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# Wrangling, Debugging and Testing
- URL: https://www.workroom-productions.com/wrangling-debugging-and-testing/
- Published: 2022-06-18T17:24:46.000Z
- Updated: 2023-09-28T13:16:59.000Z
- Description: Do we spend months getting our systems to a point where we can test? We do. Here's why, and what we can do about it.
- Author: James Lyndsay
- Tags: Workshops and Talks, Outlines

This is a talk about embarrassment. The embarrassment that happens when you’ve spent months on requirements and design, on coding and configuration, you’ve got plans, processes and people – and you’ve still got nothing working well-enough to test. This is a talk about the necessary, practical and unique work of wrangling and debugging – illustrated with nearly-true tales from years of systems integration testing.

Exploring **wrangling** (getting the system to *work*), we will dig into problems such as getting the plumbing right between system components, orchestrating authorisation for tools and testers, working with configuration data and managing interlocking shared environments. We will look into ways that testers can gain technical savvy and leverage political and expert champions to unlock problems.

Focussing on **debugging** (getting the system to *work well-enough to start testing*), we will look into situations where experts rely on trial and error, and when the earliest actions on the system reveal fundamental problems in performance, security, and usability. We will cover how to design bulk experiments to find working paths, how to build data for variety and volume, and how to bring organisationally-distant colleagues together to resolve trouble with cross-disciplinary insights.

Projects find discomfort in uncertainty – this talk will help you to anticipate problems and mitigate their effects.

## Supporting Articles

[Not Testing, but DrowningTesters whose work is to get the system to work... do we help them to work better?![](https://www.workroom-productions.com/favicon.png)Workroom ProductionsJames Lyndsay![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1600828576920-cb1528d7ac66?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fGxvbmdob3JufGVufDB8fHx8MTYzNjc1Njg3NA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.workroom-productions.com/not-testing-but-drowning-1/)

[Wrangling: Not Testing but Drowning 2It can take weeks of work to get to a testable system. Here’s why.![](https://www.workroom-productions.com/favicon.png)Workroom ProductionsJames Lyndsay![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1583300376343-98f8b54b1fd7?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE3fHxsb25naG9ybnxlbnwwfHx8fDE2MzY3NTY4NzQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.workroom-productions.com/not-testing-but-drowning-2/)

[Debugging: Not Testing but Drowning 3Your system is working, but it’s on fire. You reckon it’s down to your test config / environment, not a mistake in the code.![](https://www.workroom-productions.com/favicon.png)Workroom ProductionsJames Lyndsay![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1583911026798-907ec9f2241b?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDF8fGNvdyUyMHZldHxlbnwwfHx8fDE2MzY3NTc1NjQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.workroom-productions.com/not-testing-but-drowning-3/)