Software Testing - Share Knowledge About Software Testing.

SOA Testing

2010-07-21T13:06:00.004+06:00

Sometime back, I had given a presentation on SOA Testing. You can view/download the ppt from following link:

SOA Testing PPT

Comments are welcome!

Getting Current Time on DB

2009-08-18T19:03:00.001+07:00

To verify a bugs I had a need to get the current time on the Database
Server. Here are some SQL which might be useful.

Note: This is on Oracle DB

To get the server Date:

SELECT sysdate FROM dual;

This will give you the system date in this format, Ex: 18-AUG-09

To get the server TimeZone:

SELECT sessiontimezone FROM dual;

This will give you the system timezone in this format, Ex: Asia/Calcutta

To get the server time:

SELECT systimestamp FROM dual;

This will give you the system time in this format,
Ex: 18-AUG-09 04.49.43.648480000 AM -07:00

Microsoft Releases IE8

2009-03-20T10:42:00.001+06:00

Microsoft to release IE8. Read more at the following links.

* http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-18IE8AvailablePR.mspx
* http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/03/19/internet-explorer-8-final-available-now.aspx
* http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161522/microsoft_releases_ie8_stresses_security.html

List Files in a directory

2009-02-02T16:26:00.001+06:00

I remembered a good question which I was asked in one of my interviews some time back...

Write a program to list the files in a directory. The listed files should be greater than 1000 KB and it should be sorted.

This should take care of recursion also. Also write test cases for the same.

Here is what I came up with...

Java Program to List Files in a Directory.

/*
This program prints all the files in a directory(including sub directories recursively)
- more than 1000 KB - 1 KB = 1000 Bytes, 1000 KB = 1024000 bytes
- in descending order
*/

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class listFiles{
// Vector to hold all the list of files.
static Vector v1 = new Vector();
static boolean validdir = true;

public static void main(String[] args) {
// Get the directory name from the command line
if (args.length > 0 ) {
File dirName = new File(args[0].trim());
listFiles.listFilesinDir(dirName);
} else {
System.out.println("Enter a directory name.\n Usage: listFiles dirName");
validdir = false;
}

if (validdir) {
// Sort the Vector v1
Comparator comparator = Collections.reverseOrder();
// System.out.println("The List of files before sorting: " + v1);

Collections.sort(v1,comparator);
//System.out.println("The List of files after sorting in descending order : " + v1);
System.out.println("The Total Number of Files are: " + v1.size());

for (Enumeration e = v1.elements(); e.hasMoreElements();) {
System.out.println(e.nextElement());
}
}
} // end main()

public static void listFilesinDir(File fin) {
// Throw error if the directory does not exist.
if (!fin.exists()) {
validdir = false;
System.out.println(fin.getName() + " does not exist!!!");
return;
}

if (fin.isFile()) {
// 1 KB = 1000 Bytes, 1000 KB = 1024000 bytes
if (fin.length() > 1024000) {
// To print all files remove the comment in the below line.
// System.out.println(fin.getName());
// Add all the files into the vector.
listFiles.v1.add(fin.getName());
}
}
else if (fin.isDirectory()) {
String[] files = fin.list();
if (files == null) return;

for (int i=0; i

Here is the list of TestCases

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Nu	Test Case For	Description	Expected Results	Remarks
2	1	Valid Dir Name	Give a Valid Dir Name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
3	2	Valid Dir Name - Order	Check for Descending order	The listed files should be in descending order	Assume that size is taken care
4	3	Valid Dir Name - Size	Check for the Size of Files	The listed files should be greater than 1000 KB only	Assume that ascending is taken care
5	4	Size - Boundary values	Have a file of Exactly 1000 KB	This file should be listed	Assume that ascending is taken care
6	5	Size - Boundary values	Have a file of Exactly 1001 KB	This file should be listed	Assume that ascending is taken care
7	6	Size - Boundary values	Have a file of Exactly 999 KB	This file should NOT be listed
8	7	Size - Low size	Have a empty file/0 size	This file should NOT be listed
9	8	Size - Low size	Have a file of 1 KB size	This file should NOT be listed
10	9	Size - Huge Size	Have a file of 20000 KB	This file should be listed	Assume that ascending is taken care
11	10	Order	Have files with names - a.txt, aa.txt, aaa.txt	Observe that these should be sorted in descending order	Assume that size is taken care
12	11	Order	Have files with names - a.txt, b.txt, c.txt	Observe that these should be sorted in descending order	Assume that size is taken care
13	12	Dir Name -Space	Let the directory name have space - ex: "Program Files"	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
14	13	Dir Name - Case Sensitive	Have directories with case sensitive - ex: myDir1, mYdIR2 etc	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
15	14	Sub Directories	Have many sub directories	The sub directory names should NOT be listed
16	15	Sub Directories	Have many sub directories	The files inside the sub directories should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
17	16	Sub Directories	Have a sub directory with the "same name" as parent	The files inside the sub directories should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
18	17	Hidden Files	Have some hidden files in the dir	These should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
19	18	Hidden Directory	Specify a hidden dir as input	The files inside a hidden dir should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
20	19	Hidden sub directories	Have some hidden sub directories inside the parent dir	The files inside a hidden dir should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
21	20	Read-Only Files	Have some read only files in the dir	These should be listed
22	21	Read-only Directory	Specify a read-only dir as input	The files inside a read-only dir should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
23	22	Read-only Sub directories	Have some read-only sub directories inside the parent dir	The files inside a read-only dir should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
24	23	Empty Dir	Give a valid dir name - but empty one	No Files should be listed
25	24	Dir Name - Special Chars	Have some special chars in the name of the dir	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
26	25	Sub Directories - Breadth	Have many sub directories in the parent dir… Have a breadth of say 10-20 dirs. and files inside those directories	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
27	26	Sub Directories - Depth	Have a sub directoy inside a sub directory inside a sub dir…. Have a depth of say 10-20 dirs. and files inside those directories	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
28	27	Shared Dir in Windows	Specify a shared directory	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
29	28	Specify the URI as dir name	A dir on the intranet - ex: \\10.192.23.212\myDir1	Should give the list of files if accessible	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
30	29	Dir Name - "."	Specify "." as the dir name	Should give the list of files in the current dir	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
31	30	Dir Name - ".."	Specify ".." as the dir name	Should give the list of files in the parent dir	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
32	31	Dir Name - Absolute Path - Forward Slash	Specify "C:/Testing/MyDir1" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
33	32	Dir Name - Absolute Path - Back Slash	Specify "C:\Testing\MyDir1" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
34	33	Dir Name - Relative Path - Forward slash	Specify "MyDir1/MyDir2/MyDir3" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
35	34	Dir Name - Relative Path - Backward slash	Specify "MyDir1\MyDir2\MyDir3" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
36	35	Dir Name - Relative Path	Specify "..\..\MyDir2\MyDir3" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
37	36	Dir Name - integer	The dir name is "12345"	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
38	37	Dir Name - very long name	Ex: The dir name is "Thisismydirectoryandthenameisverybig"	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
39	38	Negative Test	Specify some file name as input	Throw error message
40	39	Negative Test	Specify some non existing dir name	Throw error message
41	40	Negative Test	Specify null	Throw error message
42	41	Formats	All possible format files should be listed - ex: ".zip" ".doc" ".pdf" etc	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
43	42	Negative Test	Specify a zip file as input	Throw error message
44	43	Negative Test	Specify the dir name + some blanks	Should trim
45
46		Unix/Linux
47	44	Perform all the above tests for Linux/Unix; Also perform the below special cases for Unix
48
49	45	Dir Name - Mounted dir	Specify a mounted dir as the input dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
50	46	Dir Name - Case Sensitive	Have directories with case sensitive - ex: myDir1, mYdIR2 etc	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
51	47	Read-Only Files	Have some read only files in the dir	These should be listed
52	48	Read-only Directory	Specify a read-only dir as input	The files inside a read-only dir should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
53	49	Read-only Sub directories	Have some read-only sub directories inside the parent dir	The files inside a read-only dir should be listed	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
54	50	Dir Name - Special Chars	Have some special chars in the name of the dir	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
55	51	Dir Name - "."	Specify "." as the dir name	Should give the list of files in the current dir	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
56	52	Dir Name - ".."	Specify ".." as the dir name	Should give the list of files in the parent dir	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
57	53	Dir Name - Absolute Path - Forward Slash	Specify "/opt/testing/MyDir1" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
58	54	Dir Name - Absolute Path - Back Slash	Specify "opt\testing\MyDir1" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
59	55	Dir Name - Relative Path - Forward slash	Specify "MyDir1/MyDir2/MyDir3" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
60	56	Dir Name - Relative Path - Backward slash	Specify "MyDir1\MyDir2\MyDir3" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
61	57	Dir Name - Relative Path	Specify "..\..\MyDir2\MyDir3" as the dir name	Should give the list of files	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
62
63		Performance Testing
64	58	50,000 Files( all > 1000 KB)	Have a dir with 50,000 Files	Should give the list of files - check for breakdown	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
65	59	50,000 Files > 1000 KB + 50,000 Files < 1000 KB	Have a dir with 50,000 Files > 1000 KB and 50,000 Files < 1000 KB	Should give the list of files - check for breakdown	Assume that size and ascending is taken care
66
67	60	10,000 Sub directories	Have 10,000 sub directories with files	Should give the list of files - check for breakdown	Assume that size and ascending is taken care

Testing Private methods

2009-01-18T15:00:00.001+06:00

Hi,
Here is a good article on testing private methods...

http://www.artima.com/suiterunner/private.html

-ahamad

Code coverage tool for UI

2008-09-18T16:32:00.001+06:00

I was looking for a code coverage tool for Java based UI, I came across this tool – ECLEmma.

EclEmma is a free Java code coverage tool for Eclipse, available under the Eclipse Public License.

home page : http://www.eclemma.org/

Below are the steps that are to be followed to setup EclEmma for code coverage:

Open Eclipse; Goto "Help->Software Updates->Find and Install" menu
Click "Next >" In Install window and add a new remote site by clicking on "New Remote Site" button
Enter any name and specify the URL as http://update.eclemma.org
Click finish to search and install the EclEmma Java Code Coverage plug-in
Restart Eclipse when prompted
Now a new icon can be seen next to Run or Debug icons.

Click on arrow next to Coverage icon and select "Open Coverage Dialog"
Select “Eclipse Application” and click on “New” to create a new configuration.
Goto "Coverage" tag and select only the packages in which the source for your feature is checked-in. You can contact the developer or see the folders in changelists to know the list of all packages used by the feature.
Click on "Apply" after all the required packages are selected and then on "Coverage" button to launch your app in "Code Coverage" mode.
Conduct Manual / Automated testing to cover the feature that you are trying to test and close your app.
Now you can see a new tab with the name "Coverage" near "Console" or "Problems" tab
Navigate to exact Java files where the source of your feature is written and check out the percentage of coverage done.
You can double-click on Class or Function to navigate to corresponding Java file and see what parts of code were not exercised and write more test cases to cover the un-exercised code.
You can export the whole of Coverage results to HTML format by right-clicking on any row and selecting "Export Session"
You can have multiple sessions and then you can merge them together.

ICSPI 2008 - Call for presentations and Full day tutorials

2008-04-21T17:29:00.002+06:00

Call for presentations and Full day tutorials

ICSPI 2008
International Conference on Software Process Improvement

Washington D.C.
October 20-24, 2008

This year's ICSPI has a new focus. That is the SPI
Body of Knowledge and the Certified Software Process
Improvement Professional (CSPIP) program.

Tutorials offered at the conference will support the
SPI Body of Knowledge (SPIBOK).

The International Institute for Software Process (IISP)
with Guidance of its Advisory Board has just announced
the SPI Body of Knowledge and the requirements for the
CSPIP credentials.

ICSPI 2008 continues its "pragmatic" approach to SPI. Whether
you are adopting a formal assessment model or interested in
less formal process improvement approaches, ICSPI 2008 promises
to keep the same practical theme in all of its presentations
and tutorials. The program will feature presentations by world
leading authorities in software process improvement.

Important Dates

April 21, 2008: Proposals for full day tutorials are due.
Please see guidelines at www.icspi.com. Tutorial proposal
supporting the SPIBOK will be given priority. Details on the
SPIBOK can be found at www.SPInstitute.org

April 28, 2008: Proposals for papers and presentations are due

May, 30,2008: Notification of acceptance will be mailed out

July 11, 2008: Copies of presentations and/or papers are due

October 21 & 22, conference presentations
(pre- and post conference tutorials will be conducted
October 20th, 23rd, and 24th.

Topics of interest include:

* Defining and Documenting Software Processes
* Measuring Software Processes
* Evaluating Software Process Capability and Effectiveness
* Planning and Managing an SPI Program and SPI Projects
* Implementing Software Process Change
* Software Engineering Topics
* Quality Assurance and Testing Topics
* Requirement Engineering and Management
* Software Development, Integration, Release, and Support
* Configuration Management
* Project Management and Planning
* Risk Management
* Verification and Validation Methods
* Agile Software Development Methods
* Software Quality Assurance
* Balanced Scorecard
* Software Measurement & Analysis
* Internal and External Assessment
* CMMI Experience
* SEPG Experience
* Quality Management and Process Management
* Lean SPI
* Six Sigma
* Formal or informal appraisals
* Defect Prediction and Prevention
* ISO
* Human Resource Development
* Inspections and Peer Reviews

Proposals dealing with other topics will also be considered.

All accepted proposals are awarded a free admission to the
two-day conference and a copy of the conference proceedings.
In addition, the best paper or presentation as judged by the
conference delegates will be invited as a featured presentation
in the following conference.

SUBMISSION RULES
=================

* Your proposal must follow ALL standards and procedures below
completely in order to be considered for the review process.

* The acceptance of your proposal does NOT guarantee acceptance
of your presentation. Timely receipt of the full presentation
material is required for you to present.

