John Hunter's blog posts (all time)

6 Questions to Ask Your Software Testers

Sun, 13 Sep 2026

Making sure your software testing process is staying current with the best ideas in software testing is an important factor in creating great software solutions that your customers love. Often companies understand the need to stay current on software coding practices that are successful but fewer organizations pay attention to good practices in software testing. This often means there is a good deal to be gained by spending some time to examine and improve your software testing practices.

10 Questions to Ask When Designing Software Tests

Sun, 13 Sep 2026

Too often software testing fails to emphasis the importance of experienced software testers using their brains, insight, experience and knowledge to make judgements about what is the best course of action. Hexawise is a wonderful tool to help software testers but the tool needs a smart and thoughtful person to wield it and produce the results we all want to see.

Hexawise Buys the Beers

Sat, 12 Sep 2026

George Box was an amazing person, scientist and statistician. One of the traditions George started in Madison, Wisconsin was the Monday Night Beer Sessions.

An excerpt of Mac Berthouex’s introduction to An Accidental Statistician: The Life and Memories of George E. P. Box:

I met George Box in 1968 at the long-running hit show that he called “The Monday Night Beer Session,” an informal discussion group that met in the basement of his house. I was taking Bill Hunter’s course in nonlinear model building. Bill suggested that I should go and talk about some research we were doing.

Hexawise has decided to bring this tradition to software testing...

Chart of Global Wind Energy Capacity by Country from 2005 to 2015

Sat, 12 Sep 2026

In 2013 global wind energy capacity increased only 13% while in both 2014 and 2015 it increased 17%. Still 17% is less than any year in the last 10, except 2013.

At the end of 2013 China had 29% of global capacity (after being responsible for adding 62% of all the capacity added in 2013). In 2005 China had 2% of global wind energy capacity. At the end of 2015 China accounted for 34% of global capacity, the only country in the top 8 increasing their share of global capacity. The USA now has 17% of capacity.

Foreign Ownership of USA Stocks Reached 26% in 2015

Fri, 11 Sep 2026

In 1965 foreign ownership of USA stocks totaled about 2%, in 1990 it had risen to 10% and by 2015 to 26%. That the foreign ownership is so high surprised me. Holdings in retirement accounts (defined benefit accounts, IRAs etc.) was under 10% in 1965, rose to over 30% in 1990 and to about 40% in 2015. The holdings in retirement accounts doesn’t really surprise me.

Curious Cat Tax Proposals

Fri, 11 Sep 2026

My plan would have 3 parts. I like a flat tax, I doubt it will ever happen, but if we could get one I would be happy. Cruz proposes that (at 10%). I am fine with his proposal to eliminate all deductions but mortgage interest and charity. I would definitely tweak that some – no more than $50,000 in mortgage interest deduction a year and the same for charity. Basically subsidizing it a bit for the non-rich is fine. Subsidizing these for the rich seems silly so I would cap the deductions in some way.

Increasing the giveaways to trust-fund baby as Cruz and Trump propose is the single worst tax policy change that can be made. I have explained previously how bad an idea this is: The estate tax is the most capitalist tax that exists.

Social Security taxes are nearly equal to other income taxes. They are highly regressive. I would eliminate the current elimination of the tax on high income earners. I would just have the tax due on all earned income (no cap). If that let me reduce the rate, great, if not fine it would just make the fund solvent for longer. I would not increase the benefits due for high earners beyond what it is now.

Stock Buybacks, Giveaways to Executives and Non-GAAP Earnings

Thu, 10 Sep 2026

One of the things executives like about non-GAAP earnings is they pretend the stock they give away to themselves doesn’t have a cost to shareholders. When you call attention to spending over $2 billion in the quarter to buy back 3.2 million shares it seems silly to then claim that the stock you gave away shouldn’t be considered as an expense.

Reporting on the Noise Level of Lodging Options

Thu, 10 Sep 2026

I would love a service that reports on the noise level of hotel rooms, apartments for rent etc.. I am far more sensitive to noise than others. And in my nomadic existence the most annoying thing for me was noisy places.

