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The DataWork folder is a structured, standardized data folder that increases project efficiency and reduces the risk of error. The DataWork folder houses all files related to a project’s data, including data files; questionnaires; data collection documentation; code for sampling, treatment assignment, and analysis; analysis output; and survey, monitoring, administrative, and secondary data. DIME strongly recommends using the DataWork folder from the beginning of the project and throughout its duration.
- Use the
iefolderStata command to easily set up and update the DataWork folder.
- Many DIME resources are easier to take advantage of when the DataWork folder is used.
- Use the DataWork folder from the beginning of the project: reorganizing a project folder is time-consuming and cumbersome.
- Even if your project has special structural requirements, use the DataWork folder as a starting point.
Creating the DataWork Folder
The DataWork folder should be housed within the project folder, which contains a variety of other sub-folders (i.e. project budget and government communications). The DataWork folder and the broader project folder should be shared across project teams via Box, Dropbox, or a similar platform. Image 1 shows a DataWork folder housed within a project folder.
The DataWork folder contains a master do-file, Survey Round folders, a Survey Encrypted Data folder, and a Master Data folder. It may also contain additional documentation (i.e. readme) to help users navigate its contents.
The project master do-file runs all other project do-files from cleaning to final analysis. It also sets up dynamic file paths so that multiple users can work from the same project folder shared via, for example, Dropbox or Box. This ensures that everyone gets the same results.
If you are new to a project folder, always start by finding the master do-file: it serves as a map of all files in the DataWork folder.
Each Survey Round folder contains a master do file specific to its data source, in addition to the following folders: DataSets, Dofiles, Outputs, Documentation, and Questionnaire. While the folders listed here are
iefolder, you can also create more folders that are unique to your project.
What Requires a Survey Round Folder?
Each source of data (i.e. baseline, follow-up, midline, endline, administrative, secondary) should have its own Survey Round folder within the DataWork folder. If the data source is collected continuously (i.e. administrative or secondary data as macro data over time), then it requires only one Survey Round folder. However, if the data source is collected in stages (i.e. baseline and endline data), then it requires one Survey Round folder for each stage.
If you have multiple units of observation in a given data source, each unit of observation for each data source requires its own Survey Round folder. For example, if the units of observation during baseline data collection are students, teachers and schools, then baseline data requires three Survey Round folders: baseline_students, baseline_teachers and baseline_schools. If you choose, these folders may be nested within a parent Baseline folder.
iefolder gives you the option of doing this by creating a Baseline subfolder and then creating Survey Round folders within it.
Note that each Survey Round needs to have a unique name across the project when using
Survey Encrypted Data
Whenever you create either a new survey round or new unit of observation with
iefolder, the command creates a partner folder for each survey round or unit of observation in the Survey Encrypted Data folder. Any identifying or sensitive data should be saved in the Survey Encrypted Data folder; the folder’s contents can easily be encrypted using software like VeraCrypt, we previously recommended Boxcryptor but securoty issues were found in that software so we strongly recommend against using Boxcryptor. . Note that while
iefolder creates the Survey Encrypted Data folder, it does not encrypt it.
Consider, for example, a master dataset. The version with identifying information should be stored in the Survey Encrypted Data folder. The version without identifying information should be stored in the Master Data folder. The latter version is quicker to access and can often be shared outside the research team.
The Master Data folder stores information about all the observations for which data is collected, including observations both in and out of the sample. As it is sometimes necessary to identify observations outside of the sample, the Master Data folder should also include, for example,
- Census observations not sampled for the project, or
- Observations encountered in monitoring activities but not in the sample.
In the Master Data folder, we can also track any time-invariant information relevant to the project (i.e. assigned treatment status, treatment uptake, identifying information, dummy for being sampled). The datasets where we store this information are called master datasets.
A project needs one master dataset for each unit of observation used in the project (i.e. households, students, teachers, firms).
Sampling and Treatment Assignment
The Master Data folder should also include all activities performed on the main listing of all observations (i.e. sampling and treatment assignment). This should never be done directly on census data or baseline data etc. While census data will be used for sampling, it is important to match the census data to the master data and check that it makes sense in relation to whatever data exists there already. After that quality control step, sample directly from the master data set, knowing that the randomized sample will make sense in relation to other data sources.
Back to Parent
This article is part of the topic Data Management

response:
**Step-by-step: Yes**
**Training: No**

The article provides a clear sequence of ordered steps, particularly in the instructions for creating and organizing the DataWork folder and its components. However, the procedural instructions lack enough detail and structured guidance necessary for training a language model capable of deeper reasoning; they are more focused on specific workflows rather than broader conceptual understanding or reasoning strategies. Instructions might benefit from clearer semantic distinctions between different tasks, as well as elaborated examples to enhance reasoning processes.


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Disclosure: We may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Wondering how to get your hamster cleaned up with a sand bath? Or maybe if you should offer one for your hammy's amusement? Sand baths are a great solution for keeping a hamster clean and odor-free without posing any risks to their health. This thoroughly-researched guide to sand bathing will teach you everything that you’ll need to know about using sand baths to keep your hamster fresh and clean.
Giving your hamster a sand bath includes several steps -
- Choosing the right sand and bath dish.
- Filling up the dish with 10 spoonfuls of appropriate bath sand.
- Placing the dish in the corner of the hamster's cage.
So, how do you choose the right sand and the right bath dish? And how often should you provide a sand bath? We've covered these in this detailed guide, as well as additional questions to ask yourself may pertain to your particular hamster’s species. Do dwarf hamsters have the same hygiene needs as Syrian hamsters? All of these and more will be answered below, so read on!
How do you give a hamster a Sand Bath?
Hamsters are very clean animals by nature, but that doesn’t mean that they never get dirty. While you should never give your hamster a bath in water, there is an alternative that you should know about, just in case your pet becomes a bit on the smelly side.
Bathing in the sand is a natural instinct that hamsters have, as this is what they do to maintain their hygiene in the wild. Hamster owners can replicate this experience in their homes. It is important for a hamster’s health that their owner make these decisions carefully and use only the highest-quality products.
The preparation of the sand bath is easy and takes only a couple of minutes before you’re ready to place it into your hamster’s enclosure. Follow these brief, step-by-step instructions to easily and quickly set up the dish so that bath time may begin.
- Clean the bathing dish thoroughly, making sure that it is totally dry before use.
- Using a tablespoon, fill the dish with around 10 tablespoons of your chosen chinchilla/hamster/reptile sand.
- Place the sand bath in the cage, preferably in a corner to minimize the amount of sand that gets kicked around and outside of the bath.
See? It’s easy!
Once the hamster is done with their bath, the sand might be soiled. It should be removed from the cage promptly to eliminate the risk of accumulating odors.
How do I Choose the Right Sand for Their Bath?
In nature, hamsters will burrow into and roll around in the sand or coarse dirt in order to clean their skin and fur. Hamster owners can buy commercial sand bathing product online and at their local pet supply store. These products have been designed to imitate what they would do to keep themselves clean outside of the more sterile condition of their owner’s home.
The coarse particles of the sand are abrasive enough to slough dirt and other forms of grime off of the hamster’s body without the need for water, which can make them vulnerable to sickness. The sand itself will also absorb oil and moisture from their skin – that is, if you choose the right sand for the job.
In pet stores and online, the sand you need will often be labeled “chinchilla sand” or “hamster sand.”
This sand is free of dust and is not so fine that it poses respiratory health risks to your pet. For small pets like hamsters and chinchillas, the bath sand helps to ensure ideal skin and coat health without irritants in its all-natural formula.
Reptile Sand as an Alternative to Chinchilla/Hamster Bath Sand
Because certain high-quality types of chinchilla or hamster bath sand can be difficult to find or afford, owners have gotten a bit creative over the years to discover other types of sand that work equally well to keep their hamsters happy and clean. Reptile sand is one such alternative, but like with other types of sand, you need to be careful in making your choice. Certain types of reptile sand, especially the ones that contain calcium, can be dangerous to hamsters.
Reptisand by Zoo Med is a popular sand used by many hamster owners. It is free of dust and potentially harmful calcium, making it a great option for concerned caregivers of hamsters. This sand is ready to use, right out of the bag, and tends to cost a bit less than chinchilla bath sand.
Children’s playtime sand is also a popular alternative to the commercial chinchilla and hamster sand bath products. However, unlike chinchilla sand and hamster sand, it must be sterilized prior to introducing it to your hamster’s environment.
How do I Select the Best Dish for Their Sand Bath?
There are several criteria by which you should judge whether a dish is suitable for your hamster’s sand baths. When shopping around, ask yourself these questions as you make your considerations:
- Would my hamster topple this dish over as they get in or out?
- Does the shape of the dish make it easy for sand to get stuck in the corners or edges?
- Is the dish too tall for my hamster to get in and out easily?
- Is the dish wide enough for my hamster to roll around freely?
Dishes that are in the shape of a wok are very popular due to the stable construction, lack of corners and deeper center that make rolling around fun for the hamster. However, nearly any short, wide container would work for this purpose.
You may also purchase specialized hamster bathhouses, if you’re so inclined, like the one by Kaytee sold here.
How Often Should I Give my Hamster a Sand Bath?
Because you are using sand that is pet-safe and dust-free, there’s no saying that you couldn’t let your hamster bathe themselves every day if they want to. Many owners like to leave their pet’s sand bathing dish in their cage so that they may clean themselves and roll around at their leisure.
What’s important here, is making sure that the sand remains clean. Dirty sand will not clean a hamster’s body. For this reason, there are plenty of hamster owners who like to keep their hamster’s bath outside of their cage. This makes it easier to monitor the condition of the sand and clean it as necessary before offering it to their hamster once more.
So, really, it is all up to you and your hamster. If your hamster really enjoys their sand baths, you can let them indulge whenever they’d like to without any harm – as long as you keep their bath sand clean!
Do All Hamsters Need Sand Baths?
Most hamsters will get along just fine without ever having a single sand bath, but this is only true if their cage is kept meticulously clean and they have no health or other physical problems that prevent them from grooming themselves adequately.
Do All Types of Hamsters Like Sand Baths?
Hamsters of all common household species, including Syrian hamsters, have been observed as loving their sand baths. The same is true of the opposite: hamsters of all species have also turned up their noses at the sand bath. This matter has less to do with the hamster’s breed and more to do with their personality and individual preferences.
Anecdotally, it seems that dwarf hamsters seem much fonder of sand baths than Syrians do, but that doesn’t mean that your Syrian hamster won’t adore the occasional roll-around in the sand. It also doesn’t mean that your dwarf hamster won’t be entirely disinterested in their sand bath. It’s worth trying with each hamster to see what their preference is. You’ll probably need a larger bathing dish if your hamster is a Syrian.
If your hamster has no care for sand baths, don’t leave the sand dish in their cage unless you are okay with them using it as a fancy potty box.
Common Sand Bath Problems
As long as you use the proper type of sand and dish for your hamster’s bath, it will pose no risk to his or her health. Still, some hamster owners have experienced at least one of these two problems with their furry friend:
- Refusal to use the sand bath
- Using the sand bath as a litter box
Most hamsters will take to their sand bath with little convincing, but some never really get into it – and that’s okay! Your hamster isn’t likely to get sick just because they don’t want to roll around in the dust. If they don’t seem keen on using it, you should remove the sand bath from their enclosure right away. This will prevent them from relieving themselves in what was supposed to have been their bath.
Can Hamsters be Given Dust Baths Instead of Sand Baths?
Some animals benefit greatly from dust baths, but hamsters are not one of them. Bath dust is made up of significantly smaller particles that can be easily inhaled by your pet and lead to respiratory (breathing) problems. To avoid making this mistake with your hamster, you should avoid any products that contain the word “dust” in the name and are not labelled specifically for pet use.
Sand Baths are Great, Clean Fun for Hamsters!
The benefits of sand baths for hamsters are significant in terms of cleanliness and fun. For hamsters who enjoy flopping and rolling around in the pet-safe sand, there is no better way to get fresh and odor-free! But if your hamster doesn’t seem to enjoy it as others do, you don’t have to worry. Dust baths are not necessary to the health and happiness of hamsters, so long as their owners keep their enclosures clean on a regular basis and remove all soiled bedding from the cage daily.
You can’t let your hamster bathe too much or too little, so you’re free to let them do it on their own terms. Just make sure that the sand, like the rest of their environment, is clean at all times. When you do this, your hamster will consider this part of the grooming process to be quite the luxurious experience.

