TribalQonf 2020!

I am associated with TheTestTribe community for close to 8 months now. Being part of TheTestTribe I had an opportunity to work closely with the team to conduct our first online conference – TribalQonf.

By the time I called Mahesh couple of weeks prior to the event, Team with Mahesh, Ajay, Geosley, Niraj, Kunal were already working on different tasks. I asked Mahesh on what I could do and he asked me to help in managing audience on Chat, Q&A and slack channel along with Geosley.  Zoom webinar was used for the conference and slack for networking.

Event started on time and the attendees started to join. With over 500 attendees participating in the conference, there are multiple things that we were to handle at that point in time, mostly issues with joining Slack and Zoom.

We tried to troubleshoot each issue and initial one hour has been hectic. After couple of sessions, attendees could get to an understanding on using Zoom Q&A, Chat and Slack Channels for additional Q&A. I personally liked the idea of slack channels where presenter could jump in to the channel post live session, to answer any additional questions and interact with attendees. This for me was far better networking than what we do in person, as we get to see answers for all the questions. I witnessed presenters spending more than couple of hours on the channel.

It was a great learning experience managing a conference with attendees at large scale. Thanks to Mahesh for creating and making me a part of this. Ajay is my good friend and i usually have him as company in any conference I attend and this conference is no different. Thanks Geosley for being the partners in managing chaos. Thanks to Kunal, Lalit, and Niraj, glad that i could get connected with you.

I see conferences as an opportunity to get myself reminded about the learning that I must do, meeting more people in testing. This conference is no different except for the fact that I was busy in troubleshooting and managing Q&A ; missed few sessions.

Below are few key takeaways/points to re-emphasize for me from the conference (Both sessions and post session Q&A on slack),

• James Bach referred to Testers in India being so smart but the test leadership not improving to the extent it is supposed to. This could partly be attributed to the training’s that we emphasize at entry level and testers becoming complacent after certain level of experience.  Serious retrospection needed.
• Recipe for Test strategy starts from asking right questions, understanding the context is the key to building test strategy.
• Do testing to add business value. Make an impact with testing.
• Questions remain the same, answers should be improved with experience. Do not hesitate to deliberately discuss and enhance answers for basic concepts. I liked the example of Rahul Verma interviewing a candidate for a senior position and candidate got offended by the simple question, what is Boundary value analysis. And yes, the answer could have remained the same right from the beginning of career. Something for everyone to look at.
• Build your online portfolio, CV is no longer valid, get your Github working and showcase that as your work sample.
• Consider your test cases to be a help guide and feel free put them aside and use them only as you need them. Testing does not take time, prudence does.
• Don’t just get carried away by Buzzwords. Understand what it means to testing, what it means to you and then make your action items.

Few links from the Slack Q&A and Chat –

• Web Analytics automation framework by Anand bagmar – https://github.com/anandbagmar/waat
• Trello board with excellent book suggestions – https://trello.com/b/WH2l8tCq/book-list-software-development-and-testing
• Excellent hand’s on session on HTTP headers by Santhosh Tuppad. Please see this for more info on his workshops, highly worth it https://work2code.com/cybersecurity-with-rajesh-mathur-and-santhosh-tuppad/
• Set of Mindmaps that could give information on several areas of testing http://apps.testinsane.com/mindmaps

Thanks to TheTestTribe community, Speakers and audience making this event a huge success ! Happy learning!

Do join us on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetesttribe/

 

Testers, improve your efficiency!

Hello Testers!

All of us do lots of testing daily, few of us create test cases, few create automation code, few execute tests, and few create performance test reports, few security scans. While we do our daily tasks, we all strive to be more efficient on the job and below are few trivial but effective ways,

Understand your scope of work

Thanks to stand-up meets that help us to communicate what is done, what has to be done and any help we need to finish your tasks for the day. While we discuss this, it is also important to understand and double confirm if you understood your task well. It is not just limited to the task but also get make sure on what you are expected to deliver by the end of the day –

Test case creation? How many? In excel? In a tool? What fields am I supposed to fill in this? Should I also send an email?

Test execution? How many? How do I share results? What info am I supposed to provide? What if it passed? What if it failed?

Automation code creation? How many test cases? Where and how to submit code? Should I submit any information other than code? Should I send an email with cases created?

Checking the time at which report needs to be submitted at the start of the day will help you plan your tasks for the day!