Reading reviews will provide some level of noise warnings when past travelers complain about noisy conditions. But this is time consuming (reading through lots of reviews to try and see) and not very accurate.

Golden Rules for Making Money

Wed, 9 Sep 2026

P. T. Barnum wrote the Golden Rules for Making Money in 1880. He provides a few paragraphs on each of the 20 golden rules:

1. Don’t mistake your vocation
2. Select the right location
3. Avoid debt

...

"Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly."

Cliff Norman and Ron Moen Discuss the History of the PDSA Cycle

Wed, 9 Sep 2026

Ron emphasized the importance of the iterative nature of learning supported by the PDSA cycle. The importance of iterating the PDSA cycle multiple times is something that I find most organizations would benefit a great deal from. Another API consultant spoke on this importance at the 2006 Deming conference.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Wed, 9 Sep 2026

If your preference is to increase your odds of having a successful digital nomad experience then I suggest taking longer. Do 3 things:

1) Get experience earning money in a location independent way (you can do that where you live more easily than anywhere else).

2) Save up some money...

Health Insurance Considerations for Digital Nomads

Tue, 8 Sep 2026

Health insurance is something that many young healthy people don’t think about. And many digital nomads are young healthy people, though not all of them are. And if you are from most rich countries you may not think about health insurance as your country makes it pretty easy to just be treated if you have health care needs, without a need to have bought health insurance.

But when you are traveling outside your country health insurance is important...

Software Testing and the Impact on Quality

Tue, 8 Sep 2026

The aim for software testing is not just to fix the bugs software testers catch but to function as part of a system to figure out the reasons those bugs were created and improve processes so fewer bugs are created in the future.

Reflection of the Washington Monument on the Vietnam War Memorial

Mon, 7 Sep 2026

Photo of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. Most of the photo is shows a reflection in the shining granite of the memorial.

Photos of Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia

Mon, 7 Sep 2026

The Kuching riverwalk and a bit of surrounding area are nice for tourists (and locals) to walk around and enjoy.

Healthy Living Greatly Reduces Likelihood of Dying from Cancer

Mon, 7 Sep 2026

Lifestyle choices can greatly reduce the incidence and death rates from cancer. 4 factors can reduce the incidence of cancer by up to 40% and death rate by 50%: don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol in excess, maintain a BMI between 18.5 and 27.5, and exercising at a moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes or at a vigorous intensity for at least 75 minutes every week.

Backyard Wildlife: Great Tailed Grackle

Sun, 6 Sep 2026

Great tailed grackles are bueatiful birds with black base coloring that includes feathers with iridescent colors on closer inspection.

Bitbeam: Open Source Hardware Prototyping Platform

Sun, 6 Sep 2026

Bitbeam is an open source construction toy/hardware prototyping platform.

The Bitbeam project aims to define a set of parts which the users themselves can produce using increasingly available technologies for local fabrication like 3D printers, laser cutters and CNC mills.

The Edge-case Excuse

Sat, 5 Sep 2026

I have found “edge cases” to actually mean we don’t want to fix it. Often the issue isn’t needing some special code to deal with an “edge case” it is the coding was done poorly and breaks in many different “edge cases.” It isn’t that those edge cases need to be coded for. It is that the code should have been written in a robust way that didn’t break for lots of “edge cases” but the excuse given for not fixing the fundamental coding fragility is the bugs found are just “edge cases.”

Process Behavior Charts are the Secret to Understanding the Organization as a System

Sat, 5 Sep 2026

the power to improving performance is understanding if the problems are due to common causes or special causes. For common causes we need to explore the entire system, and all the data, and seek to improve the overall system. For special causes we need to seek what is special about the bad result and seek to eliminate that problem from causing problems in the future. Unfortunately most problems are system based and we most often jump to special cause thinking (so we often take the wrong approaches to improvement).

Deming’s Management Ideas Evolved Into the System of Profound Knowledge

Fri, 4 Sep 2026

W. Edwards Deming spent decades refining his thoughts on management and refining how to present those thoughts. That thinking culminated in what he call the System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK).

