Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Microsoft office live small business...

Microsoft office live small business…

Microsoft has innovated a new product called Microsoft office live small business. Great place to build your site, choose domain (free for the first year), Add email and store/share docs. All this is for free, at the same time you get some (functionality) bugs which are also free. (But for lifetime)

Today, I got a mail from one of my friend saying he has found a Microsoft website were anyone can build their website and get their domain registered for free (only 1 year but free).
Doesn’t that sound great and fill you with a thrilling curiosity to experience a new product, as far as I’m concerned I was.

Singing in was an easy task so went on to create my profile while creating a profile there was a field enter credit card information where in, I was asked to fill in my credit card detail at that point a thought ran to my mind asking a question to me,
Question: what if I have a debit card instead of credit card, if that was the case then am I not eligible to sing up. Which was a bit fare question, forgot that case and went ahead.

The same field got loaded after few seconds with a message which says “if you get this message more than once, (link) report it as a recurring problem message 2004”
When a tester manipulates this statement as per his understanding this message it meant, if you get this screen more than once then please report it on this link (message 2004) with this they are trying to say we had found this is an error in the year 2004 but yet we couldn’t solve it. WOW!!

The main motive of this field was to ask the user to sign the Microsoft terms of use, and to fulfill this need the same field had a button at the screen end (read and sign the Microsoft terms of use)
When I clicked that button new screens within that same space opened with another statement saying “Review and accept the agreements” below this,
“Clicking I accept means that you agree to the window live services agreement (this was a link to agreement) and privacy (link)”.
The funny thing was the whole page and even both the link pages (window live… and privacy) none of them had a link or a button as “I accept”. Great isn’t it?

So thought lets go for a help link (at the right hand corner). A help page opened but, with a perquisite words in search box and even the language was different it appeared to be Hindi (Indian language). I clicked the search button which instead of helping me showed some errors as if help option needs some help. Fantastic!!

I was frustrated after repeating that same task for more than 5 to 6 times, felt like irritating so thought lets sign out and visit after some time. Clicked the home page link and from there sign out (link) I really didn’t knew that there was some more fun to come surprisingly, sign out link redirected me to an awesome page which again had two statements “You have signed out of Microsoft Office live” and “To return to office live” with this statement there was a button which had no name on it. Ok considered.

After reading these two statements a normal or you can say a rational user will think that yes we have logged out of our account.
Now, being a tester we are not either a normal or rational user (just kidding). It was amazing to see a button named as sign out (at the top right hand corner).
That means I haven’t logged out of my account, great!
Ok let’s consider this case might have occurred due to some reason but, clicking that sign out button should put me out of my account, don’t you think so?
Believe me I was really shocked because I couldn't sign out, that button just kept on refreshing the page.
Second thought lets try that ‘to return to office live unnamed button’ again the page kept on refreshing and irritating me.
I can say, I was forced to close the window unwillingly.


these two are my first videos, hope you'll like it.

Monday, April 27, 2009

What a tester does?

My main focus is on what does a tester do?
Actually, on Sunday I met my social friends which are mostly developers as well as been in developing for a long time (experience, mini=1 max=5). They thought to blast me with their developing idea as we are aware, all the developers think testers are devils for them, God knows why and what makes them think that…
I tried to explain them the whole concept of testing and even why testing field has got a different position.
The place we met was CCD (café coffee day) and before this discussion started we had planned to leave that place within next half an hour but, would you believe that discussion continued for two hours with 25 coffees and 60 cigarette between 6 people (5 developers 1 tester) no one realized when, where and how time went on…

We all where enjoying the discussion because we included waiter, shop manager, parents, teachers, boy walking on road and even Gandhi-ji in examples to prove our respective points…
Slowly and steadily the topic started heating up and we all started shouting like any thing, believe me we all where like politicians shouting in parliament but, suddenly from some where the speaker (shop manager) came into picture and requested us to calm down, manager was a nice person coz twice he tolerated our noise but third time he pleaded us to leave the café so, we finished our topic and decided to meet up again on next Sunday with the same topic and same café. Left for our respective home (God save the ccd manager)

While returning back home I realized a pattern in different question asked by developers,
Eventually question where many but motive was the agenda, I went into flashback and re-winded all question and you know the entire questions where revolving around different patterns of questions which are as follows….
Agenda
1. Who is a tester?
2. What does Software testing mean?
3. Why testing came in software?
4. How testing should be done?
5. Why not developers can do testing?
6. Why do we need testers?
7. Value of testing?
8. Is testing good or bad?
9. Whom exactly testing benefits?
10. Why there is no qualification for a tester.
11. What a software tester does?

