Tester in wonderland !

Hi Reader,

Have you ever wondered what is not allowing you to become a good tester ?

If you have wondered, good, here is your answer. If you have not, stop reading, go to wonderland and come back here. ( Don't fall in love with Alice there :P )

I see most of them wondering why they didn't become a good tester at some point of their lifetime.

There are three ways you climb up the corporate ladder -

1) You have the talent.
2) You have been in that company for a long time and they have no other go than promoting you.
3) I dont want to discuss those nasty ways.

So, if you have become a Lead or Manager, that clearly, does not imply, you are a good tester. Ask yourself which of the above category do you belong to?

__ Tester in wonderland __

Well, this post is about "who did not allow you to improve your skills?". Its my 2 years of research, just for you in one post.

There are two people who did not allow you to become a good tester -

a) Its you.
b) Its the people you asked your doubts.

"Pradeep, to get this answer you researched for 2 years? Dumbo ! " , any such expressions from your side ?. If so, do not read further, remain in love with Alice.

Let me explain to others in detail -

a) I had mentioned the first person who disallowed you to become a good tester is "you" -

Well, that is true. You must have partially agreed but let me clear you, just in case you are doubtful.

"Pradeep, the only person who stops you from improving is yourself" is the first lesson I remember from my Guru Mr Sridhar Krishnamurthy's golden mouth.

Now, it is my guru's words, why should you believe that ? Moreover, I wanted to ask myself "it sounds great but is it the truth ?"

I then looked back a few years to shout "Yes, I improved on something and it was me who wanted to improve and it was me who worked for it"...

The incident dates back to my teen age where I first started playing Table Tennis and discovered that I loved playing it. I wanted to become a very good player and I asked my friend to coach me. He was a state player and had a TT board in his house. As I came from a middle class background, my dad could not afford for a TT bat at that time. My birthday was approaching and I had to fight with my parents I did not want a new dress but instead a TT bat. So the deal was struck and I had a bat and new inner garments alone :( .

My friend Vikram Chandra, who was a state player at that time, cheated me often by calling me to his home to play and used to tell some lame reasons. At least 20 times I have come back home disappointed. Then I realized, why not I keep thinking of TT and when I get a chance to play, I put my thoughts to work. So I started day/night dreaming about TT. Whenever I got a chance, I used to be so happy that my dreaming helped me a lot to better and control my shots.

Today is a day where anyone plays TT with me, they admire my play, placements, shots, tricks ... what not. I feel am a super hero when in it comes to TT.

Now why did I give you all this gyaan is to tell you... start dreaming.

If you are worried that you wanted to test database systems but you are doing something else, dream and keep dreaming about how you would test database systems. Dream of those fantastic bugs you will find if given a chance. Dream of those fantastic bug reports you would write. Dream of you becoming an expert and never end your dreams. Once you get a chance in your life to test database, you will outperform your capabilities.


b) I had mentioned that "Its the people you asked your doubts" are also the ones who does stop you to become a better tester.

"Pradeep when your guru said 'it is only you who stops from improving' why are you mentioning someone else also as the contributing factor' ".

Dhrona was proud of coaching Arjuna because Arjuna surpassed Dhrona in the skill of Archery and that is the guru dhakshin*, a true student should give back to the guru. Similarly, I extended the research to find out ....

I went and asked many testers a lot of basic questions in testing. I was surprised, none of them told "I don't know". God , how can all of those testers know everything I asked and yet all answers for the same set of questions were different.

This is why I keep telling people do not ask your doubts on testing to someone who is not sure.
"Pradeep then how do we get an answer?"

Well, if you have brains, think and you will get the answer, you actually need not ask someone.

"Pradeep, can you teach me a method where I can think and get answers in testing"
"Yes, Sure !"

Ok, let us assume you want to know the difference between Load and Stress testing -

1. Go and look for a dictionary and find out the meaning for "Load" and "Stress".
2. My dic says "Load" is - Weight to be borne or conveyed and "Stress" is force that produces strain on a physical body.
3. Now take an example - A chair.

Now start thinking , what is "Load Testing" for a chair..

Assuming a chair is designed to take a 50 Kilograms of load, Load testing would be loading the chair for 10 kilos, 20 kilos, 30 kilos, 40 kilos, 45 kilos, 47.5 kilos, 49 kilos, 49.1 ... 49.9 kilos...50 .. 50.01 ... 50.9.

Now start thinking, what is "Stress Testing" for a chair..

