Wit magazine april_2008

What Is
Test ng
India’s 1st Software Testing Magazine

April’08, Issue

Reduce number of testing scenarios with this insight on -

Cover Story
Pg
21
Risk based
Testing

Inside this issue
Are you TEAM ready?
Putting the “Test” back in “Test plan” Pg 57
Some things I have learned in Pg 44
Software Testing Pg
Morning Ideas Pg 04
Have I got a deal for you?
Finally Usability Testing
Pg 28
Pg 40
14
With little Preparation & Teamwork
you can pave the way for new Team Memers.
and more...

Welcome to 
 is the first conference being organized by PureConferences in India.

We intend making
 an experience for all participants by creating a platform for professionals and experts from the testing
community of the Globe

 will revolve around ’Agility in Testing’
The theme will explore and expand on the need for testing teams to adapt to the changing demands of release and quality.

 will cover diverse topics. Keynotes, Tutorials, and Paper presentations by renowned speakers known nationally
and internationally will be one of the highlights of the conference.
Let’s mark the conference program in our calendar today itself.

 will offer opportunities to the partners to associate themselves with this endeavor and showcase their
products in the conference.

We are sure you want to participate and/or present a paper or tutorial.

Do visit us at http://www.test2008.in

Issue1: Vol 1: April 2008 Contents

Cover Story Is bad testing
pg
eating your
21
Pr fits?
04 FROM THE DESK: Morning Ideas
by Sunil Gupta
Good design is key for a good and reliable product

08 THE PROCESS ROOM: Software Testing: ~ A field par excellence
by Sudhir & Anjan
Software testing as a field has brought in a high level of confidence in customers and users
and has thus far provided far more challenges to the new age engineers and academicians.

12 TEAM MANAGEMENT: Are You Ready?
by Michael Bolton
With a little preparation and teamwork, you can pave the way for a new team member.

21 COVER STORY: Is Bad Testing Eating Your Profits?
by Rex Black
Testing should focus on mitigating specific risks to the quality of the system. Sequence of test
execution should be driven by associated risk...

28 THAT TIME OF YEAR: Have I Got A Deal For You
by Matthew Heusser
The methods and extend of our testing are all choices; you could even say they are trade-offs.

33 LEARN HOW TO TEST: What a Tester Should Know, even After
Midnight
by Hans Schaefer
Testing The Normal Way is Not Enough.... Where you find defects, dig deeper!

40 LEARN HOW TO TEST: Finally Usability Testing?
by Erik van Veenendaal
Will it finally happen!

Other Stories
44 FROM DEV DESK: Some Things I’ve Learned in Software Testing
by Jonathan Kohl
50 CONTROVERSY CORNER: QA is More Challenging than Development
by Mrityunjay
53 Is scripted testing bad?
by Vipul Kocher
57 Putting the “Test” back in Test Plan
by Paul Carvalho

WhatIsTesting.com 1

Tea testers look at
aspects of dried & brewed
tea leaves and the liquor

Likewise, PureTesting goes into various
aspects & nuances of soĞware testing

We build innovati ve, end-to-end solutions,
and manage critical testing processes,
and reduce total cost of producing quality soĞware

• Banking & Finacial Services • Datacom & Telecom
• Pharmaceuticals • Embedded Systems
• eLearning • EAI & ISVs

Test Consulting • Testing Services • Testing Products

India • USA • UK • NZ
www.puretesting.com
+91 (120) 4621010; info@puretesting.com

Global Software Test Consulting & Services company

Editor’s Note

Release of any software is a moment of mixed emotions, pleasure and
pain, joy and anxiety -- joyousness of seeing the hard work resulting
in a release and the anxiety of the unfound bugs that could have been
found and fixed.
After a lot of effort, this magazine is also being released with similar
emotions. We take great pleasure in introducing Version 1.0 of WIT
magazine. We hope to have many more versions of this magazine, both
major and minor, in years to come and hopefully with minimum number
of patches. We also hope that the future versions of the magazine will
have more features, will be more robust, will have an expanded user
base and establish itself as a dominant player.
Instead of the usual Editorial about the contents of the magazine
which you anyway can find out from the table of content, we take this
opportunity to share with you the reasons for this magazine and who
are the people who have contributed to it.
Many of the technical magazines “grow-up” with time. The articles
become more “philosophical” and more abstract. Readers who are
regular subscribers too grow with the magazine but most of the new
comers start finding the magazine “too abstract” for their liking. WIT
magazine hopes to keep itself relevant to both old readers who grow up
with the magazine and new readers who are either new to the testing
profession or new to the magazine.
Our sincere thanks to the initial group of people who helped
brainstorm the concept of the magazine. They are – Bernard Homès,
Danny R. Faught, Johanna Rothman, Kamesh Pemmaraju, Matthew
Heusser, Michael Kelly, Rex Black, Scott Barber, Stefan Steurs. Without
them the magazine would not have become a living reality. All good
things about the magazine are because of this group, the authors and
other well wishers. All bugs are because of us.
For putting together this version of the WIT magezine, I acknowledge
the efforts of Ashwin Razdan for collaborating with the authors and
collecting all the articles; Parag Sapre for designing the elaborate
graphics; Anushree Tewari for providing editing support, and Satish
Thakur for giving it the final shape in which you see the WIT magezine.
Hope you find this version readable and useful and we hope to have a
better V 1.1.
~ Vipul

WhatIsTesting.com 3

From Daily Life
Morning Ideas

the

Morning
Desk

Ideas
Though a good design is key for a good and reliable
product, a robust test and evaluation of the product
only ensures that the product meets all-explicit and
implicit requirements and is ready for deployment and
usage.

