Injustice to testers - I fight

Hi Reader,

"Testers are not treated in par with developers" - is this what you think I would be writing in this post? Actually, No.

Instead, I would be writing how...

1. Customer are cheating themselves by cheating testers.
2. How the Indian software companies management is going wrong w.r.t to testing.
3. Indian testers are being deprived of knowledge and exposure.

_ Injustice to testers - I fight _

"Pradeep, are you trying to create a hype or do you have evidence to support your claims?"

I am a tester and this is my blog dedicated to testing because I am a passionate tester. This is no media channel and I am no journalist.

It happened and its happening in the companies I have been and also I hear the same from my friends in other companies.

What's going wrong?

India is a place where technologies like 3G, GPS and other technologies which has not completely penetrated into Indian market are being developed by software companies and not just development but testing too. Wait, that's not wrong.

Testers test the products developed in simulated or emulated environment in the lab of their respective companies. Wait, that's not wrong.

Once these products reach a mature level , the products are put to Inter Op Testing and it usually happens in Europe.

I have come across a couple of companies who send developers for Inter Op testing. Unfortunately dumb customers support that.

( Just think ) A tester who tests the product for years together in simulated environment never gets a chance to see the product working in real time scenario. A developer gets to develop the product and learns more about the technology and product during such IOT he experiences.

Is it right on the management to expect a tester to have complete knowledge about the product when the tester never gets to see the real world?

Is it right on the management to catch hold of a tester for a bug customer has found?

Is it right on the management to rate the tester based on number of bugs missed/found?

Is it right on the management to explain, "this is what customer wants and if developers go for IOT, they can fix it too" when people like me question about the injustice?

Is it right on the management to be partial to developers but claim, "we are an equal opportunity employer".

Is it right on the customer to get angry for finding a bug at field test without insisting testers on real time environment?

Is it right on the customer to be comfortable about having a developer sent for IOT?

Is it right on the developers to call a tester and ask "Hey, I am calling from IOT site, could you please help me in doing this test" ?

No wonder I am frustrated about these things happening to a tester around me, I learnt the following -

1. I no more believe a company, which claims, "We are equal opportunity employer".
2. I have heard many times the management speaking in all hands meet "Test team is our backbone for quality of the products we develop" and I would laugh at that hereafter.
3. I lower my respect towards such a customer.
4. This makes me more skeptical about my own work and it becomes hard to believe I have tested a product well.
5. This makes me less confident about the knowledge/experience of the product I have tested.
6. The quality of a product depends not only by following quality standards such as CMM or ISO but also on the attitude the management and a customer has towards a tester.
7. Developers are partially testers, just that they are on site testers. If developers find 5 bugs and fixes 4 during IOT, testers can find 20 bugs during IOT, which still can be fixed by the developer. If it requires a developer on IOT that does not mean a tester is not required.
8. Many Test Managers don't even consider this as a problem for their testers growth and yet continue to push testers to do good work.
9. If I were in the management, I would talk or brief the customer the importance of having the tester on site for IOT and get the funds for it instead of answering my tester "Sorry, the customer has not allocated funds for testers to travel".
10. Most of the Indian IT companies are developer friendly and deprives the learning opportunity for testers.
11. <>

_ Injustice to testers - I fight _

I know people who would oppose this post of mine are the testers who have been on site and are happy of what they have got without bothering what is happening to other testers.

Look dear testers, I know a very reputed company in India where none of the testers have seen the real world of the products they test but developers keep traveling so often to IOT and other conferences. All testers get is an e-mail... "Hi , Chocolates at my desk, please help yourselves".

Had a tester traveled for IOT, he would come back and send a mail "Hi, Lot of bugs on your code, please help yourselves."

"Developers are ready to do testing, provided they travel and see other parts of the world"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer: If you felt guilty, I wanted it to happen. If you haven't felt guilty, you are arrogant. If you are a tester who is facing this and you keep quiet after reading this, you deserve what is happening to you. If you are someone who felt I am complaining against all the IT companies in India, you are wrong. If you are someone who felt a need to change how things are happening, India is on the verge of improving further because of people like you.

Note: This post is not from someone, who is greedy about going on site but is from someone who is concerned about his peers who work very hard but are deprived a chance to develop themselves to become a better tester in the domain.

