Testing by Accident

I love travelling in my car as often as I can because that is one of the times when my entire family spends quality time together. I catch up with my parents and in-laws, answer my first girl's questions on various topics, assure my second girl that I am going to spend more time with her over next couple days which she loves and also discuss spirituality with my husband. I love the last bit the most!

Recently, we were returning from my mother's hometown. We were 10 minutes away from reaching our home. My husband hit a bike that was riding approximately two feet away from our car. A young girl in her twenties was driving the bike while her male partner was riding pillion. Immediately after the hit, she lost balance and fell down leaving her friend only to follow her while my husband did his best to put sudden breaks and divert the car away from the accident scene.

Image Credits :: www.Easyvectors.com

I put my child down on the front seat, picked up a water bottle and rushed to the spot. I lifted the girl up, held her head high, saw if there were any external injuries and forced her to drink some water which she obliged. I kept looking all around her head to see if she was injured. At that moment, it was not about who was wrong. It was about two lives. It was about their lives. The male partner was fine. I enquired if she felt any pain anywhere around the head region. She didn't respond. All along, she kept pushing me aside while she spoke to her friend in a North Indian language I couldn't pay attention to. I was worried about her head and her pain. Head injuries can get dangerous. I was relieved after noticing that there were neither any external injuries nor did she show signs of internal injuries. She had returned to normal quickly. So I thought.

Any Indian accident starts with the vehicle parked at the center of the road. I advised both the parties to park the vehicles to the side so that other vehicles could pass through that 20 feet road. And the blame game started.

The male partner (MP): We stuck to the left of the road. How could you come and hit us? And you were driving so fast on this tiny road

Hari, my husband : I was driving on the middle of the road. I never came to the left

Girl: You sped, came to the left and hit us

Hari : How could I speed when there was a car in front of my car at a 15 feet distance?
[Everyone moves to the exact spot where the accident happened]

MP: Look, we were coming here and this is where you hit us, pointing to the area where the bike skid.

Hari: Can you see these tyre marks where I applied the breaks. Now tell me how close it is to that place where your bike was at?

MP: No. You hit us. Let me call the police

Hari: Sure. Please call the police. I'll wait here

[Most people are scared of police. We were not. That guy decided not to call the police.]

MP: You have to pay us maintenance for the vehicle

Hari: It was not my fault. It was your fault. And nothing has happened to your vehicle anyway. A few scratches here and there. 

Girl: Okay, we don't need the expenses for the bike, but take me to the hospital. I want to be checked so there is nothing wrong in my head.

Hari: Okay. We can do that. There's a clinic close by. Follow us. 

[The girl took a picture of our car number and started following us, this time around, the guy decided to drive which we thought was a good decision]

While I returned to my car, I saw a semi-spiral sheet near lying down. My husband says, it's not ours. The other guy also says its not ours. I thought it could be ours. I take it anyway thinking, let me take a look when I get back home.

While we were driving, I went into a flash back like in Kamala Hassan movies. What exactly happened? 

• The bike was indeed keeping to their left.
• We were indeed in the middle of the road.
• The road was only 20 feet wide.
• There was a car riding in front of us at 15 feet distance.
• Our car was going in 20kmph speed.
• We were hit. The bike was hit. They fell down on the road.

I was pissed off with the way that girl was pushing me away while I tried to help her get up, give water and check for injuries. She took the help, she pushed me away and also threw the water bottle I had given her. The girl kept accusing that it was our fault, she would take us to the police, she took photographs of our car number, she asked our phone numbers which we willingly gave. Hari and I kept our cool.

Whose fault was it anyway?

• It was she who turned right while Hari continued to drive in the middle of the road
• She was driving a Scooty. Scooty vibrates when a bigger vehicle drives past it. And it was at least 1997/1998 model. I have driven a scooty myself, the same 1997 model. So, I know.
• She must have got tensed after seeing a car so close to her
• She may not have been able to balance the weight of her partner while she drove under a stressful situation as this
• Both her hands were badly bruised. I observed carefully to see if it was because of this accident. It was not. The bruises had turned dark brown indicating they may have been old injuries
• The bruises looked like injuries from a bad bike ride
• The bruises looked like injuries from a newbie rider
• Oh, she has been driving for a while now
• Oh, she has been getting injured for a while now
• Oh, she is learning to ride a bike
• Oh, she was learning to ride on that day too
• Oh, are they valid documents for the scooty?
• Oh, Did she have a license?

[An Indian drivers license might not tell that we are good drivers either ;)]

This is what happened. On that particular day, she was learning to ride the bike, hit us by turning right, fell down after losing balance and accused us of attempting to kill her. Once we got off the car near the clinic, I calmly walked up and explained my analysis to both of them. They were bummed. I had sold my thoughts. They no longer yelled, but brought in a polite tone. 

It was interesting how I applied thinking and testing to this incident. Although, the situation was tense and my mind was numb in the first ten minutes, I garnered courage to rewind the incident in my mind, assess and  handle the situation well. It's easy to feel like a victim and throw tantrums, it's hard to be calm and composed despite carrying the load of being wrong. This is what I did and it helped.

Lessons Learned from Accident that can be applied to Software Testing

1. Be Alert
2. Be Emotional, but use them to make correct, reasonable and ethical decisions
3. Practice observation skills ["Brain Game - What was there" has helped me. Playing with children helps too]
4. Get the facts straight. My knowledge of scooty helped
5. Be Aware of the world around you. Sticking to your family, or work or books won't be enough
6. Keep Looking Around
7. Knowledge is useless if it cannot be applied to solve problems 
8. If others are stressed, don't stress yourself
9. If you are stressed, don't stress others around you 
10. Stay Focused

What lessons have you learned from several accidents in your life?

