Explain pesticide paradox.
During an interview with an major MNC , I was asked this curious question of " What is meant by pesticide paradox ? " I have been working as Test Engineer for almost 4 Years but I have never came across this terminology. Can some one help me with a real time example ?
As defined on ISTQB Syllabus: Pesticide paradox: If the same tests are repeated over and over again, eventually the same set of test cases will no longer find any new defects. To overcome this “pesticide paradox”, test cases need to be regularly reviewed and revised, and new and different tests need to be written to exercise different parts of the software or system to find potentially more defects. So when a software is a subject of continuous changes and updating repeating the same test steps and scenario will make the software undiscovered bugs immune against the testing. That is why to avoid "Pesticide paradox" keep your test cases uptodate when ever a change or fix is applied on the testing area and always try to add new test scenarios and steps whenever possible. Also have different tester check different areas on each regression or release.