Better Software - May 2008 - (Page 28)

TRIAgE NURsINg NoTEs A principle used by triage nurses is “If you do not see it in writing, it was not done.” Note taking is a critical skill of the triage nurse. Almost any medical professional who will be involved in the case may reference these nursing notes. A triage note includes entries for each and every event, interaction, observation, test done, and test result. Notes include the questions asked, responses given, and action taken by the nurse. Each notation includes the date and time the event took place. The triage nurse must take detailed notes on the entire clinical encounter coupled with all test results and observations. Experienced practitioners use a terse, unambiguous style to capture their notes. They use a template form to guide note taking, which focuses on the observations and actions taken but does not include subjective assessment—as Sergeant Friday would say, “Just the facts.” NoTE TAKINg IN TEsTINg I have learned over the years that communication is one of the most important skills in testing. Imagine the audience for a bug report: We are writing to other testers, test leads, development leads, help desk staff, developers, product managers, technical writers, project managers, and many different product stakeholders. It is important for testers to meaningfully communicate to this varied audience without over simplifying, confusing, or complicating the information. Software testing session notes and bug reports should be able to stand up to the same level of scrutiny as triage nursing notes. age, gestational age, doctor, any previous pregnancies, and what happened during those pregnancies. In addition, some information about the pregnancy is collected, such as any special conditions, results of ultrasounds, and information about any medical interventions. Information about the actual condition of the patient is collected: frequency of contractions, whether the “water” has broken, and any special pains or indicators. The interview takes only a few minutes and provides information that is used to decide if the patient should be admitted, observed for a few hours, or sent to another department. In bug triage context is everything. The same bug may require urgent intervention in one context and be easily deferred or worked around in another context. Testers interview bugs all the time. Testers build up information to help decide which bugs to fix and which bugs to keep. They collect basic information in a bug-tracking system: When did it occur? What version of the software was being used? What operating system? What build, locale, state of the database, and state of the system? What else was going on at the same time? Testers ask questions about the specifics that exposed the problem: Does it happen all the time? What steps could reproduce it? What other tests related to the problem have been done and what were the results? Other questions relate to the condition of the bug: What is the severity? What is the consequence of not fixing the problem? How much damage has the bug caused? I consider the following three sources of context information about the bug before taking action: Business context: Why is the bug of importance to our business? What would the impact be if the bug were not fixed? Would workarounds be acceptable? Technical context: Are there any special technical concerns about the bug? Is it in our code? Do we depend on a third party? Could fixing this bug break something else? Organization context: Was the issue reported as part of testing or from the field? Will there be further levels of testing downstream? Can we gracefully www.StickyMinds.com update the client after deployment? Do we have access to developers who can fix it? After the interview the triage nurse performs some medical tests to learn more about the patient’s condition. The triage nurse checks body temperature, blood pressure, and fetal heart rate and does some basic blood and fluid tests. These test results combine with interview and preliminary assessment data to help guide decision making. When conditions are uncertain, the triage nurse will monitor the patient for a few hours. Monitoring uses different medical testing techniques, such as ultrasounds, to help observe emergent behaviors before a medical course of action is taken. Sometimes I need more information before deciding what to do with a bug. I may assign a tester to further investigate the problem or to work directly with developers to get a better understanding of the bug. Exploratory testing around the problem area can be used to gather additional data to help guide decisions. Are there other ways to trigger the bug? Are there other emergent behaviors associated with the problem? I encourage testers to capture data about the software being tested and to observe the environment in which the software is running. It may be important to measure how much CPU capacity is being used by the application under test. How fast is the application responding to requests? Do we have basic data integrity? How are systems resources consumed? I also want to confirm that other parts of the application work well enough to handle typical transactions. When a bug shows up in one area of the software, it is important to confirm quickly that other parts of the code or data are still working. Exploration and observation—Learn More About It Three outcomes may result from labor triage: The mother is admitted, observed, or sent home. Taking Action— getting Things Done 28 BETTER SOFTWARE MAY 2008 http://www.StickyMinds.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Better Software - May 2008

Better Software - May 2008 Contents Mark Your Calendar Contributors eLightenment Technically Speaking Code Craft Test Connection Management Chronicles Cover Story: It's A Bug! The Chivalrous Team Member Let's Talk Agile Product Announcements 10 Things You Might Not Know About... The Last Word Ad Index

Better Software - May 2008

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