24 June, 2009

I failed miserably!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to practice what I learnt from the ET Workshop that I had attended. I picked a feature in the product that was not tested by me in the past.

Here goes my report:
1. Played around with the feature for better understanding
2. Brainstormed a few test ideas for testing that feature
3. Shortlisted a few areas/sub-features to be tested(used an Excel Checklist)
4. Created a text file similar to the one used in Session Based Test Management report which included Mission, Date and Time, Observations and Issues sections (rough draft at this point)
5. Started testing the feature. It was just 1 minute later when my manager informed me of an urgent unscheduled meeting. 30 minutes gone! Back from the meeting and moved the mouse over the feature and 2 developers standing next to me expecting me to help them understand a trivial UI issue which I had explained in a clear and precise manner in my defect report. 5 minutes gone.
6. Got back to testing and an urgent request for reviewing the product guide!
7. Stopped testing without any actual testing and ended up with an empty report

Doesn’t it look like our traditional test case procedure executed pointlessly and without ample reasoning. I was ignorant of the several interruptions that could happen while I Time Box myself for testing a small feature. I failed miserably at my attempt to do Exploratory Testing in a session based manner the first time. Each time I fail, I am happy to believe that it is an opportunity to learn. The faster you fail, the quicker you succeed.

Watch this space for more is coming :-)
Happy Testing,
Pari

Life is a constant learning experience!

Life is a constant learning experience. The more I learn, the more better I become. I am just back from the Exploratory Testing Workshop conducted by Pradeep Soundararajan. Am I enlightened? Yes. Have I become an Expert Tester after this? NO. Not even a good tester yet(Let me clarify I hold myself in very high self esteem)

This was the first workshop I attended and a workshop in the truest sense( A workshop is a brief intensive course of education for a small group which emphasizes interaction and practical problem solving as per Wiktionary). I had just ONE major takeaway in this workshop. And that was ‘Practice, Practice and More Practice’.

How many of us practice testing? This question appears to challenge human ego. Atleast it does to me. To be honest, how many of us practice testing? We are busy understanding the product/application given to us to test at Work, write test cases, get them reviewed, modify the test cases based on review comments and by the time we come to the actual test execution stage, we are nearing a dangerous thing called ‘Release Deadline’ and then end up doing shabby testing. In the midst of all this, where is the time to practice testing? There is no shortcut to being an expert tester. If you are a tester who has a passion to test until you retire, then Dear Tester - Practice Testing.

I was very impressed by one fellow participants’ overall knowledge. I asked him how he had gained this knowledge. He just looked into my eyes and said ‘Just Look Around’.


Happy Testing,
Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com

18 June, 2009

Customer is KING and KING never bargains

The above sentence was a signboard at a clothing store that I visited recently. I do believe that ‘Customer is KING’. What I did not know was that KING never bargains (probably, the person who hung up that signboard thought that the KING should NOT bargain so he could make more profits!). If customer is believed to be a KING, there could be times when the so called KING could pick up whatever he/she wants and walk away without paying just because he is a KING or probably ask for a reasonable discount. Howz That?

Customer is definitely a KING in the real world. Customers are in a position to pay for what they want. However, the customers are not stupid to pay for something that is not delivered to them as per their expectations. The product management/sales/marketing teams do a tremendous job in advertising for the products. What these teams don’t realize is that they may be setting very high expectations of the product in the minds of the customers. Once the Customer is happy with the Proof of Concept and gives a Go Ahead for implementation, there will be hell lot of surprises because the customer would have thought that certain features exist already whereas the product management/sales/marketing teams would have assumed that they can get the engineering teams to develop those features in no time. All this after the customer has signed to buy the product.

Lets face it. Customer bargains and bargains madly!

Regards,
Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com

09 June, 2009

Elevator, Elevator where have you been?

My office is in the fifth floor and I generally use the stairs to go up and come down. I have been suffering from back ache for sometime and I was told by my doc to avoid using the stairs. I hate waiting for the elevators, but here I was desperately waiting for my turn to get into one particular elevator. One fine day, the elevator was in the 6th floor and coming down towards the 5th floor. I observed that the ‘Down Arrow’ I had pressed on the 5th floor had got switched off all of a sudden and the elevator did not stop at 5th floor! I just wondered what the reason could be. The next day, I repeated the same thing. Pressed the ‘Down Arrow’ again. The elevator came down from 8, 7, 6, 5………. Alas! It stopped by at the 5th floor. I was disappointed. The issue was JUST NOT Reproducible :-(

On the same day in the evening, the elevator did not stop at the 5th floor yet again(Inconsistent Behaviour??). However, this time, I found the root cause of the problem. The issue is as follows: If the elevator stops at the 6th floor for less than 30 seconds(approximately), the elevator stops by at the 5th floor. If the elevator stops at the 6th floor for more than 30 seconds(if there are too many people getting in hence keeping the elevator doors open), the ‘Down Arrow’ button gets switched off at the 5th floor and there is no stopping the elevator on the 5th floor.

Regards,
Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com