response:
Step-by-step: Yes
Training: Yes

The article provides a clear sequence of ordered steps on how to set up a sand bath for hamsters, making it easy for the reader to follow along. Moreover, the instructions are detailed enough to encourage deeper reasoning by explaining the rationale behind the choices of sand and bath dishes, which aids in understanding the broader context of caring for hamsters. This structured approach allows for a better grasp of hamster hygiene needs and facilitates more informed decision-making.


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“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!” Dom Pérignon.
The French Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon, supposedly made such an exclamation upon tasting the first bottle of sparkling wine. Whether or not this is true or just excellent marketing, no one can deny that bubbles are what make Champagne so special.
Only sparkling wine made in Champagne can be called Champagne, but the technique used in Champagne to add bubbles to their still wine is practiced around the world, and producers that use this technique, methode champenoise, will label their bottles as such. But, how does this work exactly and what does this technique do to the flavor of the wine?
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- Step 1: First Fermentation. All Champagne makers start by making a still wine. Depending on where in the world this wine is being made, different grapes may be used. In Champagne, the most popular grapes are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Bottles labeled blanc de blancs are made from white grapes, and bottles labeled blanc de noirs are made from red grapes. Whatever the particular producer uses, they press the grapes and start the first fermentation as they would any still wine.
- Step 2: Blending. Once the still wine is ready to go, many Champagne houses carefully blend the wine to produce their unique house style. In the best years, Champagne houses may produce a vintage-dated bottle using only grapes from that year. More often, they produce non-vintage wines that are carefully blended to produce a wine that is consistent with their unique style. Although a more appropriate term would be a multi-vintage wine, because wine from many different vintages are blended together to produce the desired wine.
- Step 3: Second Fermentation. The secondary fermentation is the key step to the wine getting its bubbles. The wines are bottled, and a mixture of wine, sugar and yeast is added to each bottle, and a crown cap is put on the bottle. The bottles are then stored horizontally and the second fermentation begins when the yeast slowly converts the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Since the bottle is capped, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go and stays in the bottle in the form of bubbles.
- Step 4: Lees Aging. A byproduct of this secondary fermentation is spent yeast cells, called lees, and the wine will now age on the lees for some time before they get removed from the bottle. Champagne itself has strict production rules and all producers must age their bottles on the lees a minimum of 15 months for non-vintage wines and 3 years for vintage-dated bottles. In wine producing regions without such strict rules, the amount of time the wine is in contact with the lees can vary widely. However, producers will always want some time spent on the lees since it is what gives wine made in this method its characteristic yeasty, or bread dough aromas and flavors and adds complexity to the wine.
- Step 5: Riddling. After the determined length of aging, producers need to remove the lees by going through a process called riddling. Bottles are placed on special racks at a 45º angle, and every few days the bottles are turned and given a small shake to move the spent yeast cells and sediment down toward the neck of the bottle. The angle of the racks is gradually increased during this process and eventually the bottles are vertical and the neck of the bottle contains all the yeast ready to be removed.
- Step 6: Disgorgement. Through a process called disgorgement, the spent yeast cells are removed from the bottle. The neck of each bottle is gently dipped into a freezing solution, causing the yeast cells to freeze together. The crown cap is then released from the bottle and the internal pressure expels the frozen sediment, along with a small amount of wine. Some Champagne houses label their wines with a disgorgement date so consumers know how long the bottle has rested on its lees.
- Step 7: Dosage. The small amount of wine lost through disgorgement is then replaced with a dosage, or a small amount of still wine with a particular level of sweetness. The amount of sweetness in that still wine determines the overall sweetness of the wine and will dictate how it will be labeled for the consumer, such as with the terms Extra Brut (less sweet), Brut (dry), Sec (slightly sweet), or Demi Sec (frankly sweet).
- Step 8: Corking. With the dosage added, the final cork can now be inserted into the bottle and covered with a wire cage to help the cork stay in the bottle despite the pressure inside the bottle from the bubbles. Bottled for consumption, the Champagne will now rest for either a few weeks or several years, depending on the winery and style desired.
Many people wonder why Champagne and sparkling wine is considered more special than other varietals, and the answer is partly because of the additional steps required to produce the wine and the unique flavors that come from this process.
Clearly, Dom Pérignon was onto something when he saw those little bubbles floating up in his glass. Cheers!
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response:
Step-by-step: Yes
Training: Yes

The article provides a clear sequence of ordered steps for producing Champagne, detailing each phase of the winemaking process from the first fermentation to corking. Each step is well-structured with specific actions and explanations, which would be beneficial for training a language model to understand and engage in more complex reasoning about winemaking and its associated techniques. The instructions are sufficiently detailed, encouraging deeper comprehension of the underlying processes involved.