* Submitting a Proposal implies that you will be available to
make the presentation at the conference, including getting approval
from your company and meeting any international travel requirements.

* If your proposal is accepted and you are not able to present
at the conference for any reason, the acceptance decision will be
reversed.

* The presentation must fully address your proposal objectives
and outline.

Proposals From Outside the U.S.
===============================

All proposals submitted by individuals living outside the U.S., must be accompanied by the following two items:

1. A proof that the speaker holds a Visa to the U.S. to deliver the presentation

2. A proof of financial support from Employer indicating that Employer will cover travel expenses for speaker(s) to deliver presentation in the U.S.

Non-U.S. proposals will not be considered for review without these items

Proposal Standards and Procedures:
===================================
All proposals must be sent via e-mail to the Conference Chair,
Dr. Magdy S. Hanna at mhanna@icspi.com as follows:

Please do NOT reply to this message with you proposal.

* One file in MS Word or RTF format containing all items listed below
* One file in MS Word or RTF format containing the paper if submitted
* One file in PowerPoint format containing the presentation if submitted

DO NOT INCLUDE ANY PART OF YOUR SUBMISSION IN THE BODY OF THE MESSAGE

NO PROPOSAL WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR REVIEW IF ANY OF THE ITEMS BELOW IS MISSING.

1. Presentation Title

2. Presenter Information: Name, Title, Company, Address, Phone, Fax, E-mail

3. A detailed bio listing all experience related to the subject of the proposal.

4. Will you provide a paper with the presentation: (Y/N)

5. Has this paper or presentation been delivered or published elsewhere? (Y/N) If yes, list Event(s) and/or Publication, Dates

6. Background, context or rationale for your proposal

7. Key concepts to be presented

8. Learning Objectives (Results) for participants - what they will
learn and/or how they will benefit from your presentation

9. OUTLINE: Full, detailed, bulleted outline of the Presentation.
This should highlight all in the presentation and their logical
flow and development. This is will be used for the web site
if your proposal is chosen,

Proposals and presentations must meet the following guidelines

1. Do not include any company specific terms or acronyms unless defined

2. Must focus on what can be learned

3. Must not propose any introductory or text-book type material

4. The focus must be on specific experiences rather than vague advice

5. Must not promote any service or products

PROPOSAL REVIEW
==================
Your Proposal will be reviewed by The Conference Review Board.
If you have any questions, please address them to the Conference Chair,
Dr. Magdy Hanna, Mhanna@icpi.com

AMP Goes Live!

2008-04-10T10:50:00.003+06:00

Announcing the new Adobe Media Player!

Adobe Media Player (AMP) is a next-generation desktop media player and management application. It provides high quality video playback of streamed, downloaded, or locally stored Internet TV shows and video podcasts.

Users can subscribe to Internet television shows and other online video content, have them download automatically in the background, and later view them on demand. AMP's user interface optimizes the user experience, allowing users to easily enjoy finding and viewing their favorite shows.

Download AMP today, play with it, and then tell your friends about this exciting new product.

Below are some of the key things that you and your friends and family will enjoy:

- All of your favorite content, all in one place. Create your own personalized catalog of television shows, movies, podcasts

– even include videos from your local hard drive.

- Discover new content. Adobe Media Player features a broad catalog of shows from the leading media companies and networks, as well as independent producers.

- Watch what you want, when you want – anytime, anywhere. Adobe Media Player supports both online and offline viewing.

- High-quality audio and video. HD-quality video is supported in Adobe Media Player, even at full-screen resolutions.

- Simple user interface. Adobe Media Player is designed to be intuitive and easy to use.

- Let content come to you. Adobe Media Player automatically downloads new episodes of shows or podcasts that you subscribe to.

http://get.adobe.com/amp/

PSQT 2008 North in Minneapolis

2008-04-08T16:58:00.002+06:00

Here is a mail from PQST

=============================================

PSQT 2008 North in Minneapolis, September 8-12, 2008.

We are still looking for few more "good" proposals.

To maintain the quality of presentations, we have extended
the deadline to submit your proposal until April 18, 2008

If you have experience that you would like to share, we would like to hear from you at:

PSQT 2008 North
THE 14th. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
PRACTICAL SOFTWARE QUALITY AND TESTING (PSQT)

Minneapolis, MN
September 8-12, 2008

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY EXPERIENCE-BASED CONFERENCE.
IF IT IS NOT PRACTICAL, IT DOES NOT BELONG TO THE CONFERENCE.

IMPORTANT DATES
===============

April 18, 2008: Proposals for presentations are due

May 2, 2008: Acceptance/Rejection notices begin mailing out

June 9, 2008: Complete presentations and papers are due

September 10th, 2008: Conference presentations - one day only
Pre- and post-conference tutorials are
September 8, 9, 11, and 12.

For the last 11 years PSQT has been serving quality professionals
through conferences that focus on PRACTICAL solutions.

This year, PSQT promises to continue its mission by requesting
proposals for full day tutorials and one-hour presentations
that offer only practical solution to real software testing and
quality problems.

BENEFITS OF SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL FOR PSQT:
==========================================

1. Gain a great recognition on the international level

2. Get access to experts and other practitioners from around the world

3. Enjoying attending the conference free of charge

4. Attend any of the 24 full day tutorials at 50% discount

TOPICS OF INTEREST (Related topics are welcome)
===============================================

TESTING
==========

o Modern test technology

o Service Oriented Architectures

o Model Based Testing

o Test process and test management

o Agile and eXtreme approaches and testing

o Testing web, Internet, e-Commerce applications

o Testing Service-Oriented Architecture

o del-Based Testing

o Security testing

o End-to-End testing

o Performance, load, stress testing

o Static testing: reviews, Inspections

o Database testing

o Integration, systems and regression testing

o Use Cases and testing

o Successful tool usage

o Risk-based testing

o Testable requirements

o Related topics

MANAGING QUALITY
================
o Risk management and mitigation

o Developing, managing a test team

o Developing, implementing standards

o Requirements management, modeling

o Defect tracking and studies

o Bug tracking

o successful project management practices

o Topics related to the Body of Knowledge for these certifications
*** Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP)
*** Certified Test Manager (CTM)

SUBMISSION RULES
=================

* Your proposal must follow ALL standards and procedures below
completely. Any violation of these standards will cause your
proposal not be considered for the review process.

* The acceptance of your proposal does NOT guarantee acceptance
of your presentation. Timely receipt of the full
Presentation and paper and submitting all requirement material
is required for you to be allowed to present.

* The presentation must fully address your proposal objectives
and outline.

Proposals From Outside the U.S.
===============================

All proposals submitted by individuals living outside the U.S., must be accompanied by the following two items:

1. A proof that the speaker holds a Visa to the U.S. to deliver the presentation

2. A proof of financial support from Employer indicating that Employer will cover travel expenses for speaker(s) to deliver presentation in the U.S.

NON-U.S. PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR REVIEW WITHOUT THESE ITEMS

Submit your Proposal to:
=========================
PSQT Conference Chair: Dr. Magdy Hanna at
Mhanna@psqtconference.com.

DO NOT PLACE ANY PART OF THE PROPOSAL IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL.

PROPOSAL STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES:
===================================

Your Proposal must follow all of the standards and procedures
exactly and completely. Non-conforming Proposals cannot be
reviewed or accepted.

Submitting a Proposal implies that you will be available to
make the presentation at the conference, including getting
approval from your company and meeting any international travel
requirements. If your proposal is accepted and you are not able
to present at the conference for any reason, the acceptance
decision will be reversed.

PROPOSAL Details
================
Submit all Proposal items as MS Word or RTF documents.
Please check your work for grammar and spelling. Don't rely on "spell check" alone!

NO PROPOSAL WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR REVIEW IF ANY OF THE ITEMS BELOW IS MISSING.

1. Presentation Title

2. Presenter Information: Name, Title, Company, Address,

3. Phone, Fax, E-mail

4. A detailed bio listing all experience related to the subject of the proposal.

5. Will you provide a paper with the presentation: (Y/N)

6. Has this paper or presentation been delivered or published elsewhere?
If yes, list Event(s) and/or Publication, Dates

7. Background, context or rationale for your proposal

8. Key concepts to be presented

9. Learning Objectives (Results) for participants - what they will learn
and/or how they will benefit and How they can apply the information.

10. OUTLINE: Full, detailed, bulleted or numbered outline of the
Presentation. This should highlight all points in the presentation and their logical flow and development. This is will be used for the web site if your
proposal is chosen.

PROPOSAL REVIEW
==================
Your Proposal will be reviewed by The Program Review Board.
If you have any questions, please address them to the Conference Chair,
Dr. Magdy Hanna, Mhanna@psqtconference.com

Department of Education and Professional Development
International Institute for Software Testing
636 Mendelssohn Ave. North
Golden Valley, MN 55427
763-546-0072
www.iist.org

PQST Conference 2008(west)

2008-03-31T11:47:00.001+06:00

Hi,

The PQST conference is scheduled for May 5th-9th at Las Vegas...

More details and registrations here...

http://www.psqtconference.com/2008west/index.php

Adobe RIA Architect Summit (Free)

2008-03-18T12:27:00.001+06:00

Hi,

The Flex team is conducting an Adobe RIA Architect Summit on 3rd April 2008. This summit is aimed at people who are interested in architecting RIAs with Flex & AIR. There is no enrtry fee.

The Adobe RIA Architect Summit is an opportunity for architects and aspiring architects to get an insight into how to design and architect Rich Internet Applications. It is also a unique plaform to interact with experts and techhnology leaders and a chance to develop connections within the community.

Who should attend?

Architects, Technical Managers and Strategic Decision Makers

Date
Thursday, April 3, 2008

Time
9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Location

The Chancery Pavillion
Residency Road
Bangalore
India

Map
Google

How do I get in?

It is free, Register ASAP at http://adoberiarch.eventbrite.com/

Hurry! Registrations on a First Come First Serve basis…

Zephyr Unveils Next Generation Test Management System

2008-03-17T18:52:00.002+06:00

Zephyr, a Sunnyvale based company focused on Software Testing has unveiled a Test Management Tool...

Unix Commands

2008-03-11T18:16:00.003+06:00

Following is a list of useful Unix Commands.(Frequently used unix commands)

Unix File Commands

ls	gives a list of filenames in the current directory.
mv	rename a file: mv oldfile newfile or *mv oldfile newdir*
cp	copy a file: cp oldfile newfile or cp oldfile newdir
chmod	change permissions.
rm	remove a file.
cd	change directories.
lpr	print a file: lpr -P printer-name file.
pwd	"print" working directory; returns the current directory.
tar	package a group of files into one file for moving or archiving; also extracts tar files.
mkdir	create a new directory.
rmdir	remove a directory.

Free Webinar on Agile Testing

2008-02-13T17:06:00.001+06:00

Hi,
I received this email from EuroStar. A free webinar on Agile Testing.
You need to register for this, it is free.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

EuroSTAR brings you Free Live Webinar!

"Agile Testing"

presented by Fran O'Hara

EuroSTAR Live 30 minute Webinar.

Date: Tuesday, 26th February, 2008

Time: 10:00am Dublin- London / 11:00am Central European Time

Duration: 30 mins

Key points:

The presentation will introduce the following:

Agile test overview

Different Test Phases, agile terminology
Where the different types of testing fit into an agile development lifecycle

Role of the tester and how it is affected by iterative/agile approaches
Test Driven Development (TDD), Automated Unit Testing
Acceptance testing, testing and the customer/user
Exploratory testing

Register Now!

Test Management Software

2008-02-13T16:29:00.001+06:00

Enterprise 2.0 is here – Upgrade your Test Department

Gone are the days when QA and software testing departments used multiple disparate, outdated applications to plan, manage, and execute their day‐to‐day work. With the Web moving towards 3.0, Enterprise tools are getting 2.0ish with companies introducing RSS, blogging, collective intelligence, themes, tag clouds and real-time data push within the enterprise.

Test management software, designed and created by actual QA engineers, offer the next-generation slick and affordable QA Test management and collaboration capabilities that enable test teams to achieve enhanced levels of productivity in order to ship high quality software on time. New test systems are adopting this Enterprise 2.0 paradigm and have a snappier interface, drag-and-drop windows to improve productivity, real time metrics and reports, test repository tag clouds, enhanced real-time collaboration and instant communication.

In today's global workplace, where test teams are spread across different time zones, encountering language barriers, and disparate systems, communication challenges prevail. QA/Testing/V&V departments need better tools for sharing information, reporting data and maintaining timeliness. The newer software systems have instant collaboration features, live dashboards, interactive desktops and integrated systems, so there's no need to spend hours searching for information or tracking, collating, beautifying, and sending reports because all data is now complete and real-time. Live and automated dashboards keep the whole company updated on every aspect of testing and product quality.

The latest test management systems manage every aspect of a test department - its people and resources, projects and releases, test assets, test case and data repositories, execution cycles, defect tracking and reporting - by providing a centralized servers and customized client desktops using newer technologies such as RIAs and Reverse AJAX/Comet. .

Typical Enterprise software is expensive with complex licensing models, requiring companies to make large upfront capital expenditure and agree to complex binding software agreements. Of late, newer companies have come up with tools that increase team productivity, efficiency with improved feature sets and performance; all with a very low cost of ownership. Tools such as Mingle, Confluence, BaseCamp are in this category. They have even come up with an affordable pay-as-you-go model, with straightforward and flexible licensing. Similarly, Test Management solutions like Zephyr are leading that way in the Test Management space with revolutionary ways of managing every aspect of a test department. These tools not just save on cost, but also help save precious time & money by enhancing productivity and efficiency and getting quality products to the market faster.

QA/Test/V&V teams should seriously consider these kinds of tools and upgrade their Test Department to leverage all of these technology advancements and innovation that has come with it.

