What not to test: do you know or do you think you know?

Last talk of the last day at Øredev 2009. I listened to "What not to test" by Robert Sabourin. 

I like testing because I am fortunate enough to belong to a school of programming that wants to do things the right way. So naturally I was intrigued by the theme of the talk. Isn't testing Always Good?

After listening to the talk I still believe this to be the case. However, there might be situations in your career when this will be unfeasible for some reason or another. In this situation knowing what not to test is far superior to skipping a test you didn't know you had to do!

Knowing what not to test comes from knowing as much as possible about what to do test. To this end, Robert advocates continuously collecting testing ideas - on all levels possible. Study how to attack systems and get ideas for testing. Study how your application will be used by users (as opposed to knowing just what the application does for the users). Study specifications and try turning them upside down for alternative usage scenarios that you might have be unaware of.

Look at performance, capabilities, environments, failure models. Become aware of stress levels and state changes.

And so on judgment day you and your application will not be unprepared.

This concludes the blogging from Øredev sessions. Now, with all the great ideas, knowledge, and inspiration, there's only one thing left to do; become a better developer!

Good luck and see you next year.