Cynefin & Software Testing

Making sense of your situation

Image courtesy of Johanna Rothman

Image courtesy of Johanna Rothman

Orde

red

Unor

dere

d

Obvious

Sense – Categorise – RespondBest Practice

Tightly constrainedE.g. bicycle chain

Cause & effect relationship is obvious, repeatable & predictable

Complicated

Sense – Analyse– RespondGood Practice

Cause & effect relationship separated over space & time

Lightly constrainedE.g. 747

Complex

Probe – sense – RespondEmergent Practice

Cause & effect relationship only coherent in retrospect

Enabling constraintse.g. Frog

Chaotic

Act – sense – RespondNovel Practice

No cause & effect relationships perceivable

Lacking constrainte.g. House on fire

Image courtesy of Johanna Rothman

Image courtesy of Johanna Rothman

Man

agem

ent

Lead

ersh

ip

Image courtesy of Johanna Rothman

Cont

rol

Crea

tivity

Image courtesy of Johanna Rothman

Expl

oit

Expl

ore

Dynamics

Image courtesy of Cognitive Edge

Complexity vs SystemsUnordered systems Ordered systems

Accurately define the present & use safe-to-fail

experiments

Define ideal future state & close the gap

whole cannot be broken down & built back up again

whole can be broken down & built back up again

Testing

Cause & effect relationship is obvious

Categorise

Automated

Cause & effect relationship separated over space & time

Analyse

Scripted

No cause & effect relationships perceivable

Act

WTF?!

Cause & effect relationship only coherent in retrospect

Probe

Exploratory

Bugs

Cause & effect relationship is obvious

Categorise

Clicking the button has no effect

Cause & effect relationship separated over space & time

Analyse

Clicking the button opens the wrong page

No cause & effect relationships perceivable

Act

Clicking the button empties the customers account

Cause & effect relationship only coherent in retrospect

Probe

Clicking the button crashes the site after 30 minutes

Development Activities

1. Just about everyone in the world has done this

2. Lots of people have done this, including someone on our team

3. Someone in our company has done this, or we have access to expertise

4. Someone in the world did this, but not in our organisation (and probably at a competitor)

5. Nobody in the world has ever done this before

Estimating Complexity

Courtesy of Liz Keogh

Estimating Complexity

5 43

2

1

Trying things out

Breaking things down

Image Courtesy of Liz Keogh

Resources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin• http://

www.duncannisbet.co.uk/cynefin-in-software-testing• http://www.duncannisbet.co.uk/cynefin-software-bugs• http://lizkeogh.com/2013/07/21/estimating-complexity/• http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/perspectives-on-cynefin/• http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/some-thinking-about-dec

isions/• http://

paul4innovating.com/2014/06/19/the-use-of-the-cynefin-model-for-innovation/