Samir Shah

CEO, Zephyr

www.getzephyr.com

Simple Test

2007-12-16T07:34:00.001+06:00

A SIMPLE TEST FOR YOU

Which way is the bus below travelling?

To the left or to the right?

Can you make up your mind?

Look carefully at the picture again.

Post your responses in the comments...

Computer Data Measurements

2007-12-06T07:39:00.000+06:00

I found this computer data measurement chart to be very useful and worthy of sharing...

Computer Data Measurement Chart

Data Measurement Chart
Data Measurement	Size
Bit	Single Binary Digit (1 or 0)
Byte	8 bits
Kilobyte (KB)	1,024 Bytes
Megabyte (MB)	1,024 Kilobytes
Gigabyte (GB)	1,024 Megabytes
Terabyte (TB)	1,024 Gigabytes
Petabyte (PB)	1,024 Terabytes
Exabyte (EB)	1,024 Petabytes

Connection Speed Chart
Internet Technology	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)
28.8K Modem	28.8 Kbps	28,800 Bits	3,600 Bytes	3.5 Kilobytes
36.6K Modem	36.6 Kbps	36,600 Bits	4,575 Bytes	4.4 Kilobytes
56K Modem	56 Kbps	56,000 Bits	7,000 Bytes	6.8 Kilobytes
ISDN	128 Kbps	128,000 Bits	16,000 Bytes	15 Kilobytes
T1	1.544 Mbps	1,544,000 Bits	193,000 Bytes	188 Kilobytes
DSL	512 Kbps to 8 Mbps	8,000,000 Bits	1,000,000 Bytes	976 Kilobytes
Cable Modem	512 Kbps to 52 Mbps	53,000,000 Bits	6,625,000 Bytes	6,469 Kilobytes (6.3MB/sec)
T3	44.736 Mbps	44,736,000 Bits	5,592,000 Bytes	5,460 Kilobytes (5.3MB/sec)
Gigabit Ethernet	1 Gbps	1,000,000,000 Bits	125,000,000 Bytes	122,070 Kilobytes (119MB/sec)
OC-256	13.271 Gbps	13,271,000,000 Bits	1,658,875,000 Bytes	1,619,995 Kilobytes (1.5GB/sec)

Computer Technology Chart
Computer Technology	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)
ADB	256 Kbps	256,000 Bits	32,000 Bytes	31.2 Kilobytes
USB	12 Mbps	12,000,000 Bits	1,500,000 Bytes	1,464 Kilobytes (1.42MB/sec)
USB 2.0	480 Mbps	480,000,000 Bits	60,000,000 Bytes	58,593 Kilobytes (57.2MB/sec)
FireWire (a.k.a. "IEEE 1394" or "i.Link")	400 Mbps	400,000,000 Bits	50,000,000 Bytes	48,828 Kilobytes (47.6MB/sec)
Ultra ATA/33 (a.k.a. Ultra DMA/33)	33 MB/sec
Ultra ATA/66 (a.k.a. Ultra DMD/66 or Fast ATA-2)	66 MB/sec
SCSI-1	5 MB/sec
SCSI-2	5-10 MB/sec
Fast SCSI-2	10-20 MB/sec
Wide SCSI-2	20 MB/sec
Fast Wide SCSI-2	20 MB/sec
Ultra SCSI-3 (8-bit)	20 MB/sec
Ultra SCSI-3 (16-bit)	40 MB/sec
Ultra-2 SCSI	40 MB/sec
Wide Ultra-2 SCSI	80 MB/sec
Ultra-3 SCSI	160 MB/sec
Serial ATA (Gen 1)	150 MB/sec	1.2 Gbps
Serial ATA (Gen 2)	300 MB/sec	2.4 Gbps
Serial ATA (Gen 3)	600 MB/sec	4.8 Gbps

Video Format Chart
Video Formats	NTSC Resolution (525 Vertical Lines)
8mm	250 Horizontal Lines
VHS	250 Horizontal Lines
VHS-C	250 Horizontal Lines
Hi8	400 Horizontal Lines
S-VHS	400 Horizontal Lines
DV	500 Horizontal Lines
DVD	500 Horizontal Lines

Audio/Video Chart
Audio/Video Technology	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)	Data Rate (per second)
CD	1.4112 Mbps	1,411,200 Bits	176,400 Bytes	172 Kilobytes
DVD	10 Mbps	10,000,000 Bits	1,250,000 Bytes	1,220 Kilobytes (1.1MB/sec)
DV	30.1 Mbps	30,195,712 Bits	3,774,464 Bytes	3,686 Kilobytes (3.6MB/sec)
DLP	37 Mbps to 43 Mbps	43,000,000 Bits	5,375,000 Bytes	5,249 Kilobytes (5.2MB/sec)

Data Comparison Chart
Kilobits (Kbps)	Bits (bps)	Megabits (Mbps)	Bytes (Bps)	Kilobytes (KBps)	Megabytes (MBps)	Minutes On 650MB CD	Minutes On 4.7GB DVD
28	28,000	0.028	3,500	3.41	0.00334	3,245	24,031
30	30,000	0.03	3,750	3.66	0.00358	3,029	22,429
56	56,000	0.056	7,000	6.83	0.00668	1,622	12,015
80	80,000	0.08	10,000	9.76	0.00954	1,135	8,410
100	100,000	0.1	12,500	12.20	0.01192	908	6,728
150	150,000	0.15	18,750	18.31	0.01788	605	4,485
200	200,000	0.2	25,000	24.41	0.02384	454	3,364
300	300,000	0.3	37,500	36.62	0.03576	302	2,242
500	500,000	0.5	62,500	61.03	0.05960	181	1,345
800	800,000	0.8	100,000	97.65	0.09537	113	841
900	900,000	0.9	112,500	109.86	0.10729	100	747
1,000	1,000,000	1	125,000	122.07	0.11921	90	672
2,000	2,000,000	2	250,000	244.14	0.23842	45	336
4,000	4,000,000	4	500,000	488.28	0.47684	22	168
5,000	5,000,000	5	625,000	610.35	0.59605	18	134
10,000	10,000,000	10	1,250,000	1,220.70	1.19209	9	67
15,000	15,000,000	15	1,875,000	1,831.05	1.78814	6	44
30,000	30,000,000	30	3,750,000	3,662.10	3.57628	3	22

Guide To Job Interview Answers

2007-11-23T20:15:00.001+06:00

Hi,

Here is a very useful guide for Job Interviews... This is a very good guide, but it is not free... you can buy it online.

Ultimate Guide To Job Interview Answers

"Job Interview? ... How To Answer Any Question An Interviewer Could Possibly Throw At You!"

Arm yourself with these Proven Behavioral Interview Answers! ... Use them as templates to "Package & Spin" your work experience so you can demonstrate your critical thinking skills, be more likeable, increase your confidence, uncover the interviewer's hidden needs, and tell them exactly what they want to hear -- So You Get Hired! ...

Product Details

· Format: Guide; 81 pages

· Publisher: 2007; Job-Interview-Answers.com™

· ISBN: 146520607

· Average Customer Review: Based on 24 reviews.

· "... great interview preparation that really helped me get the job."

Click here to for more details on Ultimate Guide To Job Interview Answers

Winrunner Questions - 5

2007-11-23T18:56:00.000+06:00

What is the purpose of GUI map configuration?
GUI Map configuration is used to map a custom object to a standard object.

How do you make the configuration and mappings permanent?
The mapping and the configuration you set are valid only for the current WinRunner session. To make the mapping and the configuration permanent, you must add configuration statements to your startup test script

What is the purpose of GUI spy?

GUI Spy can be used to view the properties of any GUI object on your desktop. You use the Spy pointer to point to an object, and the GUI Spy displays the properties and their values in the GUI Spy dialog box. You can choose to view all the properties of an object, or only the selected set of properties that WinRunner learns.

What is the purpose of obligatory and optional properties of the objects?

For each class, WinRunner learns a set of default properties. Each default property is classified “obligatory” or “optional”.

An obligatory property is always learned (if it exists).
An optional property is used only if the obligatory properties do not provide unique identification of an object. These optional properties are stored in a list. WinRunner selects the minimum number of properties from this list that are necessary to identify the object. It begins with the first property in the list, and continues, if necessary, to add properties to the description until it obtains unique identification for the object.

What is the purpose of location indicator and index indicator in GUI map configuration?

In cases where the obligatory and optional properties do not uniquely identify an object, WinRunner uses a selector to differentiate between them. Two types of selectors are available:

A location selector uses the spatial position of objects.

The location selector uses the spatial order of objects within the window, from the top left to the bottom right corners, to differentiate among objects with the same description.

An index selector uses a unique number to identify the object in a window.

The index selector uses numbers assigned at the time of creation of objects to identify the object in a window. Use this selector if the location of objects with the same description may change within a window.

How do you handle custom objects?

A custom object is any GUI object not belonging to one of the standard classes used by WinRunner. WinRunner learns such objects under the generic “object” class. WinRunner records operations on custom objects using obj_mouse_ statements. If a custom object is similar to a standard object, you can map it to one of the standard classes. You can also configure the properties WinRunner uses to identify a custom object during Context Sensitive testing.

What is the purpose of different record methods 1) Record 2) Pass up 3) As Object 4) Ignore.

Record instructs WinRunner to record all operations performed on a GUI object. This is the default record method for all classes. (The only exception is the static class (static text), for which the default is Pass Up.)
Pass Up instructs WinRunner to record an operation performed on this class as an operation performed on the element containing the object. Usually this element is a window, and the operation is recorded as win_mouse_click.
As Object instructs WinRunner to record all operations performed on a GUI object as though its class were “object” class.
Ignore instructs WinRunner to disregard all operations performed on the class.

What are the virtual objects and how do you learn them?

Applications may contain bitmaps that look and behave like GUI objects. WinRunner records operations on these bitmaps using win_mouse_click statements. By defining a bitmap as a virtual object, you can instruct WinRunner to treat it like a GUI object such as a push button, when you record and run tests.
Using the Virtual Object wizard, you can assign a bitmap to a standard object class, define the coordinates of that object, and assign it a logical name.

To define a virtual object using the Virtual Object wizard:

Choose Tools > Virtual Object Wizard. The Virtual Object wizard opens. Click Next.
In the Class list, select a class for the new virtual object. If rows that are displayed in the window. For a table class, select the number of visible rows and columns. Click Next.
Click Mark Object. Use the crosshairs pointer to select the area of the virtual object. You can use the arrow keys to make precise adjustments to the area you define with the crosshairs. Press Enter or click the right mouse button to display the virtual object’s coordinates in the wizard. If the object marked is visible on the screen, you can click the Highlight button to view it. Click Next.
Assign a logical name to the virtual object. This is the name that appears in the test script when you record on the virtual object. If the object contains text that WinRunner can read, the wizard suggests using this text for the logical name. Otherwise, WinRunner suggests virtual_object, virtual_push_button, virtual_list, etc.
You can accept the wizard’s suggestion or type in a different name. WinRunner checks that there are no other objects in the GUI map with the same name before confirming your choice.

Winrunner Questions - 4

2007-11-19T18:34:00.000+06:00

How do you find an object in a GUI map?
The GUI Map Editor is been provided with a Find and Show Buttons.

To find a particular object in the GUI Map file in the application, select the object and click the Show window. This blinks the selected object.
To find a particular object in a GUI Map file click the Find button, this gives the option to select the object. When the object is selected, if the object has been learned to the GUI Map file it will be focused in the GUI Map file.

How does WinRunner handle varying window labels?
We can handle varying window labels using regular expressions. WinRunner uses two “hidden” properties in order to use regular expression in an object’s physical description. These properties are regexp_label and regexp_MSW_class.

The regexp_label property is used for windows only. It operates “behind the scenes” to insert a regular expression into a window’s label description.
The regexp_MSW_class property inserts a regular expression into an object’s MSW_class. It is obligatory for all types of windows and for the object class object.

What is the purpose of regexp_label property and regexp_MSW_class property?

The regexp_label property is used for windows only. It operates “behind the scenes” to insert a regular expression into a window’s label description.
The regexp_MSW_class property inserts a regular expression into an object’s MSW_class. It is obligatory for all types of windows and for the object class object.

How do you suppress a regular expression?
We can suppress the regular expression of a window by replacing the regexp_label property with label property.

How do you copy and move objects between different GUI map files?
We can copy and move objects between different GUI Map files using the GUI Map Editor. The steps to be followed are:

Choose Tools > GUI Map Editor to open the GUI Map Editor.
Choose View > GUI Files.
Click Expand in the GUI Map Editor. The dialog box expands to display two GUI map files simultaneously.
View a different GUI map file on each side of the dialog box by clicking the file names in the GUI File lists.
In one file, select the objects you want to copy or move. Use the Shift key and/or Control key to select multiple objects. To select all objects in a GUI map file, choose Edit > Select All.
Click Copy or Move.
To restore the GUI Map Editor to its original size, click Collapse

How do you clear a GUI map files?

We can clear a GUI Map file using the “Clear All” option in the GUI Map Editor.

How do you filter the objects in the GUI map?
GUI Map Editor has a Filter option. This provides for filtering with 3 different types of options.

Logical name displays only objects with the specified logical name.
Physical description displays only objects matching the specified physical description. Use any substring belonging to the physical description.
Class displays only objects of the specified class, such as all the push buttons.

Winrunner Questions - 3

2007-11-15T18:23:00.000+06:00

What do you mean by the logical name of the object?
An object’s logical name is determined by its class. In most cases, the logical name is the label that appears on an object.

What is the different between GUI map and GUI map files?

1) The GUI map is actually the sum of one or more GUI map files. There are two modes for organizing GUI map files.

Global GUI Map file: a single GUI Map file for the entire application
GUI Map File per Test: WinRunner automatically creates a GUI Map file for each test created.