Create re-usable components

We all tend to work on repetitive tasks, which are not exactly the same but of a similar fashion. Example – creating a sprint summary report for each sprint. Look into the possibility of breaking this report into different sections, collecting the data for these sections right from the beginning of the sprint, creating the report as a template with mandatory information that you put in every time.

Can you automate the daily tasks?

Review the possibility of automating a few tasks, as simple as filling in time sheets in a task tracking tool. Not every automation is complex, start looking at automation approach not only in client tasks but also to help you bring efficiency in daily tasks.

Be report ready any time

One of the biggest complaints I see with testers is that the test report only comes in at the end of the day. This hides any problems until the end of the day and leaves very less time to make corrections. Understand the format of the report you are supposed to send by EOD and update the report in parallel with your subtasks. Be report ready anytime your lead needs status on the tasks

 

What other ideas do you think can bring in efficiency in your testing? Explore, Identify and Implement!

Incorporating SBTM into Scripted Test case format..

Most of the product companies still have test case creation in place where tests are documented with detailed steps and expected results. Well, too much of documentation deviates the creative exploration of tester, documented test cases are still recommended a few reasons –

1. Repeatability of the test cases
2. Documented evidence of what has been tested and what has been not

Enterprise Products, while adopting latest technologies, are still leaning towards documenting test cases. ISV’s and edge-of-the technology organizations are preferring less documentation implementing Agile. Few organizations do not have test cases in place at all, where user stories are tested and updated on the management tool.

In traditional scripted approach, we take a user story, document different ways of achieving the story (build flows), create detailed steps with expected results, which needs the tester to document each and every test that we do on the story.

How do we incorporate exploratory testing into above format? Session based test management (SBTM) is efficient in terms of exploratory testing, with help of a tracking tool like Rapid reporter or Session tester. These tools create a log of actions (minute tests) performed during testing. If we can create a hybrid test case format, it may look something like below –

(Zoom in to view picture)

Repeatability will still remain a challenge, but not to the extent of no documented test cases. In the world of agile, we always automate the repeatable. One other challenge will be to trace the session report that failed when a bug is found in production.

I expect test management tools to move towards incorporating exploratory testing, rather than using traditional scripted test cases. I see Cervaya, by Paul gerrard is already focussing on this.

Testers adapt tools & make task execution easy!

One of the key characteristics of a great tester is to know how to simplify tasks. A great tester will use right tools at the right time to simplify tasks. Tasks like taking screenshots & videos, test case creation, collaboration, communication, Report creation, test execution can be simplified.

Below are few tools that simplify tasks –

Screen capture & Video recording– Snipping tool, Faststone screen capture, jing, Camatasia, Chrome web page screenshot. Fast stone and Chrome web page screenshot (add-in) provides the ability to capture scrollable page.

Portableapps.com– Allows you to carry any (can be limited for now) app in a pen drive and launch without installation.

Fileinfo.com – provides information on file with any extension. It also provides information like software which can be used to create a particular type of file.

Colorcop (http://colorcop.net/download/) – this gives the ability to specifically mention the RGB values of a color, makes it more specific when  you report.

Supportdetails.com – gives basic environment details of the machine, useful in bug reporting.

Mindmaps like Xmind, FreeMind –brainstorming tools for test idea generation.

Test management – Testrail, Versionone, Microsoft Test Manager, HP Quality Center

Excel – Excel can be used for test management, bug reporting, test result reporting in the absence of specific tools. Excel is a wonderful tool.

Dropbox, Google drive, online mind mapping (MindMeister) – for collaboration

Slack, Skype, Lync or any IM – for communication

Tools like Selenium, UFT, VSTS coded UI, TestComplete, Sahi, Fiddler, Jmeter, SoapUI, Webinspect, Appscan,  – to simplify test execution

Sometimes, your tool expertise can be your USP. Find right tools that suit your needs at different areas to simplify your tasks. Do add to the list if you know more tools that can make tester’s life easy.

 

What is the possibility of finding all important bugs in the software under test?

This is one of the frequently asked questions by stakeholders to testers. Below is a high-level checklist to ponder to answer this question –

• Do you know in & out of the product functionality? Do you have the same understanding of the product as the product owner?
• Do you know the users who use the software under test?
• Do you know what are ‘important’ bugs?
• Do you know all existing problems with the system?
• Do you know if the test machine is same as in configuration & data as production system? Do you have control of changing this?
• Do you have frequency & complete information on changes being pushed to the test system?
• Do you know what your deadlines are? Do you have control of having more time for testing?

While the list extends based on the context and current situation of the software, above is the list of basic questions to look at.

Testing is beyond checking!

Testing is beyond checking!

