It was a mundane Monday morning in office & so to perk myself up, I just started browsing www.satisfice.com; I opened the People recommendations page which I had missed/skipped last time I was browsing the site. The Title of this page said James Recommends & I found a list of 15 names with a description about each of them.

James Bach had listed a few names which made me reminisce King Akbar & his 9 Jewels or Navratnas.I clicked on the name Mike Kelly & I was like wow!

Mike Kelly’s blog seems to be like a Treasure Island. The categories seemed so interesting & the posts very informative. I was drawn towards the categories Heuristics & I’M an idiot (yeah!!! Sounds familiar isn’t it).
Check out these gems!

Managing focus when doing exploratory testing
Christina (Tina) Zaza’s advice for all of us:
• block off time to test (1 to 2 hours), close out email and IM, and schedule a conference room if needed so people know you’re unavailable
• before you start, open up everything you think you’ll need to do your testing effectively: applications, databases, spreadsheets, tools, etc… — this way you won’t get distracted or slowed down mid testing
• prioritize your tests – she listed three methods she uses:
o faster tests (or quick tests) first
o higher risks tests (or tests more important to the business) first
o group features together to reduce context switching while testing
• don’t stop your testing once you’ve started to write up defects or to ask developers/analysts questions — note them while you test, and then do that after your session is completed

The Hoffman Heuristic: Why not try them all?
Mike Kelly narrates how a small but a very interesting assignment given by James Bach made him reminisce Doug Hoffman’s Heuristic. This heuristic is based on Doug Hoffman’s testing of a massively parallel system

The Pirate Heuristic
Which says , when you run out of ideas – steal someone else’s,Pretty Interesting,what do you say.

Quick Testing Tips update
Which brought me to Quick Testing Tips website.

Coming up with a heuristic
It mentions about the heuristic test strategy by James Bach,Test Reporting Heuristic MCOASTER

Simple tips for testing application navigation
Some simple test ideas that can be pulled from the article include:
* Can you navigate without having to mouseover icons to figure out what’s what? Is it easy to find the link to the home page (or other core areas of your site)?
* Is there a way to distinguish between internal and external links?
* Can you easily open links in the same tab and a new tab? If you open it in the same tab and click back, do you actually go back to where you were?
* Can a user easily tell where they are within the site or application?

The list is endless, I am still reading, why don’t you drop by & join me.

Cheers,
Jassi

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Weekend Testing Session #26 Experience Report

Date: 20-02-2010

Timing: 3pm - 5 pm IST

Mission: To test the Application and Report the bugs/issues in it.

Application Tested: Buddi ver-3.2.2.10

Operating System: Windows XP with Java installed

Bug Reporting: www.Bugrepository.com Select WT26 from the Project folder

Coordinated By: Ajay Balamurugadas,Jaswinder Kaur Nagi

Participants: Ajay Balamurugadas, Arvind Jaiswal,Arun, Allmas Mullah, Jaswinder Kaur Nagi ,Shakthi Bhuvaneshwaran, qudsia.yousaf

Application briefing: Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background.

Arun: had initiated the discussion session, since the application was new for him he had no idea how to start testing with ,but once he had hands on the functionality, there were no problems for him. According to him the application was quite unstable,he felt there were many issues generating graphs. Overall it was a good experience for him since it was the first time he was testing any application without any requirements & that too a Financial application. Weekend Testing would like to appreciate him for helping other participants to understand the application.

Arvind: Learned how to test an application where there is less time and no requirements given as such. It was quite challenging for him. He also learnt about any finance related software, how it can be as he had never worked till now. He also came to know about himself and how can to handle such a situation.

Allmas Mullah: According to her the application was very basic & there was not so much fun in testing it and the main thing was she didn’t find it intuitive enough When she tried to read the tutorial to get more info, she found that it was online but was expecting it to be a part of the application which made her realize that it was completely not a desktop/stand-alone application, so having no internet connection can lead to no access to its Tutorials. According to her if a 55 yr old lady who is not used to computers uses this application then the Tutorial can be a problem. If the application is used by a novice user then it scores low in being attractive enough for the novice user to use, he/she would rather use book and pen. Her overall experience testing under pressure can be fun if one knows how to maintain one’s calm

Shakthi Bhuvaneshwaran: Was initially quite apprehensive as he was unable to understand what exactly he was supposed to do, but when helped by Arun he could continue very nicely. Shakthi did Ad-hoc testing. Being a Financial application made it quite interesting for him to test, he tried to learn the application with out idea of functionality this made it more interesting for him. Overall it was very good experience and he enjoyed testing the financial application.


