There was an interesting list of tests and their descriptions at The Braidy Tester. I particularly enjoyed the Build Verification Test (BVT) definition. Having once been a software tester and lived and breathed terms like BVT and FVT, most of us who were testing had these definitions in our head but I haven't seen such a concise definition before. Channel 9 also picked up this posting.

“...automation makes the most sense the closer you are to BVT; as you move away from that, the cognitive power of people will tend to find a broader set of bugs”. I whole heartedly agree. My old test team still relies on humans grinding away using test cases as opposed to pure automation. I am looking forward to checking out the integrated test features in Visual Studio 2005.

In the mean time, I am giving away source code that has 97% chance of formatting your hard drive for those who are interested.