My Experience through my project journey

I worked for one of the mobile app project. After completing the testing activities, the app gone for release. So, after the release I was eagerly waiting for the users’ feedback. Because I was asked to do a UX. On one way to approach the UX, I stated collecting all the feedback (rating) till date from the app store. Most of the people have given a 5 and 4 star ratings. But some people has shared 1, 2, 3 star ratings. This made me to think what went wrong. Why people has given such low ratings.  I believe that rating might help the team to trace out the problem to some extent. But it won’t help to solve the problems to great extend. Because those poor rating could also be given by the competitors itself. Anyhow, I collected all those poor rating to know what are the common problems among the people are. I grouped 1, 2, 3, poor rating into one; I saw 50 percentages of people have complained about the UI. Some people said, please rollback the older one. But by this, the decision cannot be made. Because there are people around 60 percentages (4 and 5 star), have said that the UI was good. So, UI is a common problem within the poor rating circle but not on the overall product level.

Now I started questioning myself .Okay. How to investigate these problems? These questions paid a way for some more questions. Still I am working for finding the answer for all those questions asked by myself.

One day, while I was learning about the design guidelines, suddenly a question sparked into my mind. Am I responsible for any kind of issues that happens over the product after the release? If people are not happy with the design, Should I need to be answerable for it?

I believe whether it is a product success/failure, an individual should not be claimed/Blamed for that. If it is a team then the entire team takes those responsibilities.  I started discussing this with my colleagues, before I take this to my teacher.  Over all I feel that as a tester it is important to learn about the product.

It made me to realize that tester needs to walk around all the phases of SDLC. Getting struck up at the testing phases will not help to a great extend. I realized what my teacher said about practicing by comparing with the sports people as an example.  Even a legend go for a practice before playing a real game, then as a tester what practices I should do to work for a project which goes to the real world and that might be used by a billions of people.

 But again it is tough for me to know how and when to start practicing. I will be taking this to my teacher and my lead to get clarity on this

In my organization if people ask me what’s your role I can easily give my answers to them. But, when it comes to a project, I am really confused to say my roles and responsibilities and the limitations. I learnt testers job in not about to share pass/Fail status. There are many things beyond that. Communicating with the people doesn't mean that we have walked out through the entire phase of SDLC. Working with individual teams (design, development, BA, etc) before the release and listening to the end users after the release and rework on it if needed is also a part of testers responsibility. So, I call a testers are connecting dots for the product. But it cannot be prolonged. There need a boundary line in case of claims and blames. When product fails people may raise their finger toward tester. When it succeeds in the market people may take the crown to their head. So, I want to know to what extend I can be blamed. When I say product failure it doesn't mean that some quality criteria have failed. It can be a user’s interest too. If people don’t show the interest on product scope, the product fails even it has met all the quality criteria. We can say this as requirement mismatch with people interest.

Now I am learning about the design so that I can have a better understanding about the product design what is needed for a client (product owner/ may not be needed for an end users. So, when working as a tester it is also important to understand the needs at both sides. But it is something tricky one.

There are so many heuristic that could help us to work on it. But what is needed for that context and choosing or identifying by your own matters a lot.  

My journey has just started. Hoping for the better one, not the safe one J

My investigation and thoughts about UX

This report(my thoughts) might be a buggy in front of you. This is my first report about UX and want to share this with you. It's been a part of my research work. So, I request you to help to me in working more on this topic by sharing your feedback.

UX is a non-functional testing. It is an emotional testing. The product success also relies on UX. The most important and challenging thing to the industry is that, it cannot be automated.  Testing on UX cannot be trained in advanced; it comes through observation while practicing, understanding the people mindset over that product. It’s a human feel and that’s why it cannot be automated. But there are some ways to track and work on the UX.

• Customer support
• Talking with the Sales people
• Social media
• Other people
• Yourself

Though it is tested early release of the product, the value could be observed from the users feedback on that product. Testers are not a psychiatrist to read one’s mind. But should act (think) like to be. UX differs from the enhancement. But the feedback related to the Enhancement could be a part of UX. The product features cannot satisfy 100% customers (end users for that product). But it is important to meet at-least a considerable numbers of customer satisfaction on experience with that product.

