What Hollywood Can Teach Us about Software Testing
If we observe the world through the lens of software testing, we discover that there are lessons all around us we can apply on the job, and one venue that’s packed with these tidbits is the movie theater. Bernie Berger gives examples of a few unlikely yet credible lessons from the language of some classic Hollywood movies—and how we can apply them as we test. Learn about the primary root cause of many software bugs from Office Space; see how the characters in Saving Private Ryan enacted ideas of exploratory testing; discover how to apply the skills of situational awareness from Sneakers; learn about the context of discovery from All the President’s Men; and see a great example of inattentional blindness from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In addition to learning how these concepts are fundamentally related to testing software, learn how to apply lessons from your everyday life to testing challenges.
Since his first testing job in 1994 where he tested software that generated automated stock tickers, Bernie Berger has held various positions across Wall Street and is a proponent of skilled-based testing in financial services firms. Bernie is the founder, advocate, and volunteer manager for the Software Testing in Financial Services workshop, a free series of peer-conferences. He is a founding member of the AST and has been nominated as a Software Test Luminary Award candidate. His current work focuses on crafting an enterprise tester-education program, Test Center of Excellence transition workstreams, and modeling software for automated test design. Follow Bernie at @bernieberger.