Assuming the same chair to be subjected to stress test - take a 50 kilos weight and apply the weight to its centre , corners, over the rim, shake the weight after putting it to rest over chair, axial weight loading, concentric weight loading ... keeping the 50 kilos weight for 10 days on the chair, checking for deformations in the chair after 10 days....

Wow ! this is how I learnt the difference between Load and Stress testing and I need not ask anyone hereafter and get confused. The only thing I did is to cross check with a few experts about my experimental thinking about Load and Stress testing and if they agree, well and good, I am an expert thinker.

After such learnings, someday, a tester asked me "What is the differnce between load and stress testing?". I asked "Don't you know ?" , the reply was "I know but I am not sure."

Ah ! Awesome, I was clear since I learnt on my own, when you start asking people who have different perceptions that is a never ending loop, neither you learn nor the ones who taught you.

_ End of __ Tester in wonderland ! __

"Saying "I dont know" is an art, Saying bull shit is a fart"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer: I do not mean consult no one to learn but do not talk about testing with half baked minds. They are poisonous and its a communicable posion. I do not say this is the best way but this are my own experiments and it is Tester Tested ! I request all those so called Tester "Please do not confuse your junior testers, if you have a good heart say ' I will refer and get back to you' or ' let me know if you get the answer for that' "

* Guru Dhakshin - fees, duty towards a teacher..

Prayer : " Oh God, Let all Testers start thinking on their own and let them not confuse or get confused"

Learning Testing from Japanese Fishermen

Hi Reader,

"Pradeep, you learnt testing from fishermen ?"
"Yea, I did"
"Ah ! you are a good narrator, so why don't you tell that story to us ?"
"Sure, its my pleasure but before that I want to ask you some questions"

"Yea, go ahead"
"You have been reading my blog for quite sometime right?"
" Yes ! any doubt ?"

"As a Tester, I need to be skeptic right?"
"Ok boss, you are a tester, I do agree"
"Now tell me how much of change has there been in your work/life after you have been reading my blog"
" ........................... " .... before I let you know what that person said , assume, I asked you this question , what would be your reply ?"

Now I am sure that even you are eager to listen to the story .... My cousin sent me this and thanks to her, I could learn something about testing ....

_ Learning testing from Japanese Fishermen_

In Japan, people are supposed to be fond of eating fish, as fresh as possible but the waters out there did not hold much fish and hence fishermen were forced to go deeper. By going deeper the time to return back increased which made the fish stale and not fresh.

Now, not now exactly, the fishermen, introduced a freezer into their boats but yet Japan janta was smart enough to figure out the frozen food.

Someone decided to have a tank of water in bigger boats and this helped the fishermen bring the fish alive, yet Japan janta could smell that fish lost its freshness without movement for the time it was brought from sea to land.

This became a problem, to the fishermen and the Japanese janta.

How can you make the fish to keep moving in the tank docked on the boat ?

Japanese are known for their smartness and someone came up with the idea of having a shark in the tank which would eat a few fish and ensure others keep moving here and there to save their lives.

"Niakota ! Sara mura , Jia poo" ( Wow ! this is fresh tasty fish )
( Did I say that was Japanese, don't assume :P )

"Pradeep, what the hell is there to learn something about testing from the above story?"
"Cool down, there is, at least I had, why not you, if you read further"


As a Tester, what did I learn ?

1. A (good) tester, ideally, should train his mind for sequential thinking. Look the fishermen, they approached the problem step by step and they could solve it.
2. A (good) tester, ideally, should be aware of right tools and devices to test something. "Pradeep, this is a bit puzzling, can you prove the above sentence with the story you have narrated?" ... Yes, of course. Look at fishermen who thought of a freezer as a solution initially and reverted back to a tank, which is traditional. Here, I try to explain, freezer and tank are the tools he used to break down the problem complexity.
3. A (good) tester, ideally, should develop a lateral thinking. Look at those fishermen, they brought in a shark. When you pause at the story just reading the line, a shark was put in the tank.. at least, I could imagine, half the fish would be eaten up by the shark but I never thought that it was to keep others active. Masterpiece lateral thinking example.
4. A (good) tester, ideally, should be keen at looking things and keep questioning "why is it happening that way?"... Look at me, I have learnt the above points from the story I read.
5. A (good) tester, ideally, should inculcate his learnings to work, else he is a dumb ass. Look at me ( not for seeing the dumb ass ), I have inculcated those learnings, already. I gave this post to you in a sequential order and questioned you through this post "Am I doing a good job, are these posts helping you?"

