Better Software - December 2008 - (Page 29)

O ver the past few years, I’ve been using some simple concepts that have helped improve my ability to deal with issues from multiple distinct viewpoints. I learned about these concepts from Edward de Bono’s book, Six Thinking Hats [1]. I have applied his concepts to software development and software testing and found them to be both useful and practical. I believe many of you will benefit from using them, too. Six Thinking Hats The six thinking hats are a metaphor for six distinct viewpoints we may take when thinking. Rather than a complex style or name, each hat has a color associated with it to make the hats easy to recognize and remember. No black hatting for a while; don’t evaluate the practicality of our ideas, just generate as many as we can”). In his book, de Bono provides a more detailed explanation of the hats. White hat The white hat is about information. The information can range from hard facts and figures to things we believe but don’t yet know. It may include secondhand facts, such as “The CEO of our competition claims its product can sort widgets by color and texture,” or state other people’s beliefs or feelings, such as “Jack is angry with the project team and blames the testers for holding up the launch.” Sometimes the information may be contradictory. If so, we decide its validity later. The white hat is neutral and is concerned with the world as we find it. Wearing our white hats, we ask questions such as: What information do we have? What information do we need? What questions do we need to ask to get the information we need? By identifying the different modes of thinking, we can choose how to think, rather than be led by our natural (and often limited) style. De Bono suggests we state the hat we’re currently wearing (“I want to white hat this discussion for a while”) or even ask others to put on a particular hat, especially one that is not natural for them (“Let’s all put on our green hats and create some new ideas. www.StickyMinds.com YelloW hat The yellow hat represents sunshine and optimism. It is deliberately positive. It challenges us to find benefits and to believe it is possible to put ideas into practice. We use the yellow hat to answer the DECEMBER 2008 BETTER SOFTWARE 29 http://www.StickyMinds.com

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

Better Software - December 2008 Contents Mark Your Calendar Contributors eLightenment Technically Speaking Code Craft Test Connection Management Chronicles What's a Manager to Do? Six Thinking Hats for Testers The Key to Good Interviewing 2008 Salary Survey Product Announcements 10 Things You Might Not Know About … The Last Word Ad Index

Better Software - December 2008

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