Testing - Tip Up…

As I have established in my last post, I really don’t have the opportunity to “eat my own dog food”, I don’t really use the software that is developed by the team I work with…

However, there are plenty of things I do use.  So there is always plenty of testing going on in my life.  Some of it is on purpose, and some of it is out of necessity.

I live in an area of the United States that has 3 seasons:  Summer, Winter, and Mud.   It is essential that you find things to do during Winter up here, since it is pretty much the longest season we have.  You can find many different options to choose from if you look hard enough, or, as in my case, someone introduces you to something….

My introduction, a few years ago, was to Ice Fishing.  I never went fishing until I was an adult, and I never would have know about ice fishing if it weren’t for The Fisherman. 

To date, my Teacher has bought all my tip ups/traps.  He bought me these based on his experience with the same models… and because they had pink ones available J

Recently The Fisherman bought a new trap to “test”, so I got to thinking perhaps I should do the same… 

Here is a picture of the tip up I purchased:

Now, let’s say YOU are given this to test and YOU don’t ice fish, which means you do not “eat your own dog food”… What are you going to do?

Never fear… documentation is here:

So… now what?  Where do you begin?  How are you going to test something you may never even be able to use?  Unless you live somewhere that you can walk on the water in winter, how can you successfully test this?  Can you?  Will you "take the bait"?

I really AM going to test this new tip up… and I have some knowledge of what that means…

I challenge you to willfully test something this week… as if it were software.  If you think about it, it won't be that hard to come up with something.  Do you generally use a certain cleaning solution to get a job done at home?  Shake it up, try something else that claims to be better/easier/as good as the product you use.  Actually approach it as if it is the product/application you have to test.  

If nothing else, the exercise will de-focus you from your own testing and may even give you some ideas on testing that you have not thought of…