__ End of __ Learning Testing from Japanese Fishermen __

"Be a fisherman when testing, catch as much as you can"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Are Experienced Software Testers Testing their own CV / Profile / Resume?

Re-written the article on April 20, 2009 & Previous version also available at the bottom

For the question : Are Software Testers Testing their own CV / Profile / Resume?, my answer would be - most of them don't.

What would you think about a tester who hasn't tested whatever he has developed? I think the same way you think about them - they don't know testing or its value.

Over these years, I must have looked into about thousand three hundred testers profiles and only very few of them caught my attention. One of them was my own :)

Need and value of testing your own resume

I have been practicing writing and this blog is an evidence of the same. I think our public writing demonstrates how effectively we can work. For instance, if my resume looks bad then would anyone believe me that I write good bug reports? If they believe that I'd write good bug reports when my resume sucks then what do you think about their communication skills?

I got coached by Mr Ravi Joshi of Bangalore on the aspects of writing a good resume. I probably practiced it enough to match his own writing and then trying to surpass it. All he did was to help me learn how to test my own resume.

I discovered that testing a resume was so similar to testing a software. For instance, our resume is full of claims that we have made. If we dont test for the claims we have made and what we can actually deliver, it costs us an opportunity to get an offer letter.

An example from my life experience is: There was a person who mentioned about Apache Web Server as one of the technologies he had worked on. On questioning him about it, he said, "Sir, it was running in the back end and I used to turn it off and on whenever a crash occurs". Now, is that sufficient to say, "I know Apache Web Server"?

I want you to let me know about it.

Career Objective

Also, most of them steal the Career Objective section and that indicates the person does not have his own great ambitions in life or a vision statement. It is important for anyone to write their own career objective. If you have a typical career objective, "I am looking forward to work in an organization that challenges my abilities and potential", no one would be interested at that.

Here is another interesting thing: A career objective is a long term vision but what most people end up writing is - I need a job to show my potential - which is not a career objective but your immediate objective in life.

At some point of my career, I have even removed that section and yet people kept calling me for interviews. Doesn't it help you understand that people are not calling you based on it because they are already bored reading more or less same stuff?


Projects

This is a very interesting part. Recently, I was interviewing a tester who had a 7 page resume for a 2 year experience. He had detailed out his project on his resume and that's a bad idea. I helped him understand that it was a bad idea and he went ahead arguing with me that he had to mention all details. A question that I asked him was, "How many pages should Hon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have?"

I hope you understand why I asked him that question and also hope you won't make the mistake. You must note that people who might be looking into your profile might already know about the product or project and don't need super fine details of your project. You can make it to one or two sentences. This gives you a tactical advantage in interviews if you were to explain your project.

Your contribution

It is another common bias to show whatever little stuff you did in the organization as a great one. Again, people are tired of listening to such stuff. You might want to consider elaborating an experience or the challenges you faced and how you fared in it.

For example: When I was a rookie Test Manager, people reporting to me found it hard to digest the fact that I was much younger than them. I had to fight through their ego battle and yet get work done from them. I learnt a lot about managing people, especially when they dont want to listen to you.

Lessons learnt

You could consider jotting down some very quick points of the lessons you learnt from each of the project you worked and that could be an attractive thing for the interviewer. You may consider listing your failures as well although you think listing your failure could cause you lose an opportunity to get an offer. Come on, the whole world understands that every human is fallible and everyone has failed in their life more than a dozen times.

Documentation Guidelines & Crispness

You wont be given a job because your profile looks amazing and it is a booklet of 30 pages of your achievements. So, it means you have to work in an interview to crack the puzzle of getting a job offer from them.

I received one of the worst resume from a software tester who mentioned that he has excellent documentation skills and the word documentation spelling was incorrect. Are you dumb to call him for an interview?

You do not need to search for resume template and fill in because that is a clerical work and I hope you don't want to be a clerk. Clerical type software testers get clerical pay and they are happy with it as well.

Extras and tactical advantage

You could impress the interviewers by testing a web application or an open source project and attaching your test report with it. This gives you a tactical advantage over all other people attending interviews as the interviewers get to see how you can actually test, how you report problems, how you investigate problems, how you can prepare a test report, how good is your writing skills and all that.

Peer Review of your Resume

You might be knowing the value of peer reviews in software engineering. How about bringing that to resume writing? Ask any of your friend's or peers to review your profile and spot problems. As you are the developer, it is likely that you will make mistakes and you might be blind at spotting them.

