Entries Tagged 'Testing Skill Improvement' ↓

This a guest post from author “Sharath R Bhat”

What do we mean by a great software testing team?

“A team with a star player is a good team, but a team without one is a great
team.” – Author unknown.

The above quote from Author leads us to discussion on great teams and its characteristics. The article stems from experience gained while working for different teams, observation of team members behavior under time pressure coupled with complex nature of project.This holds good for Software Testing team which finds prominence place in a project activities and requires right mix of people for performing these activities.

Why does some software testing team fails and others succeed? Continue reading →

This is the a guest post from author “Suhas R M”. Author is working as a software test engineer and having 4 years of manual testing experience.

A colleague of mine recently asked me, “Where should I start with for preparation of interview? It’s almost 2 years I have faced any interview.”

My answer was straightforward: (This will help for fresher as well as working professional who want to switch the current job)

What you need to know about software testing?
First basic thing – Testing Concepts: One needs to be very good at this especially the manual testing methodologies.  But only knowing different testing concepts is half work done. The next – most important thing is to know which type/technique/concept of testing can be applied at what stage of SDLC.

“What should I test and when” is very important. There might be some concepts, which are not applicable to what we, professional test in our company, but it’s always better to have an idea of all testing practices.

Many freshers and working testing professionals have might not worked on various testing domains like localization testing, time Zone testing etc. But knowing more than what you have worked on will help you better answering the different questions from the interviewer. I always try to keep my testing knowledge updated besides my current project work. This helped me a lot while switching my job some years ago. What if an interviewer asks you question on topic, which you have never worked on? For example you don’t have any experience on web based projects or client server testing and interviewer asks you to test “Yahoo mail application”. Will you be able to answer this question? You can. Even you have not worked on this type of projects. How? Your curiosity to learn the things you never done before will help you in this case. So broaden your thinking area, be curious in every work and every query you face in your daily work routine.

Knowing more is harmless and will definitely help you at least to give your thoughts on the questions asked by interviewer.

If you don’t know any testing concept, e.g. “Localization testing”, then try to learn the concepts first. Like – what would be localization testing? It’s simple; Test if the application looks local for you while using. Then go on exploring. See for used colors, content, images, culture etc, Different countries, locales have it in different way. Consider a web site that reads from right to left, is it accepted in countries other than Middle East? Obviously NO. Or can you display the same geo specific content in India what you can display in US? Again NO. This is just a simple example how you can learn unknown testing concepts.

The very essential part of a test engineer is “Thinking out of box”. If you are not capable of thinking out of box, believe me testing is not for you. What do you mean by thinking out of box? Don’t just follow the traditional methods. Implement new things in testing. Try to summarize, automate the routine testing work. Think from user perspective. Think how user will use your application. What common mistakes he can make or which tasks he can perform on your application? This way you will get insight of any application and will also help to answer the questions in depth.

Besides from “curiosity to learn” you should upgrade your skill in following areas:
- Some hands-on on basic database/SQL queries and concepts
- Any basic scripting language (For automation testing)
- Networking and system administration concepts will help you in system domain projects.

Do not just write the UI test cases, check what is happening inside the application. For application having database connection check for data updation, retrieving and in any case there should not be loss of data.

Get hold on project. Know the application under test before starting to test it. Instead of looking in the requirement document, look into the architecture doc, design doc, sequence diagram and activity flow diagram.

Most importantly you need to be perfect in what you mention in your CV. All the questions interviewer asks will be based on what you are specifying in your CV. So do not mention the skills you have not worked on, just for the sake of decorating the CV with multiple skills.

The key point in interview is, You should make interviewer feel that it was a complex application you were testing and had lot many challenges in it for a tester!

And one last thing – If you don’t know answer for a question, say so. Don’t fool around and get into trouble.

If you have any query on “preparation for testing interview” then comment it below.

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Jayant Deo asks:
“Looking at the current scenario from the industry it is seen that the testers are expected to have both technical testing skills as well either need to be from the domain background or have gathered domain knowledge mainly for BFSI is commonly seen.
I would like to know why and when is this domain knowledge imparted to the tester during the testing cycle?”

First of all I would like to introduce three dimensional testing career mentioned by Danny R. Faught. There are three categories of skill that need to be judged before hiring any software tester. What are those three skill categories?
1) Testing skill
2) Domain knowledge
3) Technical expertise.

No doubt that any tester should have the basic testing skills like Manual testing and Automation testing. Tester having the common sense can even find most of the obvious bugs in the software. Then would you say that this much testing is sufficient? Would you release the product on the basis of this much testing done? Certainly not. You will certainly have a product look by the domain expert before the product goes into the market.