I explained them the entire 10 question but got a bit confused when question 11 came up to me, what a tester does? (And added the following point)
What actually a software tester do to a product, add value, add confusion, add in an extra brain or create misunderstanding. What a tester does? (I thought the best suitable answer would be “ Testing ” that is what a tester does isn’t it? )

But would like to here your comments on this question…
What a tester does in testing?

Friday, April 24, 2009

What Does BUG Mean...

What is a bug?
A bug is an error, a defect, a mistake, failure, fault and many more things can turn up to a single word called bug.
As per my knowledge a bug is an action performed by humans unknowingly or unconsciously.
There are many types and ways of creating bugs but, if some listed there are GUI, Hardware, Functionality, communication, lack of resources, requirement (specz.) and many more to go…

What does a BUG do?
Bothers when Unidentified under a Given time…

When a bug is found?
Brings out Unsatisfactory Grounds...

Why a BUG is found?
Brick Upper-class Group...

These are some description of BUGs.

No one likes bugs neither a developer and nor a tester. It wouldn’t be wrong if I say, being in testing field a tester has to find bugs but, if a single small bug skip outs from his hand then
God save testers.
BUGs BUGs BUGs BUGs BUGs BUGs

Some time it sounds like we (testers) are investigating a real time murderer or a serial killer. Off course bugs, finding them red handed is not an easy job but, we can say testing is fun coz bugs are our friends. Friend’s coz they (bugs) help testers to learn and improvise quality of a product and not just quality many more hidden aspect of a product. Some time developers don’t like this friendship between bugs and a tester, they think (assumption) being for a while in testing testers become magnet, a magnet which attracks bugs they automatically stand in front of testers saying, now that you have found me try your hands to solve me(kill) .
Talking about developers and tester, why can’t a developer find a bug and why always a tester does! We can compare this by an example of a parent (developer) who thinks my child is the most innocent child in this whole world but, they don’t realize what a (testers) teacher has to undergo with child’s splits personality in a classroom.

As we say a coin has two face same ways a bug also has two different faces, first face which is very harsh, rude and nasty, second one which teach us a life time lesson.

Quite a few similarities between a tester and bug see, tester find nos. of bug and bug show nos. of faces. By finding a bug testers achieve their motive and by creating a nuisance bug achieve their motive, bugs irritate testers and testers irritate developers, bug marks his presence in a product and testers also mark their presence while testing a product.
As we say quality cannot be defined same way a bug cannot be defined.
I also prefer James Bach and Michael Bolton definition of a bug which says “a bug is anything that bugs someone who matters”
Many testers had opposed or you can say do not agree with this statement due to some reason.
According to me this statement does define a big part of bug.
Let’s divide the statement and try to make it simpler, “a bug is anything” = true isn’t it?

** Theory **
Prove “a bug is anything”.
A bug can be a functionality bug, a technical bug, hardware bug, GUI bug many more … a system is made up of 100,000 parts (assumed) and software can be a build of 10,000,000,000…… number of codes in this bug can be any where. That means a bug can bother you from any part of system or software and anything can turn as a bug.
Conclusion: - a bug can be anything so, be prepared!!

Prove “that bugs some one”.
As it is proved that a bug can be anything now being a bug he cannot sit ideal, a bug has to live up a standard life by creating a standard error, fault, mistake and many more words…
Usually when a human goes through a machine and finds that the machine is not working or performing as per his need or requirement or finds something disturbing or irritating, humans name’s it as bug, mistake, fault, error and many more…
{For example, an innocent child at home can be a bug or bother someone might be the teacher or an outsider. (Something weird)}
And this bug, mistake, fault, error…. Is made for everyone, might be in different form… (Something they really create a great nuisance.)
Conclusion: - bugs always bug someone so, be prepared you might be the next!!