Target audience: Testers

Hello everyone!

I always think checking a software is just not enough. Going strictly by requirements, creating tests around requirements and executing them – I think, does not add enough value to clients. Testing is something beyond checking. I’ll try to illustrate this with a real time example.

Let me set the context first

Communication plays a key role in outsourced business and many of us do communicate with clients via Emails, IMs & Web conferences. I use GoToMeeting software (company subscribed edition) for web conferencing to interact with clients. One of my usual practises is to record all meetings I attend, so that, I can refer them to

• Review and understand the summary of discussion as needed
• Get clarifications on any conflict in the understanding with other attendees
• Prepare meeting minutes, and work on action items
• Prepare myself before attending a follow up meeting

I’ve been using GoToMeeting (GTM) for quite some time now (for couple of years now), and I have GoToMeeting desktop agent installed on my computer. I usually login from the system tray icon, access the meetings and use GoToMeeting.

 

I’ve got a new laptop recently, 4-5 months back, and it is amazing. It has got touch screen, Windows 8 OS, solid state drive –which boots in lightning speed (in ~10 seconds). I’ve installed GoToMeeting on my new computer with default settings and using it.

The problem

I was doing my meetings nicely, but, I was unable to play recorded files using Windows media player. The player refused to play the file indicating that the required video codec is not installed on my computer.

I have verified that the file is in WMV format and the default player is set to Windows media player (WMP). I have no clue on why this is happening and wanted to find more information on this. I clicked on the ‘Web Help’ in the error message, below is what I found –

Interesting! The website doesn’t have any specific information about the error!

I have verified the codecs installed on my computer with help of ‘frequently asked questions’ section on the site and found the codec for WMV files installed. Phew!

Okay, WMP is not worried about playing GoToMeeting files, but, would GoToMeeting be interested in making their files play with WMP??

Browsed GoToMeeting website to see if I can get some information. The site refers to a setting in preferences, where you can choose if the recorded file can be in –

• GoToMeeting format
• Windows media player format

 

 The setting is currently set to GTM format and I’ve changed this preference to have all my meeting recordings in WMP format. Phew! The recorded file now plays in WMP.

Let me do some analysis now

I’ve tried to find any differences in the recorded files (GTM format & WMP format) – both are with extension .wmv & no differences observed in ‘Properties’ of the files. May have to explore more on how codecs make a difference!

I’ve uninstalled the software, re-installed and found that the preferences are set to GoToMeeting recording format by default. Is there a problem here? What would have been the reason this preference is set to GoToMeeting format by default? I could think of two situations –

• GoToMeeting wants to promote their media player rather than Windows Media player – Possible! Considering the fact that Windows media player is the leading media player on Windows computers (at least when compared to GoToMeeting player), GoToMeeting should have handled this differently. One possible solution is to display an alert message when user attempts to record a meeting which can state ‘Meeting will be recorded in GTM format, Please change your preferences to record in Windows media player format’.
• GoToMeeting didn’t really care about this – Testers could have brought this up to GoToMeeting attention and see if they really want to do this. If not, set the default option to Windows media player format.

Few points to note

You might refer to the requirements document which suggests the default option to be set to ‘GTM format’. Do you think that is right? I see a need for questioning the requirements. If the goal of testers is just to check if the user could change the format – yes, the check has passed. Do you still have a problem? Yes indeed! Testing is something beyond checking.

Testing is not just verifying if we have an option available, but, is about asking questions – Is there a problem here? Is this adding business value? What would add better business value than what we currently have?

This needs better understanding of context. Testing is not just knowing requirements, but also understand the current situation of the product, user base that uses the product and expectations from the product owner.

Testing is not just reporting bugs, but is also about providing any information that will add value to the product.

Happy Testing!!

Versions of software I use: GoToMeeting – Version 6.3.1 Build 1468, Windows media player – Version 12.0.9600.17031

A begining to Xpath

Some information on Xpaths

Sources for information on a product

Many a time, I come across a situation where I have to test the application without any documentation from the client. You can of course question and get the information. However, if the client/product owner is not next to you, it is difficult to get information on the product instantly. Where do I get more details about the product?? Can I get started without documentation??

Below are few sources I start searching to know more details of the product –

Website  

Client website speaks a lot about their product. Website is a good source to start with to understand what the application is.

 FAQs

FAQs are built to answer questions asked by majority of the users, like what is this application, how I start with, how many types of subscriptions etc. I personally find a lot of value in reading FAQs on an application. It gives me the main intent on which the application is built for and what the application builder thinks the user may think of.