Over time his ideas remained grounded to what he expressed in the 1950’s. The expression of those ideas became richer and he raised the emphasis on understanding the critical interactions between the elements. He never saw the individual items (for example, individual points in the 14 points) as discrete items. They work together as a system. The SoPK provides a view that emphasizes the importance of the interdependence within the entire system of management.

Acting Without Theory Often Results in Wasted Effort

Fri, 4 Sep 2026

If you don’t understand why you take action you will find yourself wasting effort. You must have a theory that you can test in order to test what is working, what changes actually lead to improvement and to learn. If this bird wants to find food it will discover this method isn’t effective.

I wrote about a similar example before: Experience Teaches Nothing Without Theory.

Thoughts on Security Risks while Traveling (especially risks of violence)

Fri, 4 Sep 2026

How to travel safely?

Not getting drunk at bars proactively addresses a significant portion of issues.

Second, if you are coming from the USA or many other fairly high personal crime countries there are many places you are much safer while traveling than average risks at home are.

Ikea Business Model; and Growth and Society

Thu, 3 Sep 2026

all you have to do is look at all the extremely highly paid executives in USA charities to see that charities often take on the form of corporations being run 1st to make executives happy and 2nd for other reasons (charitable in the instance of charities, education in the instance of large universities, profits of shareholders and all the other stakeholders in the instance of companies).

How to Respond to a Request for Estimates on Software Development

Thu, 3 Sep 2026

If they say they need some way of deciding if doing that work is wise or something that is going to be so difficult that it isn't worth it then some kind of estimate is sensible. If they talk about scheduling, then other explanations make sense to me - talking about the issues with fixed estimates etc. but giving them alternatives of fixed schedule with variable features (if there is a business need to deliver on some date)., etc.

A Wise Way to Subsidize Electricity Rates

Wed, 2 Sep 2026

When I lived in Malaysia I learned that the residential electricity rates were very low for the low levels of use and climbed fairly rapidly as you used a lot of electricity (say running your air conditioner a lot). I think this is a very good idea (especially for the not yet rich countries).

Effectively the rich end up subsidizing the low rates for the poor, which is a very sensible setup it seems to me. The market functions fairly well even though it is distorted a bit to let the poor (or anyone that uses very little electricity) to pay low rates.

In a country like Malaysia as people become rich they may well decide to use a great deal of electricity for air conditioning.

Economics: Digital Nomads, Visas, Foreign Currency

Wed, 2 Sep 2026

The prohibition against work on tourist visas makes sense when work is defined as it was historically (being hired by a company in the country that otherwise would have hired a citizen)...

Few laws say what is legal they normally say what is not. I would imagine few countries specifically say it is legal to do work from another country (as a digital nomad, as a employee answering an email on your vacation, as a private investor reading the news and using the internet to buy or sell a stock using your broker at home, as a writer writing your book that will be published back home or whatever). It seems pretty obvious you are not blocked from answering a work email while on vacation but exactly at what point a country wants to draw a line on acceptable work on a tourist visa and unacceptable work is not easy.

Backyard Wildlife: Fox

Tue, 1 Sep 2026

I have seen this (or another fox) several times recently but this was the first time it stayed visible long enough for me to get a photo. It is fun having backyard wildlife to connect us to nature.

A few years ago another fox enjoyed laying out in the sun in my backyard for a few weeks.

Decades Later The USA Health Care System is Still a Deadly Disease for Our Economy

Tue, 1 Sep 2026

Health care is extremely expensive everywhere. But in the USA the health care system is twice as costly as other rich countries. This is an enormous burden on the USA economy. Nothing else comes close to being as costly in terms of direct spending. And there a a great deal of other damage done that can’t be seen in just the 100% more the USA spends on health care than other rich countries spend. And the health outcomes are no better for the extra hundres of billions of dollars spent every year for health care in the USA.

The costs of decades of failure are extrodinary.

Kuang Si Waterfalls, Laos

Tue, 1 Sep 2026

The water has an amazing blue color that seems almost fake in photos but is really that color. The blue is due to dissolved copper.

I think the falls are a wonderful side trip from Luang Prabang. The blue of the water is really amazing and it is a wonderful hike also.

