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Testing Ask Me Anything - Critical Thinking

10th January 2023

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Fiona Charles

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What is critical thinking?

Where is the line between critical thinking and negative thinking / overthinking and is there really any?

How do you teach those you mentor to be better at critical thinking?

How can critical thinking help with exploratory and scripted testing techniques?

How can I grow my critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking does not seem to be a valued soft skill at my company, any suggestions for games or exercises to help folks understand the benefits?

How can one improve their critical thinking quickly? The issue I have is that I cannot think fast on the spot. I either have to read then draw some diagrams therefore some edge cases or possible risks come too late.

What are the right questions to ask to encourage critical thinking?

Can you give an example of a problem illustrating how you might approach it if you were not critically thinking, then contrasting that with how you would approach it if you were thinking critically?

Is automation and the buzz for tools lowering the focus from critical thinking. How to use tools judiciously to promote critical thinking?

How can you tell whether someone is critically thinking about how to test well, ad the inverse of this question how can you tell if someone is not critically thinking about how to test well?

Which - if any - models, heuristics, mnemonics or oracles best suit promoting critical thinking?

Is there a situation where critical thinking could have a negative impact on testing?

Do you think the majority of testers are good critical thinkers?

What's testing without critical thinking?

Where does common sense fit with critical thinking? Can critical thinking be shaped by bias?

How do I bring more people on board?

Description

Our host Vernon Richards was joined by Fiona Charles.

Testers are people who think for a living. We have to be able to think effectively because thinking well is a foundation for all the other skills we work so diligently to acquire and improve. There are many kinds of thinking we might need to use at different times: creative, analytical, strategic, etc. Critical thinking is one kind that is central to our work.

There are many definitions of critical thinking. Here’s one:

"… the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action."

(excerpt from a statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987.)

That’s a tall order! Every definition describes critical thinking as hard work, requiring constant self-discipline and self-reflection. Practising critical thinking is contrary to our natural habits and biases, and however hard we try we will likely never be able to do excellent critical thinking all the time. But there are tools and techniques that can help.

Watch this Ask me Anything session to find out about things we can do and tools we can use to help us learn and develop essential critical thinking skills.

This Testing Ask Me Anything was sponsored by Progress.

Telerik Test Studio is а test automation platform for web, desktop, and responsive web applications. With one of the most intuitive visual test recording interfaces on the market and the industry's first patent-pending element find logic, large and small teams rely extensively on Test Studio to achieve high-quality agile CI/CD releases and cut time to market. Test Studio’s blend of codeless and code-based automation capabilities enables testing anyone can use regardless of expertise and delivers outstanding results for QAs, developers, and managers. Whether it’s eliminating bottlenecks with regression testing, increasing test coverage across UI, RESTful APIs, and load scenarios, or keeping the entire team productive and in the loop with the Executive Dashboard, teams are empowered to tackle the biggest challenges of a modern testing cycle. Start your 30-day trial with free access to support and online training.

Fiona Charles

I’m Fiona Charles, owner and principal consultant at Quality Intelligence, Inc., a small independent business offering consulting services in software testing and test management. I formed the company early in 2007, after nearly 13 years working for IT services companies as a consultant and test manager on client projects.

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