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.
34 comments ↓
I have only 1 tip to share and actually this has helped me all these years in finding important bugs quickly, in the applications that I test!
“Be Passionate about Testing. And Testing will automatically take care of itself!”
If anyone wants to know more about my Passion about Testing, you might consider visiting my blog: http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com
-Debasis
Ya Debasis I agree , you can’t do anything without passion..
Out of box thinking is a must for software tester!
Please share some actual practices, cases or examples so that we ‘ll get better Idea.
Hi Sameer,
I mentioned one of my testing experiences in above post.
Here I will share one more experience which is related to the how should tester think while testing?
In one of my appraisal form my manager commented one line as “Wear cap of different users while testing respective modules”.
It taught me lot of things.
Tester should think all the effects of the particular updated module. In my web project there were different modules like Advertiser stats pages, related admin pages, related advertiser-Partner pages. So as a case when any of the page or module get updated you should think the effect of that on all other pages even they are on different domains (In case of web testing).
Will keep on adding such practical cases as and when possible.
[…] most of the Dev’s which you can catch easily. I have listed some tips to find such bugs in article How to find bugs in an application? The tips includes the importance of sufficient test data, good test cases, application coverage […]
yes, i agree on this… “you should think the effect of that on all other pages even they are on different domains (In case of web testing).”, this is what we call system testing. making sure that all modules (as a group) function appropriately, given the updates of one particular module.
[…] vijay shares How to find a bug in application? Tips and Tricks at softwaretestinghelp.com. “A very good and important point. Right? You must be thinking […]
Hello, i faced one question in the interview that was
How can you say that these many test cases are enough for the particular Object or Field?
can u plz tell me what should be the answer.
@ Naga Vishala - Actually application coverage should not be measured on number of test cases. The answer should be like this, you should possibly write the smallest set of test cases those will uncover all possible errors in application. You can measure coverage from all possible paths. You can say almost all test cases are covered when you are sure that your test cases combination is covering all the possible paths in the application.
Hi All,
Can some one help me how to test a memory leak in a application?
Please guide me on this, I am an MBA having 3+ years of experience in sales administration with leading MNC’s in India. But somehow I got the chance to join a IT MNC as sr. software tester, Its been six months and things are going fine till now,
I should I shape up my career from here. Is testing right option for me,
How can I get into sales in IT from here
Plz guide
Please guide me on this, I am an MBA having 3+ years of experience in sales administration with leading MNC’s in India. But somehow I got the chance to join a IT MNC as sr. software tester, Its been six months and things are going fine till now,
I should I shape up my career from here. Is testing right option for me,fhgt
How can I get into sales in IT from here
Plz guide
I hae just started to read the articles in this site. Ver nice and very helpful. Thanks.
hi Vijay
I have read some articles from ur site,which were very helpful..thank u
Can u suggest how to create sufficient test data for test cases with an example and what are the various procedures followed in realtime for creating test data?
thank u
hii my name is kalyan.
i joined in ac company as software tester.can u tell me in general how the testing process.i want real time answer,bocs which we read from material is differ from real time.
i have recently joined in small company.we got project.it should be handle by me alone.
can any body tell.how should i start and how will be testing process in real time. which i read from material will be differ from real time testing .pls any body will help me
pls send reply to my mail id ajaykumar.net@gmail.com
or funajju@gmail.com
Hello
Can anyone pls tell me ‘hwz career in testing?, i am basically a Mechanical engineer but i got into a software company thinking tat i ll be put up in java development i joined the copm as i have did java course then i was put up in testing. frm past 11 months me in testing. so am in dilemma weather to continue the job or quit it. pls do suggest me i ll be very kind full..
my email ID lktkar2002@yahoo.co.in
Regards
Laxmikanth
[…] How to find a bug in application? Tips and Tricks […]
HI all here is my suggestion, Testing is the carrer which should build with innovative thinking this comes with exp. My Experience Testcases, Testdata are the start up for u to get into process of knowning things i.e getting familier with the application but on the hole a testing with unknown data which is dynamic will really caught the application bugs. Freshers never worry how is it done u get to know when u are in. But to get in u should have Knowledge on what is testing and all the models in depth with manual testing concepts.
I have changed my professioanl from Sys admin to testing now I am able to enjoy the challenge, but my next step I am looking forward to do some developing but I am feeling it is unsecured and it is very hardone for me, can any one suggest me some thing on this.
@Laxmikanth
hi Testing field is very emerging .let me tell you reason..see market treand is changing now sa day..sometimes Java was at pick now .net in future sometihing elss suppode xx language ..But what ever will be situation TESTING will be inevitable so never warried ..Concentrate on work..Love your work dont love company…remember com.stops loving at any time..
cheers
RahulKumar
@Pavani
Could some1 answew Pavani Question .It seems really good question.
.hi Vijay
I have read some articles from ur site,which were very helpful..thank u
Can u suggest how to create sufficient test data for test cases with an example and what are the various procedures followed in realtime for creating test data?
thank u
Hi Sir,
I am trying to break the application by entering special characters, etc etc….. but m not able to break the code for Php or .Net application. Can u please suggest some tricks for this.
@Vishal
Try these very special charecters ????
cheers…
susan
Hey its not supporting what i have typed is symbol Diamond, Clubs, Spade, Hearts
Iam not able to understand what is this APACHE AND TOMCAT SERVER is all about..are they different ?
Some say they are not and they are called as webapplication servers.By the way do application server and web server reside on the same machine or in different machines.How they are configured.
How a application server contacts webserver or vice versa..again are they configured on differnet machines .I am totally confused please help me understand this.Respond me to this e mail with your answers norman_g40@yahoo.com
Is there any free bug tracking tool apart from bugzilla for .net applications
@anu
QEngine issue manager is another good one
Enjoy…
hai
I to worked on data synchronize, but i checked with different option like update, insert, and delete and checked data sync is proper on server side. Plz tell me other than this any test can be done on database
[…] Ability to find bugs […]
Hi Friends,
Currently i am working in Non-IT field and planned to switch my career to testing.I had learned the basics of testing,and now i am very eager to learn testing practically with real time projects.
If any one interested to teach testing personally with real time projects , i will be more grateful, or else show me the right place in chennai.
Thanks & regards
selvam.ba@rediffmail.com
Hi can you please give some example of stress/load test cases,and negative test cases for login screen for performance test.
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