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Lessons Learned from “How I Fixed” Posts!
2009-09-16 19:27:00
Yesterday during an online conversation, one of my blog readers expressed her concern: “Debasis, recently I have seen you posting 2 “How I Fixed” posts in quick succession. I wonder why you are deviating from your mission, considering “Software Testing Zone” is primarily a testing related blog”! I replied back quickly: “Well, why not? And no, I don’t think that I’m deviating from my mission to grow STZ as a testing-centered blog”!If you are a regular reader of “Software testing Zone” and also wondering the same [why I have started writing these “How I Fixed” posts (first “IE 7 Operation Aborted Error” and now “MyWebSearch Spyware Removal”)], here is why… I believe that technical investigation is one of the major responsibilities that we are often required to perform as testers. Personally, I love this aspect of testing more than anything else and I take pride in describing my role as a tester to be a “technical investigator” who helps the pr...
More About: Posts , Lessons , Learned

Confusing LinkedIn Status Update Screen when the Session is timed-out! Is t
2009-09-14 14:38:00
As if the number of post categories on Software Testing Zone were few, I am introducing yet another series of posts, which I have decided to call as “Is this a Bug?” In this series I am going to post a number of software anomalies that look suspicious and buggy to me. This series will be a kind of repository where I am going to dump all the suspected software defects and bugs that I encounter in my day to day life. When I post them under this category it essentially means that these are the kind of software failures that are ambiguous and one can’t be very sure if something indeed is a software failure or it is just the way it was designed to work! I would leave the final decision (whether this is a Bug or not) up to my readers and will just post here my observations. I think this is going to be fun. So here goes the first post of the “Is this a Bug?” series:1. Login to your LinkedIn A/C (yes, you need a LinkedIn profile to be able to verify this).2. Update your ...
More About: Screen , Status

How I Fixed my Hijacked Firefox from MyWebSearch Spyware!
2009-08-26 20:31:00
3 days back I was browsing a popular website and I spotted “Zwinky” (which is supposed to turn a photograph into a 3D image)! It did look harmless and hence I installed it willing to give it a try. If you read me regularly, then you might probably know that I prefer Firefox over any other browser. I had used Firefox while downloading and installing “Zwinky”. But my excitement was short-lived when I spotted a new web search tool bar (MyWebSearch) that was added to my Firefox toolbar without my permission during the installation. I uninstalled this toolbar and thought it was the end of it; but soon I was going to be proved wrong! Sometimes later, while trying to lookup something in Google, I directly typed the search query into the Firefox location/address bar. Usually, it should have displayed Google search results or a direct website based on Google’s "I'm feeling Lucky" algorithm. But this time, I got this instead: It was super-annoying because I couldn’t search ...
More About: Spyware , Fixed

Interviewing a Testing Expert - Phil Kirkham
2009-08-01 19:16:00
I am back again with yet another interesting Interview with a Testing Expert ; this time with Phil Kirkham (from UK) who is a Programmer turned Tester turned Test Consultant at Acutest. He writes about testing on his blog at Expected Results! He is a Moderator of Software Testing Club and Testing Reflections as well. I felt it would be exciting to interview him and when I approached him he was kind enough to honor my interest in taking his interview. Here is what Phil has to say: Debasis: What led you to become a software tester? And what was the topmost reason that attracted you to the field of testing?Phil: I was working as a programmer but the s/w we were sending out was of really poor quality and the customers were getting more and more irate. My boss knew I had a knack for breaking things and debugging so asked if I would help out with the testing effort. At the same time I was also thinking about a career change after 20 years of programming, I'd got a few career change bo...