O
ne morning when I was engrossed bags had torn almost at the same place.
in my newspaper, my daughter
Since it was not possible to repair the bag
created panic as her school
in ten minutes, thus she carried her stuff in
bag had given way at one of the
another bag but this episode left me thinking.
shoulder belts.
I realized that the bag was made to meet
I was annoyed at her letting
the functional requirements of the student
me know only when I was
such as adequate space to carry stuff,
completely torn while she would
compartments for lunch box, pencil box and
have seen this happening over
water bottle. The bag was also providing a
the last few days but my bigger
good aesthetics but lacked the robustness
reason of annoyance was due
in terms of handling the stress that comes
to the fact this was the 3rd or
on the bag with daily usage....
4th time the different school

4 WhatIsTesting.com

by Sunil Gupta, Head of Testing Practice : Flextronics Software Systems
by

For product organizations, the composition and
organization of the test team plays a very crucial
role in the success of the product. Enough time
Composition and and energy needs to be spent by senior test
organization of the test team folks to
plays a very crucial role in • Visualize the product (software and
the success of the product. hardware)
• Look at the various field configurations

Two things emerged when I extended my thought • Identify the tools required for testing
process further. • Look at the FOUR views:
One, product making whether it is a school o User view
bag or a large and complex telecom product
o Maintenance View
requires good understanding and research in
terms of features, stress areas, usability, etc o Functional/Operational View
without which the product would give numerous o Performance View
problems to the user as the school bag gave to In order to achieve a good understanding of
my daughter. the product before the exhaustive test cycle
Second, testing plays a very crucial role to commences, a few people from the test team
ensure that the product meets all requirements need to be dedicated to carry out the Test
including the ability of the product to handle Engineering tasks (as defined above). This set
normal and abnormal stress conditions. of people should have the mandate to carry out
the verification and validation tasks.
If we take the school bag example, it is very
important for the product manufacturer to In the school bag example, the User View would
ensure that the various be to look at all the ways in which the school
stitches in the bag take up bag would be used by a user. There would be
the full bag load else there several user scenarios such as:
are going to be numerous • Student lifting the bag from one belt
dissatisfied customers like
me. • Student lifting the bag using the side belt
and loading on its back
Though a good design is key
for a good and reliable product, • Student fully loading the bag with books but
a robust test and evaluation weight may not be too much
of the product only ensures that the product • Student
meets all-explicit and implicit requirements and partially
is ready for deployment and usage. loading the
It is seen across the IT and software industry books but
that the organizations give a lot of focus to hiring the weight
and developing software development teams may have
but do not focus enough on developing testing exceeded the
teams. The test team is put in place either very
late on the programs or the test teams are not
organized well enough to provide the vital value
expected from the Test team.

WhatIsTesting.com 5

Morning Ideas

Suddenly I realized that it was 9:00 hrs by the
watch and I had a 9:30 am meeting with the
Product testing and Quality Group to review the Post Release Defect
Density of the products that we shipped in the
deployment is a very last quarter and had only 30 minutes to reach
involved and rigorous task office. Thanks to god, for my home is only a 7
minutes drive from office.
recommended weight Bye for now……
Maintenance View would be to look at aspects
such as ease of cleaning and washing the bag;
ease of repairing the bag and how easy it is to
find the spares such as zippers, buckles, etc.
Functional or Operational view is another
important aspect of testing. Tester has to
consider all the functional aspects of the
product. In this example, aspects such as
following would be tested:
• Ease of keeping books in the bag
• Access to all the pockets of the bag
• Ease of closing and opening the bag
• Ease of lifting the bag on shoulder and on
the back
• Enough space to keep books, lunch box,
and water bottle, etc.
Last but not the least, the Performance view of
the product in terms of load handling, ability
to bear stress due to regular use through
load balancing is considered. In the example,
tester has to take following aspects into
consideration:
• Testing the bag for various load and stress
situations
• Testing the bag for full load capacity
• Testing the key joints/stitches under the
stress situations
• Identify the weak areas and strong areas of
the product
Product testing and deployment is a very
involved and rigorous task and involves the best
of people and the best of the practices.

6 WhatIsTesting.com

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The Software Testing: ~ A field par excellence

Process

Software
Corner

Testing
~ a Field Par Excellence

Apart from giving fillip to the economy, Software test-
ing as a field has brought in a high level of confidence
in customers and users and has thus far provided far
more challenges to the new age engineers and acad-
emicians.
Introduction and ITeS segment known as Software Testing.
Renewed growth of the Software Industry has
Awareness on Software Quality has, over the last
helped testing achieve the position of being
couple of decades, become one of the defining
called the watchdog of quality. Apart from giving
features not only in Indian software sector but
fillip to the economy, Software testing as a field
also from a global perspective. Thanks to the
has brought in a high level of confidence in
dotcom crash which was an eye opener for
customers and users and has thus far provided
everyone in the field to look back and focus
far more challenges to the new age engineers
on enhancing the quality of the products that
and academicians. Looking at some of the
are already in the market for many years. The
astounding figures:
quality initiatives taken through the last couple
of decades, have now become all pervasive and 1. Bangalore has seen a 24% growth in its
thus given rise to a new avenue within the IT recruitment drive in software testing. It is

