Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Test Data and Tea Leaves

When I am testing my own software (or someone else's for that matter), I tend to use name like
  • Darth Smith
  • Lisa Simpson
  • OJ Simpson
  • Jill Hill
  • Garth Vader
  • Darth Brooks
  • Maryann *
  • Shawn Carter
And street addresses like:
  • Box 1
  • PO Box 1111
  • Box 1234
  • 742 Evergreen Terrace
  • 1313 Mockingbird Lane
  • 1313 North 13th Street
  • 234118 NE 12145th Avenue Court Suite 31712
And cities like
  • LA
  • Mockingbird Heights
  • Springfield
  • NYC
  • Uppersex
  • North South Bend
  • Old Young America
  • Terror Lake
  • Darth's Church
There are only 50 US states and a dozen Canadian provinces and the State of Confusion, so I have less chance to improvise here.
Internet Data:
  • dvader@deathstar.gov (some argue it should be dvader@deathstar.mil)
  • a@b.c
  • http://www.starfleet.edu
  • jill@enemyster.bus
  • helen@heckhole.co.uk
  • http://www.nile.com
  • null://foo.az
What can you tell about a developer or tester based on common test data.
  • I use "LA" because it is easy, often grouped with "Box 1"
  • The name "Jill" shows up often, my name is "Jack", do I need to say more.
  • I'm old enough to think of "Darth" as a name and not a title.  I am more of a Star Wars geek than an Star Trek geek; there are times when "Kirk" shows up, so I am not a purist.  (I think I've even used Darth Spock at one point.)
  • When I'm not in a hurry, I like to come up with the long complex addresses that are found in sprawling cities
  • Sometimes I will play off existing existing domains like nile or enemyster and I tend to use upper level domains other than .com
  • I watched too much TV as a kid.