Understanding techniques

- [Mike] One thing we all know requires skill and good execution is to be a top level music performer. Whether you love classical music, pop or heavy metal, good music is always well executed. We marvel at the guitar skills of Jimmy Hendrix, the cello performances of Yo-Yo Ma, or the vocal range of Ariana Grande. These performers transcend genres and are widely recognized not only because they mastered their skills as a performer, but also for their incredible technique. Technique is the way we carry out a specific task. Good technique is something we develop to ensure that whatever we deliver is the best possible output of our work. Test techniques are no different. These are skills and tools we build to ensure that we always deliver a good quality product. The more experienced, refined, and honed your skills are the better results of your testing. Moreover, when you become a master of different test techniques, you are building an ensemble of all the right tools to accomplish the job. I'm Mike Fine. I have over 25 years of experience in testing. I'm an author of Quality, and helped found Centercode, a customer validation software and services company. Most important, I have extensive experience working with dozens of different test techniques in all phases of testing. Through this experience I've learned and developed better and better methods to ensure test results are comprehensive, thorough, and successful. This course is focused not only on the tools we use to test but how we ensure those tools are consistent, effective and useful in achieving our quality goals. Good techniques are often the output of repeated use. Great musicians may be gifted with some wonderful natural talent but that doesn't mean they don't work hard. It takes endless practice, repetition and refinement to get to a level where we get consistent, great results. Through this course, I will be introducing best practices, common tools for execution, and other pieces designed to deliver great test results. While I will be reviewing many different techniques, remember that they are useless if your underlying processes, procedures, documentation and systems aren't in place to help you execute them. Think about the Beatles. All of them could sing, but what if they couldn't play their instruments well, had a terrible producer or awful performances? The techniques we will learn in this course can only succeed if there is a great infrastructure underlying these tools to help deliver the best results.