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| | * [[Software Testing/Meeting Notes 2019-04-08]] | | * [[Software Testing/Meeting Notes 2019-04-08]] |
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| − | ==== Resources ==== <!-- move to Meeting Notes after the session is held -->
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| − | [https://www.techsoupcanada.ca/en/directory/334 TechSoup Canada catalogue: Developer Software]
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| − | ==== Meeting Notes ====
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| − | * Introductions
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| − | * Nicholas Collins
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| − | ** Software tester for a few years, knowledge of how ''his'' company works
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| − | ** But two years isn't a long time compared to some software testers
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| − | ** Nick has prepared notes, will be presenting slightly differently from other KWNPSA sessions
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| − | ** SysAdmin in insurance industry; laid off (as are many of us); back to school to upgrade IT skills
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| − | ** Uses Visual Studio, C#, other languages
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| − | ** People he's met were developers, or business-specific skills; when software testers are needed these people are thrust into the role
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| − | ** This might change as more universities offer software testing as a major
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| − | ** There are very few courses or certificates in software testing, more prevalent in the US
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| − | *** but Fanshawe college in London has a certificate program
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| − | ** Some institutions have a couple of courses in tech writing, project management, quality management; maybe a night course in software quality testing
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| − | ** Without academic rigour, different people use different terminology, nomenclature
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| − | *** "Should I know what all these different terms mean?" But it's fairly common with other software testers Nick has spoken to
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| − | ** At Microsoft, developers use their development skills to write tests. Needs more skills than just coding
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| − | *** Microsoft has internal courses to train testers how to test software
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| − | *** Get promoted to full developer once you've proven you can write tests
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| − | ** people use Terminology like "Post-mortem" (although nobody dies), mix up "Milestone" and "Benchmark", &c.
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| − | ** Software testing is the start for a developer's career, then to DevOps
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| − | *** Does this mean the most junior, inexperienced programmers are responsible for testing software?
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| − | ** Nick: large companies use junior testers to run tests, senior testers to supervise
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| − | ** During an upgrade Nick (a programmer at the time) did testing for the Database Analyst
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| − | *** But a junior intern was assigned to that role as well, just to gain experience.
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| − | *** Worked out details at a high level, then applied tests to get results
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| − | * Project Managers take different approaches
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| − | * '''You can always think of more tests'''
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| − | ** It's a fine balance between staying on schedule and being thorough
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| − | ** Walkthroughs and working in a team can be helpful
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| − | * Some testing instructors do not like teaching from texts
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| − | ** eg. "Software Testing" by Yogesh Singh
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| − | ** But Nicholas gets good ideas from texts, doesn't agree with those testing instructors
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| − | ** THe problem is that the authors suffer from "Perfect Worldism"
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| − | *** A world where there is unlimited time and money, and the perfect tests can be developed
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| − | ** Nicholas has experience with sticky problems, gets ideas from texts to adapt to his problem
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| − | * Party talk: Software tester does not lead to stimulating conversation
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| − | ** YouTube presenter on software testing is not dull! (**********Need link!***********)
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| − | * Even the simplest test "is A < 70 ?" can have seven or eight tests
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| − | ** Test results, but also overflows, boundaries, different data types
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| − | ** Input validation can require many tests
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| − | * Working with other people, eg. technical writers
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| − | ** For them to understand the software they'll play with the software, and may create unanticipated conditions
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| − | ** Everyone can be a software tester to some degree: Project manager, developer, writer. Even sales?
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| − | ** Sometimes testers find problems with usability as they're running tests; not part of the test suite
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| − | * How effective are some of these ad-hoc testers?
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| − | ** Is there a bias? Do they have some incentive to pass tests even when there are problems?
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| − | *** Sometimes a QA will hold back tests that would have been better to give to the developer in the first place
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| − | ** Accessibility testing is a new skill for QA, may become a testing requirement
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| − | ** Business Analyst (BA), developer and tester make a good team
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| − | *** Sometimes the process of testing will identify the need for more testing
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| − | * Reporting bugs
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| − | ** Requires consideration, tact
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| − | * Test plans may need to be developed quickly
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| − | ** But near the end of a project when time is tight there may not be time to develop tests
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| − | ** So quality of code may suffer near the end of the project
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| − | *** Breaking things during testing that no-one has time to fix
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| − | * Automated testing?
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| − | ** Nick has experience with automated regression testing
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| − | ** Automated regression testing reduces the introduction of new bugs
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| − | * Open Broadcaster Software
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| − | ** Used to catch all activity during user testing
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| − | ** Also use Virtual Box recorder uses host to capture all the output on the VM screen
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| − | * "Monkey Testing"
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| − | ** Also "fuzz testing" or "fuzzing"
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| − | ** Fill all fields, try to overflow, pound on the keyboard, click as fast as possible
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| − | *** But this this does not lead to reproducible errors (fine timing errors)
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| − | *** Although some testers claim they can reproduce
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| − | * Pride in finding bugs?
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| − | ** Nick finds that the "high five" time should occur only after the entire team has identified, reported, documented, and fixed the error, and re-tested
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| − | * Load testing
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| − | ** Hitting a system with a large number of transactions, &c.
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| − | ** But a bogged down system may not be writing to logs, making analysis difficult
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| − | * Nick has written a test for XML testing
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| − | ** But the code Nick wrote was not well tested at all! Oh, the irony!
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| | [[Category:NPSA]] | | [[Category:NPSA]] |
| | [[Category:Events]] | | [[Category:Events]] |