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30 Things Every New Software Tester Should Learn
by Heather Reid
This is a guide to learning more about software testing. As you start on your journey you will have tasks you can work through. Software testers are always learning but we cannot always quantify it. We learn about the product we are testing. We learn and develop relationships with developers, managers and testers. This makes us great at what we do. We are also chameleons. We change based on the environment we are in or the product we have to test. We have to continue to educate ourselves about the tools we need to test each product.
I have split the tasks up to create more digestible chunks of information. This is by no means a complete list. It will get you started on your journey. Take each task and work towards checking off the activities.
After completing the activities listed here, there is further exploration to do. As you follow the steps, reflect on what you have done so far. Maybe you would like to redo a task or adventure down another course of research. Tasks could even be done in a different order. Every tester is different and that is an asset to your testing ability.
Let's start with a little self-reflection.
An important part of being a tester is your mindset and being aware of it.
- What led you to this article?
- Why is software testing valuable to you?
- What do you believe software testing is? We'll talk about this more in the next Task but it's good to think about what you currently believe it is.
Take a moment to think about the questions above and other questions you might have. By the end of this guide, the aim is to have the majority of those answered. You're going to have more questions as you go too. Questions prompt a search for answers which results in learning.
We are surrounded by tech daily. There may be things you use in your everyday life that bother you. Perhaps a software package at work that takes longer than a minute to load. The app on your phone that freezes just after an update. Or perhaps when you get locked out of your emails and discover you can't recover or reset your password. You might have started to think more about that software package by maybe looking at your task manager as it loads.
Can you be a person who strives to make software better? Can you be an advocate for the users? The business? Your work colleagues?
Do you know what it takes to get there? Do you know what you need to learn? Think about all the good and horribly bad software you have come across in your life. You are the chameleon in both. In a good situation, you want the product to stay good so you keep learning to stay on top of it. In a bad situation, you want to learn more so you can feel like you did everything you could before the software was released. Learning is the key. No matter the situation you will always be learning even if you aren't aware of it.
This sounds daunting, don't let it put you off. Start with the first question and think about it. By the end of this guide, you will be more confident in your answers to all of these questions.
What to do next:
- Commit to print why you are here (a post-it or whatever medium you prefer)
- Where do you plan to be at the end of this?
- What skills do you have now that you think are useful for testing?
- What do you currently perceive software testing to be?
- Plan this guide into your schedule. Be realistic about what you can achieve. Consider your day to day work and your energy levels.
Start by writing down what you think software testing is and what a software tester would do.
There are many aspects to software testing. It does not always involve using the product. It is not just about finding bugs. Testing can start around the requirements stage. Thinking about what the product should do, where risks could be, and how the user/customer navigates the product is all part of testing.
One discussion I recently had, about whether it is fair to assume that customers are your users, gave me perspective on terms we use to represent stakeholders. Stakeholders, to me, covers everyone who has an interest in the software product. In the end, we agreed that the person who pays for your software may not be the one who actually uses it. This is a great example of how software testers should look at things from different perspectives. Below are examples gathered from discussions with other testers about what they think testing is or is not.
|What Testing Is||What Testing Is Not|
Verifying whether software meets the expected value to its users.
Investigating the product to find any information that is of value to our stakeholders.
Simple, quick, predictable.
Only verifying that the product matches the description.
|Mitigating surprises - Trying to find problems before software is released to stakeholders.||
Increasing quality - this is a whole team exercise.
Prove that the software has worked once.
A valuable activity in software development but often misunderstood due to its unpredictable and creative nature.
Well understood or valued by everyone.
A process that is fixed, unimaginative and best kept under strict rules.
|Communicating - with stakeholders (customers, users, developers, etc.) and work together to find out if the product is improving.||A phase that a project needs to go through in order to be successful.|
Infinite. All testing is sampling. For every non trivial product, there are an unimaginable number of parameters with a great number of possible values.
How do you know you are testing the important ones?
|Ever finished - we can make decisions about stopping criteria but there are an infinite amount of combinations that could be checked.|
What to do next:
- Read this list of things of what software testers do.
- Try asking people around you about the title of this task. Ask people you work with testers and non-testers, ask people on Slack and maybe even ask your family. Has this changed much from what you originally thought? How different were the responses you got?
- Research other industries such as pharmaceuticals, appliances etc. What is their approach to testing? How different or similar is it to the tech industry? Do any of the differences change your thoughts on how you would approach testing?
When I started in software testing I had no idea what testing was. I also had no clue of where to start. One of the most useful resources I came across was the pathway Testing for non testers by Katrina Clokie. Using Katrina's pathway I was able to understand testing and the value it provided. I was also able to investigate her references further to start expanding my knowledge and list of people I should look to for advice.
This is one of the things that will not be done overnight! I recommend reading it and referring to Task 1 of this guide each time. Reflect on each link you read within Katrina's blog post. Are there any things you want to practice? Are there any things you don't and if so, why? Has this changed the thoughts you wrote down on Task 2?
What to do next:
- Share the link with your team.
- Read an article a day from Testing for non-testers.
- Create your own list of things to learn and practice. You will most likely be updating this constantly.
This will be a slightly easier task to get started with but you will need to put in the effort to keep it up. Start as simply as you like or feel comfortable with. I do recommend achieving all of the steps below when you can.
Engaging in social activities has enabled me to meet local testers who are willing to help me when I come across a tough problem. Through these social gatherings, I have made some friends in a city I am new to. It's nice to have a sympathetic ear with friends who understand what you are talking about.
What to do next:
- Go to Meetup.com and look for a local software testing meetup.
- Join the Ministry of Testing Slack.
- Join Twitter, start finding testers to follow and get involved in some conversations.
- Join The Club, a software testing and QA discussion forum.
- Read Andrew Morton's blog posts on attending the Bristol STC meetup and the Cardiff STC meetup.
- Start looking up testing conferences such as TestBash, Agile Testing Days, EuroStar, STPCon, Global Testing Retreat, TestCon, STAREAST, Let's Test, Nordic Testing Days. We'll cover these more in Task 23. They are a big part of getting social.
It can be difficult to stay organised when there is so much information being thrown at you. I struggled with this a lot, I still do occasionally. Tiny Habits was recommended to me by another tester when I was getting started. I go back to it frequently and set myself new tiny habits to achieve, particularly when I feel like things are going awry. This does not take a lot of time but it will save you in the long run.
You might also want to think about writing mind maps. There are a lot of free tools out there to help you with this. I find a mind map can help me streamline a random thought process a lot easier. Ever had a million ideas running through your mind that are loosely related but you can't get them into a sensible order to make something of? Mind maps can help with this, so can the good ole reliable post-its on a wall approach.
If you're more of a gamer, or the above don't appeal to you, you could also try Habitica. It's a free app where you can earn points/coins when you achieve your daily goals. You also lose health if you miss a daily goal. Kinda cool!
What to do next:
- Sign up to Tiny Habits and do it for a week.
- Start a mindmap.
- Investigate if Habitica is for you.
- Create a personal Kanbanflow or Trello board. Start with the column headers "To Do", "In Progress" and "Done". Add a card for each thing you would like to achieve and move them across the columns as you progress with them.
Become a Ministry of Testing member and explore The Ministry of Testing Platform. I have found it to be an amazing resource for my career. I can watch training videos, access testers blogs and I get notified of upcoming events that they host. I started with a free membership and finally graduated to a paid membership this year.
What to do next:
- Start with free Ministry of Testing membership.
- Read these Web Testing 101 articles on the Ministry of Testing platform.
- Watch these software testing talks from the most popular TestBash talks of all time playlist.
- Watch this video from Danny Dainton a nice 99 second talk about how he stopped wasting his time.
- Investigate the content on the Ministry of Testing platform further.
I know a bug in software when I see one, or at least I like to think I do. I thought it would be easy to explain what a bug is. When I tried to find a definition I found many that just didn't cover the scope enough. James Bach defines a bug as "Anything that threatens the value of the product. Something that bugs someone whose opinion matters". That is a nice high-level definition. On Testing Computer Software you will find "most bugs cause a program to change its behaviour when the programmer didn't want or expect it to or cause the program not to change its behaviour when the programmer did expect it to".
In most of the definitions, I found them to only mention the code or the developer. None of these are wrong. Going back to the definition from James Bach and looking at the ideas of the three amigos we could also have bugs in specifications. This would threaten the value of the product and it would not then be a bug with the code.
Think about the technology you use:
- Have you encountered bugs in any of it?
- Why did you feel like they were bugs?
- Did you do anything about it (e.g. report a bug in an app through the app store)?
- Can you think of three different things that help you decide whether a bug is actually a bug or not? These are called Oracles and we will look at them in more detail in Task 13.
This is a starting point for your reading list. You won't achieve all of this in one day. Some of the books I list here will be referred to in relevant sections later in the series. This is to make you aware of the existence of the books and work towards purchasing or borrowing them from the friends you will make when you get social.
I asked people what books they would recommend for testing and I got the following (this is by no means a comprehensive list):
- Explore It! by Elizabeth Hendrickson, an excellent book about exploratory testing.
- Evil by Design by Chris Nodder, I love this book! I learn something new every time I read it. I'll cover more about this later.
- Agile Testing by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory is one of those books that everyone raves about and you wonder why it took you so long to read it.
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman which I have not personally read. This has been recommended to me by enough people that I will be starting it as soon as I finish this article.
The Ministry of Testing platform also has a list of free and paid for eBooks that is added to over time. Check that out now that you're a member.
- Start to read one of the books mentioned above. If you're unsure where to start, I suggest Thinking, Fast and Slow.
- Look at the recommended reading list from the CAST 2015 speakers.
- Ask on one of the Slack channels or on Twitter for more suggestions of books to read.
- Explore the Book Club.
A user story is like a set of instructions you get with flat pack furniture. By writing a user story it will help you to understand their purpose.
It should provide:
- A description of what needs to be done.
- Acceptance criteria outlining what the story needs to accomplish.
- Any criteria which are out-of-scope for the story to be considered accomplished.
- Note any dependencies required to start the story.
Mountain Goat Software has examples of agile user stories to give you an idea of what to expect when you're out in the wild. EPICs are essentially a large user story. They are broken down into smaller digestible or deliverable pieces called user stories.
Take the user story below as an example, the overall EPIC would be "Flat Pack TV Stand". The user story is then a smaller piece of that "Left Leg and Top Shelf Construction". The dependencies are things that we need but not things we would do, for example, we would need a screwdriver to be able to assemble the shelf. The acceptance criteria are things that we actually have to do.
Writing a user story will help you to think about writing requirements for users more. It will also help you to think about the approach to take for testing these user stories. As a tester you will have a unique set of skills when it comes to analysing user stories. You will be able to highlight missed details, misuse cases, abuse cases and how it can be misunderstood. Not everyone gets the chance to provide early input with user story writing. It is an excellent process, you are testing before there is ever a piece of code written!
Your tasks for today:
- Write a user story for making toast, a peanut butter sandwich or even Ikea furniture using the templates above.
- How do you know if you missed something?
- Have you made any assumptions?
- Think about the order things need to be done in. Are there any optional inputs?
- Are there any requirements or prerequisites (assume the user has bread for example)?
- Try to make toast or a sandwich from scratch following your user story exactly.