Answering the telephone puzzle

Hi Reader,

If you do not know what puzzle I put up in my previous post - read it now and then come back here to know how exciting the following information is.

Thanks for coming back and also welcome to those who have made an attempt to crack the puzzle.

_Answering the telephone puzzle_

I first want to announce the winner of the puzzle : Sameer Chaudary . Congradulations Sameer!!

Many congrads to all others who made an attempt and sent me a mail. Some where close but most of them were wrong. I am impressed that quite a few freshers too made a great attempt to crack the puzzle.

Also the winner of the "best documentation recieved" is : Suresh Marappa . Congradulations Suresh !

How could Sameer solve it?

This puzzle was simple to him as he had done the same mistake as people in my company did but still he does deserve the prize since he exhibited one quality of a good tester of being able to recollect the past learning.

If an excellent tester had solved it, it would be this way...

1. Ask me "What is your extension number?"

2. Ask me questions to try distinguishing whether humans or machines are causing this.

3. Ask me "What is my landline number and bangalore telephone exchange codes?"

4. Ask me "Whether is it really a missed call or are you not there when they call?"

5. Ask me "What time do you get the maximum number of calls or what is your working time?"

5. Ask me"Did you call back and ask one of them; how they reached my extension?"

Well that solved the puzzle, if I answer the above questions.

6. Further "List out all other possbilities"

Now, you would be interested to know who is that excellent tester who did crack the puzzle with his excellent approach. It is none other than my Guru James Bach, one of the leading Test Expert, we have been blessed with.

The only question he missed is to ask about mobile numbers from various service providers in Bangalore as he was running out of time and I had forcibly pulled him to solve this puzzle. However it is an easy task for someone who asked landline number to ask further about mobile numbers. I owe all my success to this great man who has helped me equip myself with skills to approach a problem in a right way through his masterpiece exercises.

How I identified the problem/solved the puzzle : ( I ask myself, a lot of questions. Thanks to James again )

1. "Pradeep is this a technical problem?"
Could be but let me think of other possibilities before I collect some evidence to say it is a technical problem

2. Is it that I am getting a missed call from the same number?
No, different people call at different times and this happens only during office hours and I hardly see a missed call in non office hours. Wow! this looks like its a human error!

3. Now that I got a clue that it could be a human error, what is causing all those people doing the same error?
Hmm! interesting. What is my extension number: 9986. When do people dial 9986?

Hey, wait a minute... Hutch Telecom operating in bangalore has a mobile number series of 99860 xxxxx , 99861 xxxxx , 99862 xxxxx , 99863 xxxxx , 9986x xxxxx

Ah ! I got it, people who who are trying to call a hutch number from their deskphone and missing a ZERO to be dialled as a prefix to make an external call are the ones who give me a missed call.

How do I confirm it? I could be wrong, I need some evidence, I am a tester.

While thinking I got another missed call. I immediately called the person who had given a missed call and asked ...
"Mam, I got a missed call from your number.. "
"Sorry, I tried calling some other number"... "Well may I know whether it is a hutch mobile you were trying to call?" ...
"Yes, how did you know that"...
"Just a guess, thanks for the info and have a nice day"

Bingo! This gives an evidence that it is not a technical problem and it is a human error.

Now why did I put this up as a puzzle to you all?

When you look at the problem as a tester as most of you did, you doubt the technology and conclude that it could be a bug but finally you see a human error causing the problem. This should give you a clue to think of human error also when someone asks you to analyze a bug.

Also, if you notice how I approached you would discover that although I was sure that 9986 and hutch numbers coincidence that created a problem, I did not want to conclude unless I get an evidence. Now that I have an evidence no one can deny my conclusion and that is a success for a tester when developers/managers dont deny a bug.

Also, I am happy that I could think of various other possibilities that I have not listed out here and I am sure whatever the problem had been, I would have found it out in a short while. More than a million thanks to my guru James Bach and his mind blowing exercises. I would say "that is the power of exploratory and rapid testing".

Now that does not mean I can solve any problem but that means I can get close to the solution at a faster pace and I can judge myself whenever I am wrong and learning to correct myself .

