Beautiful Testing

Chapter 5. Just Peachy: Making Office Software More Reliable with Fuzz Testing

Kamran Khan

It would be obvious to say that most readers have used office software and seen something beautiful in their lives—perhaps even simultaneously. And yet to talk, or even think, about the two together requires a stretch of the imagination. We like beautiful objects for a number of reasons: they are arresting and pleasingly unfamiliar; they distract us from the present moment and etch themselves into our memories. When found in office programs, however, these same characteristics activate opposite emotions. We are not pleasantly surprised by mysterious and complicated features or error messages that attract our attention. In fact, in an ideal world, our office applications would never interrupt us, and they’d be as unremarkable as a common chair or desk. So, why do the usual qualities of beauty turn ugly when they’re present in our office software? The answer lies in our expectations of how these programs ought to behave.

User Expectations

The word “office” has many connotations, but chief among them is its association with work. Indeed, the term “office” actually derives from “officium,” a Latin word that means performance of a work or task. Although the etymology is a secondary concern, it does remind us of the primary aim of office software: to help us complete our tasks efficiently and without any additional hassle. It is with this very goal in mind that Microsoft redesigned the familiar Office ...