Each bug listed in this resource can lead to serious software vulnerabilities if not fixed. The top 25 security bugs list will help programmers to avoid some common but serious coding mistakes. For software testers list will be useful as a security testing checklist for Internet as well as for testing desktop application.

Here are few top security vulnerabilities discussed in detail in this article:

•  Improper input validation
•  Improper escaping of output or encoding
•  SQL injection
•  Cross-site scripting
•  Race conditions
•  Information leak in error messages
•  Error while transmitting sensitive information
•  Memory leak
•  External control of critical data and file paths
•  Improper initialization
•  Improper authorization
•  Client side security checks

I think, the most common security vulnerability mistake developers make is “Client side enforcement of server side security”.

Check out below article so that you can at least help developers for improving their code standards

Top 25 common programming Errors

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Top 25 common programming bugs every tester should know

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Here is the recap of some popular posts from year 2008. I know it’s very difficult to select few posts to show here. Still these are some most popular posts, in random order, you can enjoy. Don’t forget to bookmark this page

How to get your all bugs resolved without any ‘Invalid bug’ label?
I hate “Invalid bug” label from developers for the bugs reported by me, do you? I think every tester should try to get his/her all bugs resolved. This requires bug reporting skill. Check out this article to know what troubleshooting you need to do before reporting any bug.

Software testing questions and answers
This was a very successful article on reader’s queries on software testing. Read the answers and ping me if you have any questions.

Learning basics of QTP automation tool and preparation of QTP interview questions
This post is in continuation with QTP interview questions series. These questions will help for preparing interview as well as learning the QTP basics.

Developers are not good testers. What you say?
Developers test their own code. Then why testers needed? What are the drawbacks of developer testing his own code? Why can’t it be a success? If developer testing is always not sufficient testing then what things developers should test and what the test team should? To know answers to these questions read on.

Top 20 practical software testing tips you should read before testing any application.
This is a collection of top 20 practical testing tips for testing any product or web based application I learned over time. I wish all testers read these software testing good practices and try to implement them in your day to day software testing activities.

Global Software Testing business to reach $13 Billion – Good news for Indian software Testers
The most frequently asked questions to me till date are – What is the future of software testing business?, Should I consider software testing as my career option? – Now you don’t need to ask these question to me any more. See what was the good news in this post.

Tips to design test data before executing your test cases
I have mentioned importance of proper test data in many of my previous articles. Tester should check and update the test data before execution of any test case. In this article I will provide tips on how to prepare test environment so that any important test case will not be missed.

Check your eligibility for CSTE certification. Take this sample CSTE examination
CSTE testing certification is the basic certification to check testers skill and understanding of software testing theory and software testing practices. If you are applying for CSTE certification check if you can answer at least 75% of the test questions mentioned in this post.

What you need to know about BVT (Build Verification Testing)
Build Verification test is a set of tests run on every new build to verify that build is testable before it is released to test team for further testing. Read on to know how to perform BVT effectively.

Manual and Automation testing Challenges
Software testing is full of challenges. Testers face many challenges in manual as well as automation testing. Tester who manages to address these challenges effectively can become successful tester. In this article I have included most of the testing challenges you need to overcome.

Smoke testing and sanity testing – Quick and simple differences
Despite of hundreds of web articles on Smoke and sanity testing, many people still have confusion between these terms and keep on asking to me. Here is a simple and understandable difference that can clear your confusion between smoke testing and sanity testing.

An approach for Security Testing of Web Applications
How to make sure your web application is secure before release? Web site security testing is important part of software testing life cycle like other functionality and performance testing. This article will guide you with different type of attacks on web applications and information on how to test web application for security.

Some Interesting Articles on Software Testing Career:

How to prepare for software testing interview
This article will help for preparation of software testing interview for freshers as well as working testing professional who want to switch their current job. Know the key areas you need to prepare and how to keep yourself updated on testing methodologies.

Career options for Software Test Professionals
See what are the career options for software testing professionals. Great article showing all the possible career paths for software tester.

Software Testing Advice for Novice Testers
Novice testers have many questions about software testing and the actual work that they are going to perform.  As novice testers, you should be aware of certain facts in the software testing profession.  The tips mentioned here will certainly help to advance you in your software-testing career

Money making, software testing career and secrets of a richest tester
These days a lot of people who pass out of engineering and science colleges are interested about software testing as a career. Also today there isn’t a huge difference between what testers and developers get paid. How can testers make more money than what they have been making.

How to keep motivation alive in software testers?
The title says all about the post content. Know what are the different ways to keep motivation alive in software testers.

How to build a successful QA team?
There are plenty of things to be considered while building successful software testing team. After reading this article look at your team and question yourself “Are you working in great test team” or ” Will you make every effort to build great test team”.

Apart from software testing articles we also covered some topics on soft skills for testers:

How to ask for promotion and salary raise in this appraisal?
Yearly performance appraisal review is the key process to major employee performance and reward him/her by promotion or salary raise based on the performance. If you think you are eligible for this reward then read this article to know on what basis your performance is majored and how to put your best efforts to get salary raise and promotion.

How to keep good testers in testing positions?
Here I have answered one interesting reader’s question “how to keep good testers in testing positions?” Nowadays due to high compensation packages it’s really hard to keep good testers in testing. Many of the really skilled testers are always looking for switch. Here are some ideas on how to keep good testers in testing positions.

Top Three Tips to Survive in this Recession – Economic Downtime
Everyone is talking about recession. Many of your close friends might have experienced this. Everyday we hear news about pink slips, reduction in IT recruitment, bleak prospects etc. How software testers can survive in this recession? Here are three simple and effective tips to survive in this recession.

