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Showing posts from 2008

I have woken up…have you?

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Yesterday night I reached home from office at around 9PM, I turned on the TV news channels with hope, but could only see Taj burning. Even after approximately 48 hrs our India was burning. I felt angry, I felt annoyed, I felt terrible, I fumed on our leaders and then I felt like slapping myself. Why? I don’t know my neighbors, I don’t know whose car/bike is parked near my house, I don’t know my area members, I don’t know anything about the community I live in. Why? Maybe I do not have time? (A typical answer by our community) Maybe I don’t see the value in knowing them? Maybe it’s not my job? I work hard from day to night? Or maybe it’s my ego, laziness and carelessness? I think it’s all of these, that today I see my India burning; I feel I am also responsible for this terrible incident. I assumed I am a good citizen because I vote, but I feel our responsibility as a citizen does not end at voting. I today have taken the initiative to bring my area people together and to build a better

Award for Best Contributor to Testing Community - Test Republic

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Hi All, Felt like sharing the good news with you all I have been chosen for the award “Best Contributor to Testing Community - Test Republic” which shall be presented at the 8th Annual International Software Testing Conference on 24th November at the Leela Palace, Old Airport Road, Bangalore. Test Republic has truly lived up to it’s name and it’s quote “Meet. Share. Network. @ Global online social networking platform exclusively for Software Testing Professionals.” It has more than 2500 members and close to 200 discussions. I have learnt a lot from the discussions at Test Republic, and I hope to see you all as members and learn from you all. I thank Edista and Test Republic Team for running such a fantastic testing community and to choose me for the Award. Disclaimer : 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.

How do you measure and appraise testers?

- Do you use a tool to measure testers? - Do you measure them based on the number of bugs they find? - Do you measure them by the number of valid (acknowledged by development/product/ team) bugs they find? - Do you measure them based on the x% variance with schedule for a testing effort? - Do you measure them based on the x% adherence to configuration management practices? - Do you measure them based on the Ratio of defects found during testing (vs) defects found post release? - Do you measure them based on the x% system test coverage of the assigned functionality as measured through Reviews and Requirement Traceability Matrix? - Do you measure them based on the Test Environment Utilization Rate? - Do you measure testers based on how testers improve development teams?( http://blogs.msdn.com/james_whittaker/archive/2008/07/22/measuring-testers.aspx ) - etc For all those who strive by metrics and incentive plans based on metrics read this fantastic article “ Employees will always game i

Testing Interview Questions

Couple of month’s back I was invited for an interview at one of the big, reputed Indian service based company in Bangalore. This interview turned out to be an eye-opener for me at the state of testing in India. Let me start with the conversation I had with HR of the company. Me : When is the interview scheduled? HR : 12:30 PM Me : Could you please re-schedule it? Since it is a lunch time and I do not want the interviewers to be hungry. HR : HaHaHa… no Sharath our interviewers work in shifts, so there will be no such issues. Me : Ok then, I shall meet you at the location. Thanks. Date of Interview 12:20 PM I submitted all the required documents to HR, at the interview location 12:50 PM HR informed me that the interview panel will be back after lunch by 2:00 PM. A lesson taught by the mighty organization – “don’t show up on time for the interview” or “we do not value other’s time” At around 2:10 PM I am escorted to the interview room by HR. What followed was an enlightening conversation

Videos on exploratory testing with Pradeep Soundararajan

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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,

Why “For those who think Test Automation is easy, saves time, converts manual tests, etc,”? page element

Me: Why did you add the new page element “For those who think Test Automation is easy, saves time, converts manual tests, etc,”? in your blog? Me: I have been asked questions like # I am planning to change my job, which tool shall I learn? # Will only manual testing experience fetch me a job? # Shall I learn some scripting language? Will it improve my chances of getting a job? # What will I say if the interviewer asks “Haven’t you done any automation”? # Why don’t you automate the program? I have previously seen a test group do that, they run the tests and next day morning they have the results? # How hard is it to automate? All you have to record it right? # Let’s build a test framework; it will surely reduce testing time? # You should not be stuck with manual testing, you should start automating? And many more, so I felt the papers by legendary test gurus could help us understand “Test Automation” better. Second reason why I added the new page element would be When I was an

