Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

A good test provides information—no more and no less.

Let’s take a step back to the fundamentals of engineering and building things. Part of building some thing is to perform some tests on the thing.

Why perform a test? The oft-cited answer is, “to show that the thing works.” Deep sigh.

We test a thing to get information.

Sometimes, a successful test tells us that the thing doesn’t do what we wanted it. That is information. Sometimes, a successful test tells us that the thing does some of what we want but not all of what we want. That is information.

Somehow, this little bit of knowledge about testing has escaped us. Sometimes, we need little reminders.