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Critical Testing Processes: Plan, Prepare, Perform, PerfectCritical Testing Processes: Plan, Prepare, Perform, Perfect

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Critical Testing Processes: Plan, Prepare, Perform, PerfectCritical Testing Processes: Plan, Prepare, Perform, Perfect

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Crossover Among Oracles

One thing you’ll notice quite quickly is that when a product violates one oracle, it often violates others. That’s because most inconsistencies conflict with user expectations, and if we think something’s inconsistent we think that’s bad for the company’s image. That fact points to the relative strength of each of these oracles:

  1. I’ve found the oracles Inconsistent with Claims, Inconsistent with Comparable Product, and Inconsistent with History to be the most effective in getting bugs fixed.
  2. After those, Inconsistent Within Product and Inconsistent with Purpose tend to influence developers, but rarely managers.
  3. Finally, Inconsistent with Image and Inconsistent with User Expectations tend not to get much notice in the defect-resolution world. While meaningful to me (both expert user and marketing guru), they tend to be considered oddly subjective by the people who prioritize my defects. Translation: I don’t normally file defects based on these two oracles alone. I use them like frosting on an already buggy donut.

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Last Update: November 17, 2020