Progress Report Reference:

I have been compiling my Progress Reports over the last two years and I want you to have a look at it. Search for Progress Report of Pradeep Soundararajan and you will find the PDF files.

Interview skills

This one is quite famous : Yeah this one : The (bad) state of software testing interviews in India

If you are interested in watching my presentation of the same, here is the link to the video

Old version of the same article
( and there are some good points there as well )

So think about these points and also read what I wrote long back when my own English wasn't as good as how it might be now:

Old version of the same article:


Hi Reader,

I would have spent at least 300 hours by now, in this life time, helping out my friends, modifying their CV/Resume. It was interesting initially, especially when I had learnt the art of writing a good CV for myself. Thanks to Ravi Joshi, who spent his valuable time with me, teaching me "The art of writing a wonderful CV" .

I dare to share my learning and would want to provide a template to those sending me CV's to modify. Become an expert by experimenting with your own CV .. after reading this.

__ Are you testing your CV ? __

Trust me, I have modified CV's for developers too but a majority of the CV's I have touched is of a Tester.

Some common stupid mistake I and you make in the CV V/s How better can things be -

Junk Objective - To secure a challenging position in a well established firm and want to develop further as a tester OR Looking for an opportunity that can extract my potential in terms of technical and management OR Seeking a position in your valuable organization to grow in my career.

Clear Objective - Being a passionate Tester for x years and having won ... credits ... , I am looking for an opportunity to augment my career further, since I feel a new environment could make me learn things better and can work towards contributing at higher levels OR Having proved the ability to learn and a developed interest towards Test Engineering, I want to take my career to a stage of delivering high customer satisfaction by joining the services industry yet bringing in the product based company's expertise OR I am a self proclaimed passionate Tester. I want to put myslef to test by taking up challenges that your organization is currently offering and feel satisfied when the work quality meets the claim.

Gyaan -

1. Never copy someone's objective, which is the most stupid thing any person can do.
2. Frame your own objective, what it costs is 100 MIPS for your brain.
3. Your objective should say a) Who you are ? b) What are your skills c) Why are you looking for a job d) What can you bring to their table OR e) What is the value addition if a company hires you ?
4. If you have prepared for GRE_TOEFL like exams but could not get through and the by product is - you become a Indo-US English guy. What it means is, your english is neither as bad as most of the Indian's english nor as good as the true American English. Such people tend to use complicated words. If you do so, the person reading your objective may not even understand it. ( It is truth, if you want to say "No Pradeep, you are wrong" , you better say "Hey Dude, you suck and your english is wrotten kinda stuff", I shall understand the by product you posses.)
Junk Project Explanation -
Bluetooth Audio Product Testing - Bluetooth is a wireless standard given by SIG. It operates in 2.4 GHz ISM band. Bluetooth audio product is to listen audio or music over bleutooth wireless product. Testing is a major phase in Bluetooth Audio products and invlves audio testing abd bluetooth testing.
1. What the hell ? Why should I write about bluetooth technology in describing about the product ?.. ( 10 % of the resumes I have modified, explained the technology of the product ).
2. Although Mircrosoft has given a spell check, most of them do not use it. When you open today's Indian Tester resume, you will see a lot of Red and Green colours. Simple, they think Microsoft is recognizing their resume and by default underlining it to make it colourful.
3. Indents and Formatting.. This was the toughest thing I ever handled. I wonder how people write word documents wherein I try to modify its format but returns to the same when I press and Enter or Backspace at some points.
4. Bold is not beautiful - Janta does not know what to make Bold and what to not. They feel every one word out of 20 should be bold. Italics, at their own will. They draft the CV and see they have not italicised some words and they start doing it.
Let me try to re frame the above project explanation -
Bluetooth Audio Product Testing - A wireless audio solution for people who would want to listen music on the move without getting entangled with the headphone wires. This project was intended to achieve CD quality music while streaming audio over Bluetooth. A broad classification of the testing challenges would be in measuring the scientific quality parameters of the audio, loss of quality in comparision to wired headphones and testing the user friendliness of the whole product apart from testing the product for battery life and other MMI based testing.
Isn't that giving a fantastic view to the person looking at your CV of what project it is and what you could have done in it ?
Client/Customer Name - Everyone of us are happy to mention that we worked for Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Cisco ... not directly but they being the client/customer of the product you were working for.
Ethically, it isnt good. You think a company would hire you just because you worked for the above companies ? What you do not know is you are revealing your customer info to the person looking at your CV.
What if your CV reaches the competitor of your current place of work ?The person interviewing you would be happy and hire you if you say him "Sorry, I cant tell the customer info" , if he asks such a question.
Unwanted Info -What we all should learn is CV/Resume has no standard format and if you can form your resume. You would be amazed to hear that one guy prepared a CV in flash and song a sang ... for it. Can you believe there were companies in queue to hire him ? Want to know who is he ?
Right click and open to CHECK THIS OUT !
Common sense questions you should ask yourself -
When you cannot draft a good CV without spelling mistakes, formatting mistakes, meaningful sentences... Why should I hire you ?
1. You proved you dont have good documentation skills.
2. You proved you will be unable to report a bug you find with non meaningful sentences writing being your flair.Complicated english words, Will the customer understand ? ( All customers are not smart )
3. Client/Customer name... so will you let know my customer details when you look for a job outside my company if I hire you ?Overall, all your claims look false if your CV negates your claims of being a good tester.
4. Does anyone mention Microsoft Excel as a tool they know ? Trust me if a tester knows the full features of MS Excel he can create more wonders. Some secrets better reamin closed unless it reaches people like me who dare to share.
5. False info - We Indians like mentioning lots of tools in our resume to get job. We are least bothered to check with ourselves whether we really know those tools in depth to take up an interview.
6. Did you know that the time required to hire someone will come down by 50% if good , true CV's are prepared by you all ?