Happy Learning!

Regards,
Parimala Hariprasad

Guest Blog for Aditi - Test Coverage Triage

Hello there,

Life's been busy and a lot more fun. If you are following me on Facebook and don't see many updates from me, you know it already ;). I have not been able to write regularly on this blog. I hope to make it better this year. I continue to write for a couple of magazines and public forums. I got a couple of requests to write for a few corporate blogs for money. I declined politely as I am working on a bunch of cool things myself.

In November 2011, I was invited by Aditi Technologies, Bangalore for a Corporate Talk. I spoke about "Myths of Test Estimation". It appears they liked my talk at the time. At least that is what they told me :). In December 2012, they got in touch with me for a Guest blog post for their corporate blog. It was a good feeling to be asked to write for a corporate blog. I took on the challenge.

I have meddled with Test Coverage Triage for a long time now. I tried several times to write this piece. Somehow, it never worked out. I said to myself, "I try one last time. If I don't get it, I quit thinking about this topic." Note that when a writer says she'll quit, it only means that the idea is half-baked and will come out when its ready :). There is no writer's block, mind you.

I thank Jari Laakso and Mohit Verma for their valuable suggestions. If this article looks good in its present form, I owe it to both of them. Thanks Jari and Mohit. You were amazing with your reviews!

You can find the Guest Blog HERE.

Happy Reading.

Regards,
Parimala Hariprasad

How to Think & How to Test

Every time I picked up Edward De Bono’s book, I fell asleep. My friends kept telling me how their life has changed after reading De Bono. For me, it was a painful journey across the ocean. After failing to read 4 books of De Bono in the past, I picked up ‘Teach Your Child How To Think’ with a ‘Never Say Never’ attitude recently.

What an experience it was! I loved this book, so much that I re-read it to understand some thinking concepts better than when I read it first time. You can’t read some books in life until you are ready for it. ‘Linchpin’ for e.g. was a very interesting book way back in 2010. When I shared this book with a couple of my senior colleagues, this book successfully put them to sleep. So is the story with ‘Are your lights on?’ I thought there was nothing great in this book excluding the tunnel problem. When I re-read it a year ago, I experienced the real ‘Are your lights on?’ moment.

How to Think and How to Test

James Bach and I discussed studying and books in detail during his stay in Bangalore. He said that if we replace the word ‘Think’ with ‘Test’, everything that De Bono says applies to Testing. It’s so true. 

I created a mind map (above) based on the book ‘Teach Your Child How To Think’ as a placeholder post for my reference. If you find it useful, you must read the book. You can even download this blogpost HERE.

Regards,

Parimala Hariprasad

Test Ed - Rise of thinking Indian Tester

Test Ed - a Tester's Conference

Testing Education
I have interviewed a bunch of fresh grads in recent months. When I ask few of them, "You seem to know Java, what if we need you to code in C sharp", they effortlessly answer that it's organization's responsibility to train them. That is how some of us think despite being in the industry for many years. If an individual's education was employer's responsibility, we wouldn't have witnessed the rise of great men and women  in any field. It's an individual's responsibility to take care of his/her education.

No knowledge is wasteful ever. Knowledge gained can be used at anytime. In fact, that is the biggest investment which is least talked about in the World of Money. Yet, we weight knowledge against money and put knowledge down on the weighing scale.



Test Ed
Test Ed is a Tester's Conference organized by the testers, for the testers. We need more and more testers to rise up to the challenge of creating great testing talent pool in India. To accomplish that, Moolya has initiated this conference as a first small step.

Test Ed - Low Cost conference
We are aware that some of us can't afford to attend a 8k or a 10k conference for 1-2 days. We are aware of the fact that not everyone in the organization can be sent to the conference. We are also aware that you need to see value for your money if you happen to visit this conference. How do we solve so many problems at one shot? In Pradeep's own words, "Our goal is that a student and wanna-be tester should be able to afford this. So we came up with 500 rupees per person + 12.36% service tax". Its probably the cost of evening snacks if you walk up to any mall in Bangalore. You decide whether you want to be a part of it.

Test Ed - High Value conference
An opportunity to meet James Bach, Pradeep Soundararajan and Rahul Verma
An opportunity to meet some of the brightest minds of testing industry
An opportunity to network with fellow testers
And an opportunity to educate yourself on testing - straight from some of the greatest minds of the industry

And more than all of these, you are going to meet passionate testers who are as passionate as you, facing some problems you may have solved, have solutions for some of your challenges and be of value to your passion called Testing.

If you want to attend, click HERE to register. For more details on the conference, Visit Test Ed website.

See you @ Test Ed.

Regards,
Parimala Hariprasad

Free E-book :: Web Accessibility Testing Heuristics

Hello Dear Readers,

My first FREE E-book on "Web Accessibility Testing Heuristics" is available for download HERE.Santhosh graciously hosted this document on his server. Other sources to download from are below:

Scribd
Slideshare

This E-book has a list of heuristics to look for while testing for accessibility of websites. As the name suggests, it is a heuristic list and nowhere close to a robust list. Feel free to take a look and post your thoughts!

Acknowledgement

I am thankful to Santhosh Tuppad for putting the early thoughts of Accessibility into my mind and my colleagues at Moolya who spoke about Accessibility in one form or another at different points in time. I am also thankful to Mohit Verma and Santhosh Tuppad for helping with reviews.

Happy Testing!

Regards,

Parimala Hariprasad