Monitoring the OneNote test hallway

Testers at Microsoft are busy. I know that is a simple statement to write and not all the ramifications of it are immediately obvious. You may see a change to some feature (like spell checking, for debate's sake) and be asked to test this across all languages to ensure correctness. Fair enough - but then you notice the change works, but seems a little slower. Now you get to work through some performance testing as well. Then if you notice a new string being checked in does not fit into the spell checker dialog, you get to focus on some UI cases, and so on…

The point being that when you get a bug fix to regress, you may need a wide variety of machines to use to test the proposed fix. I've mentioned our reliance on HyperV before to help with this, but for performance and UI testing, there is not really a substitute for real hardware. That means it is not unusual to see a tester with a pair of tablets to verify behavior, or booking resources in our configuration lab to use their hardware selection.

I went into Gary's office (of Image Rotator fame) office yesterday and saw something a little different:

I haven't had a chance to ask him what all the monitors are for, but I'm sure there is a plan somewhere…

Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms always welcome,

John

PS: sorry for the bad pun in the title.  Couldn’t help myself.