"The art of writing good CV should come from the heart"

Testing like Osama

Hi Reader,

Well, I did want to mean "Disastrous Testing" when I wrote "Testing like Osama", sorry if you could not grasp it. Its perhaps been the longest time interval between two posts ( just 10 days though ) because of me doing some interesting testing stuff @ work.

In this post, I would want to share one of the shocking experience I have had while observing a Tester at work

_ Testing like Osama _

It was hard to digest lot of work, sometime back in one of the companies I have worked for. I thought of easing myself sitting with my colleagues to observe the way they work. Seriously, I did want to learn something from them and I did, but ...

Mr A was a Test Tool Developer/Tester and I sat beside him for a while to observe his way/style of work. ( of course, after seeking his permission )

He kept on executing the cases as a focused tester . It was time I had seen enough of his style and was about to leave..... something caught my attention and I still cant digest the shock I had that day.

He was testing a mobile phone's multimedia feature and one such feature is to download an mp3 song from the server and play it on the phone.

What he did ?

He did not know the settings to be made on the mobile phone in order to connect to the server and hence downloaded a song from his PC via USB and was playing the mp3 file in order to execute that case.

My surprise did not stop there ...

He played the entire song and by all manual mistakes he marked the next case in the list as Pass.

Wow ! He read a case, executed someother case and declared a "Pass" for some other case.

This is a classic example of destroying the quality of the product and I am sure I can never come across such a worst scenario of Testing and probably missing out 3 bugs at a time for every test case executed.

When I tried to make him realize his mistake by letting him know what he had done ... he said .. "Dude, relax, go back to your place" ... "This test case execution has come to me because you and the other guy were unable to complete the test cases in the given time".

What I learnt seeing that ?

• If you do not know how to test a case, do not find a work around for that.
• If you do not have the energy to test something, at least at that point of time, take a break and ensure you come back only when you can deliver better quality of work.
• If you are unable to execute all the cases in the given time, do not manipulate test reports/data.
• It could be possible that your manager is disappointed that you did not execute some cases because you ran out of time but ensure every test case you have tested does ensure the product's quality.
• Managers do not look at people who have taken strain to execute each test case with care and keep appreciating the ones who completed the test cases on time, without knowing they have done some wonders like Mr A.
• Test cases executed by one should and must be verified by someone else too before making a major release to a client/customer.
• Putting pressure on Testers, without motivating them will result in missing 3 bugs for every test case executed.
• Mistakes can happen, it is better to select cases randomly and re-execute it before we give our individual test reports.
• Managers, do not estimate the time that needs to be go in to test and produce a quality

I recently heard a shocking news from the same person when he called me up and told "Hey dude, I have been promoted"...

"Shit, for what ?" ... I was so disappointed by that news that I cried. There were other testers in my team who were worth a promotion. What's going wrong in this industry ? Why is all this happening ? Will things change or should we too change the way the industry likes us to be ?

I am clear that the day I am in a position to command, I shall spend time with Testers ... motivating them , making them realize the importance of a test case and would hire 2 extra testers at the cost of my salary to ensure Testers get time to meet quality standards.

