What can you do at TesterTools?

1. You can find brief information about tools.

2. You could be introduced to the new tool which can be of help for you in your testing activity.

3. How about contributing to testertools? You can even do that.

4. You can talk and discuss with other people in the forum.

5. Are you a blog reader? (Yes, you’re. That’s why you are reading this article).  They have constant updates about the tools in their blog.

6. And lots more for you which is FREE.

It’s up to you if you want to utilize TesterTools or not.

Visit TesterTools now if you want to realize what were you missing all these days.

Thanks for your time reading this article. Have a nice time.

There are many other models which are discovered by people but at last what I think is all the models in some or the other way convey the same message but with the different style of approach or process. The other models include Spiral/Iterative Development, Rapid Application Development which is also known as RAD, Agile Development, Scrum Development, V-Mode, Modified V-Model, CCMI, Test Driven Development, TMM & much more. I am not thorough with these models other than knowing few points about these. Some of these models are outdated but I see that still people in interviews ask these questions (I don’t know why, maybe they want interviewees to remember the great people who introduced these models to people“.

In Photo Gallery you can find the “Waterfall Model” in pictorial representation.

This post was written to update my knowledge about these models as well as helping others to understand little about the process models.

Thanks for your time.

Using Dial-Up? No worries it’s a very light weight document.

MS-DOS Commands – Reference Guide Document By Santhosh Tuppad

How does it matter?

Flat file are always stored in plain text files.

Let me try to explain in simple words so that you can understand easily what am I trying to communicate.

For Example: I’m running a forum which is running on flat file database. Flat file database uses plain text files to store the username & password of all the members & administrator usernames in some format. There are no disadvantages which might affect the performance when I have hosted it on flat file database but besides performance there are many threats which might bring my forum down in a minute or more.

Consider that my usernamepassword.txt file has all the username and password of my forum members and administrator usernames. It is stored in /root/santhosh/forum/usernamepassword.txt. What if an attacker gets this path and get all the members list with their username and password. He/she can bring my whole forum down by getting the access of each member.

You might say “Finding the path is difficult, I agree” but attackers have a lot of patience to crack the password. They have a lot of techniques that you might not think of. Even Google is friend of an attacker. Google or any search engine might give them access to your database. I won’t reveal much information because there might be some readers who might misuse this article and do something that is not good. If you want more information on this you can e-mail me at santhosh@testersblog.com.

NOTE: Running your application on flat file database? No Worries there are preventive measures which can stop attacker from getting access to your flat file database. If you need tips on it then contact me so that I can help you in making your flat file database more secure.

Scenario 1,

When you were a child you used to play cricket, you used to always bunk classes and play cricket. Skipping your meal you used to play cricket, you were mad about playing cricket. But as time passed on your cricket activity started dwindling. You started playing cricket rarely. So, now do you say that “Cricket is your passion”? You got to answer yourself for this; I’m not going to give any answer.

Scenario 2,

You play Counter Strike Condition Zero now & you used to play it before several years. You have learnt many things in playing it and want to learn more. You always want to learn new strategies in killing your enemies in the game. You always like to teach others about strategies how they can use it in the game. You always want to play the game and learn as much as you can before you die. Starting from the first day & end of the last day you want to play the game. So, now do you say that “Playing Counter Strike is your passion”? Answer this too.

By considering above 2 scenarios you must now know what is passion and interest. According to me Interest is something that might exist today but not tomorrow & Passion is something that lives in your blood always until you die. If you have got any more interesting definitions or want to say something about these two terminologies then please let me/us know. Thanks for your time.

NOTE: Had a good time reading this post? How about someone reading your post in your blog? Start your blog now & guide the community in the right direction. Be Passionate about your profession & start blogging today.

Why most of the people don’t watch channels like, “National Geographic or Animal Planet”. There are fantastic programs that are broadcasted from which you can learn many things which you can apply in your profession. One such program is “Air Crash Investigation”. In my one of the posts I talked about “Investigational Skills for a tester is a must”. I don’t remember when the program starts on which day or what time but it’s not a big deal to find it from a daily newspaper. There are many other programs which are inspirational.

Example: You can watch movies like “The Troy”, “The Shawshank Redemption”, “Sherlock Holmes” & some investigation kind of movies.

I suggest you must at least watch “Air Crash Investigation” which is broadcasted on “National Geographic Channel”.

Finally, I completed my graduation. What did I realize after that? I wasted the precious time. That is 21 years X 365 days X 24 hours of time. What did I learn? I didn’t learn anything by going to schools or colleges. Schools/Colleges stopped me from thinking, the teachers just gave assignments & read from the text book (I wonder why my teachers asked us not to get text book to the class, maybe they don’t wanted the students to know that they just read from the text book and finish off the chapter).

Engineering days just passed away in fun. At the end of engineering everyone thinks they have become engineer which is absolutely a false statement. But I did not think I had become engineer. After 21 years of education I didn’t achieve anything in life but repented for wasting my 21 years without gaining any good knowledge.