How to crack the GD (Group Discussion). 10 simple ways with ppt on GD
Software tester needs to communicate with project members like team members, developers, managers and customer. For an effective team player you should have command over communication and interpersonal skill. Read the top 10 simple ways to crack the GD.

Soft Skill for testers: How to improve communication skill
Good communication skill is a must for software testers. You might have seen this line in every job requirements especially openings in QA and testing field. As a tester you need to communicate with different project team members including clients, communication skill plays important role. Read this post if you want to improve your communication skill.

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Best software testing articles of 2008

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Basically this book is an introduction to software testing. So those who are new to software testing field can start their preparation by reading this book. You will get basic idea of manual and automation testing.

Here is a summary of what this book is covering:

• What is the need of software testing?
• Different software development models
• Testing in the software development life cycle
• How to develop testing mindset?
• Regression Vs. Retesting
• White box Vs. Black box testing
• Verification and validation
• Alpha and beta testing
• Unit, Integration and System testing
• Acceptance testing
• Automation testing – Basics
• Testing the design
• Usability testing
• Performance testing
• Test planning
• Test estimation
• Test cases and elements of test cases
• Test tracking, Test planning and Test plan review
• How to manage defects and defect reports?
• Test metrics for testers
• Product release control

In all this book is a nice introduction to software testing. Author explained some key software testing concepts like Regression and Retesting difference, Alpha and beta testing etc. where many testers get confused.

Download “Testing Primer” book:
To download this book Click here

What is your favorite software testing book? Also share your ‘best software testing book’ experience with our readers.

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Software testing book for preparing testing interviews and learning basics of software testing [download]

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It would be difficult to summaries the year 2007 for great software testing articles. I have picked some popular articles from last 6 months posts. Check them if you missed any of the article.

June 2007:

• Choosing Software Testing as your Career
• How to find a bug in application? Tips and Tricks

July 2007:

• How to write effective Test cases, procedures and definitions
• How to get job in Software Testing quickly?
• Test plan sample: SoftwareTesting and Quality assurance Templates
• What is actual testing process in practical or company environment?

August 2007:

• Black Box Testing: Types and techniques of BBT
• Web Testing: Complete guide on testing web applications
• Software Installation/Uninstallation Testing

September 2007:

• Bug life cycle
• How to write a good bug report? Tips and Tricks
• Website Cookie Testing, Test cases for testing web application cookies?

October 2007:

• Test your Software Testing knowledge. Take this mock test
• How Domain knowledge is Important for testers?
• 10 Tips you should read before automating your testing work

November 2007:

• Software Testing questions and Answers 1
• Should companies charge the clients on the basis of number of bugs?

Also in new year I will try my best to answer all the readers queries on software testing.

If you don’t want to miss any single latest article on software testing then
Subscribe to our email newsletter!

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Software Testing Help: Best software testing articles of 2007

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Microsoft last week launched software testing website – Microsoft tester center. James Whittaker Security Architect, Microsoft said “The goal of launching tester center is to provide community of software testers to share knowledge and learn from each other about software testing, day to day job work, testing tools and processes”.

Software testers and developers can view video’s, technical articles. You can interact technical experts from Microsoft via blog’s and discussion forums.

I am always interested reading the expert views on software testing from Microsoft employees. Michael Hunter’s interview series with software testing experts is also a good resource for testers. Interview of Anu Arora – a test manager from Microsoft’s engineering excellence group is the best of this series.

One interesting question I like from this interview is:

Q. What do you think is the most important thing for a tester to know? To do? For developers to know and do about testing?
Anu Arora: Testers need to understand that testing is not just a lot of automation. Testers also need to understand that it is not the other extreme banging the keyboard.

Testing is a highly skilled and sophisticated discipline and testers are the last line of defense for the customer. For the same reasons, the testers need to continually learn and grow; learn new ways to test, learn about the customer and market, learn to be always on the cutting edge of testing.

Developers need to understand that testers are not babysitters. Developers need to be responsible for their own code. Developers need to ensure what they write, works. In the testing language it is called unit testing. As a Test manager, I have been asked once in a while by the few ignorant ones; that if developers did all that, what will testers do? Testers can them move beyond unit testing to focus on integration, systems, scenario and user testing. These are absolutely critical from the customer point of view the one whom we are building this product for.

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Some Interesting software testing resources

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• Difference Between Client server and Web application testing: The most frequently asked software testing interview question. What is difference between Desktop, Client-server and web application testing? I have shortly addressed this question here.
• Some interesting Software Testing Interview Questions: Here I addressed three basic questions like What is the most challenging situation in your testing career? What if one module is modified in application, Is it necessary to test whole application? How to test application without specifications?
• How to improve Testers performance? You can find here answer to What measures can company should take to improve testers performance as for some companies its not possible to hire required number of testers. Here you can also find a interesting debate in me and Pradeep S.
• Will Automation Testing tool make your testing easier? Some ins and outs of Automation. Be sure to think these points before going for your project Automation.
  So after taking decision for Automation you will not be in trouble.
• Why does software have bugs? A million Dollar question! The broad list of reasons like miscommunication, Software complexity, Changing requirements, programming errors and people egos which introduces common bugs. See some of the man introduced reasons and machine oriented bug reasons here.
• What if there isn’t time for thorough testing? Find out some tips to complete testing in time if you don’t have time for detail testing. Points to be considered when you are in such dilemma of what to test first?
• How to test complete Application? SQA processes to be followed in testing life cycle. And guide on how to test complete application right from the requirement gathering to last step post release maintenance?

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Interesting posts on Software Testing Help

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Reader Tips: 14 Aug 2007

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Software testing resources (Speedlinking 05/2007)

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