Sorry if I have got emotional, as a passionate Tester, I am unable to bear the pain after seeing people not passionate about testing and yet continuing with testing.

__End of _ Testing like Osama __

Trust me, I feel Osama bin Laden has some good testing skills. When he did architect the attack on WTC .. he took into account the fuel on the plane and the heat needed to bring down the building by melting the TOR steel. He is a Civil Engineer.. hope you know that ?

If you are a good Tester, you learn from Osama too ... if not even Kem Caner, James Bach , Jerry Weinberg nor Tester Tested can make you learn.

"Firing such testers is a golden contribution to Testing community"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer : This post is to let out my personal fury against the incident I witnessed, since I feel I am passionate about testing and I respect Testing.There is no confidential info I have let out here and I am not holding any company/organization responsible for anything that has happened. I should also thank that incident, since after that I am taking utmost care to ensure I have executed the right case and I am marking the result against the same. To learn testing books are not the only source, roam around the world.. when you return home you would be a better tester. I wish someday I write "Mr A has realized his mistake and today is a competent passionate tester".

Programmer Tester V/s Non Programmer Tester

Hi Reader,

It has been long time since I have been thinking about something which I am sharing with you here, after I got an interim answer . It is a conflicting situation every tester passes through at some stage or the another. I have to warn you this early of the post that perceptions may differ and experiences vary from one person to another.

__ Programmer Tester V/s Non Programmer Tester __

Yes, I was wondering as a Tester should I spend some time learning programming or live a life concentrating only on Testing and nothing other than that. Its a tough call for any tester but more than 90% of the Testers I have seen learn programming after this kind of confusion coming up. The rest 10% could be split in categories like - unable to learn programming - feeling programming is boring - no passion for either testing or programming - feeling programming is a brainy job - happy with whatever job in hand ... To be frank, I too fall under this 10% category as of today.

What happens when a Tester learns programming ?

1. If programming is new to him, he may find more pleasure in development than testing since developers say "its more joy to make it work than to say it did not work".
2. If a tester gets skilled in programming his manager may move him to development since for the management they want to put you in a role where you can make more money for them, when you give a super duper hike to a tester to make him a developer, most of us would take it up.
3. A tester may look out for development jobs since it is better to join a new place as a developer than jumping from testing to development in the same company.
4. Exception - He may still continue in testing and start thinking of automating something that was making him painful to test a few scenarios/cases , helping co-testers.

What happens when a Tester doesn't learn programming ?

1. Simple, he makes an attempt to learn programming.
2. At some stage starts getting an inferiority complex and does some course or any certification that can suffice his complex-ion.
3. Exception - concentrates more on testing concepts and wants to become the best black/box or system tester.
4. Exception - utilizes the time he would have spent on learning programming on learning new protocols, doing some research work on his own....
5. Most common - Would want to move to management ASAP to avoid comparison of a developed tester.

Introducing you to the best automation tool you could ever see ...

"Pradeep, you were talking about tester learning programming and suddenly you are jumping to something else. Are you sure you want to talk about that tool at this point?"

Yes, I am 100% sure, there is a relation between the tool and the topic I have been discussing above.

The pic you are seeing in this post is the logo of a tool, a company called SPB software house in Russia developed. They have developed a fantastico tool that helps the non programmer Tester to do an automation of test cases ( of course without any programming )

How can that happen ?

Yes, it is not a miracle. What the Test Suite 2.0 does is to sit on your Pocket PC and note down what you do and ape you ( follow you ). That doesn't mean if you by mistake power of the Pocket PC , it will also ape you. You should be smart enough in telling it what you want it to do by doing it manually.

How it works ?

It kicks its action recorder once you ask it to do so and then notes down your actions. Example - you open an application give some input and close the application, it forms one test case.

You can see a product demo and read its documentation if you are interested ( if not, Close this internet explorer window you have opened , dont worry, you can open it again)

Now the question comes up - If such products come up in the future, do Testers need to learn programming ?

__ End of __Programmer Tester V/s Non Programmer Tester__

"In future Managers can track your performance, running this tool. Beware tools are getting smart enough to talk to the girl in the next cubicle"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer : I am not a part of the organization that developed that tool nor am I into advertising it nor have I got any money from them to write about their tool. As a tester I felt its a tool worth its space in my blog. Everyone can/should learn programming based on their own interest and not just becuase the tester near you is doing it.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, go through this link.