Tony Simms's Page

As I write this on a cold November 2nd morning in the UK an inquiry is under way after a memory stick with user names and passwords, used in testing a key UK Government computer system, was discovered in a pub car park. The Mail on Sunday said ministers have ordered an emergency shutdown of the Gateway website, which covers anything from tax returns to parking tickets, while experts checked to ensure people's private details were not compromised. Here in the UK we have had a string of such news… Continue

As a test manager, one of the most embarrassing, and all to frequent, situations I find myself in is when I am reviewing bug reports with the development manager and he passes me a stack and says, “We haven’t a clue what these mean.”“We haven’t a clue what these mean.” I look at the first one and it says, Title: System Crashes, Description: System crashed or words to that effect. The development manager looks at me and says, “What the hell are we meant to do with that? How does it crash? Wh… Continue

Take Longer to Deliver Sooner As with many things in life, it makes sense to take some time before to prepare before undertaking a programme of testing. Getting off to the right start, with a clear scope and objective, all the necessary resources marshalled ready to go will pay dividends as the testing enters the execution phase, both in terms of ensuring you have the best chance of success, but also in ensuring that the testing meets the needs of the business or customer. A Test… Continue

Project Managers Have Mothers Too. A lot of my testing career has found me reporting into project managers. Demanding, uncompromising, stress inducing , test ignorant monsters who need to back off and let me do my job……. I used to think. Until I found out that they have mothers too. I have come to learn that Project Managers have a job to do, and that by understanding their job, I can give them what they need, which allows them to give me what I need. So, lets make this week, ‘Hug a PM… Continue

I have just attended an incredibly interesting and challenging training day on the De Bono “Six Thinking Hats”. Although this was not to do with testing, I immediately imagined the possibilities for using this discipline in testing. So for once I am writing from a point of almost complete ignorance and with no real life experience of the method to drawn on. I will be interested to hear your thoughts. The Six Hats methodology is a framework that allows the user to compartmentalise their thinking… Continue