How I Fixed "IE 7 cannot open the Internet site - Operation aborted" error!
2009-06-18 10:25:00
It all started from a reader’s email this morning. Duane Cantera reported: “When I try to open this web page I get an error message in internet explorer and the operation aborts.”Emails like these are strange. They can send a blog owner into panic mode much quicker than an earthquake warning can possibly do; I was no exception. Before I knew, I had already opened Internet Explorer 7 and was opening the URL. The page started loading, as my eyes remained glued to the monitor screen and for a moment my heart raced like a speeding bullet. And boom! IE 7 crashed with “Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site. Operation aborted.” message [here is a screenshot]. Clicking the OK button displayed "The page cannot be displayed" instead, thus restricting anybody from opening the blog URL! This was really shocking as well as unexpected for me. Shocking, because my blog was crashing in Internet Explorer [around 35-45% of my visitors use IE, mind it]. And unexpected, because I ha...
More About: Open , Site , The Internet , Error

Interviewing a Testing Expert - Karen Johnson
2009-05-26 18:24:00
I understand that it has been a while since I have posted anything new on “Software Testing Zone”. This was partly because of the hectic schedule through which life has been going through recently for me. Anyway, I think I have settled down for now and hence I took liberty to come back with yet another interesting Interview with a Testing Expert ; this time with Karen Johnson from karennjohnson.com. Karen is an independent software test consultant. She views software testing as an intellectual challenge and believes in the context-driven school of testing. She has over 17 years' of experience in software testing and software test management. She is a frequent speaker at software testing conferences and is an active participant in several software testing workshops. She's published articles in software testing publications as well. I must thank Karen for honoring my interest in taking her interview. Here is what Karen has to say:Debasis: What led you to become a software tester?...

Software Testing Diplomacy: A Tester’s Guide on How to Deal with Programm
2009-04-15 12:10:00
When I started my career as a software tester, it hardly took me any time to witness the ongoing rivalry between the programmers and the testers. When you are young in your software testing career and join a new work place, things are much like a prison. You notice people are divided into groups and you are pulled into a group even before you realize what is going on! This is probably so common in software development teams that people take it for granted! To make matters worse I have even seen some managers who encourage such practice of antagonism! Unfortunately, they believe that such enmity between the programmers and testers can help them squeeze out more value out of the team. But ironically, I am yet to experience a case where this was true!After spending all these years in software testing field, I have heard lot of stories involving such friction between the testing and development team. I am not sure what started this enmity and how all this began. But under such circumsta...
More About: Software , Testing , Guide , Deal , Diplomacy

Interviewing a Testing Expert - Jonathan Kohl from Kohl Concepts [Part-2]
2009-03-23 10:44:00
Friends, I am back with the final part of the interview with Jonathan Kohl, co founder of Kohl Concepts and a world-renowned expert in Software Testing . In case, you missed out the first part, I would strongly suggest you to read it first before proceeding to read this one. So here we go:Debasis: Tell me of any situation when you had wished you were NOT a tester! Jonathan: Testing can be political. The wishes of the technical staff and executives sometimes don't map to the reality of what they are delivering. That means you can be the least popular person on the team, and it can be discouraging in the moment. When you challenge someone's personal faith or political views, they get upset. If you challenge their favorite technology or methodology, they behave similarly. Confronting that requires a lot of courage, integrity, ethics and a thick skin. They respect you for it in the long run, but it’s tough to take in the short run. I've learned over the years that if I am tempted no...
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Interviewing a Testing Expert - Jonathan Kohl from Kohl Concepts [Part-1]
2009-03-17 10:20:00
I am back with the second installment of the “Interviewing a Testing Expert ” series. This time I am going to present an interview with Jonathan Kohl, co-founder of Kohl Concepts , who was kind enough to spare me some time for this interview. Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Jonathan is a software testing consultant, author, and speaker in the software industry. Jonathan writes about and speaks on software testing. He draws on technical, philosophical and business concepts in his work. Jonathan's pragmatic approach focuses on getting down to the nuts and bolts of problem solving, encouraging organization-wide collaboration. Since this interview grew bit lengthier, for the sake of easy readability I have decided to present it in 2 parts. So, here is what Jonathan has to say:Debasis: What led you to become a software tester? And what was the topmost reason that attracted you to the field of testing?Jonathan: I started in testing when a small software company offered me an intern ...
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Software Testing Interviews in India - Importance of definitions for a Test
2009-02-26 13:44:00
Last Sunday I was having a conversation with Ajit, a tester friend who works for a reputed Software MNC. He has been in testing field for more than 4 years now with experience in some cool domains. He is in his current organization since 2 years and now, much to his discomfort his company has started sacking employees citing the goddamn recession as an excuse. So obviously Ajit feels a sense of job insecurity despite his good performance in the organization all these years. People with such experience will tell you, it is never easy to concentrate on your job when you are insecure about it and always in fear of a pink slip landing on your desk bringing the news of misfortune. And it would not be long before you would find yourself searching for a new job (even though that would not mean any better sense of job security). May be, it is human nature to change nest when they feel a storm might be on it’s way. Obviously, it is no secret that Ajit has also started job hunting and has s...
More About: India , Interviews , Testing , Definitions