Bugs… with a human touch

“Dealing with yesterday’s bugs keeps part of our attention away from today’s bugs” – This statement from http://blogs.msdn.com/james_whittaker/archive/2008/08/11/if-microsoft-is-so-good-at-testing-why-does-your-software-suck.aspx by james whittaker grabbed my attention since I previously remember similar words from one of my manger before. In today’s software projects I feel bugs are treated humanlike. Last week my colleague asked me “What is the life of a bug?” To which my answer was - the bug is born when you find one in the program under test, the bug is issued a birth-certificate when it’s logged in the bug tracker. A developer who listened to our conversation expressed to torture it (bug). To which my reply was – the bug might die of a heart attack, or might have a slow death or might live in the dark stomaching your torture, until a day when he breaks loose, forms an army of his own or even better becomes a gladiator and takes down your empire. My previous manager used to addre

It’s Time or Never

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Hi All, My friend on gtalk asked me to find the name for image verification, which is normally seen in web blogs, website registration, etc. This led me to CAPTCHA: Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically. I being a black box tester, who believe testing is dependent on human skills of a tester rather than magical formulas that make human independent, this was a good discovery. Now, there are applications/programs which want to differentiate human from a machine. In the age where people around feel automating all are the solution, CAPTCHA emphasizes on the human skills. It posses a (1)hard AI problem – is a problem which is solvable by humans but not readily solvable by computers. Off late we see CAPTCHA used in most blogs, web registrations, etc to protect the online polls results, email addresses by spammers, website registrations by bots, spamming of blogs. The recent addition in the ICICI bank website is a virtual keyboard and they quote on their page that (2)The Virtual Ke

I cleared the AST BBST Foundation Class :-)

Hi All, I was overjoyed on clearing the AST BBST foundation class, shared the information with few of my friends and colleges the immediate response was “What is AST BBST foundation course?” Was it surprising? “NO” definitely not. BBST is no match to testing certifications like CSTE, ISTQB in terms of popularity. Why? Well, you might know by the end of the blog, but I do not guarantee. Let’s start with some basic fundamental questions. I recommend you all to write the answers for the below questions before you proceed, if you can’t well, continue reading. - Why are you testing? What are you trying to learn? - How should you organize your work to achieve your mission? - How will you know whether the program passed or failed the test? - What would it take to do a complete testing job? - How much testing is enough? Were you able to answer all the above questions, if “yes” that’s great but How do you know your answer is correct? How do you arrive at the objective? How do you

Is Tester|||Doctor?

I met with an accident one and a half week back, my shoulder was in pain. Guzzled some pain killers, applied Pain relievers on my right shoulder went to sleep, next day I could not move my shoulder. Next day... I called my Dad, to enquire if he knew a good orthopaedician. Got the details went to the hospital took an appointment and waited for 1.5 hrs to finally meet the doctor. The doctor started testing Doctor started with a set of questions How did you meet with the accident? Did you fall on the ground? Previous troubles with the right shoulder? Did you do some self medication? And so on... Later he examined the shoulder, confirmed where exactly the pain was. But asked me to get the x-ray, and handed a prescription for the X-ray. After getting the x-ray, doctor looked at the x-ray confirmed that there is no fracture but a ligament tear and required at least 2 weeks of rest. No it’s not the end it just got interesting 2 weeks no way doc is there a way I could start using my right shou

How many bugs in the software?

