My Meeting with James Bach

Last Saturday I had the privileged to meet with James Bach (If you are a software tester, I expect you to know him) and as you can see below I was

Can't express how excited I am :) and he played the dice game with me. Thank a lot @jamesmarcusbach for your time. pic.twitter.com/ZPwD0MfCll

— mubbashir (@mubbashir) September 12, 2015

I asked him about Sapient Testing->Non Scripted Testing->Testing vs Checking  and how these 3 are different.

He corrected my understanding of Oracles I was thinking about it too specific from the perspective of checks by focusing on pre defined rules whereas "In testing, an “oracle” is a way to recognise a problem that appears during testing."

 We talk about check automation where he told me about this wonderful analogy that think of automated checks as a web and tester as Spider.

The spider is responsible for creating it, managing it, to find the right place and spot for it, a place where there is a greater chance to catch bugs and so on...

And then comes the best part when he played the Dice game with me 

Just after few minutes in the game I felt myself bit overwhelmed :)

Few of the points I took as a take away after that session:

• Taking clear and correct (Yes correct) is extremely important
• Simplify problem: Start with the very basic try understand the system with the very basic data
• Don't get yourself too attached with the basic data, once you are sure how it is working for simple data - "Explore", "Randomise" and Look "Below the surface"
• Use Focus / Defocus heuristic when in doubt use focus when frustrated Defocus, walk around, change your perspective of viewing 

While we were walking out of the coffee shop he saw me looking at his Cap (those who know me, would know why :-D I wear Cap all the time ) and then he told me he give Cap to tester who work for.

I have been told by @jamesmarcusbach that only @Lalitbhamare @huibschoots @CuriousTester and @testertested have His branded Cap #SoJealous

— mubbashir (@mubbashir) September 15, 2015

That got some responses with respect to who else has one :D

One thing which made me quite happy was that he was aware of what we Software Testers from Pakistan are doing at the moment mostly because of my dear friend @arslan0644 

I told him briefly about STEP (Software Testers Engagement Programme) an initiative which bunch of my fellow testers took to bring closer the community

@arslan0644 I need to tell you all about my meeting with @jamesmarcusbach https://t.co/HbNsSg5hkq

— mubbashir (@mubbashir) September 12, 2015