Herding Code 73: Daniel Plaisted on Model-Based Testing in Action on the MEF Team

This week on Herding Code, Jon leads a discussion with Daniel Plaisted about Model-Based Testing and the progressive practices of the MEF team.

Daniel speaks of the primary development roles at Microsoft and how the MEF team addresses testing concerns. Guess what. Developers write tests, too.
Daniel talks about Model-Based Testing and validation of transitions and states.
Scott K is reminded of a presentation he attended at Northwest Python Day which spoke of protocol and framework testing.
Daniel shares the need of trim test cases to manageable sets which will still ensure adequate coverage.
Jon asks about mapping out the endless states that may be found when testing MEF.
Jon asks about test frequency. Are tests run on each check-in? Are they scheduled?
The guys address the difference test types – unit, functional, performance and stress tests.
Kevin asks about coordination of developer and tester efforts. Who produces which tests and where is each group’s focus?
Daniel explains Exploratory Testing
Scott K asks about Heisenbugs and how closely testers work with developers to resolve hard-to-reproduce defects.
Jon asks if the MEF testers use any debug/test tools which are built into Visual Studio.
Kevin asks if any special considerations must be made when QAing an open source project.
Daniel explains how model-based testing works well for verifying cache states.
Scott K asks about test environment setups and how deep the MEF testers need to dive into the bugs in order to adequately report on them.
Jon asks Daniel to share tips to help developers improve their own unit tests and improve broader testing.
Daniel talks about MEF’s beginnings. It’s not an IoC container. Oh wait. It is.
What type of tester are you? The guys speak of a recent Google Tester Blog post on tester types.
Kevin ask if the progressive approach which MEF takes is gaining traction throughout Microsoft.
Jon asks how Daniel became a tester, a Microsoft MEF tester.
Kevin asks how much collaborating occurs between the various testing teams at Microsoft.
Daniel briefly talks about Synchronization Coverage.

Note: The audio’s a little rougher than usual this week. Sorry about that.

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Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 73: Daniel Plaisted on Model-Based Testing in Action on the MEF Team

[audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0073-Daniel-Plaisted-on-Model-Based-Testing-in-Action-on-the-MEF-Team.mp3]