What We Do...

Friends & family have been asking me to explain what Explorys actually does.  My explanation is that we work with hospitals and healthcare organizations to help them provide better patient care.

We take electronic medical records, from doctor's offices, pharmacies, anywhere you encounter a health care provider, we take all that data (and there is a ton of it) and provide ways for providers to improve patient care.

That is our main goal.  To help healthcare providers help their patients.  To get people the best healthcare possible.  The 100 or so people I work with are passionate about this.

The government is also telling providers that they need to improve patient care.  Because in this country, we spend the most money on healthcare, but our results are poor.  Our mortality rates are higher then other countries who spend less money.

The government mandate is for healthcare organizations to do better.  To help their patients get the most out of available healthcare.  This is basically what people are calling "Obama Care".  Providers are now paid a certain amount, and if they are able to show improvements in patient care, they will make a profit.  If they fail they lose money.

Explorys gives providers access to huge amounts of real data, and then we give them ways to research the data, to understand how to better serve patients.  We can help them track patients who are missing blood work appointments, or to track patients with diabetes who are also gaining weight, so that doctors can proactively reach out to those patients to help them understand the risks of comorbidity.

Here is a story that explains what "big data" means to healthcare, and it features Explorys.  If I'd started this job a week earlier I would have been on camera.  Thank god I missed that!

The part about Explorys is at the end.

What I've Learned...

I've spent the last 2 weeks studying.  I'm trying to learn about the latest testing techniques and theories.    I read the 4 books in the pic above and I think I got a ton of great info out of each one.

I also did a lot of reading online, mostly blogs.  It's amazing there are so many folks out there passionate about testing.  It's also worth noting that there are some "healthy" egos, as there should be.

My favorite book is Elisabeth Hendrickson's "Explore It!"  She gives the best explanation & examples of Exploratory Testing.  It's just solid info.  She's also one of the creators of the "Heuristic Cheat Sheet"  which is a thing of beauty.

"Lessons Learned in Software Testing" is great for it's quick lessons.  You can skip around and find the lessons that give you the most value.  It's solid, detailed info on how to plan, execute and evaluate results.  Cem Kaner is the guy who pioneered much of what testing is today.  James Bach is incredibly passionate about what testing should and shouldn't be.

I also discover Bach's brother Jon's blog and love it.  He's a great example of a tester concerned with the human aspects of testing.

"How Google Tests" was the most entertaining.  It's great fun hearing about how Google changed the whole playing field.  I love James Whittaker's visionary spirit and the way developers and testers are blended into one team, equals.

If I had to take these books and authors, and create my own vision of the tester I want to be, I'd break it down like this:

50% Elisabeth Hendrickson
20% James Bach
10% James Whittaker
20% Jon Bach

I want to be as good as Elisabeth Hendrickson, as passionate at James Bach and as concerned with the humanity in testing as Jon Bach.  James Whittaker is more concerned with the big picture and not an actual tester, so he's at the bottom of the list.  But his vision and spirit are what I want in a manager/mentor.

Here are the main takeaways from my 2 weeks of intense study:

I am not Quality Assurance.  I am a tester.  Because everyone should be responsible for quality.  This includes developers, manager, stakeholders, etc...

The old way of writing large test plans early on in a project doesn't work.  Because those test plans end up being a huge amount of work with little value by the end of a project.  Especially if the plan isn't constantly updated and important to stakeholders.

Doing the same regression tests manually, over and over, can be a waste of time.  Better to automate what you can, then manual test with a varied, exploratory approach.

I am beyond excited to take all of the info, the blogs, the books, the personalities, and start my new job. I can't wait to learn new systems, work with passionate people, go big, be creative and do great things in testing.  

Huzzah!!!!

Vary Your Approach...

I'm reading about "exploratory testing", to prepare for the new job.  If i had to sum it up in one sentence, I'd say that exploratory testing is all about varying your approach.

An example:  I am testing a website that allows users to run background checks.  I start by making sure the website is accessible in all supported browsers.  Then I check the basics, what the business person tells me should work.  Can I run a check?  Can I get results?  Are the results correct?

I don't have time to test every single possibility, so I vary my approach.  I start testing on a Windows machine.  I observe.  Things are looking good so I switch to a Mac.  More observing.  I try different browsers on different machines.  I keep track of the results.  I notice that IE8 has the most display issues, so I make that browser my main one to test with.

Once I've checked the basics, what should work is working, then I move on to the fun part.  I try to break things.  I have a set of tools (in my brain.)  Let's see what happens if I search for someone with a hyphen in their name.  What about someone with a really long name?  Are there character limits?

The big word for this is heuristics.  The tools & techniques I use to learn about what I'm testing, to discover possible problems, etc...

Heuristic (pron.: /hjʉˈrɪstɨk/; or /hyoo-ris-tik/; Greek: "Εὑρίσκω", "find" or "discover") refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Where the exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution via mental shortcuts to ease the cognitive load of making a decision. Examples of this method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, or common sense.

I've noticed that besides how I work, it's how I live my life.  When I go to the gym, I never do the same workout.  I do different kinds of water aerobics at different speeds.  I try to do fast sprints, randomly.  Then yoga stretches or kick-boarding.  They say that if you vary your workouts, you have "muscle confusion" and you lose more weight.

So I guess this all fits into my life philosophy.  Live in the moment, pay attention to details, observe, try new things, be creative, be inquisitive, and always vary your approach.