The Power of Doubt: Becoming A Software Sceptic
Three words, “I don’t know“, might just be the hardest words to say in any language. We avoid saying them, scared of coming across as doubtful and uncertain. Colleagues expect us to be firm and certain, providing clear answers. Over the past years, Zeger Van Hese grew increasingly uncomfortable with that. He ended up having a hard time being sure of anything.
This eBook was the joint winner (with Declan O’Riordan) of the ‘Best Paper’ award at EuroSTAR 2016. It tells the story of how Zeger embraced scepticism and how this influenced his testing: by adopting a sceptic manifesto and creating a portfolio of critical thinking heuristics that can be a valuable addition to any tester’s toolbox.
Key Takeaway:
Discover the tips you’ll need, not only on how to muster up the courage to admit not knowing things, but also on improving your questioning skills and reflexes to reject certainty, empowered by the biggest sceptical force of all: knowing that we’re easy to fool.
Zeger Van Hese (Z-Sharp, Belgium)
Zeger has a background in Commercial Engineering and Cultural Science. He started his professional career in the movie distribution industry but switched to IT in 1999. A year later he got bitten by the software testing bug (pun intended) and has never been cured since. Over the years, he developed a passion for exploratory testing, testing in agile projects and, above all, continuous learning from different perspectives. He was the 2012 Eurostar program chair and founded his own company, Z-sharp, dedicated to helping clients on the path to smarter testing. He is co-founder of the Dutch Exploratory Workshop on Testing (DEWT), founding member of the ISST, muses about testing on his TestSideStory blog and is a regular speaker at conferences worldwide.
Zeger was EuroSTAR Programme Chair in 2012 and has won the ‘Best Paper’ award at EuroSTAR 2007, 2009, 2013 & 2016
Leave a Reply