8 WhatIsTesting.com

by Sudhir & Anjan, Product Testing & Documentation : Accelrys, ITPL,
Bangalore

Facts from Industry
1. $3.0 billion of $4.6 billion in outsourced
Composition and organization testing is sent offshore, throwing up
of the test team plays a very opportunities for companies in India that
thrive on low-cost knowledge workers. ~
crucial role in the success of Source Aztech Software - Bangalore
the product. 2. Testing could make up to 25-50 percent
of software budgets. Independent testing
is growing at 50-65 percent while the part
forecasted that India needs about 18000 of work done offshore is growing at 35-40
test engineers in the year 2005-2006. percent. ~ Source - Partha Iyengar, vice-
2. With India having more than 89 companies president at industry researcher Gartner
at SEI CMM Level 5 assessment; 275 Indian 3. Testing service team at Wipro has jumped
software and BPO companies acquired four-fold to 2,400 in two years. In the
quality certification; and more and more nine months to December, revenue grew
IT-ITES companies have dedicated quality 90 percent to $64 million, three times
departments responsible for developing and the industry average. ~Source - C.P.
deploying the quality policies and reviewing Gangadharaiah, VP Testing services, Wipro
them.
4. The global market for software testing is
3. NASSCOM survey has indicated that the around $13 billion. In India alone, the
road ahead for the Indian software and demand for software testing professionals
services companies within the quality is expected to touch 20,000 to 30,000
arena was largely dictated and tuned to by December 2006. . ~Source – Internet
the developments taking place in the global Search
marketplace.
4. The future would see organizations move Recent Trends
from quality assurance to business With this background, we can ask ourselves
assurance and focus on information security - what conclusion we want to drive from it?
complying with international legislations, Why suddenly is everyone so statistical about
developing new global delivery capabilities gathering all these figures? To take a close look
and enhancing quality processes in new below we see from 50’s onwards till 80’s either
business areas. the products were not tested or if they were then
it was out of compulsion.
This is testimony to the fact that software
testing is poised to grow at a phenomenal rate Quality as a term itself took the real shape
in future. With all these happenings, no one can under the leadership of Borris Beizer who gave
deny the conclusion that software testing has the awareness to the industry and the world
grown as an independent field within IT/ITeS about its very existence. The role of quality has
service segments. And it has given a clarion become a necessity than a need in the software
call to everyone within the professional arena, industry.
specifically academicians, to closely monitor,
If we start looking into history, we will find
analyze and push forward the new horizons of
thousands of such cases where a small mistake
the technology movement that software testing
in the software has brought havoc to life and
as a field is going to provide. Looking at some
money. The most recent one is the Columbia
more interesting statistics on testing industry:
Space Shuttle crash. All such incidents have

WhatIsTesting.com 9

Software Testing: ~ A field par excellence

espoused within the IT-geeks eagerness towards human life such as Insurance, Healthcare,
“checking before delivering” approach. On the Banking, Financial services, Pharmaceuticals,
contrary, there was time when products were logistics etc. What this means is that, software
released without or with minimal testing done. developed in each of these Industry verticals
Of course, many a time, these are dictated by need testing – some rigorously and some which
how the market wants them. Time-to-market can give adequate confidence in the product. At
was probably more important than quality the end, software testing too is spanning across
of the product. But, time has changed post all these Industry verticals. When it comes to
dotcom crash era and software quality has the domains, the field looks even more lucrative
maximum thrust in the market today, be it by the amount of challenge each one of them
consumer products, electronics, manufacturing provide to the individuals involved in testing.
or software. And quite rightly, software testing Therefore, as software testing started to support
is enjoying its share of this quality conscious the development activities in these domain
market. areas, it became increasingly necessary for the
test engineers to gain knowledge and specialize
Testing as a field has now been more
within each of these domain areas. This is
strategic and approach-centric
another area where there is a huge potential
thus adding new dimensions as
for test engineers to grow and make an impact.
well as many challenges to it.
This led to different teams being formed, some
Previously testing used to be an
heterogeneous and some homogeneous groups
afterthought activity in the post
to cater to testing software in these domains.
release phase when the clients
The requirements of the client keep on
call and say “we found something wrong in
growing and we as organizations need to meet
your delivered software”. But with time, it is no
the demands of the end users to stay in this
longer the case. Any small error today is a big
business. This translates to the whole gamut
issue from a client perspective. With more and
of technology issues starting from software,
more third party software testing companies
hardware to third-party products. Software can
grooming overtime, the availability of a talented
be legacy application running on a mainframe
resource pool, making timely deliveries and the
or the latest technologies such as .NET, J2EE
commitment to meet the quality expectations
etc... Technology as we know has advanced from
of the customer has added many feathers to
the days of mainframes to today’s applications
India’s software testing market. Needless to
running on a PC based Linux systems. However,
make a note that Software testing as a field
at the same time, applications developed on the
within IT/ITeS has now emerged as a strong
legacy technologies have not gone away or have
area of business solutions and a source of
not been replaced with new technology; they are
major revenue generator and emerging more as
still being used in Banks, Insurance companies
a serious business goal as well an intrinsic part
within the IT/ITeS organization culture.

Future Challenges
There is software in almost
every aspect of human life....
Domain and Technology Perspective
software developed... need
The growing demand from within the customer
groups as well the growing demand of the
testing -- some rigourously
organizations to meet and extend their client and some which can give
support has made software testing as a field adequate confident in the
nothing but a paramount knowledge pool.
There is software in almost every aspect of product.