2) GUI Map file is a file which contains the windows and the objects learned by the WinRunner with its logical name and their physical description.

How do you view the contents of the GUI map?
GUI Map editor displays the content of a GUI Map. We can invoke GUI Map Editor from the Tools Menu in WinRunner. The GUI Map Editor displays the various GUI Map files created and the windows and objects learned in to them with their logical name and physical description.

What is set_window command?

Set_Window command sets the focus to the specified window. We use this command to set the focus to the required window before executing tests on a particular window.

Syntax: set_window(, time);
The logical name is the logical name of the window and time is the time the execution has to wait till it gets the given window into focus.

How do you load GUI map?
We can load a GUI Map by using the GUI_load command.

Syntax: GUI_load(<file_name>);

What is the disadvantage of loading the GUI maps through start up scripts?

If we are using a single GUI Map file for the entire AUT then the memory used by the GUI Map may be much high.
If there is any change in the object being learned then WinRunner will not be able to recognize the object, as it is not in the GUI Map file loaded in the memory. So we will have to learn the object again and update the GUI File and reload it.

What happens when you load GUI map?
When we load a GUI Map file, the information about the windows and the objects with their logical names and physical description are loaded into memory. So when the WinRunner executes a script on a particular window, it can identify the objects using this information loaded in the memory.

How do you unload the GUI map?
We can use GUI_close to unload a specific GUI Map file or else we call use GUI_close_all command to unload all the GUI Map files loaded in the memory.

Syntax: GUI_close(<file_name>); or GUI_close_all;

What is the purpose of the temp GUI map file?
While recording a script, WinRunner learns objects and windows by itself. This is actually stored into the temporary GUI Map file. We can specify whether we have to load this temporary GUI Map file should be loaded each time in the General Options.

What is the extension of gui map file?
The extension for a GUI Map file is “.gui”.

Winrunner Questions - 2

2007-11-07T13:34:00.000+06:00

How can we perform debugging of the scripts?
We can debug the script by executing the script in the debug mode. We can also debug script using the Step, Step Into, Step out functionalities provided by the WinRunner.

How do you run your test scripts?
Test scripts can be run in Verify mode to test your application. Each time WinRunner encounters a checkpoint in the test script, it compares the current data of the application being tested to the expected data captured earlier. If any mismatches are found, WinRunner captures them as actual results.

How do you analyze results and report the defects?
Following each test run, WinRunner displays the results in a report. The report details all the major events that occurred during the run, such as checkpoints, error messages, system messages, or user messages. If mismatches are detected at checkpoints during the test run, you can view the expected results and the actual results from the Test Results window. If a test run fails due to a defect in the application being tested, you can report information about the defect directly from the Test Results window. This information is sent via e-mail to the quality assurance manager, who tracks the defect until it is fixed.

What is the use of Test Director?
TestDirector is Mercury Interactive’s software test management tool. It helps quality assurance personnel plan and organize the testing process. With TestDirector you can create a database of manual and automated tests, build test cycles, run tests, and report and track defects. You can also create reports and graphs to help review the progress of planning tests, running tests, and tracking defects before a software release.

How do you integrate your automated scripts from TestDirector?
When you work with WinRunner, you can choose to save your tests directly to your TestDirector database or while creating a test case in the TestDirector we can specify whether the script in automated or manual. And if it is automated script then TestDirector will build a skeleton for the script that can be later modified into one which could be used to test the AUT.

What is the purpose of loading WinRunner Add-Ins?
Add-Ins are used in WinRunner to load functions specific to the particular add-in to the memory. While creating a script only those functions in the add-in selected will be listed in the function generator and while executing the script only those functions in the loaded add-in will be executed else WinRunner will give an error message saying it does not recognize the function.

What are the reasons that WinRunner fails to identify an object on the GUI?
WinRunner fails to identify an object in a GUI due to various reasons.

The object is not a standard windows object.
If the browser used is not compatible with the WinRunner version, GUI Map Editor will not be able to learn any of the objects displayed in the browser window.

Interesting Java puzzles

2007-10-27T12:49:00.001+06:00

I came across a set of interesting java puzzles... Do share your views/results on these.

public class StringTest
{
  public static void main(String[] args){
    foo();
    bar();
  }
  public static void foo(){
    String s = "str4";
    String s1 = "str" + s.length();
    System.out.println("(s==s1) = " + (s1==s));
  }
  public static void bar(){
    String s = "str4";
    String s1 = "str" + "4";
    System.out.println("(s==s1) = " + (s1==s));
 }
}

public class Assignment {
  public static void main(String[] a){
    int count = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
      count += count++;
      System.out.println(count);
  }
}

class StaticTest {
  static { initIfNecessary(); }

  private static int sum;

  public static int getSum() {
    initIfNecessary();
    return sum;
  }
  
  private static boolean initialized = false;

  private static synchronized void initIfNecessary() {
    if (!initialized) {
      for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
        sum += i;
      initialized = true;
    }
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(getSum());
  }
}

package click;
public class CodeTalk {
  public void doIt() { printMessage(); }
  void printMessage() { System.out.println("Click"); }
}
------------------
package hack;
import click.CodeTalk;
public class TypeIt {
  private static class ClickIt extends CodeTalk {
    void printMessage() { System.out.println("Hack"); }
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    new ClickIt().doIt();
  }
}

public class Lazy {
  private static boolean initialized = false;
  static {
    Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        initialized = true;
      }
    });
    t. start();
    try {
      t.join();
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
      throw e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(initialized);
  }
}

WinRunner Questions... 1

2007-10-17T12:56:00.000+06:00

Winrunner is Automation Test Tool for Software Testing. Here are some of the most frequently asked Questions and their Answers on Winrunner.

WinRunner testing process?

WinRunner testing process involves six main stages

Create GUI Map File so that WinRunner can recognize the GUI objects in the application being tested
Create test scripts by recording, programming, or a combination of both. While recording tests, insert checkpoints where you want to check the response of the application being tested.
Debug Test: run tests in Debug mode to make sure they run smoothly
Run Tests: run tests in Verify mode to test your application.
View Results: determines the success or failure of the tests.
Report Defects: If a test run fails due to a defect in the application being tested, you can report information about the defect directly from the Test Results window.

What is contained in the GUI map?
WinRunner stores information it learns about a window or object in a GUI Map. When WinRunner runs a test, it uses the GUI map to locate objects. It reads an object’s description in the GUI map and then looks for an object with the same properties in the application being tested. Each of these objects in the GUI Map file will be having a logical name and a physical description.

There are 2 types of GUI Map files.

Global GUI Map file: a single GUI Map file for the entire application
GUI Map File per Test: WinRunner automatically creates a GUI Map file for each test created.

How does WinRunner recognize objects on the application?
WinRunner uses the GUI Map file to recognize objects on the application. When WinRunner runs a test, it uses the GUI map to locate objects. It reads an object’s description in the GUI map and then looks for an object with the same properties in the application being tested.

How does WinRunner evaluates test results?
Following each test run, WinRunner displays the results in a report. The report details all the major events that occurred during the run, such as checkpoints, error messages, system messages, or user messages. If mismatches are detected at checkpoints during the test run, you can view the expected results and the actual results from the Test Results window.

What is contained in the test scripts?
The test scripts contain the statement in Mercury Interactive’s Test Script Language (TSL). These statements appear as a test script in a test window. You can then enhance your recorded test script, either by typing in additional TSL functions and programming elements or by using WinRunner’s visual programming tool, the Function Generator.

Software Testing Best Practice Award

2007-09-20T11:53:00.001+06:00

An email I received from IIST

===================================================

The International Institute for Software Testing is
giving away FIFTY days of free training.

Up to TEN companies may win. Each company will get Five
days of free training.

Apply for the IIST's Software Testing Best Practice Award
at http://www.iist.org/bestpractice and receive the following benefits:

**** Get your company featured as an Award Winning Company
In all IIST publicity channels and press releases
**** Tell everyone how great your test process is
**** Get 5 days of free training at the International
Testing Certification Super Week to be held in
Las Vegas, NV, November 26-30, 2007
Chicago, IL, March 24-28, 2008
See details at http://iist.org/superweek
**** Get your company and your test team recognized and identified
as an Award Winning Team during these remarkable events

The International Testing Certification Super Week will be
held in the following cities:

Las Vegas, NV, November 26-30, 2007
Chicago, IL, March 24-28, 2008

During these events, IIST will offer 25 Full day
in-depth courses taught by Leading Industry Experts
in Software Testing & Quality.

**** Register by September 30th, and save 20% (Las Vegas)
See details at: http://www.iist.org/stpw/lasvegas/index.php

**** Register by December 31st, 2007 and save 30% (Chicago)
See details at: http://www.iist.org/stpw/chicago08/index.php

===================================================

Requirements Testing

2007-09-11T20:08:00.000+06:00

Testing software is an integral part of building a system. However, if the software is based on inaccurate requirements, then despite well written code, the software will be unsatisfactory. Most of the defects in a system can be traced back to wrong, missing, vague or incomplete requirements.

Requirements seem to be ephemeral. They flit in and out of projects, they are capricious, intractable, unpredictable and sometimes invisible. When gathering requirements we are searching for all of the criteria for a system's success. We throw out a net and try to capture all these criteria.

The Quality Gateway

As soon as we have a single requirement in our net we can start testing. The aim is to trap requirements-related defects as early as they can be identified. We prevent incorrect requirements from being incorporated in the design and implementation where they will be more difficult and expensive to find and correct.

To pass through the quality gateway and be included in the requirements specification, a requirement must pass a number of tests. These tests are concerned with ensuring that the requirements are accurate, and do not cause problems by being unsuitable for the design and implementation stages later in the project.

Make The Requirement Measurable

In his work on specifying the requirements for buildings, Christopher Alexander describes setting up a quality measure for each requirement.

"The idea is for each requirement to have a quality measure that makes it possible to divide all solutions to the requirement into two classes: those for which we agree that they fit the requirement and those for which we agree that they do not fit the requirement."

In other words, if we specify a quality measure for a requirement, we mean that any solution that meets this measure will be acceptable. Of course it is also true to say that any solution that does not meet the measure will not be acceptable.

The quality measures will be used to test the new system against the requirements. The remainder of this paper describes how to arrive at a quality measure that is acceptable to all the stakeholders.

Quantifiable Requirements

Consider a requirement that says "The system must respond quickly to customer enquiries". First we need to find a property of this requirement that provides us with a scale for measurement within the context. Let's say that we agree that we will measure the response using minutes. To find the quality measure we ask: "under what circumstances would the system fail to meet this requirement?" The stakeholders review the context of the system and decide that they would consider it a failure if a customer has to wait longer than three minutes for a response to his enquiry. Thus "three minutes" becomes the quality measure for this requirement.

Any solution to the requirement is tested against the quality measure. If the solution makes a customer wait for longer than three minutes then it does not fit the requirement. So far so good: we have defined a quantifiable quality measure. But specifying the quality measure is not always so straightforward. What about requirements that do not have an obvious scale?

Non-quantifiable Requirements

Suppose a requirement is "The automated interfaces of the system must be easy to learn". There is no obvious measurement scale for "easy to learn". However if we investigate the meaning of the requirement within the particular context, we can set communicable limits for measuring the requirement.

Again we can make use of the question: "What is considered a failure to meet this requirement?" Perhaps the stakeholders agree that there will often be novice users, and the stakeholders want novices to be productive within half an hour. We can define the quality measure to say "a novice user must be able to learn to successfully complete a customer order transaction within 30 minutes of first using the system". This becomes a quality measure provided a group of experts within this context is able to test whether the solution does or does not meet the requirement.

An attempt to define the quality measure for a requirement helps to rationalise fuzzy requirements. Something like "the system must provide good value" is an example of a requirement that everyone would agree with, but each person has his own meaning. By investigating the scale that must be used to measure "good value" we identify the diverse meanings.

Sometimes by causing the stakeholders to think about the requirement we can define an agreed quality measure. In other cases we discover that there is no agreement on a quality measure. Then we substitute this vague requirement with several requirements, each with its own quality measure.

Requirements Test 1

Does each requirement have a quality measure that can be used to test whether any solution meets the requirement?

By adding a quality measure to each requirement we have made the requirement visible. This is the first step to defining all the criteria for measuring the goodness of the solution. Now let's look at other aspects of the requirement that we can test before deciding to include it in the requirements specification.

Requirements Test 2

Does the specification contain a definition of the meaning of every essential subject matter term within the specification?

When the allowable values for each of the attributes are defined it provides data that can be used to test the implementation.

Requirements Test 3

Is every reference to a defined term consistent with its definition?

Requirements Test 4

Is the context of the requirements wide enough to cover everything we need to understand?

Requirements Test 5

Have we asked the stakeholders about conscious, unconscious and undreamed of requirements?

Requirements Test 5 (enlarged)

Have we asked the stakeholders about conscious, unconscious and undreamed of requirements? Can you show that a modelling effort has taken place to discover the unconscious requirements? Can you demonstrate that brainstorming or similar efforts taken place to find the undreamed of requirements?

Requirements Test 6

Is every requirement in the specification relevant to this system?

Requirements Test 7

Does the specification contain solutions posturing as requirements?

Requirements Test 8

Is the stakeholder value defined for each requirement?

Requirements Test 9

Is each requirement uniquely identifiable?

Requirements Test 10

Is each requirement tagged to all parts of the system where it is used? For any change to requirements, can you identify all parts of the system where this change has an effect?

Conclusions

The requirements specification must contain all the requirements that are to be solved by our system. The specification should objectively specify everything our system must do and the conditions under which it must perform. Management of the number and complexity of the requirements is one part of the task.

