Professors from around the world discover happiness as new topic for their studies. In the IT world we also hear often that we have to bring happiness to the client, project leader, developers, users, ...In short: quality of life (another description for happiness) has a lot of studies to offer. They are based on psychology, sociology and the world of medicine. During our trip through the world of 'quality of life' we try to bring the quality to the software testing life. We learn about our reptilian brain and why it can be stronger than the work of a complete development team. We find out how to translate The Popsicle Index to the testing world. We learn how the 'zero tolerance for digital failure' and '"good enough" technology' go together in the New Normal.Discover how past experiences with an IT application influences our future thoughts and quality view on it. We also build on 'mindfulness' (which comes from the world of healing of deeply depressed people) because we all feel depressed sometimes in the development lifecycle of a software project. Come with a beginner's mind to this refreshing session about everything you didn't know about quality in real life. So you can implement it in the software testing life!

1. Happiness as Quality Measurement
EuroSTAR 2011
Jeroen De Cock

2. Welcome, experts!
Let’s start with a beginner’s mind…
Why?
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert's mind there are few"
The taste of testing

3. Reptilian brain
and
Prefrontal cortex
“In general, how happy would you say you are…?”
0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
very unhappy very happy
The Popsicle Index is the % of people who believe a child can leave their
home, go to the nearest place to buy a popsicle or snack, and come home
alone safely.
Measuring happiness

4. A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being:
The First Published Map of World Happiness
A world of happiness

5. How we evaluate
The two-system view
by Daniel Kahneman

6. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
by Viswanath, Michael, Gordon, & Fred (2003)
How we evaluate

7. What’s wrong with software?
- Software forgets
- Software is lazy
- Software is inflexible
- Software blames users
- Software won’t take responsibility
Apologists vs. survivors
“The important thing isn’t that the bear dances well,
rather that the bear dances at all!”
What makes software polite?
Polite software is interested in me, is deferential to me,
is forthcoming, has common sense,
anticipates my needs, is responsive, …
The inmates are running
the asylum
by Alan Cooper

8. 1) Zero tolerance for digital failure
2) Good enough beats perfect
3) The era of total accountability
- Interaction, personalization & customization
- Instant feedback
- Joint accountability
4) Abandon absolute control
- From the bottom to the top
- Self-correcting mechanism
- From man to machine
The New Normal
of Peter Hinssen

9. Our reaction
on the perception of the problem
Our observation
of the problem
The problem
1) Do I miss something?
2) Am I part of the problem?
3) Do we take enough time
and quite attention for questions?
4) What can I do in another way?
5) What will I do today?
6) How do I behave?
7) What will I do ‘differently’ today?
Thinking outside the box

10. Competence: refers to being effective in dealing with the
environment in which a person finds oneself
Relatedness: is the universal want to interact, be connected
to, and experience caring for others
Autonomy: is the universal urge to be causal agents of one's
own life and act in harmony with one's integrated self
Self-determination
Theory

11. The broken-windows theory
- social norms and conformity
- the presence or lack of monitoring, and
- social signaling and signal crime
50% defined by genes
10% defined by environment
40% defined by our thoughts and actions
Why happiness is
important

12. Questions?
Happiness as Quality Measurement
EuroSTAR 2011
Jeroen De Cock