While testing any application you should think like a end-user. But every human being has the limitations and one can’t be the expert in all of the three dimensions mentioned above. (If you are the experts in all of the above skills then please let me know ) So you can’t assure that you can think 100% like how the end-user going to use your application. User who is going to use your application may be having a good understanding of the domain he is working on. You need to balance all these skill activities so that all product aspects will get addressed.

Nowadays you can see the professional being hired in different companies are more domain experts than having technical skills. Current software industry is also seeing a good trend that many professional developers and domain experts are moving into software testing.

We can observe one more reason why domain experts are most wanted! When you hire fresh engineers who are just out of college you cannot expect them to compete with the experienced professionals. Why? Because experienced professional certainly have the advantage of domain and testing experience and they have better understandings of different issues and can deliver the application better and faster.

Here are some of the examples where you can see the distinct edge of domain knowledge:
1) Mobile application testing.
2) Wireless application testing
3) VoIP applications
4) Protocol testing
5) Banking applications
6) Network testing

How will you test such applications without knowledge of specific domain? Are you going to test the BFSI applications (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) just for UI or functionality or security or load or stress? You should know what are the user requirements in banking, working procedures, commerce background, exposure to brokerage etc and should test application accordingly, then only you can say that your testing is enough – Here comes the need of subject-matter experts.

Let’s take example of my current project: I am currently working on search engine application. Where I need to know the basic of search engine terminologies and concepts. Many times I see some other team tester’s asking me questions like what is ‘publishers’ and ‘advertisers’, what is the difference and what they do? Do you think they can test the application based on current online advertising and SEO? Certainly not. Unless and until they get well familiar with these terminologies and functionalities.

When I know the functional domain better I can better write and execute more test cases and can effectively simulate the end user actions which is distinctly a big advantage.

Here is the big list of the required testing knowledge:

• Testing skill
• Bug hunting skill
• Technical skill
• Domain knowledge
• Communication skill
• Automation skill
• Some programming skill
• Quick grasping
• Ability to Work under pressure …

That is going to be a huge list. So you will certainly say, do I need to have these many skills? Its’ depends on you. You can stick to one skill or can be expert in one skill and have good understanding of other skills or balanced approach of all the skills. This is the competitive market and you should definitely take advantage of it. Make sure to be expert in at least one domain before making any move.

What if you don’t have enough domain knowledge?
You will be posted on any project and company can assign any work to you. Then what if you don’t have enough domain knowledge of that project? You need to quickly grasp as many concepts as you can. Try to understand the product as if you are the customer and what customer will do with application. Visit the customer site if possible know how they work with the product, Read online resources about the domain you want to test the application, participate in events addressing on such domain, meet the domain experts. Or either company will provide all this in-house training before assigning any domain specific task to testers.

There is no specific stage where you need this domain knowledge. You need to apply your domain knowledge in each and every software testing life cycle.

If you are reading this article till this point then I would like to hear on which domain you are working on? So that our readers can get better idea of different domains and projects. Comment your domain below.

Update: As per the request from many readers I have updated our software testing resource page for the BFSI domain online documents and articles for downloads.

In my previous post I have outlined points to be considered while testing web applications. Here we will see some more details on web application testing with web testing test cases. Let me tell you one thing that I always like to share practical knowledge, which can be useful to users in their career life. This is a quite long article so sit back and get relaxed to get most out of it.

Let’s have first web testing checklist.
1) Functionality Testing
2) Usability testing
3) Interface testing
4) Compatibility testing
5) Performance testing
6) Security testing

1) Functionality Testing:

Test for – all the links in web pages, database connection, forms used in the web pages for submitting or getting information from user, Cookie testing.

Check all the links:

• Test the outgoing links from all the pages from specific domain under test.
• Test all internal links.
• Test links jumping on the same pages.
• Test links used to send the email to admin or other users from web pages.
• Test to check if there are any orphan pages.
• Lastly in link checking, check for broken links in all above-mentioned links.

Test forms in all pages:
Forms are the integral part of any web site. Forms are used to get information from users and to keep interaction with them. So what should be checked on these forms?

• First check all the validations on each field.
• Check for the default values of fields.
• Wrong inputs to the fields in the forms.
• Options to create forms if any, form delete, view or modify the forms.

Let’s take example of the search engine project currently I am working on, In this project we have advertiser and affiliate signup steps. Each sign up step is different but dependent on other steps. So sign up flow should get executed correctly. There are different field validations like email Ids, User financial info validations. All these validations should get checked in manual or automated web testing.