How to test on a tight testing schedule?
2009-02-06 15:43:00
If you have spent some time in the field of testing, then you must have faced situations where you were asked by your test manager to test the application on the fly and deliver your report in XYZ days [replace XYZ with as few days as you can]! In case, you have not faced such a situation yet, then either you are unbelievably lucky or with all due respect, you have not worked on sufficient projects. But either way, it won’t be long before you encounter such a situation in your career as a software test engineer.Contrary to popular belief/myth, proper skilled testing requires lot of planning, effort and work, and hence a substantial amount of time. But unfortunately, when projects get delayed, the time planned for testing invariably gets the hit while squeezing the schedule. What? The development team is running 2 months behind the schedule? No problem. Time for the magic trick! Squeeze the testing schedule by 2 months and presto! Congratulations, we have got ourselves back on the ...
More About: Schedule , Testing , Test

New Year Gift for Software Testing Zone Readers/Subscribers!
2009-01-22 11:35:00
I do realize that I am yet to write something new on STZ (Software Testing Zone) in the Year 2009. Just when I was trying to come up with something new and exciting for my readers and my loyal subscribers, Flavius Saracut, the Marketing Manager of backup software Titan Backup, contacted me with a fascinating offer for Software Testing Zone readers. He offered the readers and subscribers with the full version of Titan Backup 1.5 for FREE! I felt it would be a great idea to present my readers with this small yet powerful utility software as a symbol of my gratefulness. And you know what? You don’t even have to be a subscriber of this blog [though I would appreciate it so much] to grab this gift!Here is my New Year Gift to all my dear Readers and Subscribers:Titan Backup is a Complete Data Backup Solution. Its a paid software and costs $39.95 for a single license. But now you can get a FULL license of Titan Backup 1.5 version absolutely FREE here on Software Testing Zone. Yes, you he...

Best of STZ (Software Testing Zone) in year 2008!
2008-12-29 10:08:00
As the end of year 2008 draws near, I have decided to bid it goodbye with a compilation of 10 top posts on STZ (Software Testing Zone ) in last 12 months (according to me and reader's feedback and comment). If you are new at STZ, then you will find this post a good place to quickly scan this blog. If you are a regular reader, then probably this post may help you to read some posts that you may have missed earlier. So here are the top 10 best posts on STZ in the year 2008:1. Software Testing and Cricket - an Analogy! Howzat! - This post tries to analyze and come up with 10 similarities between Software Testing and the sports Cricket! If you are an avid cricket fan then this is a must read for you. If you are not, then also I guess it would be equally fascinating for any tester. I am aware of at least 2 of my blog readers who had chosen this post as their presentation topic and were highly appreciated by their audience. Whether you are a Cricket fan or not, I believe this is going to ...
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Criticizing the Software that we Test!
2008-12-23 14:23:00
A couple of days back I was contacted by a reader (Sombit Chakraborty) with the following question:Hello Debasis, I am a regular viewer of your blog. In (and through) your blog I have got (and still gaining) immense knowledge about the field Software Test ing. Your work is highly appreciable. Coming to the point I want to ask you something. Do you think a Tester needs to have a critical approach to the work he/she does? i.e. critically judging the task/build at hand. By nature I am a self-proclaimed critic (few others agree). And my job as a tester is only making it more evident. Need your valuable inputs. I felt that this question was worth spending some time (brainstorming). Some readers have asked me this question few times before. So I decided to take Sombit’s question and try coming up with a blog post as my answer.Being critical while testing. Is it an absolute necessity?Among others, verification and validation are often considered as some of the responsibilities of a tester...

