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dwmkerr
Pesticide Paradox
Boris Beizer, in his book Software Testing Techniques (1990) coined the term pesticide paradox to describe the phenomenon that the more you test software, the more immune it becomes to your tests.
Just like, if you keep applying the same pesticide, the insects eventually build up resistance and the pesticide no longer works. Software undergoing the same repetitive tests build resistance to them, and they fail to catch more defects after that.
Software undergoing the same repetitive tests eventually builds up resistance to them. As you run your tests multiple times, they stop being effective in catching bugs. Moreover, part of the new defects introduced into the system will not be caught by your existing tests and will be released onto the field. Solution: Refurnish and Revise Test Materials regularly
In order to overcome the pesticide paradox, testers must regularly develop newer tests exercising the various parts of the system and their inter-connections to find additional defects.
Also, testers cannot forever rely on existing test techniques or methods and must be on the look out to continually improve upon existing methods to make testing more effective.
It is suggested to keep revisiting the test cases regularly and revising them. Though agile teams provide little spare time for such activities, but the testing team is bound to keep planning these exercises within the team in order to keep the best performance coming. A few ideas to achieve this:
Brainstorming sessions – to think of more ideas around the same component testing Buddy Reviews – New joinees to the team are encouraged to give their fresh perspective to the existing test scenarios for the product, which might get some new cases added. Strike out older tests on functionalities that are changed / removed Build new tests from scratch if a major change is made in a component – to open a fresh perspective
https://testwithnishi.com/2015/01/03/pesticide-paradox-in-software-testing/