Prove “Who matters”.
Your system is not responding well or software is not getting installed even though you have the required hardware who is bothered YOU.
Your child is not performing well in his exam who is bothered YOU.
Being a tester, software tested by you turns up a failure or PM (project manager) says there are many bugs now, who should be bothered YOU.
Conclusion: - when some thing belongs to you or your work (job), its you, for whom it does matters.
There is a very thin layer between winning and losing.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Searching The Meaning Of Software Testing

Software testing …
1. Who is a software tester?
2. Why do we need software tester?
3. What make a good software tester?
4. What does software testing stand for?
5. What is the definition of software testing?
6. Why do people take up software testing as a career?

Answering these questions is not an easy task because answers to these questions are very controversial and very debatable but, one can surely get an answer to these questions only if YOU keep Yourself in center of these questions.

1. Am I a software tester?
2. Why am I a Software tester?
3. Does my work speak for me?
4. What qualities made me a tester?
5. Do I learn from my work?
6. Is testing the best job for me?

When you answer these questions, you’ll get the real motive of software testing. When I answer to these questions I got an answer for a question what is software testing?

“Software testing is an experimental process, in search of quality.”

I understand that quality cannot be measured but, by quality I mean the level of customer/client satisfaction.
As we know the requirements are a never ending story, in this case testers are responsible to bring a standard level for a product by understanding and questioning the product.
It’s good to have a definition of your own but, you got to believe and understand the real motive of software testing.
I believe & accept Dr. Cem Kaner’s definition as a motive of software testing which says “Software testing is a technical investigation for the purpose of revealing the quality of a software product on behalf of stakeholders.”

It’s not wrong if I say, testers are critics for software because they are the one who forms and expresses judgments on a product or truth of a matter.

Even though, we add value to a product we get to hear questions like this,
Why do we need tester?
Being a tester we play one of the crucial roles in building software then too they ask,
Why have you chosen testing as a profession?

As we know, each and every one in this world some how play a role of tester but, yet we don’t have the definition which explains what testing is all about?

Monday, April 13, 2009

Test republic

Series of registration page…


As we know there are multiple dimensions to view a particular object. The following post is just an example of my observation and dimension…

Firstly, let me thanks Edista for making this community where in fresh testers like me get an opportunity to discuss a point with one of the best testers in this world. Thanks a ton…

After a wonderful practice on registration pages, tried my hands on test republic’s registration page a community where all the testers reside.

I truly understand that there are many a things which we assume to be wrong but, no one complaint about it so, it goes on…

When I got to know about the www.testrepublic.com, jumped directly to Sign Up, so that I can explore as well as learn and discuss more about software testing. This is what I found on the registration page, an ungrammatical sentence according to Microsoft words say’s “Problems Signing Up?” WOW!!

This was supposed to be tester’s perfect website but, as said earlier no complaint so, let it go…

Here’s another one,
when I click the above link, it means I have a problem in “signing up” Right?But, there is a statement saying “Problems Signing Up or Signing In” now, where did that ‘signing in’ came from?
Here’s another one,

when I click the above link, it means I have a problem in “signing up” Right?But, there is another statement on that same page saying “Forgot Your Password? Click here to reset your password” now, before signing up how one has forgotten the password which is not yet created?

When I visited the sign up page, thought there wouldn’t be any issues on this community since it’s a community of testers. Testers-legal person to screw up an application (as per developer's...just kidding).

These myths of mine didn’t last for to long because I came across another statement on the register page which was bit confusing, which say’s “We won't display your age without asking”.
We won’t display your age without asking but, whom? Mr. prime minister, the army man, anil kapur or some one else, whom are you gone ask before publishing my birthday?
I surely know this is not an issue but, just a weird thought, on other hand we cannot straightly deny the question whom?

Turning my head towards field “Email address” where in page accepted the email address #@#.com. Isn’t that great? (I have attached a screen shot as evidence).


Next field password, Microsoft words considers “a” as a word so thought why not put a single alphabet as password, believe me it did accept the password. Isn’t that great too?
I surely understand this is not a bug or defect but, purely a weird thought, on other hand we cannot deny that the strength of password is weak.