Top 10 reasons why there are Bugs/Defects in Software!
2008-12-15 10:05:00
Here is a question that has made many testers wonder on several occasions - “Why are there bugs/defects in the software? Why/How do errors creep into the software and make it buggy?” I realize the paradoxical nature of this question. i.e. If there won’t be any errors in software then there won’t be any need of testing. But again, as long as software development exists as a field of business, there would be errors in them. To me, if something is *bug free* it translates as: it is either too trivial or non-existent! The increasing complexity of software would make sure that there are defects in them. But the question remains: what are those factors that cause defects in software? Well, here are 10 reasons (not in any particular order) why I think bugs creep into the software that we develop/test:1. Human factor: It is because human beings develop software. It is often said that “to err is human, to forgive divine”. Human beings are not perfect. They are prone to make mista...
More About: Software , Bugs , Reasons

Interviewing a Testing Expert - Alan Page from Microsoft!
2008-12-02 09:25:00
As per my long time plan finally I am starting a series of "Interviewing a Testing Expert " posts on my blog. In this series I would be interviewing some renowned software testers from around the globe. In this inauguratory post of this series I am going to present an interview with Alan Page from Microsoft , who was kind enough to honor me with this opportunity to interview him.Alan Page is one of Microsoft's first Test Architects and currently chairs the test group in Microsoft's Engineering Excellence team. Among other things, Alan teaches testers how to be better testers, and he has designed and teaches courses for Microsoft's most senior testers and test managers. Beyond teaching, Alan creates and updates technical courses, working with test teams across Microsoft to help them reach their goals, and writes on his blog and elsewhere. He has been a tester for over 15 years, and has been at Microsoft since 1995. Here is what Alan has to say:Debasis: What led you to become a softw...

Problem with Blogger’s Embedded Comment Form! A Regression Bug?
2008-11-04 12:05:00
If you have noticed recently, for past few weeks I am using Blogger’s Embedded Comment form in place of the pop-up version. This is done via combination of Blogger Draft's new experimental feature and a simple hack to embed the form beneath every post. This new embedded comment form had been working nicely till now and as I checked an hour back, to my horror I noticed that the "Comment as:" drop down is empty and does not show any options to choose from. At first look I thought it was due to some accidental change in my own template during recent code refactoring. But when I checked around the blogosphere I came to notice that other blogs using this feature are also showing this problem. Moreover even the Blogger in Draft itself shows the same problem! Though it comes as a relief to know that this bug is not something in my blog alone, still it is a terrifying scenario for any blogger like me who likes to see readers leaving comment on their blog post. Hope the Blogger team has ...
More About: Problem , Form , Regression

Can test automation tools replace the human testers?
2008-10-22 14:00:00
Vincent: “I keep hearing a lot about test automation tools. In one of those SQA Forums I heard of companies firing their entire manual testing team citing the reason as a shift to automation. That makes me uncomfortable as I am still working mostly in manual areas of testing. Are manual testers going to be obsolete in near future due to test automation?”Jolly: “I have been working as a test engineer for past 2 years and now I want to move into test automation to avoid being singled out due to lack of tool knowlege. I find lot of tools in the market like QTP, Rational Robot, Silk Test , LoadRunner, JMeter etc. I am confused where to start. Can you help?” As you must have already figured out, these are couple of FAQs from my mailbox. But before I can start writing anything on this delicate topic, let me start with asking myself few related questions aloud:1. Can automation tools ever *replace* human testers?2. Can testing tools catch defects/bugs *automatically*?3. Can tools ev...
More About: Tools , Human

