Brian Noggle writes about how he uses "skeleton strings" to help him when he probes an application under test. Just as skeleton keys unlock doors, these generic skeleton strings open up access to a wide variety of defects.

When you start writing unit tests, the tests that seem useful might be too involved to give a quick payback. The ones you write quickly might seem too trivial to add value. By starting with small, seemingly simple tests, you can both overcome the inertia that stops you from testing and add value to your project.

If you think that test automation is mostly about executing tests, then you're missing out on a big opportunity. Or rather, you're missing a lot of small opportunities adding up to a big one. Consider this: stop thinking about test automation as merely executing automated tests, stop thinking about test automation as something you need expensive tools for, and start discovering automation you can implement in a couple of days and usually with extremely inexpensive tools or tools you already have available. In this week's column, Danny Faught and James Bach suggest taking a more Agile approach to test automation.