The last field on registration page, verification image. If we do not enter anything then an error message appears saying “Please enter the code that appears on the right-hand side.” and the field name is “Type the Code on the Right” a small contradiction between both the statements.

Secondly, I think when we have an image verification field it should be case sensitive on this page it’s not. Again it’s not a bug or defect or error but, just wanted to inform.

After this investigation we reach a page where we can create our profile, again an interesting page.
Wanted to write lots of thing about this page but, time has restricted me.
Through a screen shot I would like to give a simple example of how I created my profile.

I know after inspecting my profile and the e-mail address, admin would delete my account or ask me to fill in correct details.

My question is why we need a person to check each and everyone’s profile?
If we make our first page (sign up page) strong, will the need of this person exist?(The above statement is only for reducing admin’s work load, I truly understand being an admin and handling different task is not at all an easy job.)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Testing with testers desk.

Testing the register page was fun for me but, if I had the database or the codes it would have been more fun because without database and code I was unable to put in exception value directly from the back end.
For example: we had to choose a particular value for fields which had a drop down there was no exception values for that fields, like Preferred course, qualification…etc…

There were some questions which were running in my mind while doing this black box testing…
1. “Name“ whose name are you asking for? My uncle’s, my dad’s or some one else…
2. “Qualification” whose qualification are you asking for? My uncle’s, my dad’s or some one else…
3. “Date of birth” whose date of birth are you asking for? My uncle’s, my dad’s or some one else… why the year field has its years starting from 1975, a person born in 1974 cannot ask for an advice or if he/she is born earlier to 1975 then that person is not eligible for any other courses is it?
4. “Year of completion” why the year field has its years starting from 1995, a person completed his Bsc. in 1994 cannot ask for an advice or if he/she has completed Bsc. earlier to 1995 then that person is not eligible for any other courses is it?

5. There are two spell mistakes according to me,
Field --> how do you know about us --> Referred by friend
Field --> how do you know about us --> Email from us?
Etc….
Using testers desk data I have found up some error in register page and writing down the whole steps wouldn’t be a good idea so what I did is took some screen shot in which different data were given and the form was accepted. The downloaded CSV file from testers desk, if saved as an excel file it can also be used for automated testing through QTP.
According to me the validation of all fields where not defined properly except the mobile field. The screen shots would give a clear idea.
--> A very weird error when I press 'Back' of the browser after submitting my registration page.


--> As you can see in screen shot any value is accept by 'Name', 'Experience' and 'Your city' fields

--> As we can see the 'Name' field also accept numerical values.

Experience,Email and yourcity field does accept any special values.

As I said, there is a small spell mistake for the word 'referred'.

--> Please check the name, experience, email and your city fields...

As I said, there is a small spell mistake for the word 'email from us'.

--> Please check the name, experience and your city field, I was able to leave this fields empty.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Testers Desk.

http://www.testersdesk.com/

Wow!! A great help for testers.

I am talking about an online desk for testers, where we can create test cases, reduce our data, do permutation and combination, random date picker, create strings, email creator, and many more things can be performed with the help of testers desk. Great isn't it!!

I can surely say this is a site were a tester can perform more than 50% of testing, now what is 50%?
50% is the documentation part which we testers have to create and this 50% also considers the thinking process like, permutation and combination between three different field or generating different emails lots many things…

My sir had informed me about this tool and a blog (http://blog.testersdesk.com/2009/04/from-testers-for-testers-by-testers.html) where we have a sample register page to test using testers desk.
Believe me guys it has a damn friendly GUI to handle and very interesting to explore.
Here is the link to register page, if you would like to experience it to yourself and do use the testers desk.
http://arcusinfotech.com/registration.php.

My experience on testers desk…

Done some testing stuff on register page and created some data using testersdesk, it was more of learning than testing.
The way I did testing was bit different, firstly I ran a test for the whole page…
First file...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14073804/full-page.


Then I tested and twisted each and every field differently some what like this…

Second file…
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14073982/New-Microsoft-Excel-Worksheet.

Being a tester it is obvious to find (bugs) mistake.
Following are some confusing points I found in testersdesk and looking forward to see the changes.

