Morning Post
Well, I seem to be falling into a pattern of missing a post, waking up with that on my mind, and taking time to post before heading in to work.
Recently, there was an interesting thread on the Software Testing Yahoo Group titled "Mostly me just ranting about scripted testing" where a lot of group members were weighing in on scripted testing vs. exploratory testing. It's worth checking out.
The initial post of the thread rails against some things that I think can be useful in some circumstances. One is writing things down as you're testing. I don't think you should always write every little thing down but I also don't believe you should be against writing things down when it helps you. I myself don't write things down all the time but when I get into a particularly complex situation it helps a lot to write things down, even things that don't seem to be important at the time. When I am trying to repro something that is intermittant and I don't know why it's not reproducing, I pull out a pad of paper and write down everything I do as I do it and everything I observe whether it seems important or not. This stuff helps sometimes when something I do later has an unexpected result. When I'm at this point, I want to have as many clues as I can but I also want my mind free to engage deeply in what I'm doing. For me, writing things down as I do them helps me do that.
I don't do this all the time or even frequently. But I know myself and I know when I'm in that mode I need to reach for that particular tool. It may not be the same for everyone. And that's OK.
Alright, off to work...