TestersBlog

Why is testersblog talking about TV programs? Hold on, it’s a post about TV programs that might be helpful for a tester (So now you would continue reading). Most of the people nowadays don’t have time to execute test cases. As soon as they finish their daily work at organization they go home & watch either TV serials or MTV or [V] channel etcetera that entertains them (Obviously, TV programs are there to entertain its viewers). I agree that for entertainment people watch TV, but how about watching something that might be a good learning for you instead of watching those programs where you don’t learn anything.

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”.

My childhood days, school days, college just passed away. In childhood days, when I was between 3-9 years old I was first/second/third rank in my class which made me proud & my mother used to be happy that his son is a rank holder. Few years passed out and I was in high school & as I started to proceed to higher education I started becoming weak in mathematics. Maybe I was weak in mathematics from birth however the mathematics concepts which are taught in Indian education at the early age was not so complicated which made it to look like a easy subject for initial years in my education. Later, I started hating mathematics like anything but I was still forced to study it and pass the exam. I failed several times in mathematics. Whenever there was mathematics test/exam I used to get scared. In my pre-university I scored very less in mathematics and I thanked god for getting passed with the minimum passing marks. Later, in engineering I failed in mathematics miserably in 2^nd semester.

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).

How do you define “Usability”? Different people define it in different ways (Definitions really doesn’t matter, they are just different names which are discovered by different people. There might be many names but a single meaning). Let me not get de-focused from the context of my post.

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.

Most of the newbie’s in Software Testing misunderstand or get confused when they come across regression testing or re-testing. Some people think re-testing is regression testing and some people think regression testing is re-testing. I’m just going to explain this in my own words (however I have gathered knowledge from referring to some documents).

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.

This post applies to those institutes which spoil the community by misguiding the candidates who join the institutes. How do they misguide? A fresher when comes out of his college and starts for searching a job in recession he/she wants to do some courses from which they can learn something rather than just getting certificate (Some candidates do course for certificate, I don’t disagree). How are institutes different from engineering colleges? In engineering curriculum also students learn Java & outside also they learn Java and get a certificate? What is the difference? There are many institutes which attract the students by sending beautiful attractive colorful e-mails highlighting the fake information to make the students enroll for the course in their institute. I come across many spam e-mails from the institutes which claim to teach testing and provide placement. But when I see their website I strongly suggest them to get their website tested first because being into testing institute business it’s not good to have problems in their own website. Nowadays, Aptech, NIIT etcetera famous institutes also have lost their credibility however they still get the candidates because of their brand name and their brand has come to a stage now where teaching doesn’t matter for the candidates.

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).