10 WhatIsTesting.com

by Sudhir & Anjan, Product Testing & Documentation : Accelrys, ITPL,
Bangalore

and many others. This even complicates the Conclusion
scenarios wherein the vendors have to support
Moving a little off track to give a comparative
both old applications as well as new applications.
analysis we see in the past Public Administration
This tells us how complex it can be for testing
has struggled a lot to give itself an individual
to handle such complex set-ups. Besides, the
identity and for a long time shared a part of its
applications run on varied platforms from
glory with either Political science or Sociology.
different vendors including: Windows, Linux,
But today it has gained a public reputation and
Macintosh, IRIX, AIX, unix & Mainframe. We
has become a part of everyone’s life.
are currently looking from a macro level. Since
with the growing numbers of different flavors of So does it hold true for software testing which has
an individual OS (e.g. Linux as such has Linux remained cocooned within Software Engineering
Workstation2.0/3/0, Advanced Server 2.0/3.0, or Software Development Life Cycle. But now
Enterprise server 2.0/3.0 etc.) the coverage from the field has not only gained reputation but also
testing point of view becomes immeasurable. has stood on its own. Software testing as a field
Does that not give a test engineer enough has come of age bearing the pain of “We can do
challenge to work on so many platforms? Of without you” to share the glory of “With you we
course yes, it’s not that developers only code are right through”. A field that is still growing,
for making an application run over different shining and awaiting to flourish still needs a lot
platforms but the test engineers too have their of planning & strategizing from all sections in
own way of reaching end to end. Apart from this the Industry and academicians. As we need to
we can also predict a good deal of exploration remember the following lines:
in areas like Client-Server, Web (2-tier, 3-tier)
“The Road to Excellence is a never ending
applications, Mainframe application and an
Road” ~H. James Harrington, The Improvement
endless list of such applications.
Process
What we discussed as far as technology is
concerned is only the tip of the iceberg. There
seems to be an endless list and mushrooming
application areas to be explored in the time to
come.

WhatIsTesting.com 11

Team Are You Ready?

Mana-
gment

Are
You
Ready?
With a little preparation and
teamwork, you can pave the way
for a new team member.
Use a checklist to make sure you have everything
ready before the new team member arrives.
● Compile all necessary documents into one binder
that can be given to any new arrivals.
● Be sure to provide some context about the company
and the team to help the newbie get acclimated.


by Michael Bolton, DevelopSense, a Toronto-based consultancy
and training firm.

I
f your company is typical, it is hiring agreement. Make sure this, too, is prepared
more and more temporary workers while in advance, and that all agree on each of its
scrambling for every bit of efficiency and points before the contractor’s first day. If your
value. Hiring a contractor to help with human resources department has policies and
temporary problems can be cost-effective, but procedures manual appropriate for your hire,
wasting his or her time undermines the purpose make a copy available to the contractor early
of the exercise and costs hundreds of dollars in the game. Human resources will typically
per day. Moreover, people simply don’t work as require various kinds of information from
well when they feel uninformed, frustrated, or your new hire. Be sure to ask in advance what
stymied. On the other hand, a contractor who information they’ll need so that you can pass
can hit the ground running will make better on any questions to the contractor prior to
relationships, will be more effective, and will her arrival. Human resources or security will
use your time and hers productively. typically supply ID badges, pass cards, access
codes, and keys to the office, restrooms, or
This article describes ways to prepare
other secure facilities. These items should be
for a new contractor; however, the tips here
available and tested.
could just as easily be applied to a temporary
employee, a new permanent employee, or in If the contractor is arriving from out of the
some cases, a transfer into your department. I country, make sure that your human resources
don’t assume any particular job description or department and the contractor have fulfilled all
title for the person, nor do I assume anything requirements related to visas, work permits,
about the person’s technical skill in any given and the like. The accounting people will need
category. Neither should you make such to deal with administrative and taxation issues.
assumptions. A crackerjack developer may be Make their jobs easier by coordinating and
completely oblivious to network configuration relaying the required information in advance,
issues — especially in a new environment both from your staff and from the contractor.
— and a brilliant documentation writer might Issues related to eligibility, tax numbers, tax
be flummoxed by a cryptic voicemail system. forms, and withholding information should be
Your contractor’s time is best used to solve the sorted out concurrently with the contract.
problem for which you’re hiring her, not her
own infrastructural or contractual issues.

Contracts and Administrivia Restrooms with locks but
Before beginning work, your contractor will no keys are scourges upon
typically sign a contract outlining the scope of the land. When I started at
the work to be done, the deliverables expected, one small outfit, it was a
and a schedule detailing when each element
week before security could
of the work should be completed. The more
specific the contract, the less opportunity there produce a restroom key
is for miscommunication and disagreement, for me. It wasn’t only a bother for me
and the better your interests are protected. to ask my new colleagues for a key—I
Your contractor may have requirements that are
outside the scope of your company’s standard was interrupting their work, too.
contract, or she may have to provide certain
kinds of documents relating to work eligibility.
At this company, the restrooms were
Make sure these kinds of issues are ironed out locked, but the door to the server room
before the contractor is slated to begin work. was always open.
Most contracts come with a non-disclosure


Are You Ready?

