Friday, June 13, 2008

Best Practices?

Let's say you invite an Olympic marathon competitor and the Olympic Gold-Medal Winner in 100 yard dash over for a late afternoon lunch. (Did I mention - while winning the gold medal, the 100 yard dash guy set a world's record.)

Which one is better? The sprinter?

After lunch, you decide to take a little drive in rural Nevada. Along the way, your car runs out of gas on a deserted road, 15 miles from a gas station.

Which of the two is the better now?

In other words, the sprinter is clearly 'better' ...

... except when he isn't.

This is how I feel about best practices for software testing.

There are no best practices. Practices are better or worse in a given context.

1 comment:

  1. Here's another analogy: Sandy Koufax had one or two of the greatest seasons ever back in the 60's, but Nolan Ryan was pretty good for a really long time. Which one was the better pitcher?

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