Cookies testing:
Cookies are small files stored on user machine. These are basically used to maintain the session mainly login sessions. Test the application by enabling or disabling the cookies in your browser options. Test if the cookies are encrypted before writing to user machine. If you are testing the session cookies (i.e. cookies expire after the sessions ends) check for login sessions and user stats after session end. Check effect on application security by deleting the cookies. (I will soon write separate article on cookie testing)

Validate your HTML/CSS:
If you are optimizing your site for Search engines then HTML/CSS validation is very important. Mainly validate the site for HTML syntax errors. Check if site is crawlable to different search engines.

Database testing:
Data consistency is very important in web application. Check for data integrity and errors while you edit, delete, modify the forms or do any DB related functionality.
Check if all the database queries are executing correctly, data is retrieved correctly and also updated correctly. More on database testing could be load on DB, we will address this in web load or performance testing below.

2) Usability Testing:

Test for navigation:
Navigation means how the user surfs the web pages, different controls like buttons, boxes or how user using the links on the pages to surf different pages.
Usability testing includes:
Web site should be easy to use. Instructions should be provided clearly. Check if the provided instructions are correct means whether they satisfy purpose.
Main menu should be provided on each page. It should be consistent.

Content checking:
Content should be logical and easy to understand. Check for spelling errors. Use of dark colors annoys users and should not be used in site theme. You can follow some standards that are used for web page and content building. These are common accepted standards like as I mentioned above about annoying colors, fonts, frames etc.
Content should be meaningful. All the anchor text links should be working properly. Images should be placed properly with proper sizes.
These are some basic standards that should be followed in web development. Your task is to validate all for UI testing

Other user information for user help:
Like search option, sitemap, help files etc. Sitemap should be present with all the links in web sites with proper tree view of navigation. Check for all links on the sitemap.
“Search in the site” option will help users to find content pages they are looking for easily and quickly. These are all optional items and if present should be validated.

3) Interface Testing:
The main interfaces are:
Web server and application server interface
Application server and Database server interface.

Check if all the interactions between these servers are executed properly. Errors are handled properly. If database or web server returns any error message for any query by application server then application server should catch and display these error messages appropriately to users. Check what happens if user interrupts any transaction in-between? Check what happens if connection to web server is reset in between?

4) Compatibility Testing:
Compatibility of your web site is very important testing aspect. See which compatibility test to be executed:

• Browser compatibility
• Operating system compatibility
• Mobile browsing
• Printing options

Browser compatibility:
In my web-testing career I have experienced this as most influencing part on web site testing.
Some applications are very dependent on browsers. Different browsers have different configurations and settings that your web page should be compatible with. Your web site coding should be cross browser platform compatible. If you are using java scripts or AJAX calls for UI functionality, performing security checks or validations then give more stress on browser compatibility testing of your web application.
Test web application on different browsers like Internet explorer, Firefox, Netscape navigator, AOL, Safari, Opera browsers with different versions.

OS compatibility:
Some functionality in your web application is may not be compatible with all operating systems. All new technologies used in web development like graphics designs, interface calls like different API’s may not be available in all Operating Systems.
Test your web application on different operating systems like Windows, Unix, MAC, Linux, Solaris with different OS flavors.

Mobile browsing:
This is new technology age. So in future Mobile browsing will rock. Test your web pages on mobile browsers. Compatibility issues may be there on mobile.

Printing options:
If you are giving page-printing options then make sure fonts, page alignment, page graphics getting printed properly. Pages should be fit to paper size or as per the size mentioned in printing option.

5) Performance testing:
Web application should sustain to heavy load. Web performance testing should include:
Web Load Testing
Web Stress Testing

Test application performance on different internet connection speed.
In web load testing test if many users are accessing or requesting the same page. Can system sustain in peak load times? Site should handle many simultaneous user requests, large input data from users, Simultaneous connection to DB, heavy load on specific pages etc.

Stress testing: Generally stress means stretching the system beyond its specification limits. Web stress testing is performed to break the site by giving stress and checked how system reacts to stress and how system recovers from crashes.
Stress is generally given on input fields, login and sign up areas.

In web performance testing web site functionality on different operating systems, different hardware platforms is checked for software, hardware memory leakage errors,

6) Security Testing:

Following are some test cases for web security testing:

• Test by pasting internal url directly into browser address bar without login. Internal pages should not open.
• If you are logged in using username and password and browsing internal pages then try changing url options directly. I.e. If you are checking some publisher site statistics with publisher site ID= 123. Try directly changing the url site ID parameter to different site ID which is not related to logged in user. Access should denied for this user to view others stats.
• Try some invalid inputs in input fields like login username, password, input text boxes. Check the system reaction on all invalid inputs.
• Web directories or files should not be accessible directly unless given download option.
• Test the CAPTCHA for automates scripts logins.
• Test if SSL is used for security measures. If used proper message should get displayed when user switch from non-secure http:// pages to secure https:// pages and vice versa.
• All transactions, error messages, security breach attempts should get logged in log files somewhere on web server.