Elizabeth, a European There are few things that make a contractor
contractor of my happier than being paid on time and with
a minimum of hassle. Ask your accounting
acquaintance, was hired department what they’ll need from the contractor
to work in an American to pay invoices promptly.
company. She submitted Ensure that expense and reimbursement policies
an invoice, covering salary are clear from the get-go. If your company uses
and expenses, which was a standard expense reconciliation form, make
sure that a few copies or an electronic template
rejected on the basis of a couple
are available to your contractor. Again, your
of questions from the accounting most friendly and helpful contact person in
department about her tax withholding accounting should be available to the contractor
status. She dropped in to investigate to help sort out confusion or difficulties.

the problem by speaking with Mark, IT Issues
the accountant who had sent her the Notify the IT support department that a new hire
mail rejecting the invoice. “I don’t have is on her way, and request the specific things
time,” said Mark. “Not even for just a you’ll need and the date you’ll need them. Most
new arrivals will need at least one computer set
couple of questions?” asked Elizabeth.
up, linked
“No,” Mark replied. “It would be a
to the network, loaded with tools, attached to
different story if you were an employee printers, and tested. If you’re hiring a developer
rather than a contractor. But,” he said or tester, additional terminals or workstations
imperiously, “I have more important may be necessary. Don’t forget to tell the IT
department about this, and above all, don’t
strategic things to do.” This incident
assume that they’ll know what the new arrival
occurred at a company where more needs. Your new arrival will need access to
than half the staff was made up of various areas of the network, so make sure
contractors. she has the appropriate set of access rights. If
your company’s security is very restrictive—for
Eventually the problem was sorted example, limited
out, but it meant inconvenience and Internet access—notify your contractor
exasperation for Elizabeth and her beforehand so that other arrangements can
be made for Net-based research tools and
manager, and embarrassment for
resources. An analog line might be required
Mark’s manager. On the other hand, for some purposes. If specific tools—examples
Elizabeth’s final report included a include compilers, configuration management
subtle recommendation—which Mark’s programs, and testing utilities—are required,
have these loaded and tested on the contractor’s
manager followed—to give Mark less machine in advance. Be sure to follow up,
strategic work to do. Whether Mark is verifying that the work has been done and
currently doing strategic work or not, that resources, configuration settings, network
policies, and default passwords are documented.
he’s doing it somewhere else.
Make sure that email accounts have been set


We challenge you.

At GrapeCity, we challenge you
with assignments on the latest
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enabling you to emerge a winner
in this game called life.

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www.grapecity.com

Are You Ready?

up and checked by sending a
message to the new arrival’s Note the people who are most likely to be
address, and then check with helpful in answering questions or fixing
the IT department to be sure
the message has been received problems, and provide their contact information.
in the new mailbox. In addition,
obtain a document from the IT voicemail system. Have the telephone installed,
department on how to change network login and a number ready for the contractor when she
and email passwords. arrives. Make sure that this number is listed in
the company directory — and remember that
Everyone needs a working telephone and directories can exist on the network, in the
voicemail system, and with the receptionist.
Despite everyone’s best intentions, a company’s
information infrastructure can be complex
The new arrival can often and confusing to a new arrival. Have the IT
help people to notice department provide the name of a specific
old bumps in the road. I person—a guide or sponsor who is helpful and
knowledgeable about the company—to help the
was brought into a test contractor navigate through network access,
organization to help email configuration, and printer problems. In
identify problems in testing addition, make sure that your contractor will be
able to find her default printer, email address,
efficiency. There were two types of
network login name and password, and IP
network drops in the test lab—one address. Try to counsel colleagues against
for the company’s internal network sending email announcements saying things
and one for the test network. These like “This week’s build can be found in the usual
places.” Instead, make the details explicit.
weren’t labeled, since everyone who
used the lab knew which was which. I Providing Context
suggested that this shouldn’t be taken The contractor has been hired to accomplish
for granted as one of the locals helped some task or solve some problem. If people
within your company are having difficulty
me find the right connection, and I
sorting out an issue, imagine the difficulty that
used a bit of masking tape to label the a stranger will face!
drops nearest to my workstation. The
Even people who have worked inside your
next day, a fairly senior tester reported company and who know the general environment
a defect that was later found to be need background information when they
spurious, at a fairly significant waste of arrive in a new position. This is yet another
motivating force for your company to develop
time and effort. The misunderstanding clear specifications, design documents, plans,
happened because he had plugged the schedules, budgets, and so on. Start by writing a
test machine into the wrong network brief description of what the company and your
division do, and prepare an organizational chart
connection. The day after that, labels
or departmental roster. At the very least, identify
magically appeared on all of the yourself and your direct superiors and reports,
network drops. along with the other people with whom you
expect the contractor will be working. As you’re


and training firm.

