What would somebody else do? Something else?

Trigger testing ideas using role playing

CEWT #1, 04/07/2015 by Karo Stoltzenburg (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Some background

In testing, it can be difficult to• come up with new, creative test ideas

• gain a different angle and view point

• review and rethink your test approach with a fresh mind while

• not missing the forest for the trees

• and keeping focused on important use cases, risk factors, test coverage etc.

Role playing can help, as• stepping into somebody else’s shoes can free whole new thought processes

• naturally gives you new directions and additional viewpoints

• different context spurs different test ideas

• It’s also a very lightweight and easy method, as it accommodates our universal anthropomorphic tendencies (empathy, memory, identification)

Some table of content, approaches, roles

• (Stereo)types of users: ‘Persona’

• Team members: ‘What would … ?’

• Focus of users: Thinking Hats

• The software’s point of view

DisclaimerI’m (mis)using a few (well known) methods for the role-playing approach - I don’t intend to give an

accurate description or claim that this is necessarily their intended use…

(Stereo)types of users: ‘Persona’

• Helps with:• Defining scenarios and use cases, user-centred design

• Transparency of decision making (based on targeted demographic)

• Shared better understanding and empathy about customers

• Use how:• Base personas on empirical data, statistics, surveys, target demographic

• Invent fictitious, memorable characters to represent user types of your product

• Create (positive) narratives, press-releases, scenarios, soap-operas

• Consider needs, behaviour, context, limitations of targeted user(s) groups

Users might differ regarding:

• type, e.g. buyer, seller, admin

• new, irregular, frequent user

• technological experience

• abilities, knowledge

• level of patience, benevolence

• cultural background (encodings, data format (names, addresses), socialisation)

© 2011 Chris Nodder Consulting LLC

(Stereo)types of users: ‘Persona’ (II)

Team members: ‘What would … ?’

• Helps with:• Identify scenarios and use cases

• Evaluation of risk, test coverage

• Setting priorities when time pressed, needing to be pragmatic

• Use how:• Consider other members of the team involved in the project, e.g.:

• Developer: What was likely tested? What environment are they on? Which areas of expertise do they (not) have?

• Business Development: What will they showcase? What does Marketing mention about the feature? Which resources would they use?

• Tester: What would other tester with other testing styles possibly do?

Focus of users: Thinking Hats

• Term coined by Edward de Bono (1967)

• A group discussion technique, but can used individually as well

• Apply a variety of angles, based on distinct thinking directions of the brain

• In collaboration – all apply the same technique, time boxed

Focus of users: Thinking Hats (II)

• Helps with:• Breaking out of the usual mind set, thinking into a different direction

• Decision making, problem solving, planning

• Decision making, evaluation while in interaction with the AUT

• Use how:• Rather indirectly as role, however imagining a specific person (or a wearing a

hat) can help ease into types of thinking

• Combine with types from personality psychology (Thinking, Feeling, Sensing, Intuition) or temperaments (Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic)

The software’s point of view

• Helps with:• Coming up with ideas on testing system interactions

• Stress and performance testing

• Integration and configuration testing

• Getting away from the “User types into keyboard” context

• Flexibility and creativity, thinking out of the box

• How to apply it:• The software is a person, too!

• Try to imagine who communicates with the product? With parts of it? How?

• What kind of communication might stress it, might be too much? Where does it need to be protected?

• In which context does the software operate (operating system, file system, network)

• In which world does the software live (time zones, temperature, distance)

References / Further Reading

• James A. Whittaker: How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing (2002)

• Michael Bolton: How Models Change (2014)

• Hans Buwalda: Soap Opera Testing (2004)

• Cem Kaner: An Introduction to Scenario Testing (2003)

• C.G. Jung: Psychologische Typen / Psychological Types

• Edward de Bono: Six Thinking Hats (1985)

• AskDefine: Persona

Thanks!

• Any questions?

• Interested in trying it out?