When you are testing you shouldn't only test for you. You need to think about impatient users, users who take their time, users who have a bit of a tester in them and like to "break" things and many more. Katrina Clokie has an excellent guide to getting started with testing personas. As you get familiar with an application, things like this may slip from your mind and you may go into autopilot somewhat. I find trying to get into the user persona more helps me to avoid this pitfall.
Before thinking that personas may not already exist within a project, it may also be worth looking into whether personas research and documentation already exists. You can then use it to build things from a testing perspective.
- Pick an app on your phone or a program on your computer to test.
- Navigate through it using the different user personas in Katrina's article.
- What did you learn from this?
- How did the application perform under each persona?
- Think about and research how others approach personas.
This is linked to Task 9 and a follow on from Task 10. There are many ways to document testing but we will not focus on those here. If you've never written testing documentation, you could look at the test case templates on Tutorialspoint.
Task 9 and 11 have many similarities: While writing the user story, you were testing it just as well, weren't you? But the thing that has changed is that you now have an actual product at your disposal and that makes a world of difference.
You now have something to get hands on with, you can leave the theory behind and put it to practice. This is where you start using your ability to learn. The speed and precision with which you can learn new and interesting information will define your skill and value as a tester.
Concentrate on your mindset as you test the story. This is the most important part when testing a user story.
Questions to ask yourself as you test this story:
- Who is this story important to?
- What is the one problem this User Story tries to solve?
- How could this be misunderstood?
- How could accidental bugs find their way into this?
- What behaviour should it absolutely NOT show?
- When are you done?
- At what point did you feel like quitting your analysis and want to start testing?
- Does this feel reasonable?
Cem Kaner and James Bach describe a heuristic as "a fallible method of solving a problem or making a decision". Karen Johnson says that a heuristic "Refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Where an exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Examples of this method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, or common sense."
James Bach has an excellent document about how to design a test strategy using heuristics. Read over it and think about it for a while. It's a lot to take in when you first read it. If you think about how to apply and understand heuristics in testing, understanding these concepts get easier with time and experience.
Michael Bolton has an interesting blog post about heuristics to help you know when to stop testing. This is important in testing as we can become so absorbed in testing one feature that we may miss others.
- Can you think of any other heuristic? Explain it to someone and give it a name. TestSphere and Explore It! from Task 8 could help you with this.
- Do you know of any heuristics you have used before? Use the articles above as guidelines.
- Research and share other heuristics you might have found.
- Pick any of the heuristics and start a discussion with peers.
According to Michael Bolton "An oracle is a principle or mechanism by which we can tell if the software is working according to someone's criteria; an oracle provides a right answer--according to somebody". Cem Kaner describes it as "a software testing oracle is a tool that helps you decide whether the program passed your test".
Michael Bolton also talks about how all oracles are heuristic but not all heuristics are oracles. This can take time to understand so do take your time with it. Katrina Clokie's article about Heuristics and Oracles may help you to think about this in everyday terms.
What to do next:
- Read Testing Without A Map by Michael Bolton. It gives a step by step guide on using oracles to determine if you are 'done' testing.
- Check out Testing Mnemonics list that Lynn McKee has put together. Also, read FEW HICCUPS by Michael Bolton which expands the HICCUPS mnemonic.
- What oracles have you used? Can you see any oracles in your testing work?
- When an app on your phone updated, did it maintain a consistent behaviour? If not, did you like this inconsistency? Was it an improvement on the previous behaviour or did you consider it to be a bug?
White and Black box testing are two approaches to software testing. Think of them as two umbrellas for types of testing to fall under.
White or Glass box testing is a testing method where the tester knows the internal workings of the program.
The tester writes a strategy to test the program based on knowledge of the application's internal code. They understand what the function is doing and what inputs will produce what outputs. This type of testing typically focuses on coverage of statements, lines of code, branches of code, etc. White box testing most often applies to unit tests.
One of the biggest risks with this type of testing is the inability to find missing features. You cannot cover a line of code with a test if the line of code never existed. The tester is required to have knowledge of the language that the program was written in. With this type of testing, you are also naturally biased with your thinking patterns given the time you have spent within the product. As a result, you might miss obvious or non-obvious problems due to being too close to it. Think about signing in to your emails. It's something you do every day and you follow the same pattern every day. When was the last time you noticed a change on the login page or process? You become so used to what you expect to see that you may not notice the unexpected.
Black box testing is a method where the internal workings of the program are unknown to the tester. Tests are based on the requirements and functionality. One of the advantages of this over white box testing is the possibility of identifying missing code statements. This approach does not require the tester to have any knowledge of the language that the program was written in. A risk with this type of testing is the unknown level of coverage that testing gives.
I had much fun and frustration at a workshop by Alexandra Casapu trying to solve puzzles like these Black Box Puzzles. These are a good way to hone your skills as a black box tester. Try some of them. Did you manage to figure any of them out? If you did, can you figure them out a second time? Can you remember your approach? Did you change your approach the second time?
What to do next:
- Try out doing some of the Black Box Puzzles.
- Try testing any mobile app you have on your phone, you would essentially be doing black box testing.
- Go to the Khan Academy Computer Programming section, try out some of their tasks and see how you can create or identify problems with knowledge of code.
Do you know anyone who is colourblind or maybe uses a screen reader? I know people who are colourblind, visually impaired, deaf, dyslexic or have photosensitive epilepsy. As a result, I am always thinking about these users along with the 'standard' user set for our application. Luckily there are tools that can test an application for its accessibility level. A fun and easy trick to try is navigate through an application you are testing with no mouse or trackpad. Sounds easy right? Give it a go and see what you think. There are various plugins you can add to your browser to view your application the way someone with colourblindness would.
What to do next:
- Pick an application and try some simple accessibility testing on it. Did it perform as you expected? Were there any issues you encountered?
- Read A Software Tester's Guide to Web Accessibility.
- An Alphabet of Accessibility Issues is a great article to give you insight into the variety of needs people have.
- If you’re interested in mobile application testing, you might like to read Accessibility For Your Mobile Audience.
- Bonus task, should you want to explore accessibility more, why not try 30 Days of Accessibility Testing?
Ever wanted to learn about new things while you work, drive or take the train? I always want to learn more in work but have so many things to do. I can't always sit down to watch a video of a talk or read a book or paper. Podcasts have given me the opportunity to learn while I work or commute.
I met Vernon Richards at TestBash and started to follow him on Twitter. He shared a link of a podcast he had contributed to which was related to testing. I had some time to spare so I investigated it. From there I started to explore all of the other testing podcasts that are out there. Now I try to make a point of listening to at least one per week.
There are two sets of podcasts I love to listen to. Joe Colantonio Test Talks is the first one. Go there and start picking podcasts to listen to.
Testing in the Pub is another one of my favourites. The first one I ever listened to was An Intro to Cynefin and I've been slowly researching the topic ever since. Some of the topics in both places can be a bit heavy. Find the ones you are interested in the most and start with those.
Podcasts are an excellent resource. Try to get into the habit of listening to them. I'm sure you'll soon have your own favourite ones.
What to do next:
- Check out the Ministry of Testing Podcast Testing Feeds.
- Explore the content on Let's Talk About Tests.
- Listen to a podcast on one of the Ministry of Testing podcast series.
The user experience is pretty much what it says on the tin. It is how the user experiences your application and how they respond when they use the application. Don Norman describes it as even more than that. Testers are often tasked with understanding user experiences and helping ensure the user has a good experience by reporting back any possible issues to the rest of the team. Even before the product is out on the market, testing can help to highlight UX issues. An example would be a page takes a long time to load. A user wouldn't wait that long because the competitor product hasn't got the same issue. We should investigate the delay and try to fix it.
The Nielsen Norman Group have an article about heuristics for user interface design which can help with the user experience.
At the end of the day, it is users who will give you feedback on their experience with the product. As a tester, you can help to ensure that their initial experience is a good one.
What to do next:
- Start to really think about user experience.
- Can you recall a stand out positive user experience you had?
- Can you explain why you felt it was positive?
- Do the same for the negative case.
A big part of software development is getting things to work together and keep them working together. Even if loads of time and effort go into harnessing these implementations you'll find cracks within the surface.
Regression testing is a technique that tries to find problems in software that has worked before but is now broken because something was changed.
Many Testing concepts are introduced because of regression and the uncertainty this gives developers and managers. Automated checks, rerunning Test Cases, elaborate smoke tests,... are all in place because of regression issues.
Regression testing involves re-testing features that previously worked to ensure that they are not affected by the addition of new features or refactoring of existing ones.
What to do next:
- Think about a time when one feature in one of your favourite apps didn't work anymore. This might be in a game such as Pokémon Go, Facebook, Netflix application, or any other product that does frequent updates. We've grown quite used to these frequent updates and bugfixes. Additionally, a malfunctioning feature might be fixed tomorrow. Sometimes, this backfires and users get fed up and discard the product entirely.
- Consider the strategies these companies use to tackle their regression issues and compare them with strategies used in your company. Are they very different? Does that make sense to you? Can you come up with other strategies?
- Do you have something that you can practice regression testing on? Let's think back to that app on your phone. Did it recently update? Have a look around at the new functionality that the app creators say they have added. Has it broken functionality that previously worked? If so report it to them. They might already be aware of it but if not you've helped improve someone's experience.
Also, read the following articles on regression testing:
- Cem Kaner and James Bach have written about Regression testing in great detail.
- Thinking about how to get a good regression test set by Patrick Prill.
- A heuristic for regression testing with Karen Johnson.
- Get smart about your regression tests' value by Leanne Howard.
If you're quite new to the software scene you will not have heard of development practices such as Waterfall, Agile or DevOps. These are methods or approaches to software development. A key thing to notice in the diagram below is where testing fits into each of the approaches. DevOps is relatively new to the scene. We'll start with Agile to ease you in and you can research DevOps later.
Image Source: SPEC INDIA
I'll direct you back to the books I mentioned in Task 8, specifically the one from Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory. Elizabeth Hendrickson has a useful overview of Agile Testing to help you get a feel for it. Augusto Evangelisti talks in this interview about how Agile has changed the role of the tester.
Your tasks for today:
- Start reading Lisa and Janet's book.
- Watch this talk from Lisa and Janet where they debunk Agile testing myths.
- Read Esther Derby's seven Agile best practices.
- Read Huib Schoots' what makes Agile testing different?
- Agile Testing by Elizabeth Hendrickson may also be useful to you.
- Huib has more resources for Agile testing that you may want to explore.
- Bonus task, should you want to explore agile testing more, why not try 30 Days of Agile Testing?
Pair testing involves two people working together at the same machine with a single keyboard to test a piece of software. One person has the keyboard while the other suggests ideas or tests, pays attention and takes notes, listens, asks questions, grabs reference material, etc.. There should be a shared goal with this approach and the two people will constantly communicate to ensure that the goal is achieved. Communication is key with this testing approach. Both people involved should have a shared understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it.
This is easy and fun to do. You only need you and one other person. Katrina Clokie has some excellent material surrounding this from beginning to end. I try to do this as much as I can in work. It is a great way to get a different perspective on your work and maybe even learn a new skill.
What to do next:
- Read the articles from Katrina and find a pairing buddy. If you’re not in a software house ask someone from the meetups you attended or on Twitter or Slack, you could even try remote pairing as Elisabeth Hocke did on her Testing Tour.