The most challenging aspect of requirements gathering is communicating with the people who are supplying the requirements. If we have a consistent way of recording requirements we make it possible for the stakeholders to participate in the requirements process. As soon as we make a requirement visible we can start testing it. and asking the stakeholders detailed questions. We can apply a variety of tests to ensure that each requirement is relevant, and that everyone has the same understanding of its meaning. We can ask the stakeholders to define the relative value of requirements. We can define a quality measure for each requirement, and we can use that quality measure to test the eventual solutions.

Testing starts at the beginning of the project, not at the end of the coding. We apply tests to assure the quality of the requirements. Then the later stages of the project can concentrate on testing for good design and good code. The advantages of this approach are that we minimise expensive rework by minimising requirements-related defects that could have been discovered, or prevented, early in the project's life.

References:

An Early Start to Testing: How to Test Requirements
Suzanne Robertson

Testing Webinar

2007-09-05T00:53:00.000+06:00

I came to know about the EuroSTAR Webinar which is schduled for Wednesday, 5th September! I think the topic is:
An Introduction to Testing on Agile Teams – The Practices & Beyond: presented by Antony Marcano, testingReflections.com, UK.

More Details follow:
======================
Date: Wednesday, 5th September, 2007
Time: 10:00 am London-Dublin / 11:00am CET
Duration: 30 minutes

Abstract: An increasing number of organisations are considering, or are in the process of, adopting Agile software development practices. Often, how testers integrate into this process is an afterthought. Worse still, organisations assume that it changes nothing about how testers function and operate. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, a capable Agile team can change the very raison d’etre of a tester in all the ways that testers have often hoped for. No longer does the tester *need* to be the gatekeeper of quality; the whole development team cares about quality like never before. No longer are testers at the end of the process; testers are involved from the outset of the project!

During this webinar, Antony discusses:

Key Points
• What is it that makes a team ‘Agile’? – Practices such as Test Driven Development are a reflection of underlying values and goals. It’s the adoption of these values and goals that allows a team to gain the greatest benefit from adopting an Agile approach to software development.

• What are the common ‘Gotchas’ for testers on Agile teams? – For example, extraordinarily short iterations producing software with end-to-end features can catch out many testing teams. This is especially true if the test team is used to being segregated from the developers as a separate team and/or rely on large amounts of manually executed scripted tests.

• What role do testers play and how can you deliver the most value? – Your primary role is no longer just to inform the project of how the software doesn’t work, but to be a welcomed guide who helps, before the first line of code is written, to make sure that the software does work.

Register Here - http://qualtechconferences.arobis.com/content.asp?id=246

Best Practices... 2

2007-09-03T17:12:00.001+06:00

... Continued from previous post.

http://testingsoftware.blogspot.com/2007/06/best-practices.html

Plan real life resource intensive tasks in advance and procure resources accordingly

Some applications may require processing large number of data for final output. During

functional testing of such applications, for quick results, a tester keeps on doing testing with

small set of data, which may take very less time. But user of that application will work with real

data, which may take significant time. A QE should process real time data that requires

application long time to process the data. Testing such cases in the end is not good idea. A

failure for long duration run is difficult to isolate. Isolating of such bugs is time consuming

activities. In the end of cycle such bugs will create panic and may delay major milestone.

Proper planning should be done to ensure smooth testing for long duration tests.

Test smartly

As the project/product becomes more and more complex, testing becomes a bigger challenge.

It is indeed impossible to test each and every scenario. Hence there is a need to test smartly.

Some of the smart testing approaches that one can adopt are:

a) Catching them early

One important thing to remember is to catch the bugs as early as possible in the life cycle.

The cost of fixing a bug early in the cycle is very less in comparison to the bug logged late in the

cycle.

b) 80-20 rule

This law states that eighty percent of the functionality should be covered in twenty percent of the

test cases. This method is a very handy resource of saving time and helps to cover the most

important scenarios as fast as possible.

c) Automation

Automation helps a lot in covering a lot of regression features thereby reducing the overhead of

the test team to test out the old features. Automation saves the tester time and can do repeated

tasks over and over again.

Sanity testing on every build

The sanity testing is very important and after every check-in, the sanity needs to be run.

Sometimes a change in one module may affect the other modules as such and also the entire app/product.

Sanity on every check-in/change will ensure that the basic things are working fine.

The issue with sanity is how many tests and which tests are you going to cover in the sanity pack.

The sanity pack should contain at least one test from all the features.

Feature sweep, Compatibility sweep etc for every feature.

a)Feature sweep

Feature sweep covers basic test cases of functionality. For every major milestone, these test

cases should be executed to ensure that functionality is not broken.

b) Compatibility Sweep

There are many features that require test cases for multiple hardware platforms,

Operating System among others. For a application that is supported on multiple OS (e.g.

Windows, Mac OS), different hardware configuration (AMD, Intel, Dual processor, hyper

threaded machine, different RAM etc.) and hardware (e.g. different printer for printing

application) such sweeps are very important.

Proper documentation

Documentation is a very wide term and includes any kind of written communication that helps the

project in sailing through. Documentation can be classified into four broad categories:

1) From the developers point of view

• Feature spec

• Design document

• Commenting

2) From the testing point of view

• Test plan

• Test script

• Execution matrix

• Resource planning document

• QA plan, among others

3) Documentation meant for the external users.

• User guide

• Help files

• Readme documents

4) Project management and Product management

• Requirement Specs

• Project Schedule

As a good Quality Engineer one should try to do the right amount of documentation ensuring that

the documentation helps smooth execution of the project and also helps to catch bugs early in

the cycle. Also the QE should make sure that the Developer has done the proper documentation

and if not the QE should follow up with the developer to get it done.

Product Review: ManagerAssistant

2007-08-09T21:33:00.000+06:00

Following is my review of the product "ManagerAssistant"

ManagerAssistant.com is a company which develops Workforce Management Software.

One of its products is titled the same, i.e. the product is named ManagerAssistant.

The current version of this product is 3.0. A detailed description of the product is available here - http://www.managerassistant.com/products.html
If you just feel like going through a tour, the link goes here - http://www.managerassistant.com/tour.html

What is ManagerAssistant?
To put it in simple words, ManagerAssistant is a software that helps managers for employee management.

This software empowers managers to track, evaluate, and control the behavior, performance, and activities of employees.

From a single application, ManagerAssistant software addresses the following workforce management processes and activities:

Employee review
Employee information tracking and monitoring
Hiring and recruitment
Employee evaluation
Employee attendance tracking
Employee appraisal
Vacation tracking
Incident tracking
Paid time off tracking
Employee goals
Employee training & development administration
Employee HR detailed info

Free Demo Download.

There is a free demo download available; unfortunately, this requires you to register. This may not be such a good idea where you force upon the visitors to register to download a demo.

Anyways, I can tell you a hack how to avoid the registration.

This is a php website and you can directly use this link to download the demo without registering - http://www.managerassistant.com/download.php

The download was very slow(at least for me) - it took almost an hour to download the exe file.

You did better use Download Accelerator Plus(DAP), which is available here for free - http://www.speedbit.com/

Using DAP I was able to download in almost 5-7 mins. The file is approx 111 MB.

System Requirements

- Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® Vista, XP Home/Pro, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 Pro, or Microsoft Windows Server 2003

- Intel Pentium® or compatible processor (700 MHz or greater)

- 512 MB RAM or greater

- 150 MB disk space

- SVGA with 256 colors (1024 x 768 with 16-bit color recommended)

Installation

Double click the executable and the installer opens up, the follow up is pretty simple. Unfortunately, the installer does not give me the option of choosing the installation directory.

The files are installed under C:\Program Files\ManagerAssistant.com\ManagerAssistant 3.0\

There is only a windows version of this product, they do not have a Linux or anything else.

If you have an earlier version of ManagerAssistant, you can even migrate the data to the new version.

Once the Installation is over, just double click on the icon to open the application.

The front page shows up like below.

Reminders: There is a set of reminders on the left hand side, you can even view only the reminders that were set by you alone.

You can view reminders for 1. For the day 2. For the week 3. For the Month

Also present is a calendar with the current date highlighted.

CheckList: Here you can add any number of folders and TO-DO list. The Completed items appear in Blue color, Pending items in Green and Overdue items in Red.

Employees Tab:

This is a very useful tab and gives the complete information of the employee.

Just right click on the right taq and you get the list of columns.

There are a total of pre-defined 79 columns and you can select/deselect these columns.

Unfortunately, there is no way to add your own columns. And you cannot re-name these columns.

You can add/edit/delete an employee record and the best of these I think is the "email as pdf" feature. This will email the emp record in a pdf.

You can filter the records, There are a variety of reports which are very good.
The data can be exported in the form of grid in 4 types - XML, HTML, Text, XLS

Attendance Tab

This is another important tab in the product. Very helpful to track the attendance of the employees.

This can be very useful when the you have employees who are employed part-time as well as full-time.

There are 4 sub tabs
1. Calendar View
2. Table View
3. Attendance overview
4. Employee Year View

The salient features here include:
a. You can select the columns to view.
b. You can sort the columns.
c. Adding an attachment to the details is allowed.
d.

Allows marking for different types of attendance out reasons like: bereavement, maternity, medical, sick, late/tardy, vacation, comp time, military duty, floating, jury duty and more.

Never a days the employee attendance is recorded by the magnetic swiping of the emp ID card at the entrance door.

It would be great if this applicaiton can be import data on a day to day basis from the the server. May be that needs a plugin or something to be added to acheive that???

Here is a report for attendance I created. This is Bar Graph created from the existing data.

Performance Review Tab

This can be used to produce reviews of employees within a short time, no need of storing the data in word formats etc...

You can send out reminder emails as well and there is self calculating ratings. You can modify the ratings and change the categories, weighted averages etc.

Also other features include - spell check, thesaurus, email as pdf, print hte reviews.

Below is a snapshot of the Review details.

The Goals Tab

This can be used to create a set of goals for the employees which they need to accomplish over a period of time. One advantage here is you can keep track of the progress of the employees.

This is how the goals tab looks like.

The Incidents Tab

Helps you to keep track of any incident that happened. This can be any good or bad incident.

You can add an attachment, Also note the plan of action.

The accomplishments Tab

Whenever an employee acheives something, you need to keep track of that, lest you may forget. The managers need to keep track of all the employees and they may forget the employee acheivements.

This tool can be very useful to keep track of the accomplishments and the employees who accomplish something great should be given bonus.

The Training Tab

Helpful in keeping track of the training a candidate takes during his employment.

The Recruitment Tab

This is helpful in recruiting.

1. you can enter the data of the candidates applying.

2. If he is selected, you can convert him into an employee - should add the employee data at the time.

But what I was looking for here the flow of recruitment process. Like when 1st round of interview is over, he(first interviewer) should be able to transfer the candidate to the second interviewer.

And then the next interviewer. Unfortunately this is missing. Generally this process is very tedious and people send emails. An application would be good.

The Expenses Tab

You can add your expenses reports here.

Customers

Here is a list of customers including which ManagerAssistant has.

Pricing

Single-User Edition Version3.0 $395.00
Network/Multi-User Edition Version 3.0 Starting at $895.00

Documentation:

The help and documentation provided with the app is very good.

Un-installation

They do not provide a un-installer link in the start - programs menu. Nor do they provide a unistall.exe in the installed directory.

You need to go to the control panel to unistall the product.

Summary

The website of ManagerAssistant is good, but it would be good if they can come up with something better. I was able to download the app by-passing the registration form.

ManasgerAssistant is a good application, with a lot of features all integrated. I found the “Employee” tab and the “Performance Review” tabs very useful. The attendance tab is also good but I was wondering if there was an integration with the swiping card attendance. If there can be a way by which we can integrate the attendance with the app, then the time-in, time-out of the employees can be noted and also the attendance. Also there should be a way by which the employees can apply for vacation through the intranet, and the app should update itself automatically.

Definitely this is a very good app for the Managers and can save a lot of time and imporve the productivity.

===============================

Disclaimer: Do not make a purchase based on this review; I suggest you to Download ManagerAssistant, test it for a few days and see if you like it yourself.

This is a sponsored review; Do you want your product to be reviewd? Check out ReviewMe

Tester Job

2007-08-06T00:57:00.000+06:00

Received this email... thought I would share it.
-------------------------
Tensor Software Technologies, Bangalore, India, requires a Software Testing Engineer with more than 2 years of experience in Testing.

Candidates should possess the following skillsets:-

1. Design and development of test cases from software design documentation and Functional, technical and regulatory requirements

2. Defect identification, isolation and reporting

3. Familiarity with test automation tools

4. Good knowledge in System testing, performance testing
5. Hardware knowledge would be beneficial.

Please send your resumes to fakruddin.shaik@gmail.com Only if you have the required experience and skillset.

About Tensor:
Tensor is the leading manufacturer of smart card and biometric Time and Attendance, Access Control, Visitor Monitoring, and Digital CCTV equipment and software.
www.tensor.co.uk

URL Redirection...

2007-08-06T00:47:00.000+06:00

I received an email asking about HTML Code for redirection of a web page to another?

To make a page redirect, we can use the HTML Meta Tag inside the head tag

Example:
meta equiv="refresh" content="5; url=http://www.another-site.com"

This code will redirect your webpage to the new url after 5 seconds.
The attribute http-equiv="refresh" calls for refresh of the page.
The attribute content="5; URL=http://www.another-site.com" sets the time interval in seconds after which the page redirection will take place and the destination page.

Make sure you follow the exact order of coding. i.e: content="time interval in seconds; URL=resulting page";

Note that you should not use semicolon after 'url='.So using this meta tag will redirect the page to the destination page after the time interval.

EDS Acquires RelQ...

2007-08-05T00:22:00.001+06:00

RelQ is one of the most well known Software Testing Companies... I recently came to know that it has been acquired by EDS.

http://www.eds.com/news/releases/3578/

Operational Automation

2007-08-04T23:54:00.001+06:00

A good article from eds blog.