preparing this information,
note the people who are most The processes and documents that
likely to be helpful in answering
questions or fixing problems, you prepare for the arrival of one
and provide their contact
information, so as to minimize
contractor will be highly recyclable.
the amount of time that the and you’ll quickly have a list that is easily
contractor must wait—unproductively—for maintained and printed.
answers. Document the key business processes
and workflows associated with the new arrival’s One of the benefits of traveling, from the point
task at hand. If you provide answers early, there of view of many contractors, is using free time
will be less time spent wondering and asking
questions.
Don’t get hung up on tools or formatting: A At one company where I
document composed using a text editor or was a full-timer, we hosted
even a pen and paper is infinitely superior to a
document that doesn’t exist at all. When offered a number of developers
a choice between a detailed Notepad file and an during an outsourced
empty Gantt chart, I’ll pick the former every time. project. We created a list
Simply make sure that the information exists,
of local restaurants and
and that it can be found and read easily. Make it
a mandate from the beginning, and check with tourist attractions by sending out
the new arrival often. If the new arrival feels email to everyone in the department,
that she is being forced to do detective work, soliciting one suggestion from each
encourage her to keep a log of what she needed
to know and what she found. Make sure that person. I compiled the suggestions
one of her deliverables is a list of the things that into a single document, removed the
will be useful to her successor, and be sure to duplicates, and posted the results to
budget time for her to prepare it.
an internal discussion board. A few of
City Guide the suggestions inspired still more.
If your new arrival is coming in from out of town, Some might suggest that discussion
she’ll feel more welcome with a guide and some of restaurants on company time and
idea of where important services can be found. company bulletin boards is wasteful.
If your company is providing accommodations,
make sure that the contractor’s lodgings are Our experience was that the one-
quiet, secure, comfortable, and reliable, and suggestion technique cost next to no
that they’re ready for the contractor by the time and was a way of getting to know
end of the first day of work, at the latest. If
people—and people who knew each
arranging accommodations is the contractor’s
responsibility, provide a list of facilities in a other better almost always worked
variety of price ranges. While it’s nice to be close smarter and harder.
to work, don’t strand the contractor near an
industrial park without food or services nearby. We also found that a handy list made it
Prepare a list of restaurants in the area that easy to book company gatherings, to
cater to a variety of tastes and budgets.
provide directions, and so on.
Ask your department for recommendations,


Are You Ready?

to explore their surroundings. Survey your people she’ll need to know. An introduction
staff for a number of interesting— and possibly from you is likely to carry more significance
undiscovered— places to visit in the area. If than one from a subordinate, so be prepared
those places are somewhat off the beaten path, to do this yourself. Even if you are routinely
ask the person making the recommendation to busy, getting your employees and contractors
provide a link to one of the several useful Web- to work together is a tremendously worthwhile
based mapping services. If everyone pitches in a investment. A contractor’s effectiveness often
suggestion or two, compiling them into a helpful depends upon being able to meet and connect
guide shouldn’t be burdensome. When you’re with other people. Most contractors meet their
finished, you should have a complete package new colleagues in business meetings, but more
of general information that can be passed to informal circumstances can lead to friendlier
any new employee or visitor on paper, via email, relationships. On the introductory tour, take
or on an internal Web site. Ask the new arrival your time. Cover the important places and people,
frequently for feedback on the checklist, and but be relaxed and try to avoid a hard-and-fast
refine it accordingly. agenda. Spend a few moments introducing the
new contractor to each staff member. Explain
On the Job quite generally what the new arrival is there
Make sure that you schedule some time on to do, and describe your staff member’s role,
the contractor’s first day for introductions and how each may be able to help the other.
and a tour of the essentials. You should be Don’t just concentrate on peers and colleagues.
prepared to walk around for at least an hour Spend a few moments chatting with other useful
with the new arrival, introducing her to the contacts with whom your new arrival will need to
interact—people in network services, reception,
the mail room, and accounts payable. As you’re
The kitchen or lunchroom walking around, show the new person all of the
is not only the place useful and necessary places around the office.
for refueling but also a An early stop should be the restroom. If keys
or pass cards are required, make sure that the
good place to meet and
contractor is given them upon her arrival. The IT
converse with others. department should have set up a default printer
Linger for a while and and informed you which one it is. Include this
encourage chatting, even on the tour, along with specialty printers and
other equipment that might be useful. Also
if it’s not directly related to the task on the tour, include visits to the office supply
at hand. Spend a little petty cash cupboard, the photocopier, the first aid kit, and
on group lunches, outside coffee the lunchroom. For the duration of the contract,
the contractor is a member of your company
breaks, or visits to the pub with your
and your department, and thus should be
contractor and the rest of your staff. accorded at least the same kind of assistance
If these informal approaches seem and respect given to your permanent employees.
of questionable value, consider that If you are the contractor’s supervisor, you must
be prepared to go to bat for her, and the rest of
productivity and effectiveness are your organization should be prepared to take
often based on personal relationships the same approach.
and rapport—do what you can to foster No matter what the task, there’s nothing worse
them. than having to research and answer the same
questions over and over again. Keep a list of


and training firm.

frequently asked questions, their answers, and complete, can be reused and refined, but rarely
where someone can go for more information. In will you have to start it again from scratch.
many cases the FAQ information can be posted You’ll need to review things periodically, but
on an internal Web site, captured in a database the benefits will be immediate: happier, better-
within workgroup software, or collected in a prepared, and—most importantly— more
piece of email. If you don’t have such things set productive workers.
up, consider making the collection of FAQs a
task for the contractor, making such a document
part of the contractor’s package of deliverables,
since your contractor will have plenty of insight
on what’s important for a new arrival to know.