1. The special character we use for testing for an example “” and ‘’ these character are not exported in the same form through CSV file which we download. I know this is not a bug, it’s a CSV’s limitation but just wanted to inform.

2. On ‘pair wise test case generator’ while uploading an input file there is a note saying “File Format - any text file with data like the below” does it means both Plain text and rich text file. If yes, then let me inform you that it does not support word document.

3. On pair wise Test case generator(in whole application) it does accept all the special character like “!@#$^&” but the percentage character ‘%’ is neither accepted in for parameter nor in value. If there is a % character an exception error is shown.












But, over all it was an excellent experience…
Seriously, a great help for testing community…

Thanks to all the team members for creating this site…

Kind Regards,
Shikhar...

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Bugs on DishTv...

Let’s have a look on entertainment world…

Dish TV…
Description: Dish TV is India’s first direct to home entertainment service. It is an Essel Group initiative is a satellite broadcasting service.

No a day’s dishtv is celebrating its 25 million viewer’s creditability for marketing and promoting its product but, are they providing a quality product for the value what their customers pay? I don’t think so!

Let’s have a look on the official website of dishtv and ya, before moving ahead let me inform you, so called king khan (shahrukh khan) is the brand ambassador of this product.
I am sure, even he wouldn’t have bothered to look at the website of product he is endorsing.
Are these people suitable or should I say eligible for being role model?

Here’s the link: http://www.dishtv.in/
List of bugs…
1. The very first link on the website “Buy dishtv” gives an error saying “page not found”. WOW!!

2. Secondly, the entire link on the extreme right displays the IP address instead of Domain name. I know this not a bug but, from google can I directly reach a page carrying an IP address. NO.

3. Click link “Existing Subscriber” it redirects you to another page on that page we have a link for New user Click here now… on that page there is an option saying Already have an ID Sign IN and if you click that link there’s an error saying “ The webpage cannot be found”.

4. On the Existing Subscriber page we have two options saying “Forgot Password? Click Here... & Forgot User Name/Password? Click Here...” You can see this both links are redirected to a same page. What’s the use?

5. Under Contact Us option there is an option saying ‘Feedback Form’ guess what ‘Page not found’.
And many more to list down…

This is the website on which you’ll make the payment from your bank account, ask a small question to yourself, Is this website safe to make payment or recharge your account?

What a website, truly taking customers for granted and they know it very well, Indian customers are not aware of their rights, customer rights so chalta hai…
Come On People Demand Quality For The Value You Pay…

Dictionary

Meaning: Free time = a new website to test online.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

The very first thing we do to find a meaning of a word, open a dictionary, thats what I did but after solving my purpose ran a small test on this website and guess what i found "Dear Bugs".

On this page you'll can find a search box and four different radio buttons.
1. word/article 2. starts with 3. ends with 4. text.
Step--> select the 'starts with' option and leave the search box empty now click search button, by default it takes in " S/". Where did that come from?
Instead of that an error saying "please insert a value for search" should alert the user.

Step--> search box empty and select 'ends with' option now click search button, by default it takes in "E/". Where did that come from?

Step--> search box empty and select 'text' option now click search button, by default it takes in "D/" and the text radio button revert back to option word/article. Strange !!

Wow !! That was good....
waiting for some more Free time...

IRCTC house of Bugs…

IRCTC house of Bugs…

One of the most visited website IRCTC used by N number of user and also a house of N number of bugs.
On 6-4-2009,
I was planning to book my (dad’s) tickets to Delhi so, the first website can into mind was IRCTC.
Website Worth: $5,289,855.21
Daily Page views: 2,415,459
Daily Ads Revenue: $7,246.38

I visited the website and the performance (server response) was good(I.E 7).
The first step was login, entered username and unfortunately, I entered a wrong password.
And as usual I got an error of wrong password or username. Good enough.

I repeated my first step with a correct password and I was surprised to see the result, there were some codes on the screen. Great isn’t it?
(I have taken some screen sorts of that page as evidence.
Screen sorts, because I knew this is something which is not gone repeat again.)

But, at the same time one question raised in my mind and that was,
Would it be safe to transfer money through your bank account?
When the basic level has bugs then, what about security level (card no. & passwords)?