Library of Congress, Washington DC

Mon, 31 Aug 2026

The Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington DC is one of the most ornate buildings in the city. It was opened in 1897. It is a suprisingly interesting travel desination.

A TV That Doesn’t Spy on You?

Mon, 31 Aug 2026

Most (all?) “smart”/spy TVs spy on you many different ways. Some even record what you say and save that information and send it over the internet. So often these days companies say we don’t do x or y only to later say that oh well we do… And even if they say you can opt out of being spied on if the device has the capability of spying on you relying on them to actually honor request not to be spied upon seems unwise.

It seems much safer to just have monitors that display the content you requested be displayed and don’t have spying capabilities built in.

Luncheon of the Boating Party, Phillips Collection

Mon, 31 Aug 2026

Inside of the Phillips Collection Museum in Washington DC with “Figure of the Oriental Theater,” by Paul Klee in the foreground and “Luncheon of the Boating Party” (1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the background.

Google Check of Whether a Website is Mobile Friendly

Mon, 31 Aug 2026

The tool is useful in pointing out potential issues to improve for mobile users. I do wish however that Google wasn’t so autocratic about its opinions, acting as though failing their tests is equal to failure mobile users. It isn’t, it is a decent indication there may be a problem, but it is not proof there is a problem.

Don’t Hide Important Content Using Coding Gimmicks

Sun, 30 Aug 2026

The hidden text here is due to hiden content that only becomes visible once the user clicks something (and instead of going to a page that highlights that content, some content is unhidden and other content is added to the hidden content on the page). It is just a bad Ux practice in general (as with many Ux issues there are odd cases where it can make sense).

Don’t Use Short URL Services

Sun, 30 Aug 2026

I am against using url shortening services to redirect urls for 4 reasons.

Short urls add a point of failure – they go out of business and the urls go bad (or even worse get redirected to whoever buys the url service domain) or sometimes the short urls just expire and are reused (which is really lame)...
You lose the tremendous information value that a real human readable url provides users...

“Our Problems Are Different” – Not Really

Sat, 29 Aug 2026

It is very common for people to see their situation as special and so different that they can only learn about management from some situation identical to the one they face. But this is a misunderstanding of what learning about better management practices is about. It isn’t an effort to find practices to copy. It is an effort to learn about managing organizations made up of people so that you can apply those ideas to your specific situation.

W. Edwards Deming and the Leander Way

Sat, 29 Aug 2026

Often people will say Deming isn’t just the tools. That is certainly true. But using tools and data to make improvement efforts concrete is important.

As Deming said, best efforts are not enough, you have to know what to do. But he also said, “Best efforts are essential.” Tools are not enough: and like best efforts, using them without understanding the management system can do damage. But tools are also essential and Leander’s experience shows a long term effort to integrate quality improvement tools into the management system to achieve long term continual improvement.

Institute Leadership

Fri, 28 Aug 2026

The aim of leadership should be to improve the performance of man and machine, to improve quality, to increase output, and simultaneously to bring pride of workmanship to people. Put in a negative way, the aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men, but to remove the causes of failure: to help people to do a better job with less effort.

W. Edwards Deming

Seek to Improve How You Learn, Don’t Just Accept That You Can’t Do Better

Fri, 28 Aug 2026

Learning about how people learn and remember is important to allow you to communite well. And most people seem to understand this. But they also seem to have no shame in not improving their performance in relation to these common weaknesses...

What I see is people spouting these statistics, not as a way of learning what they need to improve themselves but as a way of explaining that it is inevitable and they won’t do any better (or even bother to attempt to do so). It just isn’t true that you can’t do better. You can train yourself to learn more than most people when the material is presented in a less than perfect manner by learning how we commonly fail to learn and making efforts to do better yourself.

Visual Management and Mistake-Proofing for Prescription Pills

Fri, 28 Aug 2026

Mistake proofing is often really mistake-making-more-difficult (for some reason this term of mine hasn’t caught on).

But the idea is pretty simple: when you have processes that are important and at risk of failure, design processes with elements to make mistakes hard (and ideas such as mistake-proofing and visual management can help you guide your mind to ways to create better processes).