Operational Automation will Always Win Out in the End

Having an on-site workforce is expensive and will continue to go up over time (inflation). You can find low cost locations. They start out low, but inflationary pressures (supply and demand) will force them up too.

Read full entry...

Synchronous Automation Testing

2007-08-04T22:03:00.000+06:00

I came across a good article on "Synchronous Automation Testing" by Pushpa Reddy...

Read it on...

=====================

Nowadays we commonly come across systems which use Windows UNIX-emulation. In this article I would like to share my experience automating such system using a functional testing tool and a test management tool.

Objectives• To build a test automation pack which synchronises with the batch process in UNIX-emulation system and continues with the database validation in Windows.• To build a test automation pack with support for cross-platform operating systems (UNIX and Windows XP), and database support (Oracle 9i, Sybase and SQL 2000).• To use the automation pack and validation pack for regression test cycles.

Reporting bugs - A how to guide

2007-08-01T17:59:00.001+06:00

One of my colleague forwarded me a good link regarding bug reporting for web application testing; worth a quick read.

“Reporting bugs - a how-to guide”

an article from edgeofmyseat.com

http://www.edgeofmyseat.com/articles/2007/07/08/reporting-bugs/

Full Text of the article

-----------------------------------------------------

When working with a developer or team of developers on an application – whether you are a designer working with developers or an end client hiring developers – you all want the same end result, a slick and bug free application. During the testing process of any application it is likely that some bugs or issues will show up and this article aims to explain how to report bugs and problems effectively so that your developers don’t need to spend time working out what the problem is before being able to fix it. This helps to ensure that projects stay on budget and that developers are spending their time adding features to the application rather than trying to get enough details to be able to reproduce and fix issues.

“It’s just not working!”

When you find a problem, it is very tempting to just fire off an email and presume that the developer will immediately be able to see the problem too. However, by taking a few minutes to describe the problem you have encountered accurately you can prevent any confusion occurring as to what the problem is and save both your time and the developer’s as she won’t need to get back to you to find out what actually happened, or spend a long time trying to reproduce the issue.

A good report

A good bug report tells your developer three vital things:

What you expected to happen
What actually happened
What you did/were doing when it happened

What you expected to happen

There are two kinds of ‘bugs’, the first is where something breaks – you see an error message, your uploaded data disappears, you submit a form and the change isn’t saved. These bugs are generally pretty easy to report and identify as all your developer needs is to know exactly what you were doing or inputting at the time and they should be able to reproduce and fix the issue.

The second kind of bug is where the application doesn’t function as you expected. This might be because the developer has misinterpreted part of the specification or it could be that what you expect just isn’t how something can work. In this case the developer believes that it is working fine – and in fact it is ‘working’ even if it is incorrect. If your bug report is that the feature is broken, the developer may then spend time looking for some error in this part of the application when what they need to realize is that it isn’t working as you expected. By giving the information about what you expected to happen the developer can think ‘ah … you wanted it to do x and it is doing y’ and a resolution can be sorted out quickly.

What actually happened

What actually happened is very rarely ‘nothing’ yet bug reports often contain the phrase, ‘nothing happened’. If what happened was ‘nothing’ in terms of the intended result then explain that in a few more words, for example, if you clicked the submit button on a form and it didn’t submit and go onto the next page you could say,

“The form didn’t submit – it just remained on the same page.”

Or perhaps the form submitted and a blank page displayed,

“After submitting the form a blank page loaded.”

If an error message displays on the screen then include that in the report. Just copy and paste the error message.

If you use Internet Explorer then your browser may not display the error message generated by the server, instead showing a generic error page. You can ensure the IE displays the real error message by going to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced. Then scroll down to the browsing section and uncheck ‘Show Friendly HTTP error messages’.

What you were doing when it happened

Your developer wants to know this information – not because they want to tell you that you were doing something wrong, but because it is highly likely that the bug occurs only when a certain path of actions is followed, or when a certain type of data is entered. The more information you can give your developer the easier it will be for them to reproduce the problem you saw and fix it. Things you should include:

The steps taken
List exactly what you did, in the order you did it if possible. If you can go back and try the same steps again and the problem happens again that is great – note down exactly how you made the problem occur. Your developer will be pleased as you have just saved her time trying to reproduce the issue. Even if you can’t reproduce it, no-one is going to doubt that the problem happened – just describe as much as you can remember how you got to the broken point.

Any data you were entering
If the problem happened after you added some data to a form, include the data with the bug report. If you were uploading something such as an image into the application then include that too.

It may also be helpful to copy and paste the URL out of the address bar of the browser so the developer knows exactly which page you were on at the time.

The browser and operating system you were using at the time
With web applications problems may only be occurring in one browser. Let your developer know exactly what you are using – including the version number - so they can create the same environment to test the problem.

Effective bug reporting can make a huge difference in how quickly problems can be resolved, and prevent frustration on both sides of the process. Including the above information, even if it doesn’t seem relevant, will be appreciated by the developer. You don’t need to write an essay, just a few clear lines explaining the key information of:

what you expected to happen
what actually happened and,
what you did/were doing when it happened.

This will be enough to isolate all but the most complicated of issues, and once an issue can be reproduced it is well on its way to being fixed.

ColdFusion 8 is released...

2007-07-31T13:05:00.000+06:00

Adobe ColdFusion 8 has officially been released.

Check it out here

http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/

Here is the official press release.

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200707/073007ColdFusion.html

Enjoy CF 8.

Adobe Unveils ColdFusion 8 Public Beta...

2007-07-26T17:02:00.000+06:00

Adobe Unveils ColdFusion 8 Public Beta... It's Out!

The ColdFusion 8 Public Beta is now available for download!

Adobe Press Release:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200705/053007ColdFusion.html

ColdFusion 8 Public Beta:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/coldfusion8

ColdFusion 8 Public Beta Hosting:
http://www.hostmysite.com/cf8

Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 is the highly-anticipated upcoming major release of ColdFusion. The public beta release provides developers with the opportunity to begin building applications with new ColdFusion 8 features as well as test their existing applications on the new version.

ColdFusion 8 allows developers to quickly and easily create compelling Internet applications that fit in today’s complex enterprise environments. Faster than any previous version of the software, ColdFusion 8 lets developers write more applications in less time with fewer lines of code—and then tune these applications for optimum performance. Here are just a few of the key features that you’ll discover in the public beta:

Download and Discuss

New Features

Server monitoring to help identify server bottlenecks, allowing for tuning and improved performance.
Step through code debugging in a new Eclipse plug-in debugger.
Adobe Flex™ and Ajax features that let ColdFusion power personalized, multimedia-rich applications to enhance users’ experiences on the web.
High-quality, dynamically created on-demand multimedia presentations.
PDF document and form integration for a printable, portable way to intelligently capture and share information.
Image creation and manipulation with more than 50 new CFML tags and functions.
Native support for .NET objects to easily integrate ColdFusion applications with enterprise data and infrastructure services.
Significant application runtime and server performance improvements.

Software Testing/QA courses from Universities across the World.

2007-07-24T16:05:00.001+06:00

Mallikarjun Reddy of http://codeinspections.blogspot.com/ has a good compilation of testing courses.

Testing Courses in Universities:

The University of Western Ontario.
University of Maryland.
George Mason University
Winthorp
University of St.Thomas
University of Texas Dallas

Testing Certification Exams:

Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA)
Certified Software Test Engineer (CSTE)
Quality Improvement Associate Certification (CQIA)
Six Sigma Black Belt Certification (SSBB).
Certified Test Manager (CTM)
Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP)

Funny: How software developers fix defects (bugs) - QA point

2007-07-03T16:00:00.001+06:00

This should hold us over.	It worked yesterday.	This is designed according to specification.
This is a good fix.	It will work this way.	Here you go.
It will work until the next release.	It must be a hardware problem.	I did my best.

Testing strategies for Flash movies

2007-06-26T07:49:00.000+06:00

During the development of your Flash movies, you might occasionally run into difficulties. This is usually because creating interesting movies and trying out new ideas always involves some experimentation on the part of the author. By testing your movies according to these simple guidelines, you can prevent problems from becoming obstacles.

Test early in development

When you begin a Flash project, plan to start testing the functionality of your movie early in the development process. This will help ensure that you discover any problems while they are still minor. Waiting to test can allow small problems to become larger ones, as you add subsequent features to your movie that depend on problematic functionality implemented earlier. By incorporating testing into your authoring process early, you'll find these problems and have the opportunity to fix them before adding additional features to your movie.

Test often during development

Testing should be an integral part of your Flash development process. Test the functionality of each small part of your movie as you add it rather than waiting until the movie's whole feature set is implemented.

Avoid building features that are interdependent without testing each one before adding the next. If you test this way, when problems arise you'll know that the most recently implemented feature is the most likely source of the problem. If you wait to test one feature until after the next feature is implemented, and one of those features exhibits a problem, you'll have a more complex set of possibilities to evaluate.

Save multiple versions of your movie as you progress. When difficulties arise, compare the current version to the last saved version to help locate the source of the problem.

Test on all target platforms

When you develop a Flash movie, you should spend some time defining who the audience for the movie will be. Part of this process is deciding what the minimum system requirements should be for the computers used by that audience.

Determine the slowest processor speed you want your movie to be able to play on and verify that the performance of your movie is acceptable on a processor of that speed. You should also determine if there is a range of configurations you will have to support (such as Windows NT and 2000, Macintosh) and test on enough of them so that you can infer success on all of them. Be sure to include parameters such as browser software, screen resolution, and memory in your testing.

This approach will help you find problems that are specific to an operating system or configuration, a class of problems entirely distinct from authoring errors.

Testing strategies

Use the following strategies to test your movies effectively:

Be sure to use the Control > Test Movie command. Testing in the Flash application is different from testing a SWF file. The Test Movie command simulates the true behavior of the SWF file.

If you run into a problem, try to isolate the problem in a new Flash file that incorporates only the problem feature or item. Make a list of the minimum steps required to reproduce the problem in a new file. This will usually shed light on the source of the problem in your actual movie. It will also reveal whether the problem is limited to one feature or caused by the interaction of two or more features in your movie.

Try to re-create the problem with different library media. Sometimes the source of a problem is within a specific media item used in your movie.

Try to re-create the problem on a different computer. This will help isolate problems with hardware configuration or with the Flash installation on a specific computer. If the problem exists only when the movie is posted to a server, determine whether the problem exists on only one server or all servers. Occasionally the server's MIME types may need to be edited to include the MIME types for Flash.

When using ActionScript, look for typos, missing punctuation, or inconsistent naming.

Best Practices…

2007-06-07T20:40:00.000+06:00

While developing a product one comes across many situations in which a person needs to take decisions which might present all alternatives which seem wrong or all alternatives which seem
correct. In case of such tough decisions, one has to be guided by some best practices which can
help him to solve this problem if not present a readymade solution to the problem.

The best practices can categorized into broad categories:
1) 10 must haves for a Quality Engineer.
2) Four things which any professional or entrepreneur cannot afford to forget.

The best practices of a Quality Engineer ensure that quality of the final product is ensured.

1. Know the technology
In the area of software development, technology is changing rapidly. What is new trend today
may become obsolete tomorrow. In this fast changing world a tester should keep abreast with
the latest in the technology world. A Tester should know what technology is being used for
developing applications. He should know the supporting technology associated with OS. This
will make sure that the tester will find bugs at the early stage, thus reducing the price for the fixing of bugs. Also, studying the technology helps study the competitor better and thus helping your product to have a good standing in the market. Studying the technology would also help the Quality Engineer to understand the workflow and the product better.

2. Learn from past experiences
Before writing the test plan and the test cases, QE should try to scan data from past projects,
which are similar in nature. This may give them some better test cases, issues that were
identified in the end of the cycle, some areas that could be automated. If the application is extension of earlier project, high priority and severity bugs should be regressed for current version of application.

3. Ensure sufficient coverage of feature workflow
The key to success of the testing effort is that when a customer uses the product, he/she
should be able to seamlessly use it. This kind of seamless experience can only be ensured if the
common user workflows have been tested thoroughly. The challenge here is that different users
use different features and in fact might even use the same feature in a different way. Here is
where the role of sufficient coverage comes in.

Coverage can broadly be classified into two categories:
a) Coverage of different functionalities present in the software
The software performs a series of tasks. However the usage of these tasks may vary depending
on the requirement of the customer. Once the possible workflows have been identified, one needs to prioritize the workflows depending upon the number of users who would use the particular feature.

b) Coverage of the different routes while going through the workflow of the software
Common functionalities can be accomplished in many different ways in most software. E.g. in
order to copy a text in Microsoft Word application, one can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C, or
right click on the selected text and select copy. One can also use the edit menu to do the same.
Each of these three routes is important because a user can copy text using any of these. As a
Tester, one needs to find all possible routes of accomplishing a task. After the routes have been
Identified, Quality Engineer needs to see how much probable are these in a real world scenario.
Also study of usage of this feature in comparison to other features needs to be done. As for our
example, we need to know how much common it is for the user to use the ‘copy’ feature in
comparison to other features like ‘find’, ‘replace’, ‘cut’ etc.

4. Make a matrix for hardware to be supported by application (and prioritize the hardware)
Many applications support different configurations of hardware. A proper matrix ensures that application is working on important configuration of hardware.

5. Assign two QEs (primary and secondary)
An application has multiple features. There should be two QE assigned to a feature. The
QE can be assigned as primary QE and secondary QE. Primary QE is responsible for creating
test plan, test cases, setting test environment, executing testing, reporting bug and regression of
bugs. Secondary QE can work as a back up. He can be involved for reviewing test plan and
script, helping primary QE in setting up testing environment, executing some part of test cases at different interval and in regression of bugs. This will help in getting control of bug myopia (blindness to a bug if working for a long time in testing a feature).

....... to be continued

Software Development Life-cycle

2007-05-17T13:22:00.001+06:00

Definition: A systematic and orderly approach to solving problems related to software systems.