Hi All, How many bugs in the software? Let's read a story of Birbal ( Birbal was an advisor in the court of Akbar and is very popular for his sharp intellect and sense of humour ) One day Akbar was strolling in his palace gardens with his dear minister Birbal. Many crows were flying around. The King enjoyed their flying. Just then he thought, that how many crows could be in his kingdom and immediately posed this question to Birbal. Birbal thought a moment, then said, "They are ninety-five thousand, four hundred and sixty three (95, 463) crows in your kingdom, Huzoor." "How do you know that for sure?" the King asked. "You can get them counted, Huzoor." Birbal said. The king again said, "If there will be less than that, then?" Birbal replied immediately, "That means that the rest of them have gone on vacation to some neighboring kingdoms." "Or if there were more than that, then?" "Then it means that other crows are vis

Welcome, the Specialists

Hi All, Read this astounding article The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing to know about people with Asperger syndrome or some form of ASD, who are now considered best in class testers. I thank my college Vinod K for sharing this fantastic information. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Autism spectrum : The autism spectrum, also called autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or autism spectrum conditions (ASC), with the word autistic sometimes replacing autism, is a spectrum of psychological conditions characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, as well as severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. Behaviorally, certain characteristics identify the autism spectrum. The type, severity and/or number of autistic traits present determines the severity of autism in the individual. These autistic traits may be beneficial for some disciplines like science, mathematics, engineering and computer programming. Some autistic individu

Black box test puzzles

Hi All, Are you free? Are you ready to exercise your brain? Are you ready to learn? Are you ready to test? Then join me in exploring the Test Machines by James Lyndsay. Here is an arrangement, testers interested in solving these, which include me as well:-), shall share personal email id’s(send a test mail to sharu.b@gmail.com or post it in the comment), once we have a pool of testers, could be even 2, never particular about the numbers, shall start investigating these interesting puzzles. Warning - these machines may change the way you test! – James Lyndsay Disclaimer: 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.

Testers punished for testing...or are they???

Hi All, This came up from an interesting discussion I was having with a friend (tester). He was happy because he was able to get the software working so that he could run tests on it the next day. I felt a little awkward with the happiness expressed and so delved into his happiness to find out that • He was happy because he would not go to work in shifts (night) for testing, because he was able to get it started by EOD. • He was happy because he shall be able to run the tests as per the schedule defined. • He was happy because he could start testing. • He was happy because he could send a report to his manager about the test status as scheduled. • He was happy because he could find bugs faster, since other members of his team have not got the software to work yet. Well, there’s more to it and then came an interesting story. Two testers were asked to test 2 different features of a printer. During upgrade of the software, one of the testers removed the n/w cable connected and this crashe

Lessons learnt from a phone call

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Can you refer some of your friends for technical training at my college? – sis (sister) asked, Me: What is it about, why do you need them? Sis: for assisting my students clear campus interviews and get placed Me: What language/technology/domain trainers are you looking for? Sis: C, C++, JAVA. Well, the answer for this question could have been a “Yes” or a “No”. Let’s analyze both the scenarios…. Scenario “No” I say “No” to my sis, wish her good night, ask wife/mom to serve dinner, and sleep well on sleep well mattress. Scenario “Yes” - Commit to her, that I would refer some of my friends. - Call a friend who is good at any of them(C/C++/JAVA), or in some cases ‘master of all’, ask him/her to make some money, share my sis number. - Sis shall get a call from my referrals, invites them to her college, they teach C/C++/JAVA for may be a day. They go back with money, sis goes back happily that she conducted training, students go back with WHAT??? ( Neither I Know) Let’s analyze the same sce

Why TestToTester????!!!!

Hi All, Let's start with the basics. Who AM I? My name is Sharath Byregowda, a self inspired, passionate software tester with around 4 years of experience in testing. In the 4 years of testing, I have learned/ disagreed/ challenged/agreed/questioned -- the process/managers/co-workers/software/myself. On the personal front, I am married to a wonderful human being “sunitha”, I thank her for reading all my blogs/listen to my ideas/supported me/and sometimes forgive when I stay late :-). Why TestToTester?? After 4 yrs in testing, not very satisfied (though appreciated from clients and managers across most projects), the passion to learn more, the urge to prove myself, the urge to prove the industry that testing is not a click-click job (I shall not categorize every one into this, but yes I have come across many) all of these led me to the world of blogging, where I came across many inspiring, thought provoking articles. The blogs which inspired me the most are http://testertested.blogs