Does software testing add value to the project?
2008-10-09 13:59:00
Last weekend I was invited to give a presentation on TDD (Test Driven Development) to a bunch of techies who largely constituted programmers, a couple of IT managers and some testers. At first I had wished if the audience had a major population of software testers, but as the presentation progressed I began to realize that probably I was wrong in my wish! Want to know what made me think otherwise? Read on…But before I can start writing this post, let me tell you that this post is basically for software programmers who think: 1. Software Testing does not do any good to the project!2. What is the point in spending project resources on testing activity if doing so can not guarantee a “100% Bug-Free Pakka Product” [please don’t ask me for the meaning of that paraphrase. I am simply quoting a programmer from my recent presentation]3. Software Testers are a bunch of crazy people who find it amusing to find defects in the code.4. Testing is a dumb job. What’s the big fuss? Anybod...
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Can your kid beat you in testing?
2008-09-04 16:40:00
Recently I was conversing with Chris (he is a tester friend from Poland) on Skype and he told me about his recent post on kids (his son) as the best testers. I must confess that was how I got the idea for this post. Thanks Chris for giving me a topic to write something on. Although I have read before on quite a few occasions on similar topics (using kids as software testers) this time I decided to try and brainstorm on this and see what comes out!Coming back to Chris’s story, I am not sure if I would want to call children as the “best” testers in the world. As a Context-Driven thinker/tester myself, I am little shy of the word "best"! To me, the definition of best can vary depending on the given context. What looks and works out as best for me under one particular context MIGHT or MIGHT NOT work as the best for someone else in a different context! So calling children as the “best” testers in the world is something that I feel would be little too dangerous to declare. Howev...
More About: Testing , Beat

Priority Report!
2008-08-28 06:29:00
Dolly: The more I read on the net about Bug Severity and Bug Priority the more I am getting confused. Everyone out there seems to have his own way of describing it and it leaves me even more confused. Can you help?Victor: Why do we have two fields in a defect tracker to fill in - Severity and Priority? Are not they all the same? I have noticed that when a defect is of high severity usually it is also assigned with a top priority and vice versa. If they mean the same, why do we have 2 different names and 2 different fields in the defect tracker? Why do we need these two different parameters (severity and priority) for a defect? Can't we do only with one?Krishna Prasad: I want to know about Priority and Severity of software bugs. Please clarify my doubt with one example of each for the following:1. Low Severity and Low Priority2. Low Severity and High Priority3. High Severity and High Priority4. High Severity and Low PriorityOnce again I am back with few FAQs from my mailbox. And thi...
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Repeatability of Tests - A necessary Evil!
2008-08-21 16:52:00
“If you cannot repeat what you are testing then you are NOT testing properly! Think of regression testing. What will happen if your regression tests are exploratory by nature and are non-repeatable”? A tester friend of mine argued strongly, trying to give himself ground to continue his fight against my advocacy for exploratory testing!This made me cogitate. Not that he had succeeded in proving that Exploratory Testing (ET) sucks! But I had to start thinking if repeatability (read reusability) of a test is really all that bad! I guess “repeatable test” VS “non-repeatable test” argument is just another face of the “Scripted testing” VS “Exploratory testing” debate. Here in this post, I am not going to continue the same debate trying to prove which one is better and which one is not. Rather I would like to think more on the repeatability aspect of a test!Some questions to start with can be:1) Can ALL the tests be made repeatable?2) Should ALL the tests be made repea...
More About: Evil , Tests

What to test? Pareto analysis, High-risk areas, User feedbacks…
2008-06-04 13:15:00
Recently during a team discussion with my Manager, he came up with a question – “What is the best use of our testing resources? How should time be allocated? Which areas should we test more often?” Luckily for me, he clearly understands that it is not possible to test everything (let me tell you, not many managers understand this simple fact). He also knows how from an economic stand point, it does not make sense to spend lots of time testing areas of the application where the chances of having defects/bugs are low, or even if defects/bugs are there the impact of those defects would be low as far as the end users are concerned. So he was curious to explore the kind of strategy we should follow while deciding a roadmap to test our upcoming yearly Corporate Release. This might sound like a simple question, but in real environment one can imagine how complex it can get to formulate a testing strategy to test a release.Well, testing is not all about hitting the keyboard and clicki...
More About: Analysis , User , Risk , High , Test