General problem-solving steps:

• Planning - identify the scope and boundary of the problem, and plan the development strategy and goals.

As software is always of a large system (or business), work begins by establishing the requirements for all system elements and then allocating some subset of these requirements to software. This system view is essential when the software must interface with other elements such as hardware, people and other resources. System is the basic and very critical requirement for the existence of software in any entity. So if the system is not in place, the system should be engineered and put in place. In some cases, to extract the maximum output, the system should be re-engineered and spruced up. Once the ideal system is engineered or tuned, the development team studies the software requirement for the system.

• Analysis - study and analyze the problems, causes, and effects. Then, identify and analyze the requirements that must be fulfilled by any successful solution.

This process is also known as feasibility study. In this phase, the development team visits the customer and studies their system. They investigate the need for possible software automation in the given system. By the end of the feasibility study, the team furnishes a document that holds the different specific recommendations for the candidate system. It also includes the personnel assignments, costs, project schedule, target dates etc.... The requirement gathering process is intensified and focussed specially on software. To understand the nature of the program(s) to be built, the system engineer or "Analyst" must understand the information domain for the software, as well as required function, behavior, performance and interfacing. The essential purpose of this phase is to find the need and to define the problem that needs to be solved .

• Design - if necessary, design the solution - not all solutions require design.

In this phase, the software development process, the software's overall structure and its nuances are defined. In terms of the client/server technology, the number of tiers needed for the package architecture, the database design, the data structure design etc... are all defined in this phase. A software development model is thus created. Analysis and Design are very crucial in the whole development cycle. Any glitch in the design phase could be very expensive to solve in the later stage of the software development. Much care is taken during this phase. The logical system of the product is developed in this phase.

• Implementation - implement the solution.

The design must be translated into a machine-readable form. The code generation step performs this task. If the design is performed in a detailed manner, code generation can be accomplished without much complication. Programming tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers etc... are used to generate the code. Different high level programming languages like C, C++, Pascal, Java are used for coding. With respect to the type of application, the right programming language is chosen.

• Testing - verify the solution works.

Once the code is generated, the software program testing begins. Different testing methodologies are available to unravel the bugs that were committed during the previous phases. Different testing tools and methodologies are already available. Some companies build their own testing tools that are tailor made for their own development operations.

• Support - analyze the implemented solution, refine the design, and implement improvements to the solution. Different support situations can thread back into the previous steps.

The software will definitely undergo change once it is delivered to the customer. There can be many reasons for this change to occur. Change could happen because of some unexpected input values into the system. In addition, the changes in the system could directly affect the software operations. The software should be developed to accommodate changes that could happen during the post implementation period.

Methodology

Definition: An organized, documented set of procedures and guidelines for one or more phases of the software life cycle.

The physical implementation of the logical life cycle that incorporates

step-by-step activities for each phase
individual and group roles to be played in each activity
deliverables and quality standards for each activity
tools and techniques to be used for each activity.

A methodology is “how” the software development life-cycle is executed. There are many ways in which this can be achieved.

The Waterfall Model

The Spiral Model

List of Unit Test Tools

2007-03-07T02:36:00.000+06:00

Here is a List of Unit Test Tools...

These tools, frameworks, and libraries support unit testing, which is usually performed by the developer, usually using interfaces below the public interfaces of the software under test.

Software Test Automation Job Interview Questions

2007-02-05T02:40:00.000+06:00

Hi,
Here is a list of probable "Software Test Automation" interview questions.

1. What automating testing tools are you familiar with?
2. How did you use automating testing tools in your job?
3. Describe some problem that you had with automating testing tool.
4. How do you plan test automation?
5. Can test automation improve test effectiveness?
6. What is data - driven automation?
7. What are the main attributes of test automation?
8. Does automation replace manual testing?
9. How will you choose a tool for test automation?
10. How you will evaluate the tool for test automation?
11. What are main benefits of test automation?
12. What could go wrong with test automation?
13. How you will describe testing activities?
14. What testing activities you may want to automate?
15. Describe common problems of test automation.
16. What types of scripting techniques for test automation do you know?
17. What are principles of good testing scripts for automation?
18. What tools are available for support of testing during software development life cycle?
19. Can the activities of test case design be automated?
20. What are the limitations of automating software testing?
21. What skills needed to be a good software test automator?
22. How to find that tools work well with your existing system?
23. Describe some problem that you had with automating testing tool.
24. What are the main attributes of test automation?
25. What testing activities you may want to automate in a project?
26. What are some of the common misconceptions during implementation of an automated testing tools for the first time?

What is a Web Service?

2007-01-22T23:11:00.000+06:00

The W3C defines a Web Service as a software system designed to support interoperable machine to machine interaction over a network. Web services are frequently just API's that can be accessed over a network, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services.

Among the many ways devised to enable humans to use software running on distant computers, HTML transported over HTTP and presented via a web browser is surely the most successful yet. By using this relatively simple, accessible message format, applications can be used by people all over the world without installing custom client software on their computers.

What about when you want to connect one system to another that is running on a distant computer? Lots of approaches to distributed computing have been tried over the years, and many of these are still in use. But none has achieved the same degree of explosive growth and re-use as we have seen with HTML for web UI. The term "web services" encompasses applications that employ a specific combination of technologies to make themselves accessible to other systems running on remote machines. The most significant web services technologies address three questions:

How do I find web services that I want to use?
Once I find a service, how do I learn how it works?
How do I format messages to a web service?

Finding a Web Service:

In the simplest case, you could learn about a web service in the normal course of communicating with your friends, co-workers and business partners. Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) offers a more structured approach. UDDI is a standard for establishing and using registries of web services. A company could establish its own private registry of web services available internally, or to its partners and customers. There also are several public UDDI registries that anyone can search, and to which anyone can publish the availability of their own web services.

Understanding a Web Service:

Once you identify a web service that you'd like to use, you need to know how it works: What kinds of messages does it respond to? What does it expect each message to look like? What messages does it return, and how do you interpret the responses? The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) provides a way to declare what messages are expected and produced by a web service, with enough information about their contents to enable using the service successfully with little or no additional information. When you create a web service, you can create a description of the service using WSDL and distribute the description file (often called a WSDL file) to prospective users of the web service, either directly or by including a link to the WSDL file in a UDDI registry entry.

Communicating With a Web Service:

Now that you've obtained the WSDL description of a Web Service, you're ready to invoke it. Web Services communicate with one another via messages in a format known as XML. XML (Extensible Markup Language), like HTML, is a descendent of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). HTML focuses on the way information is to be presented. XML, on the other hand, focuses on the structure of the information, without regard to presentation issues. That's one reason XML is well suited to exchanging information between automated systems. Web services exchange XML messages with one another, typically using either HTTP or SMTP (e-mail) to transport the messages. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a further specification of how to use XML to enable web services to communicate with one another. A SOAP message is just an XML message that follows a few additional rules, most of which deal with how the elements of the message are encoded, and how the message as a whole is addressed.

A Strategy for Planning

2007-01-05T00:45:00.000+06:00

Here is a good article on ST.

--------------------------------------

Traditionally, strategic planning has been a process that involves documenting business goals and objectives, then developing specific plans and initiatives to achieve the desired end state. This process while effective, is limited in several ways. Strategic planning is often bounded by management perspective, is not inclusive of diverse thinking, and does not stimulate innovation.

full article here

Life Cycle of a Software Bug

2006-11-05T02:32:00.000+06:00

Bug tracking workflow, i.e., the lifecycle of a bug or defect, describes the states of the bug or defect from it is created to it is closed. The following are some commonly used terms for software bug tracking (if you are in a hardware or help desk customer support situation, it could be completely different):

new

When a bug is newly created, it has a state 'new'. Some people separate this 'new' state into two states, namely, 'open' before the bug is assigned and 'assigned' after the bug is assigned. In the case of Bugzero, since a newly created bug is always assigned, you may just call it 'new' or 'open' without the 'assigned' state.

You still can have an 'assigned' state if you decide to have all the newly submitted bugs to be sent to a manager (with 'new' state), and the manager then really assigns the bug. You can configure the workflow such that the next allowed state for 'new' is 'assigned'.

open

Some people call a newly created and yet to be assigned bug a state 'open'.

assigned

Some people call a newly created and assigned bug a state 'assigned'.

fixed

A bug that has been fixed by a developer has a state of 'fixed'. Normally, this is a state before the bug is confirmed (by QA) to be really fixed. If a bug is confirmed to have been fixed, it should have a state of 'closed'. Some systems allow you to configure that, only Developers can fix a bug.

resolved

Similar to 'fixed'.

closed

If a bug is confirmed (by QA) to have been fixed, it should have a state 'closed'. Some systems allow you to configure that, only QA can close a bug.

reopened

A 'closed' bug can be re opened if it re-surfaced or it is found to be not really fixed.

suspended

A bug can be 'suspended' if it is determined that the bug should not be fixed immediately or a fix can be delayed. Some people call it 'deferred'. Some systems allow you to configure that only a certain person, such as a Manager, can suspend a bug.

deferred

Similar to 'suspended'.

analyzed

If more information is needed to fix the bug, it can be conveniently set to a state 'analyzed'. You may want call it a different name, such as 'update'.

List of Defect Tracking Tools

2006-10-17T02:12:00.001+06:00

This is a list of defect tracking tools. Both commercial and freeware tools are included. The tools on this list are all available standalone, with the exception of a few that are integrated with a test management system.

For More details, check out - http://www.testingfaqs.org/t-track.html

List of Test Case Management Tools

2006-09-21T02:14:00.000+06:00

Here is a list of Test Case Management Tools. These tools help organize and execute groups of test cases, also called test suites. Some tools are for automated tests, some for manual tests, and some handle both.

Selecting the best defect tracking system

2006-08-12T02:26:00.000+06:00

The following is a general comparison overview of Bug Tracking Tools. It is focused particularly on the technical aspect. The aim is to help you to select the best tracking system that meets your requirement. Click on the link for a more detailed comparison between Bugzero, Bugzilla, and Gnats.

System Architecture:

Many old bug or defect tracking systems are client server based. You need install the server, and each user need install the client software. If external users were involved, it could be problematic because of issues like firewall etc. Also, it is not always feasible to install client software.
Newer systems are more likely web browser based and no client software need to be installed (except a browser). A web-based bug tracking system is especially attractive if your users are located in different locations and are connected through the internet.
For a web-based bug or defect tracking system, make sure it supports the browsers your users are using. Be aware that many systems support only IE.

Server Operating System:

Most commercial bug tracking systems are Windows based. In such a case, it is likely that it requires an NT/2000/XP server and a SQL Server database. Note that, a Windows XP Professional may not be sufficient, instead, a server may be required.
Most free bug or defect tracking systems are Linux/Unix based, and may not work as well on Windows. It may also require more technical skills to install and setup the system.
When people say their system is cross-platform, you need make sure they meant the server. Only a very few bug tracking systems are really cross-platform (with the same code base). Some vendors claim to support multiple OS, but they have completely independent versions for each OS and that results in higher costs for the vendor and therefore higher price for the end users.

Backend Database:

Most bug or defect tracking systems require a backend database, but a few are file based. In the latter case, make sure it scales well. If someone tells you that a file based system is better than a database, think twice.
For Windows based systems, database selection may be limited to only Access and SQL Server. On the other hand, some free systems may lock you into just one database, notably MySQL. Only a very few bug tracking systems are really cross database systems.
Be aware of any bug tracking software that uses non-standard proprietary databases. They cannot be better than the public, commonly used database systems.

Language Support:

Many bug tracking systems do not support localization, particually, Asian langauges. Note that, it involves the web interface, the data, and the email notification.
If you do need localization, you should find a system that can do that easily.

Web Server:

For Windows based bug tracking systems, most likely it requires IIS as the web server.
For Java-based bug tracking systems, a Servlet or J2EE server is most likely required. There are many high quality servers you can download for free.

Programming Language:

Most of the bug tracking systems are written in either c/c++, or perl/php, or Java.
Depending on your IT environment and skill set, the programming language may be relevant in selecting your system. For example, if you are developing Java software, it may make sense to use a Java based bug tracking system.

Version Control Integration:

Some bug tracking systems have the capability of integrating with source control systems, such as CVS, Source Safe, etc.
Be aware of the limitations, and make sure it does the things you want.

Installation and Configuration:

A bug tracking system is not a desktop application and it rarely works out-of-the-box. It is not uncommon to spend a few hours to setup such a system, and then more time to customize it.
However, if you need only a lightweight bug tracking system, a heavy, complex, can-do-everything system is certainly a over kill and it may do more harm than good.

Maintenance and Support:

A bug tracking tool is not a super complex software system, but from time to time you may need technical support. As you certainly know, in most cases, the error messages from these systems are always cryptic, and you won't be able to solve the problem on your own.
How is the error handled in a tool is far more important than you might think. You as the administrator may want select a tool that you feel comfortable to work with.
When support is needed, it is always urgent to you, but not necessary to the vendor. Before you purchase the software, you should ask what is the response time for support.

Features:

Simple is the key here. The system must be simple that people like to use it, but not so complex that people avoid to use it. You might not want to deploy a tool that requires serious end user training. It is really not the initial training, rather the on-going support needed from your end users that you should be concerned with.
Yet it should be flexible and configurable enough to satisfy your business needs. If you select a tool that cannot do whatever you intend it to do, then what is the use of it?

Cost of Ownship:

The initial cost of a bug tracking system varies from free to tens of thousands of dollars. But be aware that this is not the same as the total cost of the ownership. Some free systems charge a hefty consulting fee for support and you may end up paying much more than you planned.
You should select a bug tracking system based on your needs, not just the price. If you know what you are doing and do not need commercial support, go for a free one if it meets your requirement.
However, if you unfortunately selected a bad one, you better get out of it as soon as possible, because the longer you keep it, the more moeny and time you will have to spend on it.