Talking about the maker of this website “Hintechsys”.
Visit the website (http://www.hintechsys.com) and experience sample errors.
1. Portfolio option where the spelling of “Here” is “hrer”. Great!
2. Click the “Contact Us” option at the end of the page and you’ll see a beautiful error saying “Internal Server Error”. WOW!
3. Click the “Article” option at the end of the page and you’ll see a beautiful error saying “404 Error - Not Found”. WOW!
And many more….
This kind of service we provide to our Indian customer. Great isn’t it !!
In India “Sab chalta hai”.

Some questions to be answered...

My humble request to all the readers, Please consider the post as discussion only...

Putting my mind in discussion mode...
Some question raised to me for the qualification of a software tester...
If there is a qualification barrier for the testers following thing would be a plus point.

1. Suppose qualification barrier is implemented for being a software tester, the very first thing changes is software testing will become a standardize process.
2. As one of our community member(Mr.Pradeep) has said it very correctly that, if we assume there are 20,000 testers, then will have some 30,000 definitions for the term called software testing.Rather than having 30,000 definitions, if we implement a qualification barrier then we might have a single and a standard definition.
3. Testing assure quality of a product and if we implement a qualification barrier then it might work in a much more effective manner.
4. Qualification barrier will bring a standardize process or basic procedure of testing which will definitely cover the gray areas of testing.
5. IEEE 829 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) had published standard or basic procedure for testing purpose but, do we really follow those steps? NO, that mean there is no standardization, in this case, qualification barrier might teach us to follow those basic or standard steps.

While writing these points there were few question raised in my mind…

1. Why there is no standard in a profession like software testing, by standard I mean ‘a degree or level of requirement’.
2. What’s a problem in getting certified? This question rose, because if we ask a doctor he say’s I have passed out MBBS or MD or PhD. If we ask a CA (chartered accountant) he say’s I have cleared the toughest exams. An Engineering person he says I have done my BE.

What about software testers?

I agree, no one can measure knowledge through a degree or certificate but, can anyone allow you to practice doctor’s profession without the qualification, can you become a judge or a lawyer in a court without the qualification. If the answer is NO, then why don’t we have a qualification barrier for becoming a software tester?
By the medium of software, software testing touches each and every profession, let that be a small business software or a doctors or judges software.

Ok let’s think the other way round, for example a nurse and a doctor they both work together but what differentiates is ‘Qualification’.A doctor and cook both belong to same profession called hospitality but what differentiates is ‘Qualification’.
What about software tester, no qualification.
Which profession do we belong?
Coz we don’t have any Qualification.

My humble request to all the readers, Please consider the post as discussion only...
I know this post might look a foolish question for some, but it's a question for me, so please share your views with me and everyone.....
Kind Regards,
shikhar...

Saturday, April 4, 2009

According to IEEE the basic procedure(steps) to be followed while conducting ' Testing '.

IEEE 829 Documentation
Over the years a number of types of document have been invented to allow for the control of testing. They apply to software testing of all kinds from component testing through to release testing. Every organisation develops these documents themselves and gives them different names, and in some cases confuses their purpose. To provide a common set of standardised documents the IEEE developed the 829 Standard for Software Test Documentation for any type of software testing, including User Acceptance Testing. This White Paper outlines each of the types of document in this standard and describes how they work together.

The Types of Document
There are eight document types in the IEEE 829 standard, which can be used in three distinct phases of software testing:
1. Preparation Of Tests
Test Plan: Plan how the testing will proceed.
Test Design Specification: Decide what needs to be tested.
Test Case Specification: Create the tests to be run.
Test Procedure: Describe how the tests are run.
Test Item Transmittal Report: Specify the items released for testing.
2. Running The Tests
Test Log: Record the details of tests in time order.
Test Incident Report: Record details of events that need to be investigated.
3. Completion of Testing
Test Summary Report: Summarise and evaluate tests.
Documentation For Preparation Of Tests
The preparation for testing is the most important part of any software testing project and easily accounts for most of the paper work. The purpose this stage is to prepare an effective and efficient set of tests, and create the environment for them to run in.