The product is born/build for the human. Humans are not born for that product.

The humans interest/expectations/focus may varies from Minute-Minute, hour-hour, Day-Day, Month-Month, etc.  That’s the reason UX cannot been set as a fixed scenario. I believe testing UX under any environment goes on some assumption. To make those assumptions as real time scenarios, it is purely based on the deep investigation and observation from the testers. Here is something I realized while testing against UX is that; as a human, as a tester, there need some patience in listening to people, Acceptance, Speaking with different people, Understanding why that product is build for, Sense of smell in observing the people interests.

Us.Ux=Emotions

I believe it is quite easy to test the functionality part of the product when compared with the non-functional part of it.  

More about my investigation and thoughts about UX will be published in upcoming days.

MY SECOND YEAR JOURNEY AS A SOFTWARE TESTER

The date April 12^th has turned as a special day in my life. Because, I started my career as a Software Tester on that date. Its 2 year completion now (12^th April 2014).Wow! What am amazing journey for me. I have published my first year journey experience in my previous blog post in the title “My one year journey as a Software Tester”. Here I wish to share my experience that I have come across in my second year journey.  I believe most of the people have come across some up’s and down’s in their career. I am no more special to say; hey I have not witnessed such experience. I too have faced more downs and little ups. I felt ups and downs are part of one’s life. So, I took all my downs as an experience and some of my up’s as an example. 

My Journey in Mindzpark

After I lost my job in September 2012, I was jobless for few months. In Jan 2013 I joined in one of the start-up company. I worked for that organization (Mindzpark technologies, Coimbatore) for about 13 months. I was the only tester and the first tester in that company. Being a solo tester I learned to manage the time in handling different projects. Working closely with the developers, interacting with the clients, etc. Being a growing child in the testing community, I felt it would be difficult. But somehow I managed to handle that task. And that gave a great confidence for me. After some days, I felt that I could work as an Independent Tester at any time. I would like to thank all my ex-colleagues for their support. And special thanks to my close buddy “Sakthi Vel, Developer  at Mindzpark”. Because without him I would have not got the opportunity to work as a solo tester.

One day I decided to quit my job for some reason. So, I quit my job in Jan 2014. First month of the year I was jobless again. I joined in Moolya Software in month of February. I was(&am) so much Excited! Because I am going to work(working) closely with my inspirations. I am discussing and sharing my thoughts by sitting in front of my teacher. My teachers are always special to me. Their guidance is like blessing rain to me .Do you want to know who are my inspirations &Teachers (Guru). Please look into my tweets, books and blogs.  I believe this year would be a great year in my career.

I also met a person with similar interest (few step more than me), its Ravi suriya, a passionate Exploratory Tester. I think I am blessed with something special and that’s why I could able to meet some people who really care for the people who walk with them.

Being a new born in testing community, I have faced some difficulties, pain and some appreciation too. Now, I have grown as a 2 year old child in the testing community. Now I could walk without supporting hands to some extent. I could able to see and understand certain things (Business related) that are happening in the world, in making decision, trust. But still I need a supporting hand. I am working for my dream to make it true. This could be possible if there is a blessing from my teachers.

Some of my colleagues, friends ask me this question. I see most of the time you are with dreaming or keep walking alone in office floor. What are you dreaming about? I am not dreaming about my girl friend, or planning to spend my time with my friends during weekends. My dream is about how to make my journey better. I love to walk alone when  my thinking becomes little deeper.  I talk to the people for a long time when I see a similar interest. I don’t know it is good or bad. But this is how I am. I don’t fake myself in sake of impressing someone.

My plans for 2014.

•  I am so much interested in doing some "Research" work. I am still working on that. All my experiment and experience will be shared in my blog post.  
• Planning to publish my second book on the topic “Mobile App Testing”.
• Learning programming language (Python).
• Participating in various contest like step in, 99test, etc…
• Sharing my knowledge through my blog.

I thank my parents for their support by allowing me to work on my dream. At-last my writing goes meaningless if I never thank my teachers. A sincere thank to my teacher for helping me to chase my dream. 

