A brief history of Rapid Software Testing

From 1987 to 1995, James Bach worked mostly alone to develop a systematic heuristic-based test methodology that applied to commercial mass-market software projects. Traditional test methodology didn't work well for market-driven test project. Starting in 1995, he began to collaborate with other thinkers and writers in the field, who helped find and fix errors in his work, and helped extend it beyond the scope of market-driven projects. What began, for him, as his own vision of testing merged with other ideas to become a community vision. Some of his colleagues eventually came together to identify themselves as the Context-Driven School of software test methodology. Others helped create the Agile Alliance, which published the Agile Manifesto. Cem Kaner, James Bach, and Brett Pettichord published the first context-driven testing textbook Lessons Learned in Software Testing. James and his colleagues speak and write regularly about testing, doing their best to advance the state of the art.

The ideas in this class are drawn not only from experience, but are also grounded in epistemology, cognitive psychology, decision theory, and other fields. Testing is a far more interesting field than most people realize. We're at the crossroads of many other traditions.

The original motivation for all this was James' personal quest to be a truly expert software tester. It is an ongoing journey, and this class represents the best our community has to show for it, at any given moment. Our goal with the class is to propel each student forward on his or her own quest for expertise and self-confidence.

A guide to the course

• Overview
• A practical approach
• Why Rapid Software Testing?
• How does rapid testing work?
• A brief history
• Who is the ideal student?
• Course outline
• Resources for Rapid Software Testing