focus for this week: Why don't birds fly backwards ?
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At the moment I am attending the class Rapid Software Testing by James Bach and Michael Bolton.

Now I would like to add heuristics of my own (though we did not cover the topic itself yet -
but I have seen some heuristics/mnemonics recently by others and now I am eager to also approach this topic).
Reading about heuristics is fine, but you better make your own ones, so you can take them in.
So, if you see, that my heuristics can be improved, please tell me, so I can improve them (and me).

Forgive me, if I select sometimes topics which are not polite.
But I think with these I can better remember. And also: this is my way of doing it

So, what is a heuristic ? (see James’ slides v 2.1.1 page 49)
a heuristic is “a fallible method for solving a problem or making a decision.”
Heuristics bring useful structure to problem-solving skill.

"Heuristic reasoning is not regarded as final and strict
but as provisional and plausible only,
whose purpose is to discover the solution to the present problem."^[2] - George Pólya, How to Solve It

Or as David Gilbert tells:
“Fallible?”, you may ask, “Why would I want to use something that’s fallible?”
Well, lets look at a slightly different wording of that same idea…
a heuristic is a general rule of thumb that works most of the time.
Now we can begin to see the value.
It is general, and works most of the time,
so it can provide a solution quickly, without thinking very hard or very long about it.^[3]

Where can I see some example heuristics? You can start here.

Author: Erkan Yilmaz (2007-02-19)