Testing tools!

Working with tools is a must for software tester professionals. As much used to you got with your tools that much you got good in your work. But it impose dependency in your test, so you are actually believing a or many software to test another software. Is this good? As we know believing is a sin for testers. But did you notice how much you believing on software in to day to day daily life? This argument can goes many pages long, so I am cutting it down to my opinion. According to me doesn't matter how much you disbelieve, in some point you have to rely on your tools. Its not possible to be fully independent to test.

But avoid software which provide results for you, use tools for inspection but don't rely on their result. Result should be made by you the tester. And mention your disbelieves in the report. OK if it is too much unprofessional to mention in report for you than take notes on those and keep it in a very handy place for you, to guide you on future. Last but not the least don't ignore this impact of believe or disbelieve, its too expensive to ignore.

Do test cases really drive you to defects?

Testing an application have many required tasks, like writing test plan, design test scenarios, writing test cases and many many more. And when you are testing based on those checklists what are you getting? Defects? Really, how many? May be they are covering application's requirement but do they cover application's functionality? To be honest this path never helped me much, I never find a worthy defect after all of these works. But surprisingly when ever I am testing any application my insight lead me to defects. And to be a lot more honest whenever I am testing, I put myself in an user seat or customer's seat very rare.

According to me Exploratory testing is the best practice for software testing, you always come up with good defects and you need to educate yourself to know that it is a defect. So, my advice would be to listen to your instincts and recognize defects at first look. That would help a lot more than any test suits.

Something new but not for all

Testing an web application for different versions of IE is a must must. For this reason I tried many software like IEtester and IEcollection but result they show is wrong. Recently I found a very awesome way to test in different version of IE, its in IE it self, in Tools -> Web development tool -> IEversions.

This is very useful information, may most of you know about it already but it worth to share if there some one like me waiting to discover it :]

Exit criteria

So did you determine your exit criteria for working project?

If you did then what is the base? Time, Budget or Context?

Something did you forgot? What about Maintenance testing?

So you are not assigned for it? Not in the Requirement? Not your job?

Think, think reasonably, think once again. From my experience the finest bug's came from customers, after deployment. Bugs which are really tough to think of, very much functional and realistic. Bugs which are delicious for Programmers to fix. Those bugs can build a very strong reputation in your carrier. But those visions came from experience. Experience with a good eye, reasonable mindset and with a lots of notice points. Remember if you are not noting down something very interesting facts of your application then 70% chance is there that you will do the same miss again. So, very careful about your exit criteria may be its out of spec but it is in spec for your knowledge. To grow your knowledge, and it will be big plus in that context application.

P.S
- Keep an eye on your tested software, know its behavior and cause of unexpected
- Must must must note it down, or may be it will lost in your complex brain