Reuse and Recycle
All this might sound like a lot of work— and the
first time you do it, it will be.
Luckily, the processes and documents that you
prepare for the arrival of one contractor will be
highly recyclable; they can be used again and
again, regardless of whether the new arrival is
a temporary or full-time employee. Since you’ll
be consulting with other departments, you can
exchange ideas and plans, and improve the lot
of new arrivals companywide. The work, once

Checklist for a New Team * Policies and procedures manual
Member * Expense and reimbursement policy
Prepare for Arrival * Expense forms
* Signed contract * Telephone and voicemail instructions
* HR info from contractor * Telephone directory, with key contacts
* Keys, badges, and codes ready and highlighted
tested * Internet policy
* Visa, work permit, and eligibility * Password and login instructions
confirmed * Software resource manuals
* Resolution of tax issues * Names of key contact people in IT, HR,
* Telephone and voicemail set up Accounting, etc.
* Phone number listed in directory * Organizational chart
* Set up computer: * Division responsibilities
networked * Overview of company
all applications installed and tested * Key business processes and workflows
email account related to job
login * Guide to city, if applicable
passwords * List of frequently asked questions (with
answers)
printer connection
Documents to Provide


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Cover by Rex Black, President, RBCS, Inc., Bulverde, TX

Story
Is bad testing
eating your

Pr fits?
Using Quality Risks to
Guide Testing Effort
Testing should focus on mitigating specific risks to the
quality of the system. Sequence of test execution should
be driven by associated risk...

S
ince the 1980s, when Bill Hetzel Categories of Quality Risks
and Boris Beizer published their
Computer software, hardware, and systems can
influential books on software testing,
fail in the most amazing and various ways. Some
we have known that testing should be
bugs are not functional problems, but fall into
risk-based. Testing should focus on mitigating
other quality risk categories. We’ll take a look at
specific risks to the quality of the system. The
some categories of quality risks to stimulate our
sequence of test execution and the total effort
thinking about what to test.
expended on any given test should be driven by
the level of risk associated with that test. In the
Functionality
1990s, people like Rick Craig, Paul Gerrard, and
I independently created some ways to achieve The most obvious quality risk category is that
systematic risk-based testing, often by adapting of functionality. There’s always a chance that
ideas from other forms of engineering, such as the system does not provide some function it
insurance and medicine. In this article and the should. The function can include a capability,
next one, we’ll talk about ways to perform risk feature, processing, input or output.
based testing. For example, if you’re testing a calculator


Using Quality Risks to Guide Testing Effort

4
Unacceptable performance
load above 500
Transaction Processing Time

3

Unacceptable performance at
2 any load
Unacceptable performance
degeneration above time

1
Acceptable performance

Transaction Arrival Rate
1000

Figure 1: Performance bugs

program, the lack of an add capability would fall performance. The shaded area at the bottom of
into this category. So would a situation where the figure represents the required performance,
the add capability was implemented, but the “+” which is one second or less transaction
key didn’t cause the function to be activated. processing time at a load of up to 1,000
The add capability might be implemented and transactions per minute.
accessible, but might work only on integers, not
Risks to system quality in the area of performance
real numbers. The add operation, when carried
include the possibility that the system responds
out, might give the wrong result, as in 2+2=5.
to input, produces output, or
Or there could be some strange side effect
processes data too slowly under
where the operation is handled but the
all levels of load. The straight
result is not at all as expected, as in a
dashed line shows this possibility.
divide function where 2 divided by 2
The system might perform fine up
returned one, but in Roman numeral
to some level of load, but have an
format.
unacceptable non-linearity in the
performance curve, as shown by the
Performance and Reliability steep curved dotted line. Finally, the system
In Figure 1, you see a graphical representation might perform within specifications during an
of three types of quality risks in the area of initial test run, but subsequent tests—when the


by Rex Black, President, RBCS, Inc., Bulverde, TX

include seeing functionality, performance,
or reliability problems due to the rate of
Reliability problems exist computational, data, and communication ﬂows.
when the system fails to For example, the performance of database
function normally each and management systems often start to degrade
when the database management system load
every time. exceeds 80% of the rated transactions per
minute or the allowed number of simultaneous
system is not rebooted between tests—might
connections.
reveal unacceptable performance degradation,
as shown in the family of three gently curved
Installation and Deinstallation
lines.
Various things can go wrong when installing
The risk of performance degradation—and programs. These include situations where the
indeed, behavioral degradation of any sort— program won’t install or the installation process
over time brings us to the reliability category causes damage to the system.
of risks to system quality. Reliability problems
exist when the system fails to function normally The latter kind of problem once was ubiquitous
each and every time. Such a reliability bug can on Windows systems, with the
exhibit itself as an intermittent functional appropriate nickname “DLL hell.”
problem. Sometimes, such bugs Here, one program overwrote
appear after a long period of runtime libraries used by another program
or after running under heavy load. during its installation process.
I had such a problem with Windows Deinstallation can also create
2000 while writing this article. Extended problems. Sometimes, deinstallation
uptime between reboots usually resulted in does not completely remove ﬁles and
characters in some applications taking on the undo changes. Sometimes, deinstallation
wrong font or the wrong font size. causes damage to the system.
You might have seen another type of reliability
bug, too, where the system functions normally
when it functions, but crashes or hangs
unpredictably. Such bugs can occur after some Various things can go wrong
long period of runtime or after running under during installing & deinstalling
heavy load. Alternatively, such bugs can be
truly random. I recently saw such a bug when programs.
a security patch caused reboots on a system
every third or fourth time the system booted.