Ajay Balamurugadas: Ajay was the facilitator for the WT#26 but unfortunately there was a power cut at his end so he was unable to continue, But he was back after an hour and decided to test the application later after the discussion was over.

My Experience:

I downloaded the application to test but found that it needed Java Virtual Machine, so downloaded Java. But then Ajay called up saying that since there was Power cut at his end I will have to take up the session and do the coordination .I was a bit apprehensive and quite nervous but I took up the challenge. I was worried since Ajay has been coordinating since almost 25+ sessions, it can be possible that I will not be accepted by the participants.But things went well & Ajay was also helping me through the phone calls & then online, the session was completed successfully. Many thanks to Ajay & Weekend Testing for giving me this opportunity.

I would like to Reiterate the important Lesson what Allmas said:

“Testing under pressure can be fun if one knows how to maintain one’s calm”

Date: 13-02-2010

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm GMT (3-4 pm Testing & 4-5 pm Debriefing).

Mission:To test the below mentioned application and Find quality related valuable information about the product.

Application Name: Virtual Magnifying Glass 3.3.2

Reporting issues: www.BugRepository.com

Participants : Anna Baik , Ajay Balamurugadas ,Indra, Jaswinder Kaur Nagi, Jeroen Rosink, Krishnaveni K, Markus Gärtner , Nagashree Manjunath , Shiva Shankari , Zeger Van Hese


As usual the Mission and Debriefing session were awesome. We started our Testing by introducing ourselves.

I downloaded the application from the link provided by Markus Gartner. But for some reasons the installer did not start it was getting an error related to permissions. Strange enough it was my own Personal PC & I had all the rights, so no idea why that was happening. Markus helped me by sending application installer via Skype but still no success.
As a last resort I closed all the applications and restarted the machine but unfortunately it did not work. So ,on Markus’ tip-off I reported this as a bug, the only one by me yesterday, pretty weird for me .Surprisingly, I tried to install it again today and the installer was okay. I was able to install so no idea what happened yesterday.

Debriefing was awesome, in which we came to know that Zeger and Ajay tried to pair and test together using SFDPOT Oracle by dividing the work between them, they found some serious usability issues

Jeroen used a different approach altogether .If you are interested in knowing the approach used by Jeroen and other testers to test the application, please dive in to read the entire Transcript here (Transcript courtesy: Markus Gartner)

Lesson Learned:

"Test this" is not a mission you should accept, we need to ask questions, so that we do not fall in the Traps we create ourselves by assuming things.

Some wonderful quotes:
“So many traps we create for ourselves” - Ajay B

“We need to clear the traps quickly” - Ajay B

“Clearing traps is a skill. Recognizing traps is a bigger skill” - Ajay B.

“More often than clearing I see people working around traps” - Anna Baik

“Sometimes we get so used to working around traps, we assume they will always constrain us” –Markus Gartner.

“It's a success if you can say "testing is fun" afterwards”- Jeroen

“Minds are shaped when guided under pressure in a certain direction trying to maintain vision and control” - Jeroen

“I feel as if I am triggered to think, probably my subconscious would just do its work in the background about new things that I learnt from this session and how could I have done better “ - Nagashree Manjunath


Happy Reading

Related Links
EWT05 – I can see clearly now
Weekend testing EWT05: my first attempt
Through the looking-glass, and what testers found there – EWT05
Weekend Testing - Motivating ans knowledge sharing platform

Date : 06 – 02 -2010

Time : 3 – 5 pm GMT (3-4 Testing and 4-5 Debriefing)

Mission :
You are contracted by three stakeholders to evaluate URL shortening services. The stakeholders are
• A heavy twitter user tweeting a lot of internet references over the day
• A university student wanting to share stuff from his homework/courses over the internet with his fellow students
• An online magazine publisher for referencing further readings on the internet

The pre-selection already has taking place and the most promising products are
• http://tinyurl.com
• http://bit.ly
• http://3.ly
• http://is.gd
• http://tr.im
• http://stnx.at

Evaluate the products for their applicability for the given users and report any problems the mentioned stakeholders may run into.