A special thanks to Sameer Chaudary who is the first person to make a contribution towards Tester Tested! since it is going to take new Avatar from next month.

Also, I am planning for a one day workshop in Bangalore next month (Nov-06) on "Acquiring testing skills through exercises" - Open to all testers. Keep watching for information or get in touch with me if you would want to join - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com. Of course it is not free and yet is affordable right from a fresher to an experienced person.

I just can't imagine how excited you would be when going back from the workshop. I have been testing my exercises on a few people already and it seems to be giving great results to people who are taking up those exercises.

I am not going to talk about "what is testing and what are the types and techniques" and if you are my regular reader you should have known by now that Tester Tested! is always different and not the usual stuff you find at a place/site near you.

If you intend to make this happen in your place, I am ready for it provided you pool up with other testers there and organize it. Do let me know your interests and other possibilities through mail - pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

"One small step towards becoming a good tester is your service to the community"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Testing puzzle at office

Hi Reader,

I was put to test by a real life problem. I used to get at least around 100 missed calls for a day at my desk phone in office from internal numbers(only). That is annoying !

I initially ignored and assumed my other colleagues too had the same problem but on checking with them, I got to know the problem was at my end.

_ Testing puzzle at office _

Thanks to James Bach's exercises that made me think in many ways of how this problem could occur and I was able to identify the problem.

I found it very interesting to share with you all here since I feel, if you too could solve this puzzle, you might feel as happy as I am feeling after I identified the problem.

Here are some clues:

• One of your company employee could also be facing the same problem, I faced.
• You might have called some one in your office and told "Oh sorry, I was trying some one else"
• Its a unique problem and not with pressing a key on the phone by mistake.
• Its a problem, different from the problem with the network which sometime yields the same result.

What should you do?

1. Think and identify the problem.
2. Document your thought process and e mail it to me at pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

What do you get?

A first correct entry from an Indian tester, gets 250 rupees and even if you dont get it right but if you think your thought process and documentation is good enough, I would love to give you another 250 rupees.

Rules:

1. All correct entries should come with some documentation which stands as a proof for me of how you concluded the problem.
2. Open to Indian testers only.

Answer will be published after someone comes out with the correct and answer and inspiring thought process and documentation.

Of course, if you get it right your name would appear in this post.

Just in case someone is boasting about their testing skills, time for you to pass the link to them or after your name appears on it.

_Testing puzzle at office _

I am so happy that I am encouraging people to think through my blog and even ready to give them money for their thinking and I would love to continue this way to see many of you becoming *good enough* tester.

Come on start racing, Finish before an Alonso wins the podium !

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

:) That's Tester Tested!

Test your e-mail

Hi Reader,

"Shit man, they did not get what I wanted to mean through the mail", is what my colleague uttered recently. He had found some bugs by taking a lot of care when testing a product and had prepared a test report and sent it to - Developers, Managers, Test team members.

Now, why did he say ..."they did not get what I wanted to mean.." ?

No, I am not interested in focusing communication skill of a tester but instead a skill that you must posses to ensure that people do get to know you have worked hard and a skill that you must possess to ensure people get to know the importance of your words.

_ Test your e-mail _

Now let us assume you are sending a test report to your dev guys, managers and other test team members in loop and let us take two examples of how someone without the skills I mentioned would draft the e-mail and in comparison how could the skilled tester draft the same.

Unskilled Tester -


Hello Team,

I finished testing for release xx.xx.xx and found some bugs which I have documented in the report. Please find the report as an attachment to this mail.

Regards,

Unskilled Tester


Disadvantages of the above draft -

1. The tester failed to convey the importance of the critical bugs he might have found in the mail. You might ask : "If a tester has put the details in the test report, why should he repeat it in mail?". Interesting question, but you must be aware that you should make the reader of your e-mail realize the importance of looking through the report through the e-mail.
2. The tester failed to make the managers and developers realize that he had put in a lot of effort and if either of them asks him to repeat the tests, they are aware the time it would take to complete the tests.
3. The tester failed to make the developers realize the urgency of fixing certain bugs. Developers would have seen "Critical" , "Major" status for a long time and there should be something else to make them work towards it.
4. The tester failed to give details that are available in the report he has attached with the e-mail he is sending.
5. The tester failed to realize that he is putting himself into trouble by not mentioning the limitation of his testing.
6. The tester failed to mention the impact of the bugs on the quality of the product and the customer.

