When Gmail first hit the scene in 2004, the company promoted a whole slew of unprecedented features like threaded conversations, 1-gig storage (unheard of at the time), Google-powered search, and even labels. What ultimately won me over, however, was the spam protection – a feature already available in most email platforms, but Gmail’s protection really [...]
It happens. Change is inevitable – and in many cases – initially not welcomed. Parisians abhorred the Eiffel Tower originally. Now it’s a symbolic icon of all that is French. People hated Gmail’s threaded conversations. Now it’s one Gmail’s most popular features. Universal suffrage was a tough sell. Now countries that disenfranchise women are deemed [...]
We’ve touched on this theme a bit in the past – whether or not testers should be involved in the software design process. Our feelings are pretty straightforward (spoiler alert – the answer is “yes” they should be involved). But before we explain why and to what extent, let’s look at some of the pros [...]
There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time - I owe him my best. - Joe DiMaggio At Testuff, we’re definitely not baseball hall of famers (the gap between professional sports and test management is as wide as one can imagine). And children are not our target [...]
So much of history centers around extraordinary individuals accomplishing extraordinary feats. From Columbus to Gandhi to Steve Jobs, we celebrate individual successes, weaving their victories into our hero folklore. It’s a beautiful narrative – one that holds true in many situations. But are individual pioneers the true forces behind so many of the amazing innovations [...]
When we first look at a new thing, we are bound for that first impression. This first impression is sometimes the barrier, stopping us from starting a conversation with someone, choosing something to eat from the counter and of course buying a product. “No second chance for first impression” is a well known saying. For [...]
Every application we use has those little things, that make the user’s work so much easier. It can be a keyboard shortcut, a hidden option, or a quick way to make the most out of a feature. We once had a post written, by a former team member of our support, explaining how to change [...]
In a perfect world, we (the software providers) should have enough time to develop and complete the perfect product - one that it is intuitive, easy to use, and full of the most in-demand features - before selling it at a reasonable price. I am reminded of a quote from Armageddon when one of the [...]
In the pantheon of software testing methodologies, exploratory testing ranks among the most interactive and dynamic. However, amongst experienced testers rages an ongoing debate over whether or not exploratory is superior to structural methods of testing (e.g. scripted). In truth, both have pros and cons, making the overall debate somewhat flawed. When given a choice, [...]
Social Media Social media is everywhere these days. We all hear about Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter and other such sites every day. We get emails referring us to them, new add-ons, plugins and widgets are born every minute and the phenomena is covered regularly even by the traditional media. And now it's no longer used [...]