Thank You.

My Contact Details:

E-mail: ktg.pradeep@gmail.com

Skype id: pradeep.lingan

Phone:08748887074

IS TESTING A DOCUMENTATION WORK

Every Tester (even Non-Testers) has their own opinion on the term Testing. It cannot be compromised by all people with a one definition.

What testers actually do?

 It depends upon the role that the testers play and the organization standard they follow. But the two common things that most of us do are “Test and make a Report” of it. Here, I am not going to write about how to test and how to make a report. I just want to mention about how we see the job?

The Programmer spends most of his/her time in writing code. But how about a Testers who work on the same product?

As Testers someway we need to find out our time in making the documentation for 

Test strategy

Test scenarios

Test Ideas/Test cases

Bug Report

And what else….

Out of all we need to find a time to test.

It is always better to know, what people (whom we are writing for) need from us and how they want the document to be. If possible prepare the document based on it. Rather than assuming that people would love to read the document that we have prepared. Don’t make people panic to read by submitting the lengthy document which doesn't interest them. Be specific in sharing the information that you want to share and make it as simple as you could.

Always focus to make a report (any report) with clear and more informative. But not in the intention of impressive. Informative makes impressive.

Which part of the work (Testing or Documenting) playing a major role in the testers’ job?  

It’s your choice. To me both are a tester’s work. Our documentation speaks about our investigation. But which plays a high priority. Again Documenting or Testing?

To test we need those entire mentioned document. Because that play as a proof that we conducted a test. Also it pays a ways to do our test better and also to ensure our coverage.  It is Okay, when all those jobs are carried by a group of people. But it will not be fair if those jobs are supposed to be done by a minimum number of people. Whether the jobs are carried out by maximum or minimum number of people, spending more time in making a document is “WASTE OF TIME”. Spending the time in focusing the document to make it fancy would never give you a job satisfaction to a great extends.  Instead of spending more time on documentation it would be better to spend some of those times in testing a product. Always try to make the document as simple as possible rather than focusing to make it as a fancy. Writing some “X” number of test cases or “N” number of scenarios would impress the stake holders. But it doesn't make productive when the documentation that was prepared is a “BUGGY” one.

It is always good to know how to balance a time between a testing (investigating) and documenting. The most important is to know to make documentation as simple as possible with more informative.  Something I wish to say is that

Practice to make a document more effective in short time. Or create a template of your own that could cover the all the necessary information.

Spend more time on testing the product and make a work more productive.

So, documentation is a part of the tester’s job.

If you are already doing that “kudos”. If you have something better than what I have shared please share with me.  I see “Sharing is Caring”.

Thank you

My Contact Details:

Email ID: ktg.pradeep@gmail.com

Skype : pradeep.lingan

Twitter :pradeeplingan1

Mobile: 08748887074

Good Testers Vs Bad Testers

Hi Readers, Wish you all a Happy New Year. My heart full thanks to all people who really helped me to continue my writing. Though I have the passion to write, still I was looking for the support from people to share their feedback to help my writing better. Lot more changes happened in my writing style just because of the feedback you provided. I didn't see those as a feedback, I used to see that as a “caring”. Yes, it’s just because of you now I am writing this as my 37^th blog. Oh. What an “Awesome experience”.

As I said in my previous blog,  I started blogging with the help of my colleagues guidance. Though they are busy in time, they are still helping me by managing their times. Oh. What an awesome colleagues I have.

Let’s get into the topic. Smile

Good and bad testers

This article is purely based on my opinion and it is not written in the intention of pinpointing someone else. What I have shared is purely based on my knowledge that I gained/witnessed in this past (1.8 years). I do apologies if any of my points I mentioned are wrong and I would be happy if you share your thoughts for which you say I am wrong.

 Good testers:

1. Knows the importance of having good communication with people
2. Share their knowledge
3. Keep updating their skills
4. Learn  about the product before questioning
5. Set their own principles and they will follow those principles.
6. Say no to blind believing.
7. Will not be compromised with the bug they find that are not fixed.
8. Work for product quality
9. Know when to use tools and what tool to be used.
10. Define his/job by defining on his/her own
11. Make good bug report.
12. Professionalism is seen in the report
13. They act(work) like a good thinker
14. They interact with social network
15. They make their bugs fixed or they keep tracking the updates.
16. See bug as a problem in the product.
17. They provide the details as much as possible to help the developers to fix the issues quickly.  

