Periodic Table of Data

The Periodic Table of Testing, an introduction and history

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  If you have any comments feedback or questions I'm eager to hear them so please get in touch. 

I'll be using the blog to share my thoughts on testing, feedback on events I attend and to share the things I find most useful. 

But the primary reason for the blog is to document my investigations and journey's through the world of testing using my

Periodic Table of Testing

.  

Periodic Table of Testing, a representation of the elements of testing in the style of the periodic table

Over time I hope to navigate through the table as I ask myself, do I understand what this is, how it works and how/when to implement this in the projects I work on.  After all, theory and ideas are all well and good, but if you can't then apply them, what good are they? 

The table is an ongoing work in progress and I expect it to change over time.  It could grow, have elements removed or even have a new sections added.  For example, I'm not sure if interpersonal skills should have its own column or section as there's elements in the table but they are so important perhaps I should highlight them? 

The table takes its inspiration from many sources.  I originally created the

Periodic Table of Data

 back in 2011 while working in a Business Intelligence role as a way to see how new data could fit into our existing framework.  It was also a way to understand what we already had. 

The idea was published in the Testing Planet in March 2012 and the article is available on the

Ministry of Testing website

Periodic Table of Data, a representation of the elements of testing in the style of the periodic table

While I've been playing around with this idea for some years there have been a number of recent influences I'd like to highlight in spurring me on to finally publish.  I attended NWEWT in March 2017 which is the

North West Exploratory Workshop on Testing

.  The workshop was on growing testers and I thought this could in some small way help testers navigate the world of testing.  Or even be used as a visual heuristic of considerations for projects.  Another contributor was

Ash Winter's Wheel of Testing

 and how he used it as a tool for the testers he managed.  

There are so many more influences I'd be here all day but a quick mention to Chris Pearson and Andy Lawrence at Computershare for supporting my crazy ideas to do stuff and beginning my education on all things Agile respectively.  

So that feels long enough for an introduction, please leave any comments or thoughts below.  Thank you.