In any case, spending many days to setup a free system or even weeks or months to create an in-house system makes no business and economic sense, because if you consider the time spent, you are actually paying much more than just buying one.

Unit Testing with Mock Objects

2006-07-21T15:36:00.000+06:00

Unit testing is a fundamental practice in Extreme Programming, but most non-trivial code is difficult to test in isolation. It is hard to avoid writing test suites that are complex, incomplete, and difficult to maintain and interpret. Using Mock Objects for unit testing improves both domain code and test suites. They allow unit tests to be written for everything, simplify test structure, and avoid polluting domain code with testing infrastructure.

You need to make sure that you test one feature at a time, and you want to be notified as soon as any problem occurs. Normal unit testing is hard because you are trying to test the code from outside.

There is a technique called Mock Objects in which we replace domain code with dummy
implementations that emulate real code. These Mock Objects are passed to the target domain code which they test from inside, also termed as Endo-Testing. This practice is similar to writing code stubs with two interesting differences: we test at a finer level of granularity than is usual, and we use our tests and stubs to drive the development of our production code.

Developing unit tests with Mock Objects leads to stronger tests and to better structure of both domain and test code. Unit tests written with Mock Objects have a regular format that gives the development team a common vocabulary. We believe that code should be written to make it easy to test, and have found that Mock Objects is a good technique to achieve this.

An essential aspect of unit testing is to test one feature at time; you need to know exactly what you are testing and where any problems are. Test code should communicate its intent as simply and clearly as possible. This can be difficult if a test has to set up domain state or the domain code causes side effects. Worse, the domain code might not even expose the features to allow you to set the state necessary for a test.

A Mock Object is a substitute implementation to emulate or instrument other domain code. It should be simpler than the real code, not duplicate its implementation, and allow you to set up private state to aid in testing. The emphasis in mock implementations is on absolute simplicity, rather than completeness. For example, a mock collection class might always return the same results from an index method, regardless of the actual parameters.

Mock Objects are not just stubs

As a technique, Mock Objects is very close to Server Stubs. The main concerns about using Server Stubs are: that stubs can be too hard to write, that the cost of developing and maintaining stubs can be too high, that dependencies between stubs can be cyclic, and that switching between stub and production code can be risky.

Why use Mock Objects?

An important aspect of Extreme Programming is not to commit to infrastructure before you have to. For example, we might wish to write functionality without committing to a particular database. Until a choice is made, we can write a mock class that provides the minimum behaviour that we would expect from our database. This means that we can continue writing the tests for our application code without waiting for a working database. The mock code also gives us an initial definition of the functionality we will require from the database.

Unit tests, as distinct from functional tests, should exercise a single piece of functionality. A unit test that depends on complex system state can be difficult to set up, especially as the rest of the system develops. Mock Objects avoid such problems by providing a lightweight emulation of the required system state. Furthermore, the setup of complex state is localised to one Mock Object instead of scattered throughout many unit tests.

Some unit tests need to test conditions that are very difficult to reproduce. For example, to test server failures we can write a Mock Object that implements the local proxy for the server.

Domain objects often fail some time after an error occurs, which is one reason that debugging can be so difficult. With tests that query the state of a domain object, all the assertions are made together after the domain code has executed. This makes it difficult to isolate the exact point at which a failure occurred. One of the authors experienced such problems during the development of a financial pricing library. The unit tests compared sets of results after each calculation had finished. Each failure required considerable tracing to isolate its cause, and it was difficult to test for intermediate values without breaking encapsulation.

Limitations of Mock Objects

As with any unit testing, there is always a risk that a Mock Object might contain errors, for example returning values in degrees rather than radians. Similarly, unit testing will not catch failures that arise from interactions between components. For example, the individual calculations for a complex mathematical formula might be within valid tolerances, and so pass their unit tests, but the cumulative errors might be unacceptable. This is why functional tests are still necessary, even with good unit tests. Extreme Programming reduces, but does not eliminate, such risks with practices such as Pair Programming and Continuous Integration.

Mock Objects reduce this risk further by the simplicity of their implementations.
In some cases it can be hard to create Mock Objects to represent types in a complex external library. The most difficult aspect is usually the discovery of values and structures for parameters that are passed into the domain code. In an event-based system, the object that represents an event might be the root of a graph of objects, all of which need mocking up for the domain code to work. This process can be costly and sometimes must be weighed against the benefit of having the unit tests. However, when only a small part of a library needs to be stubbed out, Mock Objects is a useful technique for doing so.
One important point that we have learned from trying to retrofit Mock Objects is that, in
statically typed languages, libraries must define their APIs in terms of interfaces rather than classes so that clients of the library can use such techniques.

Checklist for Test Preparation

2006-06-17T11:57:00.000+06:00

Listed below are questions/suggestions for systematically planning and preparing software testing.

Have you planned for an overall testing schedule and the personnel required, and associated training requirements?

Have the test team members been given assignments?

Have you established test plans and test procedures for

module testing,

integration testing,

system testing, and

acceptance testing?

Have you designed at least one black-box test case for each system function?

Have you designed test cases for verifying quality objectives/factors (e.g. reliability, maintainability, etc.)?

Have you designed test cases for verifying resource objectives?

Have you defined test cases for performance tests, boundary tests, and usability tests?

Have you designed test cases for stress tests (intentional attempts to break system)?

Have you designed test cases with special input values (e.g. empty files)?

Have you designed test cases with default input values?

Have you described how traceability of testing to requirements is to be demonstrated (e.g. references to the specified functions and requirements)?

Do all test cases agree with the specification of the function or requirement to be tested?

Have you sufficiently considered error cases? Have you designed test cases for invalid and unexpected input conditions as well as valid conditions?

Have you defined test cases for white-box-testing (structural tests)?

Have you stated the level of coverage to be achieved by structural tests?

Have you unambiguously provided test input data and expected test results or expected messages for each test case?

Have you documented the purpose of and the capability demonstrated by each test case?

Is it possible to meet and to measure all test objectives defined (e.g. test coverage)?

Have you defined the test environment and tools needed for executing the software test?

Have you described the hardware configuration an resources needed to implement the designed test cases?

Have you described the software configuration needed to implement the designed test cases?

Have you described the way in which tests are to be recorded?

Have you defined criteria for evaluating the test results?

Have you determined the criteria on which the completion of the test will be judged?

Have you considered requirements for regression testing?

Task-Based Software Testing

2006-05-31T17:00:00.000+06:00

Introduction

There is a plethora of software testing techniques available to a development team. A survey by Zhu, identified over 200 unit testing techniques. However, for the services’ operational test agencies, there has been a continuing, unanswered question of how to test software’s impact on a system’s mission effectiveness. I propose a task-based approach as part of an integrated test strategy in an effort to answer this long-standing question.

Why Test?

From a speech by Lloyd K. Mosemann II, at the time the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Air Force (Communications, Computers, and Support Systems), a customer’s concerns are:

They want systems that are on-time, within budget, that satisfy user requirements, and are reliable.

A report from the National Research Council refines the latter two concerns in his statement by presenting two broad objectives for operational testing:

to help certify, through significance testing, that a system’s performance satisfies its requirements as specified in the ORD and related documents, and
to identify any serious deficiencies in the system design that need correction before full rate production

Following the path from the system level to software, these two reasons are consistent with the two primary reasons for testing software or software intensive systems. Stated generically, these are:

test for defects so they can be fixed, and
test for confidence in the software

The literature often refers to these as “debug” and “operational” testing, respectively. Debug testing is usually conducted using a combination of functional test techniques and structural test techniques. The goal is to locate defects in the most cost-effective manner and correct the defects, ensuring the performance satisfies the user requirements. Operational testing is based on the expected usage profile for a system. The goal is to estimate the confidence in a system, ensuring the system is reliable for its intended use.

Task-Based Testing

Task-based testing, as I define it here, is a variation on operational testing. It uses current DoD doctrine and policy to build a framework for designing tests. The particular techniques are not new, rather it leverages commonly accepted techniques by placing them within the context of current DoD operational and acquisition strategies.

Task Analysis

Task-based testing, as the name implies, uses task analysis. Within the DoD, this begins with the Uniform Joint Task List and, in the case of the Air Force, is closely aligned with the Air Force Task List (AFTL). The AFTL “...provides a comprehensive framework for all of the tasks that the Air Force performs.” Through a series of hierarchical task analyses, each unit within the service creates a Mission Essential Task List (METL). The Mission Essential Tasks (METs) are “...only those tasks that represent the indispensable tasks to that particular organization.”

METLs, however, only describe “what” needs to be done, not “how” or “who.” Further task decomposition identifies the system(s) and people required to carry out a mission essential task. Another level of decomposition results in the system tasks (i.e. functions) a system must provide. This is, naturally, the level in which developers and testers are most interested. From a tester’s perspective, this framework identifies the most important functions to test by correlating functions against the mission essential tasks a system is designed to support.

This is distinctly different from the typical functional testing or “test-to-spec” approach where each function or specification carries equal importance. Ideally, there should be no function or specification which does not contribute to a task, but in reality there are often requirements, specifications, and capabilities which do not or minimally support a mission essential task. Using task analysis, one identifies those functions impacting the successful completion of mission essential tasks and highlights them for testing.

Operational Profiles

The above process alone has great benefit in identifying what functions are the most important to test. However, the task analysis above only identifies the mission essential tasks and functions, not their frequency of use. Greater utility can be gained by combining the mission essential tasks with an operational profile an estimate of the relative frequency of inputs that represent field use. This has several benefits:

“...offers a basis for reliability assessment, so that the developer can have not only the assurance of having tried to improve the software, but also has an estimate of the reliability actually achieved.”
“...provides a common base for communicating with the developers about the intended use of the system and how it will be evaluated.”
“When testing schedules and budgets are tightly constrained, this design yields the highest practical reliability because if failures are seen they would be the high frequency failures.”

The first benefit has the advantage of applying statistical techniques, both in the design of tests and in the analysis of resulting data. Software reliability estimation methods such as those are available to estimate both the expected field reliability and the rate of growth in reliability. This directly supports an answer to the long-standing question about software’s mpact on a system’s mission effectiveness as well as answering Mr. Mosemann II’s fourth concern a customer has (is it reliable).

Operational profiles are criticized as being difficult to develop. However, as part of its current operations and acquisition strategy, the DoD inherently develops an operational profile. At higher levels, this is reflected in such documents as the Analysis of Alternatives (AOA), the Operational Requirements Document (ORD), Operations Plans, Concept of Operations (CONOPS), etc. Closer to the tester’s realm is the interaction between the user and the developer which the current acquisition strategy encourages. The tester can act as a facilitator in helping the user refine his or her needs while providing insight to the developer on expected use. This highlights the second benefit above the communication between the user, developer, and tester.

The third benefit is certainly of interest in today’s environment of shrinking budgets and manpower, shorter schedules (spiral acquisition), and greater demands on a system. Despite years of improvement in the software development process, one still sees systems which have gone through intensive debug testing (statement coverage, branch coverage, etc.) and “test-to-spec,” but still fail to satisfy the customer’s concerns as stated by Mr. Mosemann II. By involving a customer early in the process to develop an operational profile, the most needed functions to support a task will be developed and tested first, increasing the likelihood of satisfying the customer’s four concerns.

Task-Based Software Testing

Task-based software testing, as defined herein, is the combination of a task analysis and an operational profile. The task analysis helps partition the input domain into mission essential tasks and the system functions which support them. Operational profiles, based on these tasks, are developed to further focus the testing effort.

Integrated Testing

Operational testing is not without its weaknesses. As a rather obvious example of this, one can raise the question, “What about a critical feature that is seldom executed?” Operational testing, or task-based testing as defined herein, does not address such questions well. Debug testing, with the explicit goal of locating defects in a cost-effective manner, is more suited to this.

Debug Testing

Debug testing is “...directed at finding as many bugs as possible, by either sampling all situations likely to produce failures (e.g., methods informed by code coverage or specification criteria), or concentrating on those that are considered most likely to produce failures (e.g., stress testing or boundary testing methods).” survey of unit testing methods are examples of debug testing methods. These include such techniques as statement testing, branch testing, basis path testing, etc. Typically associated with these methods are some criteria based on coverage, thus they are sometimes referred to as coverage methods. Debug testing is based on a tester’s hypothesis of the likely types and locations of bugs. Consequently, the effectiveness of this method depends heavily on whether the tester’s assumptions are correct.

If a developer and/or tester has a process in place to correctly identify the potential types and locations of bugs, then debug testing may be very effective at finding bugs. If a “standard” or “blind” approach is used, such as statement testing for its own sake, the testing effort may be ineffectual and wasted. A subtle hazard of debug testing is that it may uncover many failures, but in the process wastes test and repair effort without notably improving the software because the failures occur at a negligible rate during field use.

Integration of Test Methods

Historically, a system’s developer relied on debug testing (which includes functional or “test-to-spec” testing). Testing with the perspective of how the system would by employed was not seen until an operational test agency (OTA) became involved. Even on the occasions when developmental test took on an operational flavor, this is viewed as too late in the process. This historical approach to testing amplifies the weaknesses of both operational and debug testing. I propose that task-based software testing be accelerated to a much earlier point in the acquisition process. This has the potential of countering each respective method’s weaknesses with the other’s strengths. This view is supported by the current philosophy in the test community, to develop a combined test force spanning contractor, developmental, and operational test (CT/DT/OT).

Summary

Task-based software evaluation is a combination of demonstrated, existing methods (task analysis and operational testing). Its strength lies in matching well with the DoD’s current operational strategy of mission essential tasks and the acquisition community’s goal to deliver operational capability quickly. By integrating task-based software testing with existing debug testing, the risk of meeting the customer’s four concerns (on-time, within budget, satisfies requirements, and is reliable) can be reduced.