 Bad testers:

1.  Don’t communicate because they are scared or don’t know the value of it.
2.   Don’t share just because of “Ego”.    
3. Don’t have the passion to learn new thing
4.  Don’t question and say yes to all what their lead/manager say even after knowing it will not work  well.
5.  Don’t have principles in their life (career).
6.   Blind believer. They don’t have trust on their thoughts.
7.  They compromise with the issues if the developers are his/her friend and don’t want to hurt them by  any more.
8.   Work for monthly salary (only intention).
9.    Always go with tools no matter it could be of any tools
10.    Define job by referring some reference material.
11.    Bug reporting contains only the snapshot with max file size.
12.    Professionalism is not seen in the report.
13.    They act(work) like a tool
14.    Don’t interact in any social network
15.    Don’t care about the bug they reported. They don’t track any updates.
16.    See bug as a credit for their job.
17.    Blindly send the bug with no clear information about it.     

  

My style of defining testing and its concepts

Here I share my thoughts about testing and its concepts. I have mentioned few and I will be updating few more about it in my upcoming blog post. I personally do this for the people who are “blind believer”, who always go with book /links in search of defining something. I would be happy if those people change themselves and define things by their own on what they know. I would suggest people not to follow someone blindly by not knowing the reason for following them and not even knowing who he/she is.

What Software testing is?

Software testing is about applying the question that was asked by ourselves to evaluate the behavior of the product.

Manual Testing:

Testing that was carried out by human. Where he/she test to check the behavior with the eye witness in many cases.

Automation Testing:

The software that test the another software based on the standard it has been made.

Quality:

Quality =Value

I believe we can’t test for the quality intentionally. We could test for its behavior. Product quality is what the product success is. Quality comes from the user end (Users acceptance/interest over that product)

Bug: 

An issue in a product. It could be of programming, design, Requirement fault.

Example. You add a sugar to the cup of good water. When you drink you should feel the sweet taste but not the bitter taste. The bitter taste is the bug in the sugar. 

Tester: 

Who is not a Scientist, but he/she should think like a scientist

Who is not a Judge, but he/she should be good in making decision

Who is not an Astrologer, but he/she should be able to predict the products behavior

So, the professional who has the attributes of those three is called as a tester.

What testing and approach mean to me ?

Here are few things from my tweets, follow me @pradeeplingan1 for more updates.

1. To expose your work, question others when there is a need for it or hide your calmness when then is no need for that.
2. How you define testing, is how your testing probably be.
3. Reporting and getting fixed of a single bug is worth more than the 100 reported bugs that are not fixed and not even considered
4. Behavior of the product is about how the product respond to the question(s) you asked.
5. Quality assurance: They question the people, but not the product Quality control: They question the product, but not the people.Questioning both the product and the people is what the testers should do
6. Did you speak with the product? How best the product convey its answer for the questions you asked,rate the products usability from it
7. Discover your world" Doesn't mean that you need to find an another world. It is to find things that are hidden in/around you.
8. Tools are like horse blinkers,it don't have a way to re-think.A human brain should not be trained in such a way.Good to be tool smith but not tool dependent.
9. Bugzilla is a tool not a skill. Writing reports using such tool is a skill.
10. Critical thinking ( an Imaginary Syntax) is the basic need for doing a  better testing quality, Creativity,
11. Testing is an art one can't have(learn) it unless one know how to think critically.
12. If you blindly follow the standard written by others, you have not started learning testing.
13. A  Tester should not be a horse blinkers. Turn your head and see what's happening on all sides
14. I believe we can’t test for quality intentionally. We could test for its behavior.Product quality is what the products success
15. Quality is nothing but value. How can u test for a value when there is no count in the board. You cant test for quality, but we believe it.  Wait for my next blog " My style of defining testing and its concepts".