“As our awareness grows, so we grow.” Anonymous

My theme: something about books, something about poetry, and something about tech – QA in specific. And A is Amazing: A is for Alice, Acrostic, and Ad-Hoc.

Entertainment Corner:

A is Amazing: Alice in Wonderland:

The Book:

The book is one I read as an adult and my take on the book itself is detailed in this post here. I recommend you read this post as it is a post I enjoyed writing, and as I looked over it now, enjoyed reading it!

In the earlier post on my blog, I mention I plan to read the book later, which I did. But looks like I did not end up reviewing it. Anyways, I do have to tell you I totally enjoyed the read and would definitely not mind reading it all over again sometime again. I am sure I will discover something else about the book next time around.

The Movie(s):

Now on to the movie(s). I have watched both the classic Disney animated version years ago and the more recent, mayhap more popular Tim Burton adaptation as well. Both of them can not be called as true to the book in any form or manner as each of them have their own unique takes on Alice.

Not only do they include characters and stories and settings from other books Carroll wrote later, but they also include things not in any of the Alice books. Yes, there is the most obvious one of Alice being an adult in the Tim Burton adaptation!

So, the question: the book(s) or the movie(s): While I did enjoy the movies (what is not to love about Disney or a Burton movie starring Johhny Depp!), my vote is for the book here.

Dear reader: What about you?Let me know using the poll below:

[yop_poll id=”1″]

For an additional poetry read this National Poetry Month, read my take on poetry with Alice here

“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one’s awareness of one’s ignorance.” Anthony de Mello

Poetry Corner:

A is Amazing: A is for Acrostic: An acrostic poem is one in which the first letters of each line of the poem spell out a word, a phrase or a sentence. An abcderian poem is an acrostic which ‘spells’ out the alphabet in order (partly or fully).

The word origin – from the Middle French acrostiche, borrowed from Greek akrostichís, that is made up of – akro(at the farthest extreme) & stichis, derivative of stíchos (line, row, rank)

And below is one of my attempts at an abcderian acrostic I wrote earlier on my blog – accompanied by a pic (I have one more that I now feel needs to be improved).

Oh! The Places You’ll Go, My Dears!

love those adventures you have,
my little ones 
never stop believing you can, step
out into the world with
purpose, with pride; un-
-questioningly, with me by your side.

-Vidya (LadyInRead)

QA Corner:

A is Amazing: A is for Ad-hoc testing:

What/How:

Ad-hoc means improvised, off-the-cuff, on-the-spur-of-the-moment, unplanned, impromptu. And ad-hoc testing is exactly that.

It refers to non-methodical, informal, improvised testing conducted without any structured plan. It is a random testing with an intent to ‘break’ the system/the software/the product; and to find flaws or defects quickly.

When:

It is normally done/recommended when there is limited time to do more elaborate testing. That is of course, true; but based on my experience, in addition to those needed ad-hoc cycles, ad-hoc testing done ‘ad-hoc’ly really does wonders for the product.

Why/Advantages/Drawbacks:

Ad-hoc testing has it’s advantages.

• Can be done anytime by anyone (development, QA, others)
• Helps uncover defects not found by regular, structured testing thus helping towards a better product
• And it also helps the testers! Since it requires the tester to be innovative and creative, it provides a welcome respite from the normal regular structured testing to the tester (at least, that is how I felt when I did ad-hoc testing and it is fun!)

It does have it’s drawbacks as well – being impromptu and random means lack of documentation of the testing done.

How/Why/Best-Practices:

But following certain best practices can ensure a truly advantageous ad-hoc testing experience and result.

This includes experienced and knowledgeable testers doing the ad-hoc testing; the testers making notes as they test to use later for defects and/or test case development as the need arises; and identifying the when/what/where/how/why of ad-hoc testing regularly.

Wrapping up the A Post:

“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” James Thurber

So there you have it – my take on the letter A for this time. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any questions on any of them? I will be glad to answer them. Any comments and opinions on these welcome too! Previous posts for this challenge are in links below.

Day 0

Linking up to BlogChatter A to Z, A to Z Blogging Challenge, and the Ultimate Blogging Challenge (click on the images to learn more about these challenges)