IEEE 829 - Test Plan
The Test Plan is the pivotal document around which all the software testing projects revolve. It describes:
what has to be done,
to what quality standard,
with what resource,
to what time scale,
and outlines the risks and how they would be overcome.

IEEE 829 - Test Design Specification
Creating the test design is the first stage in developing the tests for a software testing project. It records what needs to be tested, and is derived from the documents that come into the testing stage, such as requirements and designs. It records which features of a test item are to be tested, and how a successful test of these features would be recognized. As an example lets use a Billing project from which the following testing requirements may be defined:
A normal bill can be produced.
A final bill can be produced.
The volume discount is properly calculated.
The test design does not record the values to be entered for a test, but describes the requirements for defining those values. This document is very valuable, but is often missing on many projects. The reason is that people start writing test cases before they have decided what they are going to test.

IEEE 829 - Test Case Specification
The test cases are produced when the test design is completed. Test cases specify for each testing requirement:
The exact input values that will be input and the values of any standing data that is required,
The exact output values and changes of value of the internal system state that are expected,
And any special steps for setting up the tests.
Defining the expected values is very important, for only by doing this can discrepancies be spotted. However in some projects they are not defined which results in a very poor quality set of test cases. A feature from the Test Design may be tested in more than one Test Case, and a Test Case may test more than one feature. The aim is for a set of test cases to test each feature from the Test Design at least once. Taking the Billing project example all three requirements could be tested using two test cases:
The first test case could test both that a normal bill is produced and that a volume discount is properly calculated.
A second test case could check that a final bill is produced and a volume discount is calculated.

IEEE 829 - Test Procedure Specification
The Test Procedures are developed from both the Test Design and the Test Case Specification. The document describes how the tester will physically run the test, the physical set-up required, and the procedure steps that need to be followed. The standard defines ten procedure steps that may be applied when running a test.

IEEE 829 - Test Item Transmittal Report
This curiously named document is not derived from the Test Plan but is the handover document from the previous stage of development. In User Acceptance Testing this may be the completion of System Testing. It describes the items being delivered for testing, where to find them, what is new about them, and gives approval for their release. The importance of the document is to provide to the testers a warranty that the items are fit to be tested and gives a clear mandate to start testing. Do not start testing without receiving one!
Documentation For Running The Tests
When the tests have been developed then they can be run. The schedule of what Test Cases are run and when, is defined in the Test Plan. The test results are recorded in the Test Log, and in Test Incident Reports.

IEEE 829 - Test Log
The Test Log records the details of what Test Cases have been run, the order of their running, and the results of the test. The results are either the test passed, meaning that the actual and expected results were identical, or it failed and that there was a discrepancy. If there is a discrepancy than one or more Test Incident Reports are raised or updated, and their identities recorded on the Test Log. The Test Log is important as it allows progress of the testing to be checked, as well as providing valuable information for finding out what caused an incident. If an incident is a coding fault, the fault may have occurred not in the Test Case that failed but in one that was run previously. Thus the sequence of the tests enables the fault to be found.

IEEE 829 -Test Incident Report
This document is deliberately named as an incident report, and not a fault report. The reason is that a discrepancy between expected and actual results can occur for a number of reasons other than a fault in the system. These include the expected results being wrong, the test being run wrongly, or inconsistency in the requirements meaning that more than one interpretation could be made. The report consists of all details of the incident such as actual and expected results, when it failed, and any supporting evidence that will help in its resolution. The report will also include, if possible, an assessment of the impact upon testing of an incident. The relationship between the Test Log and the Test Incident Report is not one to one. A failed test may raise more than one incident, and at the same time an incident may occur in more than one test failure. Taking the Billing project example, if both test cases completely failed than three Test Incident Reports would be raised:
The first would be for failure to produce a normal bill,
The second would be for failure to produce a final bill,
The third for failure to calculate the volume discount for both the normal and the final bill.
It is important to separate incidents by the features being tested so as to get a good idea of the quality of the system, and allow progress in fixing faults to be checked. A useful derivative document from the Test Incident Report is a Test Incident Log to summarise the incidents and the status. This is not an IEEE 829 document as all it values can be derived from the Test Incident Reports.
Documentation For Completion of Testing
Eventually testing will be completed according the criteria specified in the Test Plan. This is when the success or failure of the system is decided based on the results. The Test Summary records this information.

