The Power of Mnemonics

I always wondered how a few testers catch killer bugs so quickly. How is their intuition so sharp compared to others? Practice? In addition to practice, these testers find easy ways to remember important stuff that matters to them in different contexts. Mnemonics can be very useful to remember heuristics and oracles. I compiled the below list for me and you to learn and practice. Of course, with due credit to the creators of these heuristics and oracles.


Michael D Kelly’s Touring Heuristics – FCC CUTS VIDS
Feature tour, Complexity tour, Claims tour, Configuration tour, User tour, Testability tour, Scenario tour, Variability tour, Interoperability tour, Data tour, Structure tour


Michael D Kelly’s Test Reporting Heuristics – MCOASTER
Mission, Coverage, Obstacles, Audience, Status, Techniques, Environment, Risk


Ben Simo’s Error handling Heuristics – FAILURE
Functional, Appropriate, Impact, Log, UI, Recovery, Emotions


Adam Goucher’s ordering of Testing Tasks heuristics – SLIME
Security, Languages, requIrements, Measurement, Existing


Scott Barber’s Performance Testing heuristics – FIBLOTS
Frequent, Intensive, Business Critical, Legal, Obvious, Technically risky, Stakeholder Mandated


James Bach’s Test Strategy Heuristics – SFDPOT (San Francisco Depot)
Structure, Function, Data, Platform, Operations, Time


James Bach’s Project Environment Heuristics – CIDTESTD (Kid Tested)
Customers, Information, Developer relations, Team, Equipment & tools, Schedule, Test Items, Deliverables


James Bach’s Quality Criteria heuristics – CRUSSPIC STMPL

A. Operational Criteria - CRUSSPIC
Capability, Reliability, Usability, Security, Scalability, Performance, Installability, Compatibility


B. Development Criteria - STMPL
Supportability, Testability, Maintainability, Portability, Localizability


James Bach’s Test Techniques Heuristics – DUFFSSCRA(FDSFSCURA)
Domain, User, Function, Flow, Stress, Scenario, Claims, Risk, Automatic


James Bach’s Test Oracles – HICCUPPSF
History, Image, Comparable product, Claims, User Expectation, Product, Purpose, Standards and Statutes, Familiar Problems


James Bach’s Learning Heuristics – SACKED SCOWS
Scouting Obsessively, Authentic Problems, Cognitive Savvy, Knowledge attracts Knowledge, Experimentation, Disposable Time, Stories(Contrasting Ideas, Skepticism, Critical thinking, Lateral thinking), Other Minds, Words and Pictures, Systems Thinking


Most of us probably read and learn about a lot about heuristics and oracles. While we continue to use them, we blindly stick to them forever without discovering our own heuristics or oracles that work best for us. Please note I have a lot of respect for the existing heuristics and oracles and the people who came up with them. All I want to convey here is for us to think and experiment more to see if we can come up with our own heuristics and oracles which makes better sense to the testing that we do.


Points to Note
1. I have intentionally not detailed the above heuristics because I want you to go read those wonderful articles/blog posts where these heuristics are as is (if you are not already familiar). Summon google for help.
2. James Bach's book 'The Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar' has a lot more learning heuristics - Will update this list once I buy the book and read it a second time.
3. If you know of any heuristics/oracles or you have come up with on your own, please do let me know.
4. There is a bug in here. No clues. Lemme see if you can find it.


Addendum on 16th Oct 09
In Michael Bolton's words: "To HICCUPP, you can now add S, for Standards and Statutes--relevant laws or industry standards. F, for Familiar Problems. All the prior oracle heuristics are consistency heuristics; we suspect that everything's okay if the product is consistent with them, and it's not okay if we see an inconsistency. The Familiar Problems oracle is the opposite; we want the product to be inconsistent with patterns of programs that we've seen before, and here if we see a consistency we suspect that there's a problem."

Happy Discovering,
Parimala Shankaraiah
http://curioustester.blogspot.com