The entire process needs to be considered...

Encouraging the Next Generation of STEM Professionals

Thu, 27 Aug 2026

Those with STEM degrees have better career options than others (in terms of nearly everything: higher pay, lower unemployment and higher satisfaction with their careers).

It is true the education path for STEM is more challenging than for most careers. That is a reality that won’t change. If people are turned off by hard work, they likely wouldn’t like most STEM careers anyway. So that reality I think is fine. But the design of STEM education could be greatly improved to avoiding turning off many people who would enjoy the education and a career if the education process were better.

Transforming a Management System – A Case Study From the Madison Wisconsin Police Department

Thu, 27 Aug 2026

You may ask what the role of Quality Leadership was in the transformational process? To put it bluntly, unless Madison changed their top-down leadership style within the organization they knew they were not going to be able to sustain any of the other changes.

This may be the major finding of Madison’s experience!

To get a snapshot of what went on within the Madison department during this time of intense organizational transformation, see the following ten years of organizational effort (1981 to 1993) that occurred and the steps that were taken.

Leper King Terrace, Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Wed, 26 Aug 2026

The Leper King Terrace is founds on the North end of the Terrace of the Elephants in the Angkor Thom complex, north of Bayon temple (Siem Reap, Cambodia). There is a narrow pathway that winds between the wall of the terrace.

Singapore Zoo

Wed, 26 Aug 2026

The Singapore Zoo has a great reputation, and for good reason. It isn’t cheap to get in, but for that money you do get a very nicely designed zoo. The zoo also supports various conservation efforts and research projects.

See photos on my visit to the zoo in the post.

Data is Important and You Must Confirm What the Data Actually Says

Tue, 25 Aug 2026

If you do not have operational definitions for data provided in your organization, as you often will not, you need to figure out if the data is worth trusting (possibly by visiting the gemba) or whether you need to establish operational definitions and make sure new data is collected using the operational definitions.

Often the variation in the collection of data will hamper your ability to use PDSA. If you practiced PDSA as you should, this wouldn’t be a problem, because you would make sure data had operational definitions.

Without reliable data, the conclusions that will be drawn from results ads a great deal of potential for error to your effort.

Data is Important and You Must Confirm What the Data Actually Says

Tue, 25 Aug 2026

Without an appreciation for the gemba, where the data was collected, it is easy to be mislead by the data.

The most common waste of effort in examining data is reacting to the expected variation of a system as if it is something special. We have discussed this in many previous posts, for example, We Need to Understand Variation to Manage Effectively. After that, I think there is a good chance of failure to appreciate what the data is, and is not, telling us based on mistaken assumptions about what the operational definitions were...

Podcast with Lynda Finn: The Value of the Simple Run Chart

Tue, 25 Aug 2026

Looking closely at a specific result is helpful if the result is “special”; has an identifiable special cause for that result. But in most cases the result is do to common causes of the system and the most effective strategy to improve is to look at all the data and seek to find improvement to the overall system that will change the overall performance of the system.

Deming’s Stage 0: By What Method?

Mon, 24 Aug 2026

Ron talks about W. Edwards Deming teaching a 2 week course on consumer research in Japan in 1951: that course included a section titled “the art of questioning and interviewing.” Dr. Deming had participants go out into the street of Tokyo and interview potential customers. Those interested in Lean Startup will recognize this activity.

Ron Moen’s presentation explores what “stage 0” should look like (Deming provided little guidance). Ron decided it was important to start with the customer need. When gathering data, to learn if the idea has merit, the data collection should be made at the actual place of work by the people doing the work (gemba).

If Japan Can... Why Cant We? – 1980 NBC Special Report

Mon, 24 Aug 2026

When this was broadcast 35 years ago there was an immediate demand by business to learn and apply Deming’s ideas. It is hard to understand how great an impact it had, from our current position.

...

Throughout “If Japan Can, Why Cant We?” executives and front line workers talk about how important it is to involve workers in improvement efforts.

