Testing to Destruction, Sometimes!

Davies, Alex.  Kobuk the Destroyer and Other Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test 

        Engineering.  New York: W. W. Norton, 2026.  ISBN: 9781324051299.   

 

What do you know about Underwriters Laboratory (UL)?  Or the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC)?  Or how jet engines are tested against bird strikes? These are just some of the groups  and products that Alex Davies presents in his examination the role test engineers play in keeping us safe in so many ways!

 

Alex Davies opens with Kobuk the Destroyer taking part in the IGBC testing of "bear-proof" products which he uses as a leading to the rest of the book.  He discusses the Limits that test engineers such as those at Underwriters Laboratory use on safes, elevators, and a host of other products.  Then he delves into the never-ending chore of Fool-Proofing a product so that an ordinary person can use it with out damage to themselves or others, hopefully. The chapter entitled Disintegration highlights how Boeing tested a new model plane on the ground to see how much force it could take before the wings came off.  Unfortunately, the software was not tested to the same degree.  In Scale, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers got highlighted with their scale map of the Mississippi River and Missouri River basin created to help with flood control.  The Dynamics of products let loose in the wild provides real-world impacts on what happens in real life and how that affects testing.  The penultimate chapter - Intention - focuses on The purpose of the product and what effect that has the testing process.  Then, in the final chapter, Alex Davies takes the products into The Total Test Environment and brings all the concepts covered together.

 

For an enjoyable and enlightening look at the unknown world of test engineers, do pick up Alex Davies' Kobuk the Destroyer!