21 years have passed away and it’s Past. My education actually started after I finished my engineering graduation. I’m learning in a faster way, when compared to the learning I had in my school/college, because I have freedom here for learning which I didn’t have in my school/college days. My time was wasted on donkey works like assignments, tests, mid-term exam, exam what more?

If the whole education is shut down and if an individual learns everything by himself/herself without anyone spoon feeding him and finally ruining their life for 21 years then he/she can become a successful person in life.

Educationists need to change their education style and should see how they can transform the youngsters to become successful and make their country proud.

Why teens can’t be developers or testers or scientists or any professionals at the earlier age? Is it mandatory for them to keep getting educated (I think educated is not appropriate word to be used here, currently I’m not knowing what word to use so I’m using educated word) till 21 years of age and then start struggling for a job even after 21 years of education? I see fresher’s who have completed their engineering and still wander here and there posting their resumes and getting interview calls and failing in the interview.

If I see the title of my article I feel so bad seeing the number of years I wasted. However schools/colleges have taught me “English Alphabets, Numbers, & few other things”. I thank them for educating me (There is something called as “sarcastic”, I hope you understand about my thanking statement).

Usability according to me varies on the context. When I test different products the meaning of Usability might change so the definition. Generally, usability is aesthetics, ease of use for the end-user, understandability, how fast can it be learned by an end-user, how comfortable can the user be with the product etcetera. I want to explain how important is “Usability testing” when a tester tests the product. Many products don’t have critical bugs with respect to functionality, security etcetera and the product works as it is supposed to. The end-user is happy with the working of a product without any critical problems that might affect his/her work severely. But sometimes despite of everything being proper but if the product is not designed in a proper way with respect to “Usability” then end-user might find difficulty in using the product. His/her half of the time might go waste on discovering how to use the product. If you consider a web application if it is not designed in a way that the customer can understand and learn the product as soon as possible then the customers might stop using it if there is any similar product in the market. By this the product owners are losing their business.

A tester should give equal priority to all the quality criteria’s of a product to be released successfully to the market without major/minor problems. An organization promises its customer/client to deliver the product without the major/minor problems and also promises that the customer base will be good for the product. If usability testing is not done rigorously then whole business might come down even if the other quality criteria’s are tested well enough.

How many times have we closed the browser window seeing the design of a web site? Numerous times right. Maybe the website we closed didn’t have any critical bugs and was very good when compared to the comparable product in the market but still it has lost its credibility because of a poor testing that was performed on “Usability” quality criteria for a product. It’s important for a tester to understand the importance of “Usability Testing”.

I’m listing few things which a tester might consider while doing “Usability Testing” however these points might change depending on the context,

1. A user shouldn’t feel difficulty in using the application.
2. A user should be comfortable with the look and feel of the product.
3. A user shouldn’t come across poor content or spelling/grammatical mistakes.
4. A user should be able to understand the application as soon as possible.
5. A user should learn the product and start using it with ease.
6. A help manual should be present to guide the user if there is any problem or if the user is using the product (haven’t used the similar product ever) then a help guide should contain information that will be helpful for a newbie.

Consider the following scenario & look out for the definition enclosed within the ()

Tester: I have reported a bug in the bug tracker. Can you please have look into it and fix it as soon as possible.

Developer: Sure. I will do it and change the status of the bug report when it is fixed.

Tester: Thank you.

Developer: Hey, I have fixed the bug.

Tester: That’s great!

(Now the tester will verify if the problem/bug he/she had reported has been fixed or not, this is known as re-testing).

(The tester after re-testing, checks if fixing that bug has given rise to any other problems/bugs in the product. This is known as Regression testing).

I hope the definition or concept is clear to you now. This post was published mainly for the newbie’s in Software Testing.

After my college, I have seen many people who have enrolled for different courses in different institutes and got the certificate. What matters is how seriously a student takes the course and how seriously the trainer trains the students. Some students after enrolling into the course work hard and they study on their own and acquire knowledge.

But there are some students who don’t acquire anything after they have completed the course. Suppose a student does a .NET course & if you ask him/her the basics about .NET also he/she might fail in answering (This doesn’t apply to all but few/most).

What happens in Institutes? NOTE that I’m not referring to all the institutes.

1. They go through the slides and read out the statements and put the same statements in different style.
2. Give assignment which the students do it for name sake.
3. Trainer not worried about the learning that the student gains.
4. Finally an exam for qualifying for a certificate.
5. Get the certificate.
6. Placement Assistance but doesn’t provide placement.

The student might get placed but will have a tough time to sustain in the organization because he/she has not been trained as per the industry standard and the student has not gained any knowledge which he/she can apply in the job.

By going through slides “who will learn”? They can just keep few things in their mind which is going to be wiped out if there is no constant practice.

Note for students / fresher’s: Before enrolling into any course consult the professionals and does some research work about the specific institute. Never do the course for a certificate. It’s just a piece of paper. Nowadays you can print the certificates yourself, it doesn’t have any value. What matters is your knowledge, so acquire abundant of knowledge in any field you want to & do the best to the community

Note for trainers / institute’s: Are there no ways of training a student other than just going through the slides? If there are ways, then why don’t you apply it and see that the student gains knowledge and learns well than the previous approach (slides).