Skilled Tester -

Hi Team,

It was interesting to have found certain critical bugs that affect the basic functionality of the product through testing release xx.xx.xx for product GFD. Although the time taken to test is 5 hours, which exceeded one hour of the planned time I am happy to have found a couple of critical issues even in the extra one hour I took.

I kindly request you all to peruse the Test Report for release xx.xx.xx and to help you in navigating the test report in an easier way, I have split the critical, major and minor issues in a separate worksheet.

My testing is limited to the environment with which I executed the test cases which is not a real time environment and an emulated lab in our office premises and hence the results could vary if executed on a real time network.

File Name : Test_Report_GFD_xx.xls

File Size: 326 kilo bytes

Please feel free to get in touch with me just in case you need any logs or if you would want to see how I reproduced the issues, I have mentioned in the report.

Manager, please check with the customer if this release could be delayed by a day or two to ensure developers have enough time to fix the critical issues.

Thanks and Regards,

Skilled Tester

Now you judge how good is the above one?

_ end of Test your e-mail _

"If a tester does not test his mail, developers would find bugs in it then"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Being a tester V/s Working as a tester

Hi Reader,

I think I spent enough time, to give you something that can really make you think a lot on who you are.

Well, I joined a couple of software testing and testing related communities in orkut with an attempt to discuss on topics of testing and learn something from more wise minds.

All communities I joined are flocked with Indian testers and I am now wondering whether I should thank myself for having a learning there?

I learnt that there are two types of testers in India:

a) One who is a tester.
b) One who works as a tester.

Now, I do not want you to believe me. If you believe me before you read further, I would have to assume you belong to category (b). However...

_ Being a tester v/s Working as a tester_

It is very interesting to share my research on Indian testers in this post. I am not sure how testers are in the western or eastern world since I have never traveled outside, so let me not talk about them without seeing them.

Now, you might have a question to me...
"Who is better, the one who is a tester or the one who is working as a tester?"

I do not want to bias you but judge it yourself based on the following.

Features of people "working as a tester" -

• One who works as a tester, would have started to learn testing for the purpose of job and is eager to collect material, interview questions and answers.
• One who works as a tester, is eager to get a certification for augmenting themselves in their career.
• One who works as a tester, is a toolsmith. They believe if you do not know any tools that are available in the market and the ones mentioned in job openings, you are not a tester.
• One who works as a tester, seldom thinks of jumping into development, assuming that is a better job.
• One who works as a tester, stops learning and starts confusing others by replying to queries in many discussions/communities/forums, both online and offline.
• One who works as a tester, value money more than testing and they feel they are better testers if they are paid more.
• One who works as a tester, post queries in all forums with improper subject line and without using simple search.
• One who works as a tester, keeps asking others opinion about the job and the tool they are using.
• One who works as a tester, wants to be spoon fed and is not willing to spend time and energy in researching or finding the data by themselves.
• One who works as a tester, is the one who expects others to reply to their basic queries.
• One who works as a tester, is the one who is irritated with testers who are being testers.
• One who works as a tester, gets to management job as soon as possible, paving way for more people to work as a tester.
• One who works as a tester, never tolerates ones who are being testers.
• One who works as a tester, are more attracted to testing jokes than testing concepts.
• One who works as a tester, never accepts others view of testing, be it from a person who is also working as a tester.
• One who works as a tester, never know who coined the terminologies they have been mis using and never want to learn about their work too.
• One who works as a tester, ... "Oh my God! this list is getting too big".
• One who works as a tester, is a person who will never accept this post of mine.

"That's a sweet way to end it Pradeep" , I said to myself.

