A HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE
SOFTWARE TESTING GALAXY
Graham Thomas
Independent Software
Testing Consultant
Next Generation Testing Conference
5th November 2009
Kensington Close Hotel
London
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ABSTRACT
As Douglas Adams wrote in his book The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,
“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how mind-bogglingly big it is.”
Well, the galaxy of software testing isn’t quite that big, but it is large, getting
larger, and can be very confusing to begin with. So how do we navigate safely
through the software testing galaxy and keep up with its expansion?
This presentation will;
Learn some of the lessons from the Hitchhikers Guide
Take a look at the Software Testing Galaxy, in the style of the Hitch Hikers Guide
Propose a real life Hitchhikers Guide to Software Testing
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THE HISTORY
The book was written from the original radio series in the late
1970’s, became a television series, and recently a
Hollywood “blockbuster” movie (which we won’t discuss).
The plot was interspersed, in a funny way, with Douglas
Adams’s experiences of Computing and Management
Methodology of the time.
He was quite visionary, in that the Guide was a brilliant
prediction of how useful internet search engines and
mobile computing would become, and with the new range
of lightweight and powerful mobile devices, combined
with Google and Wikipedia we are fast approaching his
vision. These insights have never been more relevant,
current, and useful than in today’s fast changing world.
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THE CHARACTERS & STORY
The Guide
The Guide serves as the narrator
to the series and expands on
some of the finer aspects of
Galactic society, culture and
history
Arthur Dent
Arthur is a six foot tall, carbonbased, bipedal life form
descended from an ape.
Ford Prefect
Ford is not descended from an
ape. He is in fact from a small
planet somewhere in the vicinity
of Betelgeuse
Zaphod BeebleBrox
President of the Known Galaxy.
Has two heads and three arms.
Suave, smooth talking, but
completely narcissistic and selfobsessed
Trillian
Trillian has a degree in
mathematics and a doctorate in
astrophysics, so when she met
Zaphod at a party in Islington,
she jumped at the chance to see
the galaxy
Marvin
Marvin is a 'personality
prototype' from the Sirius
Cybernetic Corporation's new
line of robots and regards life,
the universe and everyone in it
with utter contempt.
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AGENDA
 The Guide in use
 People & Skills
 Method & Process
 Some Quotes
 A Look Through the
Eyes of the Guide
 A Few Thoughts
 Summary
 Thanks
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THE GUIDE
IN
USE
The Guide serves as the narrator to the series and
expands on some of the finer aspects of
Galactic society, culture and history. Many of
the most memorable sequences in the series
are entries from the Guide.
By its own admission The Guide contains much
information that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate, but what it does have is a
cheap price, the words DON'T PANIC in
large friendly letters on the front and a voice
that speaks its entries in a calm and level tone.
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PEOPLE
AND
SKILLS
Across the five books Douglas
Adams has made many
references to people, their
behaviour, their skills and
their aptitude
We will take a look some of the
key highlights and draw
analogies to software testing
And why can’t a Trilogy be in Five
A Trilogy in Five Parts
Parts?
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DON’T PANIC
Lets take a look at why the Hitchhikers
Guide has the words DON'T PANIC
written in friendly letters on the front
cover.
Remember Arthur has just had his house
demolished, his planet demolished,
been beamed aboard an alien
spaceship, encountered an alien
species, and realised his friend of 10
years is also an alien.
He is to put it mildly, having a bad day, and
needs all the help he can get.
And then he is handed the Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy
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BABEL FISH
The first thing that happens
when sci-fi writers head
out into space is they have
to work out how to solve
the language barrier
Hitchhikers Guide does this
with the Babel Fish
How important is it in
software testing to be able
to speak the same
language as; the business,
the developers, the project
managers, other testers,
etc. etc.
The Guide also has some
cautionary words to say
about what happens when
you can communicate with
everybody!
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MARVIN
THE PARANOID ANDROID
Marvin is an Android from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
“Your Plastic Pal whose fun to be with”
He has a brain the size of a planet, and a Genuine People
Personality!
Some quotes from Marvin;
“Life! Don't talk to me about life.”
“It's funny how just when you think life just can't possibly get any worse
it suddenly does.”
“Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it.”
Have you ever met someone like Marvin?
Have you ever thought that the rest of the project might view
the Testing Team like Marvin???
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METHOD & PROCESS

It is said: “The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to
pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of
Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the
How, Why and Where phases”

For instance,
the first phase is characterized by the question How do we eat?
the second by the question Why do we eat?
and the third by the question Where shall we eat?

I think this is brilliant for software testers when we are detecting
aberrant behaviour:
Survival
When we spot unusual behaviour
Inquiry
When we diagnose behaviour
Sophistication When we want to fix the error
- How is it doing that?
- Why is it doing that?
- Where is it doing that?
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SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
The books consistently use
Zaphod Beeblebrox, President
of the Known Galaxy, to
demonstrate; management
ineffectiveness, inability to
lead, slavish devotion to
technology, cowardice, etc.
etc.
Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic
Peril Sensitive Sunglasses
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SOME DOUGLAS ADAMS
QUOTATIONS
We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that
works.”
“[The World Wide Web] is the only thing I know of whose shortened form
— www — takes three times longer to say than what it's short for.”
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
(This quote was used by Scott Adams in a Dilbert comic strip)
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the
answer.”
“Technology is a word that describes something that doesn't work yet.”
“Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple
with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”
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THROUGH
THE
EYES