 Youtube

You always find someone from the product department or Sales talk about your product on youtube saying – my product will do that, my product will do this, blah blah blah.. These are good source of information. Of course, can be useful to do some claims testing.

 Customer service portals

Customers talking about the AUT is a rich source of information for testers. You actually know what the end user feels like a problem with the AUT. Each ticket logged on Customer service portal is a new idea for testing. Each ticket accepted by the Product owner on customer service portal is a source for testers to know the modules that would undergo changes – rich source isn’t it?

 Help document

A detailed & Fantastic source of information. No explanation needed.

 Press releases

It helps me a bit to understand the context in which the product is. Not always helpful though. Sometimes helpful in learning about pre-promised deadlines for the product release.

 I am sure there will be more sources you can find information about the product and All sources may not be available for all products you test. Even if you have requirements and Specs, search for different sources to help you understand the product better..!! Happy testing..!!

Paired testing with Ajay Balamurugadas

Date : 18th April, 2011
Time : 4:00 AM
Duration : 1 hour

On a lazy Monday morning, I’m happy that I spent my time on testing. I’ve paired today with Ajay to learn & practise paired testing.

Ajay set us a mission to test the ‘Contact us’ module on the site Flipkart.

Ajay mentioned that we have to set an environment ready for paired testing to communicate the partner about the mode, mission and objective. We usually have a chat over skype but we’ve created a document in typewith.me for our convenience as Ajay mentioned an important point to note on paired testing – “No point in having different channels of communication during paired testing”. This only leads to confusion and end up altering the means of communication instead of testing.

So, “Set up a single environment for communication during paired testing”

Next step is to Share test ideas. We have started listing down the test ideas on ‘Contact us’ module of Flipkart site. What can we test in this module and in what all ways?

We’ve shared the test ideas till 4:30AM and all set ready to test now. We’ve made an assumption that we could not test all test ideas shared in the 30 mins we have.

We took test ideas from the list, executed them and listed down Issues & Bugs for 25 mins.
During testing, Ajay found a bug and we made efforts to reproduce the bug and nail it down to the root cause of the bug.

Sharing test ideas is the advantage I see with paired testing – two brains working on a single application in different views to yield more & different test ideas.
I also feel we will be more focussed when paired.

Thanks Ajay for the experience :-). Hope we would pair up frequently!

Happy testing.

-Balaji

ITB – Hyderabad Chapter launched

Today is a wonderful moment where testers in Hyderabad met for the first time and it’s very exciting to think that we are going to meet every month :). Why not?

Mahindra Satyam office has become venue to host this wonderful event the launch of ‘HYDERABAD CHAPTER’ of Indian Testing Board.

Vipul Kocher, President of Indian testing Board, officially launched the chapter and discussed about what we would do in the monthly meet.
He also spoke on ‘Learning – what is in it for me?’

Later, we had a talk by Shankar from Microsoft on “Challenges in Application Life cycle management.” And how do they answer them with test manager. It’s basically a tool which brings both testers and developers on same platform. (If you are from ZenQA and from TGN team – you know better about this)

We had a talk on automation tool ‘SAHI’ from its founder, Narayan Raman.This is the second time I’ve been listening to him and Sahi is such a wonderful tool which doesn’t make tester a test programmer.

Later we had a session ‘Problem on the table’, where Vipul has invited few problems from the testers and asked other testers to go to them and give suggestions. This happened for 20 mins.

Three problems from this meet –

1. How would we automate any functionality with lot of user dependant actions? E.g., an ATM machine in which insertion of your card is needed. Are these expected to be automated?

2. Is there any formula that so many test cases are required for a requirement to say that the requirement is completely tested? This guy’s client has questioned him why do you need exploratory testing when you have covered everything in your test planning?

3. One tester with 8 months of QTP experience left a company during recession and joined another job. There she was interviewed on QTP and has been selected but they have found another guy with 2 year experience on QTP and the automation task has been given to him. She has been pushed to manual testing. She asked if how she can get a job on QTP when market is demanding 2 or 3+ years of experience in QTP.
Suggestions were collected by the person who raised the problem and at the end of 20 mins, each person explained what suggestions they’ve received.

What would you suggest? (Comment your suggestions for the above three problems)

Saurabh Chandra, the president of ITB Hyderabad chapter has concluded the meeting hoping to meet everyone soon.

What a platform for testers in Hyderabad! Thanks Vipul! Thanks Saurabh!

Awaiting next meet!!

More details here

-Balu