IEEE 829 - Test Summary
The Test Summary brings together all pertinent information about the testing, including an assessment about how well the testing has been done, the number of incidents raised and outstanding, and crucially an assessment about the quality of the system. Also recorded for use in future project planning is details of what was done, and how long it took. This document is important in deciding whether the quality of the system is good enough to allow it to proceed to another stage.

Use of the Standard
The standard is generic to cover all types of testing. As a result it allows the documents to be tailored to each situation. This means using the basic structure as given, but other documents can be added to it, sections can be added to each document, and further descriptions can be written. In addition some content can be referenced in another document. By using the standard means that anybody joining a project will know what documents are being used, and for what purpose, allowing them to become productive faster.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Met an Extremist

19-3-2009

A Beautiful day in pune and was a perfect day for me, coz on this date I was gone meet my first date in pune (with Mr. Pradeep Soundararajan) an ‘Extremist’. Believe me guys he is the biggest extremist I have ever met in my life (yet).

Now, what makes me use the word ‘Extremist’ for Mr. Pradeep?
Mr. Pradeep is the limit of software testing, a package of huge experience loaded with lots knowledge. (Most of you who had a chance to sip a cup of coffee with him will totally agree with me.)

Coming back to my experience, it was really my luck and Mr. Pradeep’s generosity which made pune much more interesting.
Earlier to this meeting we had never seen each other, just the mailing process was on between us.
Now, we humans have a human tendency to make a sketch of a person whom we speak to or mail to (through their responses). I too had a sketch of Mr. Pradeep, a person with some 6’.6’’ height with some tremendous physic and would have a touch of attitude but, believe me it was a shock to me coz he was just the opposite, he was so cool, so calm and the best thing was no attitude. I found him as a friend, a friend whom I had met after a long time.

After 15-20 min we stepped out of the hotel room, in search of a restaurant. We both were new to pune so we took a help from the hotel watchmen and he told us about a restaurant which was about a kilometer (1km) from the hotel. The best part for me was, Pradeep Soundararajan decided to walk WOW!
The whole journey was about 20 min and this 20 min was like great coz sir (Mr. Pradeep) was sharing his stories (his first job, how he became the test lead and many more…). The stories were full of inspiration and this +vibes had charged me up, at that time if some one would have told me to climb Mount Everest then I would have done that in minutes. Great isn’t it?

This journey of 20 min finally got us into a restaurant. After placing some starters he made me do an exercise. The exercise was all about the conversation between a client and a tester where in, I the client who was suppose to narrate the requirement for a product and sir was the testers (cross questioning my requirement). The product was dinner, I mean requirements for the dinner. Truly speaking there were so many requirements flying and if these requirements were communicated with a normal consumer, and asked to consider all those points while placing an order believe me, he would never visit a hotel.

While the activity was on two gentlemen joined us. These two gentlemen were Raghu and Venkat two senior testers from pune. From that point of time the discussion started heating up it was like fireworks from both the table ends. After some hours, I noticed one thing that sir had different views with many dimensions for a single point, like we say every coin has two faces some what like that. On the other hand, sir was enjoying the fight between three mice which were sitting right in front of his nose.

The round of discussions continued for 4 hours some what around 11.30pm. We were about to round up everything, being a fresher thought this would be a right time to ask sir for last few words of suggestion (for me).
Can you imagine what sir would have told me (those three magical words)
“Best Of Luck”.
I interrupted him and said, I was expecting some thing else.
Sir: if you were expecting some thing which you know, then why there is a need of asking me.
This was very true.
And left for home/hotel.

The End…

Last few things…
Mr. Pradeep is a true extremist, a self motivating machine, a big charger and a visionary who can lead the Indian testers on a right track. You can say Mr. Pradeep should be the bookmark or benchmark for Indian testers.
OOPPS…
I forgot one thing to mention, while our discussion was on sir got a call from his wife at that point of time a random thought ran to my mind saying…
What a lucky lady (Mam), just bcoz she spends more time with sir as compared to what we had spend… (Just 4hours).