven by. Heuristics, that pose questions? Or do you ask questions, apply heuristics which ask more questions? Or have top level heuristics which ask questions and lead to further heuristics which ask questions which lead to further heuristics etc etc. Do you always start with the same heuristics and the same questions? Is it possible to get context-skewed?
Peter
Hi Markus,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog prompt and for bounce buddying! :0)
Your blog isn't quite how I remember it(eek..), but I'm sure it was yours. An excellent post. After re-reading it, I'm now thinking about context building as a group thing rather than a tester thing. Is 'Just-in-time methodology construction' based on constant questioning? I am now thinking that context can be constantly changing...Can context-less (thanks Simon) questioning help with that?
Peter