Gerie Owen

QualiTest Group

How many bugs have you, or your teams, missed that were clearly easy to spot? Testers approach all phases of testing hampered by their own biases in what to look for, how to go about setting up and executing tests, and interpreting the results.  Understanding your biases, preconceived notions and ability to focus your attention are the keys to managing cognitive bias in test design, test execution and defect detection.

This webinar will provide an understanding of how testers’ mindsets and cognitive biases influence their testing.  Using principles from the social sciences such as Kahneman’s framework for critical thinking and Chabris and Simons’ findings on attention, perception and memory, this presentation will demonstrate that you aren’t as smart as you think you are.  Gerie will show how to use this information to understand the impact of cognitive bias on testing and to improve your individual and test team results.  Gerie will discuss the balance between functional and exploratory testing; you will learn how to use each effectively.  Finally, Gerie will provide tips for managing your biases and focusing your attention in the right places throughout the test process so you won’t miss that obvious bug.

Key Takeaways:

1. Why we aren’t as smart as we think, i.e., how we develop biases and preconceived notions
2. How biases and preconceived notions negatively impact our approach to testing throughout the test process.
3. How to design a test approach to effectively manage the way we think during the test process.