{"id":4249,"date":"2024-11-14T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2024-10-19T07:08:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T12:08:46","slug":"passing-the-system-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2024\/11\/passing-the-system-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing the System Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Did the system we are building pass the test? Wrong question. Let&#8217;s consider the purpose of testing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have been testing the system we are building. The first question is almost always, &#8220;Did the system pass the test?&#8221; Wrong question. What these anxious folks want to know is, &#8220;Will the system do what we want it to do?&#8221; That is a much better question, and all the testing we are doing is aimed at answering that better question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Was the test a success? That is another form of the wrong question. Tests provide information we can use. A successful test provides information we can use. An unsuccessful test provides information, but that information isn&#8217;t useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, &#8220;The test showed that the system is blue!&#8221; Well, I wanted to know how much the system weighs. Knowing the color isn&#8217;t useful information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A similar example, &#8220;The test showed that the system weighs ten pounds!&#8221; Well, I wanted to know what color the system is. Knowing the weight isn&#8217;t useful information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What do we want to know? Design a test that provides that information, that answers my question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s ask the right questions and provide useful information. We can do this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dwayne Phillips Did the system we are building pass the test? Wrong question. Let&#8217;s consider the purpose of testing. We have been testing the system we are building. The first question is almost always, &#8220;Did the system pass the test?&#8221; Wrong question. What these anxious folks want to know is, &#8220;Will the system do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,310,20,247,58,235],"tags":[170,311,142,248,178,236],"class_list":["post-4249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-systems-thinking","category-information","category-learning","category-questions","category-systems","category-testing","tag-general-systems-thinking","tag-information","tag-learning","tag-questions","tag-systems","tag-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4250,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions\/4250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}