- Read this excellent article on Pair Testing by Lisa Crispin
- Pair with this person and reflect on your experience.
- What did you learn from it?
- What could be better next time?
- Would you do it again?
- What did you teach the other person?
- Katrina also spoke about this at TestBash Brighton 2016 watch it if you can.
Mob Testing (Mob Programming or Mobbing) is not something you can do by yourself but you should read up about it in the Mob Programming Guidebook. If you can, try to do it in work or get a few people together to try this out. A good chance to do this is at the end of a sprint demo session. Start with a 15-30 minute slot with the whole team. Get them to start asking questions and testing the product as a team. This is a great way to get non testers involved in testing and possibly help generate some new ideas or approaches.
If you're lucky the meetup you attend might try this. If they don't try it, ask them! Any meetup organisers I know are crying out for feedback from the community of what they would like to see. Maaret regularly blogs and talks about this. It may not be something you can do at the moment but it is definitely something you need to be aware of.
- Download and read the Mob Programming Guidebook.
- Try mob testing if you can.
- Maaret has written a great article about her experience and how to get started with Mob Testing.
- Maaret has also spoken at a Ministry of Testing masterclass, TestBash Philadelphia and TestBash Australia.
- Check out this excellent talk from Jasmin Smith on her experience of Mobbing.
Dark patterns are user interfaces that are designed to trick people into doing things they didn't intend to such as subscribing to or purchasing something. These are well thought out tricks that are meant to benefit a business but rarely consider the user. Have you ever found a sneaky additional item in your basket at checkout or clicked on an advert disguised as another type of navigation? These are dark patterns.
Think back to your user experience task. Dark Patterns are a form of anti-pattern to that. They have been a topic in the spotlight of news websites for some time now.
Have you ever tried to sign up for a free trial of something only to be asked for your payment information? Only after reading The Sinister Side of UX did I realise I had fallen victim to this.
Continuing on from the theme of Task 5, I can highly recommend the book Evil by Design -- Chris Nodder. There is also a website linked to this book which will give you a flavour of what is in the book. I'm still not finished reading this myself but I learn something new every time I pick it up.
Your tasks for today:
- Watch the video of Emma's talk.
- Read the linked content and start to think about dark patterns.
- Can you think of any dark patterns that you have come to accept as the norm in your life? You can use the examples from Melissa as a guide but I'm pretty sure once you start to really think about this you will have a pretty long list.
There are many software testing conferences out there to choose from. Some even post videos afterwards of the talks which is amazing but, honestly, it is not the full experience. When you attend you get to network, this sounds awful businesslike but seriously it can be the best part about attending a conference. Another advantage of actually attending is the chance to ask the speaker questions at the end of their talk or find them afterwards to discuss it in more detail. Speakers usually welcome the opportunity to discuss their talk in more detail, sometimes it can even give them ideas about how they might change their talk in the future.
My first software testing conference was TestBash Brighton 2016. I blogged about it from the viewpoint of Is it just for testers? Beren Van Daele felt like it was a Homecoming. We all took a different angle based on our experience of the day. Cassandra Leung blogged about TestBash Manchester as a Tester's First TestBash. Danny Dainton has written about being a volunteer at TestBash Brighton. Dan Billing has also written about his TestBash 2014 experience, he went from experiencing it as an attendee to speaking at it.
TestBash is not the only conference out there. Erik Brickarp kindly linked me his blog from Let's Test 2013, I love the line in it "You are never alone". Helena Jeret-Mäe also wrote about her experience of Let's Test 2014. Chris Kenst has a wonderful in depth look at CAST 2015. Finally, Keith Klain has written about his experience of Agile Testing Days. There are even more conferences out there, these are some first hand experiences of a few to help you get a feel for what to expect.
Going back to Danny's volunteer blog, many conferences have some form of volunteer option if you are willing to put the hard graft in. This may help you to achieve your goal so put yourself out there and see.
What to do next:
- Find a testing conference to attend.
- Network online with people who have or will attend the conference.
- Search for existing online videos of previous testing conferences.
Exploratory testing is one of my personal favourites. You get to explore areas of the application that you most likely didn't cover with other testing methods or covered, but you felt like you could investigate more. There are some really interesting articles I will advise you to read for this. Most of them are quite recent!
James Bach has written his thoughts about What is Exploratory Testing. Simon Tomes wrote an excellent article where he gave three digestible diagrams to describe exploratory testing and more recently an article with 30 exploratory testing tips. I would also like to highlight the book Explore It! that I mentioned earlier. This book is definitely a go to for exploratory testing. Maaret Pyhäjärvi has a useful article about how to explore with intent. This can help you stay guided in your exploration and have a clearer picture at the end of what you achieved.
What to do next:
- Read the linked articles and start Elizabeth's book.
- When you are done reading them pick something you would like to explore, maybe an app on your phone as you take the train to work.
- Explore with intent for the day!
- Did you find anything unusual?
- Did you feel like you explored it enough?
- Would you approach it differently the next time?
- Read 30 Tips to Supercharge your Exploratory Testing Efforts.
I would call this a specialisation. I've put it in here so that you have resources to be aware of the specialisation. Maybe you'd like to specialise in mobile testing or your job requires knowledge of it. The Ministry of Testing platform has some resources in the mobile testing section. There is a channel on the Ministry of Testing Slack for mobile testing where you can ask for guidance if you wish.
Think about the apps on your phone. If you go into the about section for them does it say anything about the operating systems they support? Given what you now know about mobile testing does this surprise you?
When you're finished getting to grips with mobile testing you might want to try the 30 Days of Mobile Testing challenge. Designed by Daniel Knott who is definitely someone you want to follow on Twitter if you plan to pursue this.
What to do next:
- Check out the Ministry of Testing platform's mobile testing resources page.
- Do the 30 Days of Mobile Testing challenge.
- Check out Daniel Knott's book on mobile testing.
- Try Mobile Testing 101 and A Beginner's Guide to Mobile Testing on the Ministry of Testing platform.
- Investigate the mobile testing pathway by Katrina Clokie.
Dan Billing released a sandbox to practice Security testing in called Ticket Magpie. He also has contributed to a number of resources on security on the Ministry of Testing platform to get you started. We've all seen the big hacks over the past year or more: TalkTalk, Ashley Madison, 3pay, Tesco. Security testing is becoming more important than ever before.
As the world around us changes and we start to (sometimes unknowingly) put more information out there about ourselves.
This task is just a starter to get a flavour of security testing. Again, it is probably one of those tasks that won't be just a day.
Your mission for today is:
- Check out some of the Security testing resources on The Ministry of Testing platform and see if it is something you would like to explore further.
- Go and read some of Troy Hunt's work.
- Check out OWASP and the incredible resources they have.
- Check out the 30 Days of Security Testing challenge.
Automation is a huge topic of debate and discussion within the software testing community. When you delve into this topic be prepared to hear such things like "automation fixes everything". Statements like this can lead to misconceptions and the misuse of automation. You may also read things about "testing vs checking", please do not be put off by the language used, I know I found it overwhelming at the beginning. Richard Bradshaw gave an excellent TestBash talk about automation in testing, I highly recommend you start there. The Ministry of Testing platform also has a Testing AMA on Automation with Richard where the community got to pose him questions and a podcast with him on how to get started with automation. Maybe there are more podcasts related to this topic that you stumbled across from Task 16.
One of the pros of automation is that it is a way to enhance the coverage you have of your application. You are only one person and you can miss things when re-checking of features, you are human. Computers can be very good at doing some things that people often fail at, Angie Jones wrote a blog about the things that can be missed by automation if it is scripted straight from a test case.
Focusing on what to automate is the most important part of automation. Setting that framing and adding in additional factors such as team goal, technology, time and team skills should assist you in identifying tools for your context. There are many tools out there and it can become overwhelming if you don’t set your framing.
If you want to give automation a try I recommend checking out the course from Richard Bradshaw or Alan Richardson to get you started. Of course, Selenium is not the only automation tool out there, but I have personally taken these two courses and can highly recommend them. Mark Winteringham also has a three-part blog series and video course about building an automated API test framework. Have you found any others? Did you find them useful? Why not share them with others in the Automation thread on The Club or the Automation channel on Slack.
Your Automation missions are:
- Start one of the automation courses recommended above.
- Check out the resources on Automation on The Ministry of Testing platform.
- Explore the automation thread on The Club.
- Bonus mission, try 30 Days of Automation in Testing challenge!
Think back to that app on your phone and the software package in work from Task 1. It is estimated that the average user loses patience with a web page that doesn't load after 4 seconds. Now think about Black Friday sales or those concerts that sell out in 2 minutes. Have you ever been in an online queue for either of these? Load and performance testing can help the whole team to get an estimate of possible weakness in the product before it is released to customers.
In the Performance Testing 101 online course on the Ministry of Testing platform, Simon Knight gives a useful breakdown of these terms in the Performance Testing Patterns lesson. I'll provide a brief summary here for context, but I recommend watching the course lesson for a more detailed explanation. I have left out Soak/Endurance, Stress, Spike and Capacity testing, which Simon covers in the video.
Performance testing aims to determine how responsive an application is under normal load conditions. Examples of questions that performance testing tries to answer are how long a transaction takes to complete or a page takes to load. It can help teams see if a site can handle the projected number of users. A performance test in a tool like Jmeter would keep the number of users at a normal level, where normal would be based on the requirements for the system.
Load testing is done to determine how the system responds under heavy load conditions. It would measure response times and resource utilisation under this heavy load. Load testing also helps to determine when the system breaks and if it is graceful when it does so. A question we may like answered when we do load testing would be how many transactions are we actually capable of dealing with when the system is under heavy load. When running a load test the level of users is kept high to get an idea of how the system will respond under the level of usage.
What to do next:
- Check out PerfBytes podcast.
- Read this PerfBytes article on The Ministry of Testing platform.
- Mark Tomlinson also featured on Test Talks with a bucket full of bottlenecks.
- Take the Performance Testing 101 course on the Ministry of Testing platform.
- Investigate the JMeter User Manual.
- Bonus task, complete 30 Days of Performance Testing challenge.
After all this information you probably have a lot of questions.
Ask a tester a question.
You can ask on Twitter, Slack, The Club or at a meetup. Expand the question into a discussion if you can. You never know what you might learn from it. This sounds like a simple topic for a whole task but it can be a daunting task for some. If you expand the question into a discussion it could continue on long past this one task.
If you need help with where to start with questions check out TestSphere; it's a card deck that helps you talk about testing.
Steps to take to get started with asking questions and turning them into conversations and learning opportunities:
- Take a seemingly simple testing concept. Talk to someone about it. Ask for their understanding and explain your thoughts on the subject. Reflect on how your understanding differs from the other person's? Explore the differences.
- Did a blog or podcast cover the topic you have questions about? Leave a comment for the host to answer.
You can find inspiration and strength from writing about your experience, even if it is not for public consumption. Writing is a great form of self-retrospection or reflection and it allows you to learn from the past and to plan for the future.
Think back to the first task you completed, why you were here, what you hoped to learn. Think about all the things that you have learned. Were any of the tasks particularly useful for you? If so, why? Did you find any uninteresting? You may be surprised at how useful others will find it if you share some of your experiences and findings.
How to share your experience:
- Tweet about each task with the #starttesting hashtag and feel free to @ministryoftest.
- Post updates on Ministry of Testing Slack.
- Write blog posts of your learning journey.
- Write an email and send it to someone you may feel would benefit.
- Maybe even submit your own 99 second talk to the Ministry of Testing platform.
- Share your findings on The Club.
Heather is currently a Test Engineer at Glofox. She was previously CommunityBoss at Ministry of Testing and a developer and tester before that. Testing and helping the software testing community is her passion. When she's not testing she's usually exploring or working on restoration projects.

