A Look into the "comparable" heuristic for Quality Perception - extracted from "FEW-HICCUPPS"

1. Blogged By Michael Bolton based on
(FEW) HICCUPS) by James Bach

2. Requirements
and
Specifications
Models
Past
Experiences
Contexts

3. We seek out
Known
Familiarities!
which may close off our thinking about other
possible interpretations!
While Comparing two Products

4. That’s not a big problem in
simple, stable systems
It’s a bigger problem
in software
development

6. The Heuristics Test Strategy
Model is a set of patterns for
designing a test strategy.Project
Environment
Perceived
Quality
Testing
Techniques

7. FEW
Familiarity
Explainability
World
HICCUPPS
History
Image
Comparable Products
Claims
User Expectations
Product Itself
Purpose
Statutes

8. What can be its
Comparable products?

9. The Closest match in comparison is:

10. But what if…

11. You are asked to compare it with WC
utility in Linux!
Option Explanation
-c
Counts only
characters
-l
Counts only the
number of lines
(newline delimited)
-w
Counts words only
(defined as separated
by a tab, space or
newline)
http://snap.nlc.dcccd.edu/learn/selena/wc.html

12. Let’s make it more
interesting 

13. Compared
with
Is it even possible?

14. It (Halo) blows people’s brains out…sometimes I want to do that with
MS Word ;-)
Halo is a game and does require interaction with a user
From a UI perspective, there are menus and other forms of cause-
and-effect type of interaction—that is, when I do X, I expect Y
When I start a new game, save a game, reopen a game I have
expectations about the state the game should be in
I may also expect certain behavior with pausing or crashing the game
in terms of recovery that could be compared to MS Word.

15. it can also mean “anything or
any aspect of something
that you might use as a
basis for comparison“.
“comparable” doesn’t
necessarily mean “highly
similar”;

16. “Comparable product”, in the context of
the FEW HICCUPPS oracle heuristics, can mean:
 any software product,
 any attribute of a software product,
 or even attributes of non-software products
that we could use as a basis for
comparison

18. An alternative product

19. A Commercially Competitive
Product

20. A Product that is member of the
same suite of products!

21. Two Products that are Subcomponent within
the same larger product

22. An existing product whose sole purpose is
comparable to a specific feature in our product

23. An existing product that is different, yet
shares some comparable feature, function,
or concept.

24. A Chain of events in some product
Function or Algorithm
of Product 1
Sin(x) function in Open office
Function or Algorithm
of Product 2
API in Microsoft Excel

25. A product that we develop specifically to
implement a comparable algorithm
A Report or a Print Format built
on Excel or an Algorithm in a
utility Language
Print Format or report
used in an ERP

26. A reference output or artifact
An output result on another
medium of reference
An output result on
the compared
product

27. A Product that we don’t Like!

28. Patterns of behaviour in a range or sphere of
Products

30. Even when products are dissimilar in important respects,
even one point of similarity may be useful.

34. Technology and
Functional Aspects
• User Interface
• Business / Workplace
Domain
• Background Information
• Culture
• Aesthetic
• Design Heuristics

35. Bugs thrive on overly narrow or overly
broad interpretations of “comparable”.
Know what you’re comparing, and why the
comparison matters to your testing and to
your clients.

36. Lets Discuss…