Using Heuristics to Test and Solve Problems

In the fast-moving world of agile and DevOps, smart testers use heuristics to identify focus areas and quick-start their test ideas. Variously defined as “fallible methods for solving problems” or “rules of thumb,” heuristics are essential tools for thinking agile test practitioners. When you construct a test around a model like “follow the money,” you are working with a heuristic that can be useful in some contexts but irrelevant or even detrimental in others. A key to using heuristics successfully is to do so consciously. If you aren’t aware that you’re using a heuristic model, it can become an unchallenged assumption. But if you consciously use a model as a heuristic, then you are better able to see its weaknesses and potential failure points in your situation. In this workshop, we will explore using heuristics in problem-solving and software testing. Working in groups, you’ll have opportunities to design heuristics to solve particular problems, apply them to those problems, then critique your models and share your conclusions with the other groups. The session will be highly interactive, consisting principally of problem-solving exercises and debriefs. Using heuristics requires both creativity and critical thinking skills. Come prepared to practice and extend yours!