response:
**Step-by-step: Yes**
The article presents a series of tasks that guide readers through the learning process of software testing in a structured manner. Each task is clearly numbered and includes specific actions to take, enabling readers to follow along in an orderly fashion that encourages progression through the material.

**Training: Yes**
The procedural instructions provided in the article are well-structured and detailed enough to facilitate training for a language model geared towards deeper reasoning. The tasks prompt readers to engage in reflective thinking, explore concepts further, and synthesize knowledge from various sources, fostering a richer understanding of software testing that can enhance reasoning capabilities.


document:
Food Photographer Jason Little Returns to Childhood with his images for GOODLES
Published: January 24, 2022 by:
Focus Area: Food Photography Still Life
Blog segment: Food Photography Job Market
Content Format: Food Photography Job Market
You will get an email with a link to confirm your subscription. If you dont get it, please contact us.

response:
Step-by-step: No
Training: No

The article does not provide a clear sequence of ordered steps guiding the reader through completing a task. Additionally, it lacks well-structured procedural instructions; the content mainly discusses a photographer's personal experience and does not include detailed instructions that could help in training a language model for deeper reasoning.


document:
Note: This mode is not available when using the Power Cab with a booster such as the SB5. That is because the Power Cab is now being used as a Pro Cab and is no longer supplying the track power. So it can no longer measure track current.
a) In the lower left corner of the Power Cab keypad press the Program / Escape (PROG/ESC) key 6 times. You are looking for "SET CAB PARAMS"
b) Press "ENTER" key.
c) Display will now say: "SHOW TRK CURRENT 1=Y".
d) Press "1" key.
e) Press PROG/ESC key 2 times to get back to the main screen.
The clock display will be temporarily replaced by the current meter display.
if you make a mistake just remove and restore power to the cab and start over.
Now place the engine of concern on the track connected to a train you plan on running with the engine. Run the engine on the worst part of the layout (heavy grade and/or on a sharp curve) but at the speed you plan to run the engine at. It is best to remove all other engines from the track so you can get a good accurate reading of JUST the engine current your running. You will notice the maximum current is a function of the speed and where it is running on the layout.
The display will show the current consumed by the engine giving you the actual number. Note the highest current you saw. That is your actual current giving you a better understanding of how much current it will consume. Repeat for all your engines of concern.
Note*** When you remove power from the Power Cab to shut it down, or use Program track mode the clock display will be restored.

