1.7 PRINCIPLE NUMBER FIVE - THE SUM OF THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE CONSTITUENT PARTS

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1.7 PRINCIPLE NUMBER FIVE — "THE SUM OF THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE CONSTITUENT PARTS"

This well-known axiom is often forgotten or ignored, yet it follows on from the previous principle. Consider again the situation outlined above. Also, imagine that you have the additional information to that in Figure 1.1 showing field defects decreasing at time t as in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2: Field Defects Report

Putting the two pieces of information together may show that the new test strategy is discovering more bugs in testing before they are delivered to the customer. This information could be extremely useful, and may lead to the tool being made available to all test teams because of a demonstrable benefit.

Looking at the two items of information has given us much more than looking at each in isolation.

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