Displaying sound judgment in a complex, dynamic environment is a hallmark of wisdom.

-From the Wikipedia entry for “Sapience”

At WREST 2 in Indianapolis on May 14, I interviewed Jim Nilius, former Director of Testing at Systest Labs, a very tightly regulated shop in Denver CO that tests electronic voting systems. We discussed the applicability of the theme of the workshop, “Beyond Scripted Testing”, to the line of work his lab did. In his view, there is no space for unscripted testing in a regulated environment, simply because unless the tests are scripted they cannot be reviewed prior to being run, and if they cannot be reviewed then you cannot maintain your accreditation and your company will cease to exist.

I am not familiar with this line of thinking, but it got a lot of nods from around the table so it is probably a true dynamic. Which seems pretty scary and counterproductive, because it entirely stifles innovation and sapience in testing and drives it underground into what Jonathan Kohl refers to as a “shadow process“. I drew a system diagram that I believe represents the general state of a regulated testing shop.

(Here is the PDF. Contact me via gmail for the original ODP, editable in OpenOffice, if you wish to modify or upgrade this document under the publishing rules of WREST.)