I think I have addressed all major web testing methods. I have worked for around 2 years out of my testing career on web testing. There are some experts who have spent their whole career life on web testing. If I missed out addressing some important web testing aspect then let me know in comments below. I will keep on updating the article for latest testing information.

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What is White Box Testing?
White box testing (WBT) is also called Structural or Glass box testing.

White box testing involves looking at the structure of the code. When you know the internal structure of a product, tests can be conducted to ensure that the internal operations performed according to the specification. And all internal components have been adequately exercised.

White Box Testing is coverage of the specification in the code.

Code coverage:

Segment coverage:
Ensure that each code statement is executed once.

Branch Coverage or Node Testing:
Coverage of each code branch in from all possible was.

Compound Condition Coverage:
For multiple condition test each condition with multiple paths and combination of different path to reach that condition.

Basis Path Testing:
Each independent path in the code is taken for testing.

Data Flow Testing (DFT):
In this approach you track the specific variables through each possible calculation, thus defining the set of intermediate paths through the code.DFT tends to reflect dependencies but it is mainly through sequences of data manipulation. In short each data variable is tracked and its use is verified.
This approach tends to uncover bugs like variables used but not initialize, or declared but not used, and so on.

Path Testing:
Path testing is where all possible paths through the code are defined and covered. Its a time consuming task.

Loop Testing:
These strategies relate to testing single loops, concatenated loops, and nested loops. Independent and dependent code loops and values are tested by this approach.

Why we do White Box Testing?
To ensure:

• That all independent paths within a module have been exercised at least once.
• All logical decisions verified on their true and false values.
• All loops executed at their boundaries and within their operational bounds internal data structures validity.

Need of White Box Testing?
To discover the following types of bugs:

• Logical error tend to creep into our work when we design and implement functions, conditions or controls that are out of the program
• The design errors due to difference between logical flow of the program and the actual implementation
• Typographical errors and syntax checking

Skills Required:
We need to write test cases that ensure the complete coverage of the program logic.
For this we need to know the program well i.e. We should know the specification and the code to be tested. Knowledge of programming languages and logic.

Limitations of WBT:
Not possible for testing each and every path of the loops in program. This means exhaustive testing is impossible for large systems.
This does not mean that WBT is not effective. By selecting important logical paths and data structure for testing is practically possible and effective.
Reference- http://www.softrel.org/stgb.html

Comment out your queries on white box testing below. Meantime I will cover Black box testing in detail.

A very good and important point. Right? If you are a software tester or a QA engineer then you must be thinking every minute to find a bug in an application. And you should be!

I think finding a blocker bug like any system crash is often rewarding! No I don’t think like that. You should try to find out the bugs that are most difficult to find and those always misleads users.

Finding such a subtle bugs is most challenging work and it gives you satisfaction of your work. Also it should be rewarded by seniors. I will share my experience of one such subtle bug that was not only difficult to catch but was difficult to reproduce also.
I was testing one module from my search engine project. I do most of the activities of this project manually as it is a bit complex to automate. That module consist of traffic and revenue stats of different affiliates and advertisers. So testing such a reports is always a difficult task. When I tested this report it was showing the data accurately processed for some time but when tried to test again after some time it was showing misleading results. It was strange and confusing to see the results.

There was a cron (cron is a automated script that runs after specified time or condition) to process the log files and update the database. Such multiple crons are running on log files and DB to synchronize the total data. There were two crons running on one table with some time intervals. There was a column in table that was getting overwritten by other cron making some data inconsistency. It took us long time to figure out the problem due to the vast DB processes and different crons.

My point is try to find out the hidden bugs in the system that might occur for special conditions and causes strong impact on the system. You can find such a bugs with some tips and tricks.

So what are those tips:

1) Understand the whole application or module in depth before starting the testing.

2) Prepare good test cases before start to testing. I mean give stress on the functional test cases which includes major risk of the application.

3) Create a sufficient test data before tests, this data set include the test case conditions and also the database records if you are going to test DB related application.

4) Perform repeated tests with different test environment.

5) Try to find out the result pattern and then compare your results with those patterns.

6) When you think that you have completed most of the test conditions and when you think you are tired somewhat then do some monkey testing.

7) Use your previous test data pattern to analyse the current set of tests.

Try some standard test cases for which you found the bugs in some different application. Like if you are testing input text box try inserting some html tags as the inputs and see the output on display page.

9) Last and the best trick is try very hard to find the bug As if you are testing only to break the application!

I will include more tips in some coming posts.

Meantime you can comment out more tips here.