Participants :Annabaik, Ajay Balamurugadas , Markus Deibel ,Markus Gartner, Jaswinder Kaur Nagi ,Phil Kirkham, Tony Bruce

My Views:

I was quite apprehensive, as I had already delayed in joining EWT session, only 35 minutes were left and the mission seemed to be huge at least to me when I read it.
I did a Google search to find information related bugs/issues found in such URL shortener websites but then I stopped after 5 mins, reason- we all know how addictive “Google Search” can be, I felt once I start searching using Google, I will be drawn towards reading the results and more results and spend time in searching.
Time was ticking, so I decided to test URL to find any bugs/issues and I did find some. The bugs were reported at http://www.bugrepository.com/

At 4 pm (GMT) the Testing was stopped to start the Debriefing session, in which each of us shared our views about how we felt about the mission, the approach we used and lessons learned.

Are you finding this interesting then please read our Chat Transcript posted here.(Transcript courtesy: Markus Gartner)

Wonderful Quotes from this session :

There is 'no solution' - most testing answers are 'it depends' by Phil Kirkham.

Just like there is NO 'Best Practice', there is no ONE Right solution by Ajay Balamurugadas

I also look at all the participants here and think "I'm not worthy! These people are all so accomplished!" :) Then I think "great, what good company to learn a lot in" by Annabaik

Happy Reading

Related Links
EWT04 – Battle of the URL Shorteners

Apart from Testing ,what do James Bach, Dr. Cem Kaner, Pradeep Soundararajan, Dr Meeta Prakash have in Common? Weekend Testing.

Date: 06- Feb-2010

Timing: 3 pm – 5pm

Mission: A Group discussion about Testing, Traps in Testing, Requirements, Skills

Guest Participant: Dr Meeta Prakash.

Coordinated By : Parimala Shankaraiah , Ajay Balamurugadas

Participants:Ajay,Arun, Dhara ,Krishnaveni,Indra,Jaswinder,Last Samurai,Nitesh,Pari,Suman,Sunil,Ramakrishna,Rakshith


The Session started off with the question “What is Testing”?
Discussion continued on Topics like Traps in testing, Traceability ,Requirements and ended with important Skills needed in Testing.
Dr. Meeta Prakash very patiently replied to each of our queries and solved our doubts giving us some important leassons.She even Shared a link to understand Tree Diagrams which can be used to track traceability .

Overall the session was quite interesting and productive.


Major Discussion Highlights to remember:
What is Testing?
Testing is technical investigation/evaluation of the product to provide quality related information to the respective stakeholders
It is no different as applied to software from other domains &
the 2 aspects of verification and validation become the key identifiers while testing

What are the major Traps in Testing?
1. Not being able to ask the right questions
2. Aiming for a Quantity or number instead of quality of bugs.

Important Skills Needed for a Tester:
1.) Asking the right questions using the 3 columns approach
• Write the question
• Write key requirement coming out of it
• Track dependencies and outcomes.

2.) Objectivity in approach
• Objectivity means that you should not have a negative approach while testing. You should be able to see through the rationale behind each failure you observe
• To report each and every failure either as a defect or as an
• Not only just thinking of negative test cases but also be considering what way the software modularity flows and how can it be broken


The Entire Chat Transcript can be found here

Related Links:
WT 24 : Testers’ Day Out With Dr. Meeta Prakash

It’s been quite a while since I have blogged, Bangalore weekend Testing has reached its 21st Chapter. Europe Weekend Testing kicked off on 16th Jan.

BWT Chapter 20 had given us a great opportunity to discuss with Dr Cem Kaner regarding specifications based testing , it was awesome .Unfortunately I missed the second part of BWT due to the huge Power cut at my place But Thanks to Twitter , I received a Tweet by Ajay about the Europe Weekend Testing session and I jumped with joy, there’s more,Skype crashed and a great amount of time was wasted in uninstalling and reinstalling it , by the time I could join I had only 17 minutes. The Help feature was disabled .I tested the application for 17 minutes. I did find a couple to bugs but did not send my bug report ,I was late we were supposed to send in 11 minutes and also I wasn’t aware of the Report format, nor could ask due to time constraints and the bugs found were just 3.

I became a silent observer of the discussions happening later enjoying the questions, discussions and suggestions given, all stalwarts of Testing, wow. Right from questions like if asking to STOP testing was a trap, can we search for bugs already found using Google and whether Tester’s having DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE are helpful or not. Well looking forward to participating in more of these sessions, blogging more about them.

Lessons learnt:
• Remember the lessons learned and keep on applying them.
• It is okay to be a silent observer but be alert.
• Speak your mind out, I liked the way Maik asked questions in case he had any doubts.
• Have to learn to start preparing the Report as soon as Testing begins.
• Not to be panicky if unable to find a bug in the first few minutes.
• Try to explore the Application for a few minutes before starting to Test.
• Most important not to be hesitant to blog about it :)