So lets take a look at the world
of Software Testing through the
eyes of The Hitch Hikers Guide

For this example I am going to
look at Risk Based Testing

I am going to try and use the
same approach as The Guide but
there are some exceptions
OF THE
GUIDE
o I don’t have the voice of Peter Jones
o I don’t have the graphical skills of the
H2G2 animators
o I don’t know what apocryphal means!
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PRIORITISATION BY RISK
It is quite common that as test execution nears
the end of the testing window, it becomes
apparent that not all of the testing will be
completed in time, so the outstanding
workload (Requirements) is assessed by Risk
The outstanding workload is then tackled in
highest priority Risk order first, leading to a
Prioritisation by Risk
Because we we run out of time we don’t cover
(or test) all of the requirements
Some lower risk requirements have already been
tested, whilst some higher risk ones are not
tested
Don’t
Panic
Requirements
Catalogue
#
Requirement
Risk
1
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
H
2
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
L
3
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
L
4
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
M
5
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
L
6
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
H
n
XXxxxx Xxxx XXx
M
This is not Risk Based Testing
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Don’t
Panic
RISK BASED TESTING
The areas which carry the highest risk are
tested first
Low risk areas may not be targeted by
testing
Some risks may be mitigated by means
other than testing
Risk Profile
Impact
The business, operational and functional
risks to the delivered solution are
assessed and weighted by Impact and
Likelihood
H
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M
3
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L
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L
M
H
Likelihood
Risk Mitigation View
Web Architecture
Functionality
Security
Performance
Legacy Integration
This is Risk Based Testing
New Business
Date
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TAKING RISKS WITH TESTING !
Don’t
Panic
LOW
Where we would ideally like all
of our testing to be
Medium
When we begin to take some
risks
High
Where a lot of testing
generally takes place
Testing RISK Dial
Extreme
Where we sometimes end up
Macho
The kind of testing that we
should at all costs avoid!
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THE BIGGER QUESTION
 So in preparing this presentation it was inevitable that I
was going to ask the bigger question
“Why don’t we have a Hitch Hikers Guide to the
Software Testing Galaxy?”

And to answer that you also have to answer these questions as
well:
o
o
o
o
o
o
So what could it actually look like?
Who would use it?
What would it take to put together?
How would it be maintained?
What value would it really add?
Would it be worth the effort?
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JUST IMAGINE IF . . .
test condition
test data
test case
design
technique
DEFINITION
test case
test specification
A set of inputs, execution preconditions,
and expected outcomes developed for a
particular objective, such as to exercise a
particular program path or to verify
compliance with a specific requirement.
After [IEEE,dob]
test case
coverage
EXAMPLE
www.findonehere.com
USAGE
test result
VARIANTS
test basis
Don’t
Panic
OPINION
test
plan
.....
.....
.....
If we take the 3D Mind Map and bring that together through the eyes of The Guide
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LETS TRY THE QUESTIONS


So what could it actually look like?
o
A domain based, 3d Mind-Map visualization, with click through links
o
Including HHG like detail, description & definitions plus colour
Who would use it?
o

What would it take to put together?
o


It could start small, but build big
How would it be maintained?
o
By the (Testing) community – implies ownership
o
Anyone who wants to, without agenda, not for profit
o
But would want to avoid the wiki scenario of endless edits
What value would it really add?
o

Everyone, the Testing community, Developers, Project Managers,
Sponsors, Stakeholders, Customers, Suppliers, and all.
Massive, if it could provide access to information, descriptions,
definitions, relationships, variants, opinions, colour and flavour
Would it be worth the effort?
o
Can we afford not to do it? Why doesn’t the whole of IT do this?
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SO WHAT NEXT?
 Discuss the possibilities further and wider in the testing community –
Presentations like this one
 Influence others into thinking along the same lines
o Networking, discussions, bog posts etc.
 Workshop some Testing Guide entries at the Nov. Testing Retreat
 Think about community based development
o to avoid the endless edits scenario
o How ownership works
 Get a view form solution providers like; Google, Microsoft and others
 Capture my passion
o I have decided in future to only do voluntary testing community work if the output
is freely available to all
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SUMMARY
 Learnt some relevant lessons from the Hitchhikers Guide
 Taken a look at Software Testing through the eyes, and voice, of the
Hitchhikers Guide
 Received some wisdom from Douglas Adams
 Asked the question “Why?”
“Why don’t we have a Hitchhikers Guide to Software Testing?”
 Proposed an exciting solution to providing information for testing that
you may wish to get involved in
 Hope I have left you with an appetite for more Hitchhikers Guide
 Had some fun
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MY THANKS GOTO
 Douglas Adams 11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001
 The cast of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
 HTC Magic, Google & Wikipedia
 NASA Image of the Day
 European Southern Observatory (Trifid Nebula)
 Wikiquote
 www.testingstandards.co.uk
 Paul Gerrard, Isabel Evans & Geoff Thompson for
bouncing the ideas around
Paul
Isabel
Geoff
 Bill Gates, Microsoft and countless Project Managers, Analysts
and Developers who make Software Testing such fun
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CONTACT DETAILS
Graham Thomas
Independent Software
Testing Consultant
 [email protected]
 +44 7973 387 853
 www.badgerscroft.com
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