Six Thinking Hats for Software Testing at Google
Our testing is only as good as our thinking--and all too often we are hampered by limiting ideas, poor communication, and pre-set roles and responsibilities. Based on the work of Edward de Bono, the Six Thinking Hats for software testers have helped Google to test their software more effectively. There is an interesting youtube video showing how Google uses Six Thinking Hats to test their software.
Video About Use of 6TH at Google for Software Development Below is the 2008 video in which Julian Harty of Google explains the use of Six Thinking Hats (for software testing) at Google.
Interestingly he calls 6TH a "universal unblocker" for nasty, messy problems.
Julian explains clearly that automated software testing is great, but basically misses things. He then goes on to show how 6TH can help software testers to view and analyze the quality of any software program from 6 dimensions/viewpoints instead of just 1, and do that collaboratively with a group of other people.
Specifically he argues and shows how 6TH (in software testing) can be used to:
- Review software
- Design test cases
- Assess a product
- Perform code reviews
- At release meetings
- While testing
- Non-functional testing
- Usability testing
You may want to proceed to 36:50 where Julian explains some common mistakes in using the 6 thinking hats:
- Opinions being presented as facts (verify them)
- Confusing one hat with another (is not too bad, as long as you quickly park/record it and continue with the hat at hand)
- Blue hat not getting enough attention (is perhaps not the sexiest, but is actually the most important one)
- People do not obey the 'rules' (one hat at the time)
- People do not get involved (they may not like the 6TH or be a little shy, convince them to just give it a try...)
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Gary Wong