On a contradiction, I am happy that there are people who are being testers in India -

• These people learn and experiment the concepts so well that, you ask them to write test cases for a software or a tubelight or anything, they will be able to do it without others help. Atleast they will make an effort.
• These people value money and testing equally. ( I would never say they value testing more than money, I want to be realistic and no hype)
• These people do enough search/research on their doubt before they post it on to a group. Such a tester is visible by the way he asks doubt - For example he/she asks - Subject - Query on XYZ concept - Body - Hi Testers, I was wondering about this concept after looking at ..... link .... I did some basic analysis but I seem to be not convinced, could anyone who has a belief that you can explain for me to understand can offer an explanation and I thank each of you for that.
• These people get irritated when they are with people who work as a tester.
• These people never stop learning, even if they become a Director or have their own start up.
• These people are not as fortunate as the most of so called testers, who work as a testers.
• These people remain... these people.

Its Judgment Day !

I still do respect those people who are working as a tester and trying to become a tester !

_ End of _ Being a tester v/s Working as a tester _

"I now have no doubts why the term "monkey, testing" came into the domain"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Note: Sorry for being so frank and bold.

Test your interviewer

Hi Reader,

I need motivation to keep giving good articles in Tester Tested! Blog and recently there was a big push for me from someone in Finland. I would love to share that with you here.

Well, hopefully you have come back from that link and now get ready for something interesting and a very controversial topic.

"Now Pradeep what is that controversial topic and what do you mean by *Test your interviewer*?"

Hmm ! is it that interesting for you to read this post?

_ Test your interviewer _

Before I proceed further, I want to ask you a question and it is ..."How many interviews have you attended till date?" 10 or 20 or 40 or 50 ?

Is 50 a huge number for you to digest?. Well if 50 is a huge number, what would you call an experience of attending 200+ interviews?

Would you want to know who is that person who have attended 200+ interviews till date?

No guesses at all... Its me, Tester Tested!

"Now Pradeep, why did you have to attend 200 interviews in this short span of 3 years?"

That's an interesting question but there is a better time I explain why I did have to attend so many interviews but I am just sharing something with you that I noticed very frequently in interviews.

Based on the interviewers I have come across, I am classifying the interviewers in the following categories -

Interviewers who do not know what they are asking -

Every technical question in an interview is good if it reveals information about the candidate and his/her fit to the job opening but perhaps there are some interviewers who ask those questions based on their past experience of attending interviews and expect the same answer as what they gave in their interviews.

Interviewers who run out of questions -

There are some interviewers who run out of questions and start asking irrelevant questions or ask questions which does not contribute towards the objective of interviewing.

Interviewers who are unaware of the domain, the candidate has worked -

Unfortunately, this is something that irritates me the most and I am more happy to have got rejected by those. In an interview an interviewer asked me "Pradeep, what is the Load testing tool you use for testing multimedia?"
I replied "Sir, I guess there is nothing called load testing tool commercially available for multimedia product testing". He then surprised me ... "What, haven't you come across Load Runner?"

He could have asked me a better question instead of that which could have made me to continue respect him.

Keeping myself cool and with an intention of not disappointing him, I said "Oh, I have not come across Loadrunner for Multimedia Sir, I might check about that when I go back after this interview".

I would never join if I know well in advance that I cant learn anything from a supervisor, who interviewed me irrespective of the .

Interviewers who think they are interviewing a candidate because they are better than the candidate -

The most common class of people I have met. As an interviewer you should be looking for opportunities to learn from the candidate knowledge, else you are not a good tester.

... Well there are many such classifications I would want to take. I would say out of the 200+ interviews I have attended I would rate only 10 people as the ones who are eligible to interview testers.

Now it is time to thank all the interviewers I have met since each of them gave me a new learning and experience and if you dont want someone like me to classify you in any of the above, you should be ...

Simple steps to become an effective testing interviewer -

1. When you get a resume for interview from your HR/Manager, go through the resume and check with yourself whether you can interview such a profile you have recieved and also do let your manager know your comfort level to interview the candidate based on your/candidate's technical skills.
2. Every question you ask, should be towards the objective of revealing how fit the candidate's skill is towards the opening you have.
3. Do not ask too much about theory on testing, no two people know the same definition.
4. Have a discussion ( not rapid fire questions) and or try to test something with the candidate and see how his/her approach and thought process is towards the testing.
5. Do not ask questions that do not have a standard answer in this world, like "What is the difference between Sanity and Smoke testing?" rather it would be challenging for the candidate, if you ask "If you know what Sanity testing is, could you tell me its significance or let me know what impact would a project have if Sanity testing is not done?"
6. Appreciate the candidate if he/she is better than you and let him/her know that someone else would interview them to take a decision of hiring. If you say so, you are a non egoistic, humble and bold person.
7. If you could learn from the candidate, make a note of the learnings during and or after the interview.
8. Ask for interview feedback from the candidate and try to better yourself through the feedback. Not all candidates would give a proper feedback but there are many people like me.
9. The most important of all, read Dr Cem Kaner's - Interviewing Software Testing Candidates .

