"Some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright"- Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption. This blog is from one such bird who couldn't be caged by organizations who mandate scripted software testing. Pradeep Soundararajan welcomes you to this blog and wishes you a good time here and even otherwise.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Lessons learnt from Junior Testers

Hi Reader,

Sometime back, I was asked to train a few fresher, its a new learning I had, which I am sharing with you. I asked them to imagine a bug and write test reports, after giving some gyaan. I was suprized to see the examples, they came out with, which left me thinking; was I as smart as these fresher's?

Also, when I asked them to come out with Load and Stress test cases for any product, they can imagine, I again, learnt from them, the examples and test cases for Rubber band, Shoe...

I found the examples of Rubber band and Shoe for Load and Stress testing, a very thought provoking ones. Thanks to the freshers, I learnt a great deal from them.

I just did not give them some exercises but I also did the homework, what they did, taking their examples, to check whether I am a good tester.

_ Bug report _

Disposable cup bug

Summary – The disposable cup leaks when a hot drink like coffee or tea exceeding 95 degree centigrade is allowed to remain in the cup for a time of about 15 minutes.

Cup type: Hard Paper cup
Manufacturer: XYZ Corporation
Version: 1.0
Customer: ABC Corporation

Test Content: Hot Coffee/Tea (> 95 degree centigrade)
Test Case mapping: TC_43_HT_LQ

Steps to Reproduce

1) Take 3 – 4 disposable cups for testing.
2) Place them on a table and ensure the room temperature is below 40 degree centigrade.
3) Prepare coffee and/or tea and check/ensure the temperature of the tea or coffee is above 95 degree centigrade.
4) Pour the prepared hot coffee/tea into the cups on the table and ensure, each cup has different volume. (For ex – 1st cup contains half cup coffee, 2nd cup 3/4th coffee)
5) Repeat the above steps for a different sample/batch of cups.
6) Repeat the above steps with other hot liquids such as hot water, hot malt drinks…

Observed Result –

1) After around 10 minutes, all cups under test, having different volume of hot liquids, start to leak. (The leak is from the bottom of the cup)
2) The hot liquid leaks entirely out of the cup in one minute, when the cup was filled for full up to brim.

Expected Result –

1) The cup should be able to hold hot liquids (90 – 100 degree centigrade)
2) As per specification, the cup should not leak when a hot liquid is allowed to remain in it for an hour.

Reproducibility – 100 %

Suggested temporary fix

As per experiments, it is found that, if two cups are used one over the other, the hot liquids are held and does not leak out for an hour.

Recommended permanent fix

Consider re looking at the material/thickness of the paper and glue.

Risk of the bug

Customer will be annoyed to see the tea/coffee has leaked and the customer is forced to clean the surface where the cup was placed. There could be some important documents/dress/money/anything important that may get spoilt because of the leak.

Severity: 1
Priority: 1

Limitation of testing

1) The above scenario was reproduced using hot coffee and tea only.
2) It is not experimented with hot water or any other liquid.
3) No testing was carried out to find whether the glue making the coffee/tea toxic.

_ End of bug report _

Now I have some points, I want you to go through -

  1. If you are training, freshers, ensure, you do not misguide them.
  2. Do not limit their thinking to software, make them run into wildlife, they shall make you think, in turn.
  3. Teach them examples, dont put them on the project, directly.
  4. Give things in bits and pieces and not macro blocks, which is hard to digest for a fresher.
  5. Teach them; how to search on google?, else, you learn it first.
  6. Ask them to choose any product, they like, and test, first, before, you make them test junk.
  7. Dont limit the training to your needs, give them an opportunity to learn and experiment.
  8. Stress on the importance of English skills, in software testing, never mind, you may not have it.
  9. Make them enthusiastic about work and not excited about work.
  10. When you do not know something say "Can I refer to something before I tell it clearly?".
  11. To know the complexity of the homework, you are giving, you too work it out, at your home.
  12. There are more points, you yourself, need to explore.

_ End of _ Lessons learnt from Junior Testers _

"A true senior, learns from a junior,too"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Pradeep,

Hey gr8! This post of the lesson's learnt frm freshers is good. A fresher's mind should be first made happy abt the work they are going to proceed with. This could achieved by making them think in the way they imagine.. A rt way of directing a fresher.. Is make him feel comfortable by conveying wht he thinks is rt..

BTW the example was good pradeep. OK now I wish to think on how will I test a post it notes.. Let me see if I come up with good pts.. :)

Anonymous said...

Pradeep,

I love reading the excellent posts you have put up in Tester Tested!

Your views about the industry is fantastic and I am bowled.

Anonymous said...

Amazing,
Covers the product from end to end. Thanks for the gyaan imparted.

Raj

Anonymous said...

Hi Pradeep!!
i am a fresher and this article changed my perspective!!
I am learning a lot from your posts!!

sravanthi

Chris said...

A training exercise I used to use is "Testing a Chocolate Chip Cookie". I ensured that the students had requirements and specifications. Then I told them to go away for an hour and plan what they'd do for testing, write test cases if applicable, then come back to me for the raw material to test. After an hour, they'd come back and I'd give them a paper bag with the cookie to test in it. Unfortunately for them, the paper bag held a custard cream or a chocolate Hob Nob. They'd ask me, "What should we do with this? It's not a chocolate chip cookie!" I said, "That's what the factory sent me. Get testing now!" After the wrap up, we'd have a coffee break with the rest of the raw material. Very productive of thinking about how we test.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I think you are living in a dream world because now-a-days it is not happening in the corporate world. It is not that much easy like you said, to change the environment.

So, I disagree with you.

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Anonymous,

I think you are living in a dream world because now-a-days it is not happening in the corporate world. It is not that much easy like you said, to change the environment.

So, I disagree with you.


You are free to disagree with me but I guess you should look at my recent posts, and other comments of people who have been influenced by this blog. They are changing the world.

I place my bets that you are a first timer here, probably.

You might want to spend a few days and then say whatever you said.

Maybe it works for me and is a dream for you. What worked for Ambani remained a dream for many, isn't it?