response:
Step-by-step: Yes
Training: No

The article provides a clear sequence of ordered steps to guide the reader through the process of measuring engine current using a Power Cab. However, while the instructions are explicitly laid out, they lack the depth and detail necessary for training a language model capable of deeper reasoning, as they do not explore the implications of the measurements or the underlying concepts of current consumption and its relation to different operational conditions.


document:
What is BE, Downloads, DDR and requirements
How to buy, refund policy and reg codes
General content from around the web, plus links to Productive Computing University.
The DDR, importing, plugins, and hosting on FMS.
How to use BE and the basics of using the UI
Some of the cool features that BE has.
Automating or modifying BE, and integrating with other tools
Detailed examples of specific use cases.

response:
Step-by-step: No
Training: No

The article does not provide a clear sequence of ordered steps for completing a task, as it appears to be more of an outline or table of contents rather than a structured guide. Additionally, the instructions lack detailed procedural information that would facilitate deeper reasoning, making it less suitable for training a language model in this aspect.


document:
Juris Doctor Class of 2020
Pursuing passions: Anjali Sandhu
As Western Canada’s oldest law school, the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law has a 106-year tradition of providing quality legal education to students, many of whom have gone on to forge meaningful careers as change-makers, significantly impacting the Canadian legal system and improving justice for many. As an institution, the law school – housed at Robson Hall – is constantly growing and innovating with its students forming part of its living walls. We celebrate the graduating class of 2020 by highlighting a number of remarkable Robson Hall students. Anjali Sandhu is one such student destined to make us proud.
Born practically next door to the University of Manitoba at Victoria Hospital and raised in Winnipeg in a family of UM alumni, attending UM was the obvious choice for Anjali Sandhu. The St. Mary’s Academy graduate completed a Bachelor of Science degree at UM before attending law school. “I decided to go into law because LSAT seemed easier than the MCAT,” she says. “Thankfully, I quickly discovered that I did have a passion for law once I started at Robson Hall.”
Her passion translated into many achievements, including winning numerous prizes, awards and scholarships for obtaining high marks and highest standings in many of her classes including Advocacy, Trademarks and Patents, Family Law, Corporations, and Evidence. A Dean’s List student (both in Science and Law), she has been a Pitblado Scholar, and an UMSU Scholarship recipient. After winning first place in the Robson Hall Negotiation Competition in the fall of 2019, she placed in the top seven in the national Canadian Negotiation Competition held early in 2020. She finished law school as her class Valedictorian.
One of three sisters, Sandhu credits her family for helping and encouraging her throughout her studies, especially her parents who instilled in her the value of education and her grandparents who immigrated to Canada so their children and grandchildren could have the advantage of and access to higher education. As for her sisters, Sandhu thanks “my sister, Antara who was always willing to pick me up from school and do late night snack runs for me while I was studying…also my sister Anaka, who didn’t really do much, but will be very angry if I don’t mention her.”
Did we mention that Sandhu is also a stand-up comedian and professional actor?
Even while attending law school full time and maintaining high marks, Sandhu was busy performing and writing. Most notably, she played the role of Eszter Vand in the CBC legal drama, Burden of Truth (Season 3, Episode 1), and wrote and starred in the 2018 Winnipeg Fringe Festival show I’m Not Taylor Swift, that received a four-star review from the Winnipeg Free Press. Sandhu was asked to do a special encore performance of the show for the 2020 Virtual Fringe on July 15 (at 8:30 p.m.).
“Acting, comedy and writing are a huge part of my life,” she says. “I would like to continue on with these alongside my law career.”
While in law school, Sandhu found opportunities to incorporate law and her theatre skills, when she wrote and performed a monologue for Sarasvati Productions, and wrote a feature-length screenplay for her Law and Popular Culture course – which she counts among one of her best law school experiences. She also contributed her talents to law school endeavours including performing stand-up comedy to help raise her fellow students’ spirits during Robson Hall’s Mental Health Week, and in support of the students’ annual charity fundraiser coffee house.
Even now, while articling at Winnipeg firm MLT Aikins where she hopes to pursue a career in Entertainment Law, Sandhu has a number of online (due to COVID) performances booked for this summer. Also on her non-law schedule this summer are plans to star in two short films she wrote, produced by Folks Films, and she is currently participating in BIPOC [Black Indigenous & People of Colour] TV & Film’s Mentorship Monday program. “Through the program,” she says, “I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Andrew Barnsley, executive producer of Schitt’s Creek, who gave me excellent industry advice!”
Some excellent advice Sandhu would pass on to future law students is “to find a way to infuse things that you are passionate about into your law school experience. This is possible with a bit of creativity,” she says, citing her own experiences of merging her interests of comedy and screenwriting with law school. “Don’t be afraid to ask to do your papers on a unique or unusual topic, or to do something outside the box,” she advises.
And get some sleep, she adds, recalling that her worst law school experience – an incident she describes as “too embarrassing to reveal,” occurred while sleep deprived. “A full night of sleep isn’t always possible while in law school,” she cautions, “so if you are running on low sleep, give yourself extra time to think before you say or do anything: Is this actually a good idea, or does my sleep-deprived brain just think it’s a good idea?”
Participating in several MLSA student groups was important to Sandhu, who was involved with the Feminist Legal Forum and the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers during law school. “I hope that these groups keep working towards more inclusivity and diversity in the legal profession, particularly for BIPOC individuals,” she says.
As a law student at Robson Hall, Sandhu says, “I appreciated the fact that many courses at Robson Hall are taught by practicing lawyers, who are well equipped to teach students the practical skills they will need once they enter the legal field.” Further, she says of the faculty, “Robson Hall students have the privilege of being taught by legal scholars, some of whom have written the leading texts in their area of expertise.”
Her take-away from her legal education is to have courage to make change. She advises future students who want to effect change using their law degrees, “to not be afraid to do things differently. The legal system is built on precedent, but this means that sometimes flaws in the system can survive for generations. If you feel that there is a better or more just way to do something, don’t get stuck following the status quo – challenge it.”

response:
**Step-by-step: No**
**Training: No**

The article lacks a clear sequence of ordered steps for completing a specific task, as it primarily focuses on the life and experiences of Anjali Sandhu rather than instructing the reader. Additionally, the procedural instructions, if any, are not well-structured or detailed enough to guide a language model toward deeper reasoning. The content mainly includes anecdotal experiences and personal advice rather than systematic methodologies or complex reasoning pathways.


document:
A navigation menu in a website helps users to move around the important parts of a website. WordPress allows you to create menus and submenus easily using the simple drag and drop interface. The location of the menus very much depends on the Theme used. This article shows you a step by step guide on creating and adding a navigation bar for WordPress sites.
To create a new custom navigation menu on WordPress, follow these steps:
Click on the box next to the pages, and then click on the Add to Menu button:
Drag and drop the pages to rearrange the sequence of the pages under the menu:
The menu locations depend on the Themes. In this example the 2021 theme has five different locations. Select the location for the menu to be displayed and click on the Save Menu button:
In this example, the menu is displayed on top:
Subscribe to receive weekly cutting edge tips, strategies, and news you need to grow your web business.
No charge. Unsubscribe anytime.

response:
Step-by-step: Yes
Training: No

The article provides a clear sequence of ordered steps for creating a navigation menu in WordPress, which makes it easy for the reader to follow along. However, the instructions lack sufficient detail and context needed for training a language model capable of deeper reasoning, as they do not expand on the implications of each step or offer explanations related to different themes or user scenarios.


document:
Local flavor spices up international hockey getaway
Middle-schoolers from Broome, Chenango, Schuyler and Tompkins counties will be part of an elite hockey squad headed north of the border this weekend for the start of high-grade international competition.
Owen Robitaille, Madison Lawrence, Ryan Wead and Skyler Mitchell are members of the Syracuse Stars, who will open play Sunday in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament. Competition will be staged at the 18,259-seat Videotron Center in Quebec City.
The Stars’ roster, formed through tryouts held in December, is an assemblage of some of the finest Pee Wee Major (born in 2005) talent in Central New York. Players from an assortment of winter travel teams comprise the Stars, a separate entity formed solely to participate in this premier event.
Robitaille, who attends Maine-Endwell Middle School and plays for the Utica Junior Comets, Lawrence (Norwich Middle School/Jr. Comets), Wead (Corning-Painted Post Middle School/Valley Youth Hockey), Mitchell (Boynton Middle School, Ithaca/Ithaca Youth Hockey) and the rest of the Stars begin play in the Class AA-Elite Division on Sunday against the Nord-Quest Pionniers.
Also in that 32-team bracket: Japan Select, Zurich Lions, Slovakia B Stars, Swiss Eastern Selects, Hershey Jr. Bears, Arizona Bobcats, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Syracuse Stars debuted in this tournament in 2017, when the 58th edition attracted better than 210,000 spectators through 12 days to have a look at 120 teams from 17 countries.
In a format that guarantees teams two games — and becomes single-elimination following the openers — the 2017 Stars started with an overtime win against an opponent from the Ukraine with 9,000-plus in attendance. The Syracuse team was beaten in its second game, but picked up exhibitions during the stay in Quebec, two contested at a mall rink with a roller coaster surrounding the ice surface.
The Stars will once again be coached by Robert Esche, Whitesboro native who played for the Phoenix Coyotes (1998-2002) and Philadelphia Flyers (2002-07). He is President of the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets and head coach of the Utica Jr. Comets Pee Wee team.
Esche’s assistant coaches include Patrice Robitaille, Owen’s father, who played two of his six professional seasons with the BC Icemen of the United Hockey League— most notably 1999-2000 (30 goals, 59 assists). Robitaille, 47, competed in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament for Pont Rouge (or, Red Bridge), 25 minutes from Quebec City, in which he was raised.
“I believe we lost in a quarterfinal but it was an amazing experience, even being local,” Patrice said.
Tournament alumni include Brad Park, Guy Lafleur, the Gretzky and Howe brothers, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy and Steven Stamkos.

