Videos on exploratory testing with Pradeep Soundararajan
Hi All,
Creating good videos on testing is a hard job. A lesson learnt when Pradeep Soundararajan and I got together to create couple of videos on Testing. The experience made us wonder the effort Cem Kaner might have put in to create tons of fantastic videos for BBST, which are all available for FREE. I thank Cem Kaner and all test experts across the globe for sharing their videos for FREE, with sole intention of helping to build a better testing community.
On a Sunday afternoon we met at Edista Testing Institute in Bangalore to create some videos. The first challenge we faced was to decide upon a tool to record our videos. Pradeep had already spent hours together on tools that claims to do the stuff we want but actually didn't. We decided to use "Windows Media Encoder", but then we still had to explore the tool to understand how it might be working, and how we want it to work in order to achieve the desired results. After around one hour of investigating, exploring, testing we were all set to record the first video - The (bad) state of software testing interviews in India prepared by Pradeep.
We explored ways to record the video based on our expectations. It’s interesting to note that as exploratory testers we ran a short session of quick learning of the tool. Our mission was to learn things that matter to us for recording a video.
After we completed the video, we tested the video and it appeared absolutely fine.
With some hope and excitement, we took a quick bite and jumped back for the next video.
While taking a quick bite we had planned for our second video - to demonstrate exploratory testing. The roles we chose - Pradeep, the tester and me - the stakeholder.
I suggest you to watch the videos to unveil how Pradeep avoided traps that came on his way as a tester, uses tools (brain) to help him do manual testing, and importance of making notes, etc.
You can find both the videos @
The bad state of software testing video
Exploratory testing session demonstration – 1
You can also find the above videos + loads of other testing videos by testing experts @ Test Republic
Pradeep also teamed up with Ajay to produce another demonstration of exploratory testing and here is the link to it:
Exploratory testing session demonstration – 2
And the energy looks like we are going to have plenty of video demonstration of testing from Pradeep.
When Pradeep uploaded the videos, we got a surprise that the video was resized to 320X 240 instead of its original size 1024 X 768. This could be because Google Videos is resizing it when encoding certain format and resolution.
You could shoot questions on the video and we will be glad to address it at the comments section.
Update: As promised, Ajay Balamurugadas, Pradeep Soundararajan and I met on Friday 12th night to record our next video. Link: http://testertested.blogspot.com/2008/09/exploratory-software-testing.html
Disclaimer: The videos by Pradeep and me were created with the sole intention to help testers. All the blogs shared by me are my ideas, my thought, my understanding of the subject and does not represent any of my employer’s ideas, thought, plans or strategies.
Comments
What did you learn in the exploratory testing session that I did?
Can you talk about your experience of those 43 minutes?
This was the first demo of Exploratory testing for me. Though I have practiced RST in my project and with my team based on the concepts I had read from James Bach, this was a fantastic experience.
I made a lot of observations in the short session we had some of them are:
Questioning: Right questions at the right instance were asked. There were not too many questions nor there was less questions. You questioned to seek the information you were looking for from me.
Notes: Once you were provided with a mission, you clicked on Run and typed notepad. Noted down your mission and information that could help. Later all observations were recorded in the note pad.
Testing without Specs: This was fantastic, you were able to provide me the information I was looking for without a Spec doc, which many feel is almost impossible. We had to stop testing in the middle because of the low disk space, but the observation made until then was on the right track. Learning the product while testing was a good lesson.
Exploring the boundaries: I have come across many testers who feel it’s impossible to know the boundaries without a developer or a document telling them. Well, you just helped me understand how to locate boundaries.
Using tools: It was nice to see tools helping manual testers test better. Perlclip.exe is a great tool, and you used it wisely.
Oracles: The oracles you used which helped to recognize the problems when you encountered one.
And most importantly having fun while testing.
- Sharath.B
Right questions at the right instance were asked. There were not too many questions nor there was less questions. You questioned to seek the information you were looking for from me.
How do you know they were right?
How do you know what is right and at what context?
How do you think as a tester you can learn ask right questions?
I feel one could get good at asking better questions by practicing, respecting other's time, awareness of the context, and experience.
-Sharath.B
How do *you* practice questioning?
I practice questioning by asking questions to my managers/peers/co-workers/stakeholders (when I have access)/and most importantly myself.
-Sharath.B