_ End of _ Test your interviewer _

"A good tester, tests the interviewer"

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

The man who inspired me through his notes

Hi Reader,

There is always something special about people who inspire others. We humans do not fix a person in mind and start looking at his work to get inspiration but it all happens either accidentally or through the passion we have developed towards something.

When I started looking food to feed my passion towards testing, I came across James Bach, accidentally and the fire started there. When you know a person, you get to know his circle of friends and similarly, when I got to know James Bach, he then mentioned a few names to me who were equally wise people in the field. I am not sure how many of you know Jerry Weinberg but for sure he is one such mentor for one and all in the field and outside too.

After joining the SHAPE forum, I started wondering "Is there anything that Jerry does not know?"

Recently, Michael Bolton's work made me to inspire him. There is another thing that inspired me about Micheal, that he augmented himself from being a student of James Bach to becoming a peer to James. It is so much of hard work and dedication to get there is what I know.

_ The man who inspired me through his notes _

Now lets start talking about the notes. If you right click and open the link and go through the 4th page in this link , you would come to know, a fantastic exploratory testing exercise that Michael Bolton carried out in flight from Delhi to Amsterdam.

I want you to first, spend some time reading his notes and explanation, before you continue reading this.

Assuming that you have gone through the notes, I continue...

How and what did Pradeep learn from Michael Bolton's notes ?

1. I learnt that learning and practicing testing need not happen infront of a PC and an opportunity to learn and practice something is hidden in the idle/free time we claim to have.
2. "Exploratory testing done well is systematic", as James says.
3. If I were the company whose product was put in flight; I would request all the passengers to share their experience of using the product and would keep enhancing the product rather than allowing good testers to have a good time testing these products. (That's a testing skill too, a testing service company or a product company should possess it, as per my perspective)
4. I did make a note of the approach of Michael, to note down the observation, to make a sketch of the product, understand the product ASAP, decide on the scope of testing, think intuitive and then all this leads to find as many bugs as possible.
5. I also did learn that while taking notes, be descriptive enough to make people imagine the product that underwent testing. I seriously could imagine the in flight entertainment system, without having traveled or used such a system in flight.
6. As he says "taking such notes helps in modeling and framing a strategy to test a product".
7. Mere learning is not important; I too am going to take notes. Not that I want to ape what experts do but am very curious about the thinking process of the experts and would want to know "how did they think to arrive at what they have arrived on?"I also learnt to make notes from others notes, if I happen to get it.

Michael, I have some questions which I would love to see the answers as a comment to this post. You could help a couple of testers looking into this post by answering the following questions apart from me.

1. Before you boarded the flight, did you think of testing something or in other words, were you prepared to do some testing after getting into flight?
2. What was running in your mind when you were taking notes or in other words, did you feel you were doing whatever you did, as a practice towards developing exploratory testing approach?
3. Have you informed the bugs you found, to the company who owns the product or in other words, do you think it is good for testers who are going to take notes, after reading your moleskine notes should inform the company about the bugs they found?
4. Do you find anything else that you can share with us regarding the same?

Last but not least, kudos to Jon Bach for helping Michael Bolton to reach to such a level of note taking capability. Forgive me all, I am too young and naive to appreciate these people but still I did :(.

_ End of _The man who inspired me through his notes _

"When you scribble something on a paper, you never know that an upcoming artist could get inspired by it"

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Gold mines opening up for Indian Testers

Hi Reader,

Yes, this post does matter a lot to you, if you are a tester from India.
For people who already know Tester Tested! , You know testing is creative, since Tester Tested! is one such example to prove that. I would want you to know; who made testing creative?