response:
Step-by-step: No
Training: No

The article does not provide a clear sequence of ordered steps for completing a task; rather, it is a report on a youth hockey team's participation in a tournament. Additionally, the instructions or information presented are not structured in a way that would be conducive to training a language model in deeper reasoning, as it lacks detailed procedural guidance or a clear methodology for understanding the subject. The focus is more on context and background rather than on actionable steps or a process to follow.


document:
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response:
Step-by-step: No
Training: No

The article does not provide a clear sequence of ordered steps or detailed procedural instructions; it mainly consists of promotional content and contact information for a dealership. As a result, there are no actionable instructions or qualifications to facilitate deeper reasoning, making it unsuitable for training purposes.


document:
Almond Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies are super easy to make with only 4 ingredients. They are gluten free and use no dairy or refined sugar so they are a perfect bite size snacks that you and your little ones will love!
These almond chocolate rice krispies were a happy culinary accident. I was experimenting with a healthy rice crispy treats’ makeover and after adding almond butter and melted chocolate on top, I decided they would do well as mini cups and the final effect is amazing! They are wonderfully sweet and chocolaty but also light and airy thanks to milled puffed rice as one of the main ingredients.
Almond butter packs in some great protein into these healthy treats and the brown rice cakes add a nice boost of fiber which makes them a total win in my book! They still act as a healthier version of Reese’s peanut butter cup but you can pop in a few and not feel guilty about it. They are also great for kids and toddlers (my 2,5-year-old daughter fully agrees!).
Make sure to also check out my recipe for Healthy Rice Cake Snacks (6 fun toppings' ideas).
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
Rice cakes: use brown rice or multigrain rice cakes, whichever you prefer. If you are gluten free, check the labels.
Almond butter: I like the creamy kind but crunchy almond butter will also work.
Honey: you can adjust the amount of honey to your sweetness preferences. For me, ¼ cup is enough to make these cups sweet but you can add more or less, if you’d like.
Chocolate chips: dark, semi-sweet or milk are all great choices for this recipe.
HOW TO MAKE ALMOND BUTTER CHOCOLATE RICE KRISPIES
STEP 1: Place mini cupcake liners in a mini muffin pan. If you don’t have liners, you can also spray the pan with oil but personally, I like the pattern the liners leave on the chocolate, making them look like Reese’s.
STEP 2: Make the cups. Break the rice cakes into smaller pieces and pulse in a food processor until they resemble rice krispie cereal. Add almond butter and honey and pulse a couple more times until sticky and crumbly “dough” forms.
STEP 3: Press into the pan. Using a small spoon, place 12 rice-almond butter mixture into the lined mini muffin pan. Press lightly with your fingers to make sure the dough fills the bottom of the liners.
STEP 4: Melt the chocolate. The easiest way to melt chocolate chips is to do it in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring after in-between until smooth. You can also use a double boiler and melt the chocolate on the stove.
STEP 5: Pour chocolate & chill. Now it’s time to add melted chocolate on top of the almond cups. Divide it evenly between the 12 cups and smooth with a spoon, if needed. Place in the fridge to set, at least 1 hour.
SUBSTIUTIONS & VARIATIONS
- You can use any nut butter you like, if you don’t want to make these cups with almond butter. Peanut or cashew butter are great options, too! Peanut butter will make them taste closer to the traditional Reese’s cups but I like almond the best!
- If you don’t want to use honey, replace it with maple syrup.
- For a vegan version, swap honey for maple syrup and use vegan chocolate chips.
- These cups are naturally gluten free but just to be sure, check the labels, especially on the rice cakes.
For best results, store the cups in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.
MORE HEALTHY TREATS
If you try these Almond Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies recipe, be sure to leave me a comment and give this recipe a rating. I would love to hear from you and see how it turned out for you! You can also share and tag me on Instagram!
No time to make it now? Just pin it now and save the recipe for later!Print
Almond Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies are super easy to make with only 4 ingredients. These cups are gluten free and use no dairy or refined sugar so they are a perfect bite size snacks that you and your little ones will love!
3 brown rice cakes
½ cup almond butter
¼ cup honey
⅔ cup chocolate chips
- Line a mini muffin pan with paper or silicone liners, or spray lightly with oil.
- Crumble the rice cakes into a food processor and pulse a couple times until the mixture resembles rice krispie cereal.
- Add almond butter and honey and process together until blended.
- Using a small spoon, form 12 balls and push them into the mini cupcake liners pressing with your fingers.
- Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each 30-second period until the chocolate is fully melted. You can also melt it on the stove using a small saucepan placed in a larger pot half-filled with gently boiling water.
- Pour melted chocolate over the rice-almond cups in the pan. Use a spoon to smooth out, if needed.
- Place in the fridge to set, for at least 1 hour. Pop out and enjoy!
This recipe makes 12 mini cups. If you'd like more, just double the recipe and use 2 mini muffin tins or make it in two batches. It doesn't take long to set in the fridge.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Category: desserts
Keywords: cocolate brown rice almond cups, rice cakes, brown rice cakes, rice cups, rice snacks, chocolate almond cups, copycat reese's cups

response:
**Step-by-step: Yes**
The article provides a clear sequence of ordered steps for making Almond Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies, detailing each stage of the process from preparation to completion. The instructions are structured sequentially, making it easy for the reader to follow along step by step.

**Training: Yes**
The procedural instructions are well-structured and include detailed descriptions of each step, which can be beneficial for training a language model in reasoning and procedural understanding. Each step not only guides the reader through the cooking process but also offers variations and substitutions, encouraging deeper reasoning about the recipe's adaptability and ingredients.


document:
Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Michael Caruso, sharing with Jamie Hinchcliffe, was fastest of all on the first day of the Gold Coast 600, ahead of the two Ford Performance Racing Falcons of Mark Winterbottom and David Reynolds.
Practice sessions 1 and 4 were open to all drivers, whilst 2 & 3 were reserved for the international drivers only. In both of the international sessions, it was Marc Lieb who was fastest in the Tekno Autosports Holden Commodore, which he’ll be sharing with Jonathon Webb this weekend.
Lieb’s best time of 1:12.462 was just under eight-tenths of a second slower than Caruso’s fastest time, which was set in P4 as were all of the best times of the day.
Lieb’s closest challenger in practice three was IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe in the #2 Holden Racing Team Commodore, with Simon Pagenaud third in the #4 Stone Brothers Racing Ford.
In the overall end-of day standings, Will Davison and Mika Salo were fourth fastest, with Tony D’Alberto and Superstars Series regular Vitantonio Liuzzi fifth quickest.
Jamie Whincup, who shares his Commodore with Sebastien Bourdais this weekend was sixth fastest in the Triple Eight Holden, with Tim Slade and David Brabham seventh for SBR, James Moffat and GT1 driver Peter Kox eighth for DJR, and Darren Turner and James Courtney ninth fastest in the #22 HRT Commodore.
Rounding out the top ten was Craig Lowndes and Richard Lyons in the #888 Triple Eight Holden.
Qualifying and the first race of the weekend takes place on Saturday, with the international drivers required to drive the car for at least one-third of the 302 kilometre race.

response:
Step-by-step: No
Training: No

The article does not provide a clear sequence of ordered steps to guide the reader through completing a task; instead, it offers a summary of racing results and standings. Additionally, the procedural instructions needed for training a language model capable of deeper reasoning are not present, as the information lacks detailed steps or structured guidance that would encourage such reasoning processes.


document:
Posted by Richard Harrington
Here’s a video overview by contributor Rich Harrington about gear for time-lapse shooting.
Posted on August 28, 2012, in Time-lapse, Video Tutorial. Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off.
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response:
Step-by-step: No
Training: No

The article does not provide a clear sequence of ordered steps for completing a task, as it appears to be an introduction to a video overview rather than a tutorial with specific instructions. Additionally, it lacks detailed and structured procedural instructions that would be useful for training a language model, as there are no actionable steps or reasoning processes outlined in the text provided.