Testing on the Toilet

At Google we have pretty good internal documentation, tutorials and places to find good tips. If you know you don’t know something, it won’t take long to find the answer.

However, it’s slightly tougher to place something to be read, when the target readers don’t know they don’t know it. This was a problem the testing group were finding, as they wanted to improve sharing of practical testing techniques.

So, Testing on the Toilet was started. A regular weekly(ish) tip posted in toilet cubicles and above urinals. Short enough to be read while having a quick bathroom break.

I posted the first ever episode, sort of as a joke. And it unexpectedly became a thing.

Soon after, many visitors started noticing these postings.

Even the The Washington Post noticed.

And we got requests to make these available to put up in offices of other development teams.

So, we have.

https://testing.googleblog.com/2007/01/introducing-testing-on-toilet.html

Each episode will be made available as a toilet friendly PDF.

Update 2011: Mike Bland wrote more about the history of Testing on the Toilet and the Testing Grouplet.

Update 2024: Still going strong, and renamed to Tech on the Toilet