A Powerful Tool: The Capacity Matrix

Sun, 23 Aug 2026

One of the things that I learned about at that seminar was using a capacity matrix to improve student learning. It is one of those ideas that when you hear about it, immediately you realize this is a vastly superior method to those current used. I am cynical/experienced enough to know that just because much better methods are available, and explained to people, is no guaranty they will be used.

A Powerful Tool: The Capacity Matrix

Sun, 23 Aug 2026

The basic idea of the capacity matrix is to track your capability for each concept:

awareness (information) – I am aware of this idea and can recall pertinent details as needed.
knowledge (understanding and comprehension) – I can explain this idea or theory. I can translate the idea into my own words. I can make an example to explain the idea and demonstrate learning.
know-how (analysis and application)...
mastery (judgement and evaluation)...

...

It seems to me that obviously such a manner of matching potential employees to the needs of the organization is a huge improvement upon current methods...

Standardization Doesn’t Stamp Out Creativity

Sun, 23 Aug 2026

Standardization (and reducing variation) are means to improve performance. They are not means to dehumanize the workforce. W. Edwards Deming presented a management system that emphasized the importance of joy in work and encouraged the creativity everyone brings to work. Thinking that creating standardized work processes to bring that about are about making everyone be the same is to completely miss what Deming proposed.

Ron Moen and Cliff Norman Discuss the Evolution of Deming’s Management Ideas

Sat, 22 Aug 2026

I share the believe about the management system expressed in the system of profound knowledge and the interaction of the components as the most powerful aspect of Deming’s message. It is hard to convey that idea easily.

Many other powerful messages Dr. Deming gave are also important, things like: control charts, the fallacy of blaming or rewarding individuals for system performance or variation, PDSA improvement cycle, respect for all employees, viewing the organization as a system, the importance of long term thinking with constancy of purpose, aspects of theory of knowledge (confirmation bias, seeing “patterns” where they don’t exist, accepting special cause explanations for system results…), customer focus, innovation, etc..

Before Deming’s 14 Points for Management

Sat, 22 Aug 2026

(principles 16 to 21) The consumer is the most important point - Performance of a product is the result of interaction between three participants: (1) the product itself; (2) the user and how he uses the product; (3) instructions for use, training of customer; service provided for repair.

Riding a Bike and the Theory of Knowledge

Fri, 21 Aug 2026

This video is a wonderfully visual example of how hard it can be for us to drop our ingrained habits and pick up new ones. When you watch this think about management concepts that are so difficult to drop that managers feel like this person trying to ride a bike.

The bike looks just like any other bike but reacts in a different way to the bike riders actions. But that small adjustment on how the bike reacts is very challenging to overcome and makes you very uncomfortable while you try to make sense of this odd new system.

People Copy Examples and Wonder Why They Don’t Succeed

Fri, 21 Aug 2026

Learning from what others do well can be effective if done properly. To improve your practices you can see what works for others and then abstract the principles for that success and then determine how to adopt those principles to your situation.

Myth: If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It

Thu, 20 Aug 2026

Dr. Deming did very much believe in the value of using data to help improve the management of the organization. But he also knew that it wasn’t close to enough. There are many things that cannot be measured and still must be managed. And there are many things that cannot be measured and managers must still make decisions about.

I wrote a post on my Curious Cat Management Improvement blog about how to manage what you can’t measure (in 2010).

Why do you hire dead wood? Or why do you hire live wood and kill it?

Thu, 20 Aug 2026

The common objection to seniority pay is, "It’s rewarding dead wood!” My response is, “Why do you hire dead wood? Or why do you hire live wood and kill it?”

Peter Scholtes, The Leader’s Handbook, page 331

Analyzing Data Requires an Understanding of the System Generating the Data

Wed, 19 Aug 2026

If you bring in a new effort to focus on customers and solicit more feedback if you don’t get an increase in complaints that is likely not an indication of success but an indication of failure. One of the easiest way to reduce the number of complaints counted is to make complaining, in a way that is counted, difficult.

Using data to measure the effectiveness of new efforts is important. But you need to understand the risks of being led astray. That risk is much greater if those analyzing the data are not intimately familiar with the processes generating the data and the operational definitions used to collect the data.