CONTEXTUAL DECISION MAKING IN TESTINGAPATHY OR INDIFFERENCE?

“…we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.

– United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know.”

1 + 1 = ?? = 2? = 11? = let’s fall in love? = fish

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.

Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life

and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Our awareness of the UNKNOWN is overshadowed and dominated

by the KNOWN.

Is it easier to explore the UNKNOWNby willingly deciding to

disregard the KNOWN?

THE PREPARED MINDThe prepared mind: Neural activity prior to problem presentation predicts solution by sudden insight.

Kounios, J., Frymiare, J.L., Bowden, E.M., Fleck, J.I., Subramaniam, K., Parrish, T.B., & Jung-Beeman, M.  (2006). Psychological Science, 17, 882-890.

Neuroscientists from Northwestern University discover that “insight is a process…an act of cognitive deliberation – the brain must be focused on the task at hand – transformed by accidental, serendipitous connections.”

“The suddenness of the insight comes with a burst of brain activity three hundred milliseconds before a participant communicates the answer…as cells distributed across the cortex draw themselves together into a new network, which is then able to enter consciousness.”

“…the cortex needs to relax in order to seek out the more remote association in the right hemisphere, which will provide the insight.”

APATHY and THE UNKNOWN1. We approach most testing puzzles with concrete techniques made of

the “known” contexts and perspectives

2. As we explore the “unknowns” we are challenged to escape our habitual testing behaviors, to enable the insight process.

3. Deciding how to test something involves increasingly more options, more tools, more approaches, and pressure to find bugs – piling on!

– OR –

1. In testing the “unknowns” in exploratory testing, consider that it might be easier to NOT care about certain types of tests.

2. “Relax the cortex” by averting attention from the KNOWN tests, contexts, perspectives, intentions.

3. Allow your subconscious, cross-cortex networks to formulate solutions to testing’s puzzles and enable truly insightful testing.

1. Make a choice about what you don’t care about in your testing.

2. Make a choice to “relax your cortex” by averting your attention away from the KNOWN and engage the insight process.

3. Allow your insights to guide what to care about in your testing:

• “known knowns” – confirm there’s nothing new• “known unknowns” – exploring new contexts• “unknown unknowns” – enabling new insights

4. Don’t look directly at the cat.

SUMMARY

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