Programming Skills and Testers!
2008-04-04 05:47:00
Am I a Tester or a Programmer? Who am I?Abhijit Navindgikar: “I am having one question regarding software testing. Currently I am working as a software tester. I am having 3 years of experience in manual testing and having the basic knowledge of C/C++. Is it necessary for me to learn new technologies like C# .NET for future prospects in testing? Is it necessary for the tester to have the programming skills also? (Till know I didn’t feel that tester need to know the programming but let me know your views). Also will it be possible for a black box tester to shift his career to white box testing? If yes what steps need to follow to start the same?”Lakshmi: “Recently I was browsing some of the testing sites and came to know that "No knowledge on programming language is a hindrance to a tester’s career". Is that correct? Really, programming language knowledge is that much necessary for a tester? I am not able to digest this. Please help me.”John: “My test manager feels that...
More About: Programming , Skills

Confusing Terminologies in Software Testing - A Case Study!
2008-02-20 16:05:00
Couple of days before, I received an email from a blog reader (Lakshmi NSMV) asking me the following query:What is Build Verification Test (BVT)? What are the things that are taken into consideration while performing BVT? Is it the tester’s responsibility to perform BVT? At first glance, it did look like yet another testing question that is often asked in software testing interviews (as if there is no other better question to judge the skill sets and competency level of the candidate)! If you have attended quite a few number of interviews for the post of a software tester, then chances are high that you might have already come across such buzzwords like BVT, Smoke Testing , Sanity Testing, Build Acceptance Testing and so on.Well, I could have given a pretty straightforward reply to Lakhsmi’s question via email describing my understanding of Build Verification Test (BVT), how I define it and how I approach it. But I doubted if that could have helped her in any way. After all that ...
More About: Software , Study , Case

Software Defects Vs. Software Quality!
2008-01-14 15:39:00
“If the software product has some defects, can it still be called a quality product?” This is a question I was asked during a recent conversation with one of my blog readers (who is also a software tester). It appeared that the tester friend was asked this question in some testing interview and the interviewer had expected a simple YES/NO type answer! Unfortunately the tester, who was unsure
More About: Software , Quality

Software Testing and Cricket - an Analogy! Howzat!
2008-01-04 15:48:00
Yesterday I was reading this news (4 obvious errors show inadequate concentration), when the idea of this post struck my mind. To be honest, the mention of the words “errors” and “concentration” in the news headline caught my attention and when I finished reading the news item, I realized that it was not related with any software errors as I had anticipated before starting reading it. However, on
More About: Cricket , Software , Testing

Security Testers! Are you ready for the Top 10 Security Threats for 2008?
2007-12-28 13:57:00
Security Testers, Security Analysts, Penetration Testers, Vulnerability Assessors pay attention! Security Company McAfee has released a list of top 10 predicted security threats for year 2008 . If you are a tester who gives importance to the security aspect of the product you are testing and who likes to do a security analysis based on the potential risks associated with the components of the AUT
More About: Security , Threats , Ready

Regression Testing Revisited - Thanks to this Interesting Question!
2007-12-21 14:50:00
“I am a regular reader of your blog and I find it very very useful. My name is Pankaj Shinde and I am working as a Software Tester in a well-known company. I have a doubt regarding Regression Testing . Generally we say that Regression Testing means to test whether any added functionality is affecting other functionalities or not. When functionality is added we write separate test cases for that
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10 Tips to Avoid Writing a Bad Software Defect Report!
2007-12-14 06:25:00
“Software ” and “defects” are like two sides of a coin. If you start developing software, chances are very high that you will (although unintentionally) end up leaving some defects in it. Defects in software are almost unavoidable. Software defects are like Christmas Combo offers where you get something for free with the purchase of some Product! In case of a Christmas Bonanza offer you might
More About: Writing , Tips , Report , Avoid