Above is a mindmap of the ‘default’ heuristics proposed by the course based on the Heuristic Test Strategy Model.
The 3 elements Project Environment, Product Elements & Quality Criteria can be seen as factors which will impact our techniques when testing a product.
These heuristics serve as a great checklist for helping the Tester get an understanding of the product they are testing.
This mindmap was completed on the course & includes a 4th element - that of Oracles. These oracles can be seen as how we recognise problems.
Now, this mindmap serves as a great visual reminder for pointers to follow, & I could use it when testing. But there’s a few things I’d like to do with it to help me recall the heuristics from memory.
Firstly, I want to compare these heuristics to others proposed by key figures in the testing industry (see links at end of post) to look for similarities & enhancements I could merge into ‘My’ heuristic test strategy
Secondly, I’m thinking of reordering some of the mnemonics in order to make them relevant to me, with the idea that they’ll stick better in my head.
Thirdly, I might tweak the display & positioning of the heuristics & in different formats to see if I can make them more concise (for me anyway)
This is obviously going to take a while as I still need to reinforce what each of element of the mnemonics means - bear with me!
Resources for further research:
Michael Hunter’s ‘You Are Not Done Yet’ comprehensive list of test ideas
Elizabeth Hendrickson’s testing cheatsheet
Curios Testers list of different mnemonics
And 2 valuable resources that I missed (thanks to John Stephenson!):
Wiki of testing checklists
Expanding on the CRUSSPIC STMPL heuristc from Bach & Bolton
Update 1 19/08/2011 - added ‘Test Tours’ taken from Michel Kelly (also noted in testing checklists wiki)