Mnemonics are really cool. My first introduction to testing mnemonics came in 2006 from Jonathan Kohl. Aside from being a commonly misspelled word, what is a mnemonic?

“A mnemonic device (pronounced /nɨˈmɒnɨk/[1]) is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered.”, Wikipedia.

Back in 2006 I learned of three powerful testing mnemonics; SFDPOT, FCCCUTSVIDS and HICCUPPS. Since then I have learned of several more and find I refer to them frequently. However, I do not find all mnemonics easy to remember. Mnemonics are easy to memorize when they evoke familiarity, imagery, and have cadence. The challenge is that a mnemonic that is easy for one person to remember may not be easy at all to remember for another person. Jonathon Kohl wrote an excellent blog “Learning Testing Heuristics” that speaks to the challenge of memorizing someone else’s mnemonics and the importance of developing your own.

I recently decided to compile a listing of testing mnemonics for my own easy reference. As I began searching I quickly came upon “The Power of Mnemonics”, by Parimala Shankaraiah. Jackpot! Here in Parimala’s blog I found an extensive listing of testing mnemonics. As I continued my research I found there were very few sites providing listings of mnemonics. With this insight I decided to publish a listing of mnemonics on my site. I know I will refer to the listing frequently and I hope others will find it useful too.

On my Resources page you will now find a link to a Listing of Mnemonics. If you know of a mnemonic I do not have listed, please email me .

There are many other great blogs that include references to testing mnemonics to share including:

• “How Do You Spell Testing?”, by James Bach
• “Modeling Test Heuristics”, by Jonathon Kohl
• “Exploratory Testing: Finding the Music of Software Investigation”, by Jonathon Kohl
• “Coming Up with a Heuristic”, by Mike Kelly
• “Transpection Transpected”, by Michael Bolton
• “Mind Mapping Your Testing Strategy”, by Anne-Marie Charrett
• “Test Design Links”, by Brian Marick

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4 Responses to “A Testing Mnemonics Listing”

1. jkowaluk says:

   June 11, 2010 at 10:00 pm

   Hi Lynn,

   Great post – definitely one worth bookmarking. I’ve found another one that you may want to add, from the BBST: Bug Advocacy course by Cem Kaner and James Bach:

   RIMGEA–”replicate it, isolate it, maximize it, generalize it, externalize it, and say it clearly and dispassionately”.

   In the course material, Cem states that this acronym could summarize the BBST Bug Advocacy lecture series. It’s brand new to me (I just read it about 10mins ago and instantly thought of your post), but it seems like something you could keep in mind when writing bug reports. I suppose if you want more explanation or background on it, you may need to talk to Cem or James.
2. Lynn McKee says:

   June 14, 2010 at 9:58 am

   Jason,

   Thanks for passing this one along. I have updated my page to include RIMGEA.

   Cheers,
   Lynn
3. Lynn McKee says:

   June 14, 2010 at 5:13 pm

   Thanks to James Bach for letting me know about the PROOF mnemonic by Jon Bach. I have updated the Mnemonics Listing on my site.

   Cheers,
   Lynn
4. Quality Perspectives - Blog says:

   July 6, 2010 at 9:58 am

   [...] month I posted “A Testing Mnemonics Listing”. Thank you to everyone who wrote me with additions to the listing. I have been posting the updates [...]