Bad Testing Definitions

Life has become busy. I’m giving presentations and talks, I’ve taken up morning running, I’m getting involved with local groups and so on.  As a result I haven’t had any time to blog, tweet or otherwise social media anything. So… here’s my list of previously-tweeted “Bad Testing Definitions”!


#1: Focus/Defocus – what your eyes do after staring at the same page of the interface for an hour
#2: Exploratory Testing – Taking your work laptop with you when you go camping
#3: Risk-based testing – deciding your next test action using test techniques on post-it notes and a dartboard
#4: Test Coverage – what you wear while testing
#5: Test Cases – the capitalization of your text-based test data
#6: White-Box Testing – testing light-coloured modal windows in the UI
#7: Stress Testing – all testing up to and including 1 week before release
#8: Cross-Browser Testing – When you’re web testing and the browser throws a tantrum
#9: Touring – Moving companies once every 6 months
#10: Risk Impact – What you feel when you realise you didn’t test something important
#11: Claims Testing – Tests performed on functionality a customer has complained about
#12: Performance Testing – Making a song and dance about reports and metrics instead of doing any testing
#13: Test vs Check – How much testing you do for what you get paid each month
#14: Regression Testing – Testing while invoking the knowledge and experience of past lives
#15: Model-based testing – Fashion show focus groups
#16: Acceptance Testing – coming to terms with the state of the software
#17: Alpha Testing – Winning arguments online about testing term definitions
#18: User Acceptance Testing – confirming receipt of payment from customers
#19: Conformance Testing – Telling the project manager what they want to hear
#20: Volume Testing – Testing while sitting near to development on a Friday afternoon#21: Sanity Testing – Installing the fifth broken build in a row
#22: Fuzzy Penetration Testing – Some of these write themselves.#23: End to End Testing – Eating at a new Indian restauran
#24: Agile Testing – Dodging questions about the state of the product
#25: Best Practice
#26: Exhaustive Testing – Running out of coffee
#27: Black Box Testing – Using electronic devices while on a flight
#28: Static Testing – Touching the product whilst wearing a polycotton onesy
#29: All-Pairs Testing – The male component of a test team
#30: Backward Compatibility Testing – Idiot-proofing