[翻译]What ... and What Not

AlexQin

I've been working on a project with a group recently, and part of it involves writing a test strategy. As we were working on this, we started discussing the things we would do:

I would do some unit testing because XYZ. I would do risk identification using method MNO.

As interesting as what we would do is what we considered and decided we would not do:
I wouldn't bother stress testing because ABC.

It's become clear that for any list of things we would do, there are actually three separate lists:

    * the things we would do
    * the things we would NOT do
    * the things we hadn't considered

If we write down only the things that we would do, then we can't distinguish between ideas we considered and rejected - things we would not do - and ideas we simply didn't think of. Sometimes we really did think of everything, but that's pretty rare. Better to include a brief summary of the things we rejected as well as a list of things we will do. That allows us to explain our reasoning, making our assumptions visible for validation. It also allows others to suggest things that we didn't think of.

When you're making a list of what you will do, make a list of what you will not do as well. It'll help you make sure your lists are more complete.

AlexQin

我最近与一个团队在忙着一个项目，其中有一部分就是涉及编写测试策略。当我们开始着手的时候，首先讨论的就是我们要做哪些事情：

由于某某原因，我会做一些单元测试；我会用某某方法来做风险评估。

与我们要做什么一样有意思的是，我们要考虑并决定不做哪些事情：由于某某原因，我决定不做压力测试。

现在，我们要做哪些事情逐渐清晰明了，实际上，可以把它们分成三个独立的列表：

    *需要做的事情
    *不需做的事情
    *没有考虑到的事情

如果我们仅仅是把需要做的事情列出来，那么我们并不能够区分以下几个方面：我们考虑到的事情、我们不准备做的事情、以及我们根本就没想到的事情。有时候我们确实每件事情都考虑到了，但这种情况实属罕见。所以，比较好的方法就是，既把我们要做的事情列出来，也把不准备做的事情简单的总结一下。这样可以使得我们更容易解释清楚我们的推理，并使得我们的假设更实在。也可以让其他人提出我们所没有想到的事情。

当你准备将你要做的事情列一个清单时，不妨也将你不准备做的事情也列一个清单。这样可以使得你的清单更加的完整。

AlexQin

good job