I first met James Whittaker several years ago while he was a professor at Florida Institute of Technology. He was visiting the Microsoft campus in Redmond and spoke to a small group of testers about—what else—testing. It was clear from that first meeting that James has a good sense of humor and a deep knowledge of testing. Years in front of the classroom had obviously given him a chance to develop an ability to connect with those willing and eager to learn.

James joined Microsoft in 2006, and over the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to spend plenty of time with James and get to know him better. I’m happy to report that both the humor and the ability to connect with testers are still key parts of his approach to teaching and communication. It seems like every time I talked to him there was another tester or test team that he had connected with and inspired. Although we never worked on the same team at Microsoft, we have had more than a few opportunities to work together on cross-company initiatives as well as share ownership of a lecture session for new Microsoft employees. (Of course, by “share,” I mean that James created the presentation and I stole his jokes.) Where we really had a chance to connect over numerous hours during the course of his tenure at Microsoft was Microsoft’s soccer pitch. We probably spent a hundred hours over the past three years kicking a ball back and forth while discussing our ideas about improving software testing and development.

One important thing to know about James is that when he has an idea, he wants to test it and prove it. (Would you expect any less in a great tester?) What makes this attribute work so well for him is that he isn’t afraid to fail and admit an idea won’t work. Perhaps my testing nature makes me more cynical than average, but I’m somewhat happy to say that I’ve shot down more than a few of James’ “great ideas” over the past few years. It lends some truth to something James tells his mentees: “Behind most good ideas is a graveyard of those that weren’t good enough.” A successful innovator has to be able to shed his ego.

In my role at Microsoft, I have the opportunity to observe and be a part of countless new and creative ideas—but I see many potentially fantastic inventions fail because the inventor doesn’t take the creative idea and develop it until it’s practical. As James and I continued to meet and discuss testing ideas, I was able to watch him take several of his ideas and methodically develop them into practical, usable creations that spread around Microsoft into the hands of real testers. His idea for a Tester’s Heads Up Display was one of these ideas that was vetted on our soccer pitch, refined in practice, and resulted in a practical way for testers to consume and use real-time test data while they worked. Microsoft gave James an award for that one, and Visual Studio is keen to ship the concept in a future version of their testing product.

I was also there when James latched on the touring metaphor to guide software testing. He might not have been the first person to talk about tours, but he was the first person I know of to fully work out the metaphor and then coach a few dozen test teams in using it successfully on real (and very complicated) software. He grew his collection from a few tours to dozens—constantly developing and redefining the concepts until they were just right. Some of the tours James came up with didn’t work. Lucky for you, James wasn’t afraid to throw those out, so you don’t have to read about them here. What ended up in this book is a collection of software testing tours that flat out just work. They’ve been tested, then refined, and then tested again. James’ ability to use storytelling to describe a concept shines in these explanations. For such a great testing book, I found that sometimes I forgot this was a testing book. I don’t know exactly what it is about the metaphor and the act of testing that make tours work so well, but I can’t say enough about how well the tours work in real-world practice. The concept is essential enough that Microsoft is adding training on “testing tours” to the technical training course offered to all new testers who join Microsoft.

If you’re even a little bit interested in improving your skills or those of your team, this book will have something for you. It’s a great read and something you will find yourself referring to repeatedly for years to come.

Alan Page
Director of Test Excellence, Microsoft