Blog
Test case writing, exploratory testing, bug reporting, and the judgement that automation can't replace.
Not a loyalty test — a scheduling one. Scripted proves the behaviour you already know to check; exploratory finds what nobody specified. Here's which to reach for, when, and how to blend them in one cycle.
Retesting confirms a fix works; regression checks the fix didn't break anything else. Plan them as one task and the 'we fixed it' build ships a brand-new bug. Here's the split, and how they combine after a fix.
Smoke asks 'is this build worth testing?'; sanity asks 'did this change work?' Both are quick gut-checks at different moments. Use them as gates before the real testing — and stop wasting a full pass on a dead build.
The three 'box' terms are interview trivia until you use them right: they describe how much of the code you can see when designing a test, which decides what you'll catch. Most functional QA is quietly grey-box — here's why.
Test cases that get read are short, scannable, and written for the person who has to act on them. Here is the format I use.
A field-tested approach for testing a story when the acceptance criteria are vague, missing, or contradictory.
How to scope a regression pass to the change in front of you instead of re-running the entire suite by hand.
A bug report exists to get the bug fixed. Specific title, minimal repro steps, explicit expected-vs-actual, evidence, and environment — the format that prevents "can't reproduce".
Every checkout test was green, but combining two discounts and a gift card drove the total negative — and issued credit. A case study in testing invariants, not just features.
A negative quantity on a "remove stock" action inflated inventory and caused overselling. The feature worked; the absent negative test did not. Test the negative space at the endpoint.
A charter-driven, time-boxed template for exploratory testing: 5 minutes to charter, 35 to test, 10 to debrief — and notes someone can read.
Two days of regression, signed off green, and a regression shipped in the most-used feature. The tests weren't wrong — they were testing a stale picture.
A 30-second readiness check before accepting a ticket into QA — testable criteria, defined edge cases, reachable build, known data — that replaces a day of back-and-forth.
Three different tools on a spectrum from prescribed to open: when to write a scripted case, a coverage scenario, or an exploratory charter.
The working log that isn't a bug report or a test case — coverage, open questions, un-reproducible anomalies, painful setup — that makes a tester faster and more credible.
What automation replaced was regression checks — running the same path repeatedly. What it didn't replace, and can't replace, is human intuition trying to break a product.