Drum roll !!!!!! James Bach , Cem Kaner , Gerald M Weinberg , Bret Pettichord .....[lots more] And also the people whom the above mentioned people have referred to, are the ones who showed to the world that Testing is a craft and not everyone can become good testers.

Now, if you are a developer, and lets say Dennis Ritchie or Brain W Kerningham is offering a training on C, wouldn't you be excited to take it? , despite, you having worked on C for sometime?. It sure adds a lot of value and its once in a life time opportunity. You feel, you are a good developer, after you learn C from Dennis Ritchie.

Similarly, is there someone, who could, help us in becoming a good tester?

To answer the above question, lets take up an exercise -

Do you see a picture above or rather, something written in bold or caps?
If you are asked to think as a tester, and test the above, right now, how will you test?

First of all, if I ask you to read out what is written in the picture, most of you would read "A" , "S" , "M" , "C" , "X" and "I", right. I too was looking at that picture from that angle but something improved my thinking as a tester and now I look at a lot of combinations and possibilities.

Are you interested as to what else can it be other than the above letters?

Yes, can it be a "A" , "S" , Roman numeral M, Roman numeral C, Roman Numeral X , Roman numeral "I"?.

Also, could it be "ASMC" multiplied (X) by "I"?

Also, could it be some Code/password?

Also, could it be a name of a processor?

There are 300 such combinations, I can think, on the spot, looking at the picture above, and this helps me in creating wonderful test cases, test scenarios, determine the quality of a product and above all, gives me the confidence to test anything in this world, and a faith in myself of producing good quality output.

It is more important for you all to note, what is that *something* that made me think better as a tester and be confident of becoming a good tester?

I have been undergoing a training on Rapid Software Testing, by James Bach!

"Ah, Pradeep, you are lucky, you had money to travel to US for this training", If you ask me such a question, I would love to reply "I swear, I am in bangalore now, I have not yet applied for a passport".

Still, I could get trained by him online, and I was able to learn a lot or to surprise James, even better than the class room training, I have had.

Now is that a privilege for me alone?

No! James Bach, is showing a lot of interest to create wonderful testers in India and hence would want to coach those passionate testers, online.

Do you have it in you?

What do you mean by online Pradeep?

I mean, you will be put into a virtual class room, you get coached by James Bach, you can see him (through a cam), you can hear him ( with a speaker) and you can ask your doubts to him ( over a mic ). He would talk to each one of you personally, calling your names before he asks questions to you, that makes you think a lot better than, what you have been doing as a tester.

I see a great lot of difference, in me, as a tester, after I started interacting with James Bach and the resultant or the proof you have is my blog Tester Tested ! It now caters, 250 testers world wide as a reference material and something that motivates them. Dont believe me, read it for yourself.

Also, if I was successful in creating an interest in you to take up such a course, for a reasonable price, I need to give you the details to mail your interest, to James Bach, and it is.... Click here to mail James Bach or if you wish to know his mail id without clicking on that, it is : james@satisfice.com


Why am I recommending this to all Indian testers?

1. I have taken it, and know, the value of it.
2. Its a great chance for Indian testers, to get trained by a Test Expert.
3. Its a wonderful learning opportunity.
4. Its a chance, to improve our stand on the international scale.
5. Its first time any expert, has wanted to coach a tester, in India, online.
6. Its because, I want people in the world, to look at India, as a highly competent testing hub of the world.
7. Its because, I am so passionate about testing.
8. I dream to see an Indian name on the expert list, it could be you, too.

What do you need to do with this post?

You just need to think on it. Am not sure, whether I have set a good example but for sure, HE has more to offer.

Forward this link, to all the testers you know, to your management, to your company heads, so that, they have an opportunity to think on making their testers, the highly competent ones, in the market.

For corporate heads looking into this post, you can ping him for an offer to coach many testers online.

When opportunity is knocking right at your door, if you ignore it, aren't you a tester, who would repent for it later?

Given a chance to improve yourself, and your country's technical competence, would you drop it?

Regards,

Pradeep Soundararajan

pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

Disclaimer: If you think, I am trying to market something for my guru, you are right,if Guru Dakshin is marketing, to you. I am selfish about making all other testers, as fortunate and as better I have been. If you think, testers are not treated well, in companies, it is time to challenge the best developers with the best testing skills.

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