Stress, Capacity, and Volume Operations
Risks to system quality in the area of capacity We also have those risks associated with
include seeing functionality, performance, or recurring operating activities.
reliability problems due to resource depletion. These include activities carried out at the end
For example, the performance of operating of some operational period, such as end-of-
systems often starts to degrade once the system quarter or end-of-month closing out of accounts.
consumes more than 80% of the available hard Problems can arise especially with failures to
drive or memory space. archive inactive logical records in a safe and
Risks to system quality in the area of volume recoverable manner, as well as archiving of
data that should remain active. In addition, the



exhibit their effects a long way from their origin.
Side-effects of changes can impair or even break
The effects of changes, even cohabiting, interacting, or underlying software.
small, localized, isolated The adding of yet-another-feature can lead to
changes, are not always systemic performance and capacity issues.

small, localized, or isolated. Usability and User Interface
timing of archiving and the calculation of when One special category of non-functional quality
a period has ended and a new period begun can risks relates to the usefulness and usability of
fail. the system by the intended user or operator.
Specific usability and user interface bugs
For systems with databases, there can be regular can vary. In some cases, systems present
requirements to compact or repair the databases. cumbersome interfaces that do not follow
In addition, for such systems, operators normal or expected workflows, leading to
often must back up data and configurations user frustration, confusion, and mistakes. In
regularly, along with verifying the restore other cases, functionality, while present in the
process. There’s a strong risk of side effects system, is practically inaccessible to the user
like performance problems related to backup or
restore operations, the inaccessibility of some
or all system functionality during backup or Data quality poses a major
restore operations, and the failure of backup or category of quality risks for
restore operations under full system capacity many systems.
conditions. Sometimes, operations activities
happen automatically, in the background. For
example, rollback logs for a database often or operator. Systems can be inappropriately
need to be purged automatically to avoid major difficult for the users to learn, leading
performance and reliability bugs. to abandonment, mistakes, and
inefficiency. Finally, users and
Regression operators can find instructional,
By regression, I mean when a help, and error messages that
previously-working feature, function, are misleading, confusing, or
capability, or behavior fails following a misspelled.
change. The problem we have in system
testing is that software/hardware systems, Data Quality
being digital, tend to be discrete rather than Many systems exist primarily to do interesting
continuous in their failure modes. things with data. Inputs are processed,
The effects of changes, even small, localized, transformed, and stored. Databases are
isolated changes, are not always small, localized, queried, records linked through foreign keys,
or isolated. How many times have you heard a and integrity constraints enforced. Outputs are
statement like, “How could that have happened? displayed, printed, and transmitted to other
I only changed one line of code.” system.

A small change, even one line of code, can affect So, data quality poses a major category of
the behavior of the rest of the system. A small quality risks for many systems. The system
change can cause incompatible data to enter might corrupt or lose data. The system might
shared data sets, including dynamic dataflows store bad or nonsense data in a database
and static databases, resulting in bugs that without integrity constraints. Databases shared
across multiple systems can allow data which is


by Rex Black, President, RBCS, Inc., Bulverde, TX

valid for one system to be accessed by another Of course, if the system does not support the
system which does not know how to handle character sets used by the local language, we
that data, resulting in failures that are removed have a localization problem. Those languages
in time and feature space from the source of the that use the Roman alphabet, such as English,
problem. German, and Spanish, have single-byte
character sets. Some languages that use other
Further complicating these situations, it is
alphabets, such as Russian and Hebrew, have
sometimes difficult to restore the system to
single-byte character sets, too.
working state after a badly-handled error
condition. In some cases, the system, in the Localization also has operational implications.
course of succumbing to the error, damages For example, time zones and time formats vary
configuration files or static data stores in a way based on locale. Does the time change in the
that’s hard to fix later. The data quality bug in the summer? (In the United States, this is called
expense reporting package I mentioned earlier “daylight savings times,” but it goes by different
is an example of this kind of misbehavior. names around the world.) If so, when does
adjusted time begin and end? Are
Date and Time Handling dates written “month-day-year” (as
In addition to having to handle in the United States) or in the more
common errors, many systems must logical “day-month-year” format (as
also handle dates. This has created in much of the rest of the world)?
significant information-technology
problems, including the infamous Configuration and
“Y2K bugs” that consumed huge Compatibility
proportions of company and government
IT budgets in the late 1990s and contributed to Quality risks related to
the depression in the high-technology sector in
the early 2000s. In addition to having to handle
Localization may be in
once-in-a-hundred-lifetimes type of events like the categories of GUI or
a new millennium, systems must frequently operations.
handle events like leap years.
Many systems must deal with expiration dates.
Another family of risks to system quality lives
Licenses expire. Credit cards expire. Insurance
in the areas of configuration and compatibility.
policies expire. After some period of time, the
Different users configure both the hardware
right of a bank to disqualify a borrower based on
and software of systems differently. A family
a derogatory like a bankruptcy can also expire.
of systems may support various hardware
Failure to handle such expiry events properly
configurations. Often, the number of potential
can expose a company to serious financial and
combinations of configurations is huge and
legal risks.
testing inappropriate combinations can result
in risk of failure in the field.
Localization
Localization refers to the ability of a system to Standards and Regulatory
support local customs, languages, norms, and Compliance
laws. There are two broad categories of quality
More risks to the quality of the system exist
risks related to localization. One category
in the areas of standards and regulations. A
relates to the user interface, and the other to
system can work properly but be excluded from
operations.
the market by failing to meet standards, either



effectively (no one will buy it) or legally (the
government won’t let anyone buy it or sell it).
When you have
Security communicating components,
With the growth of the Internet, awareness of timing and coordination
the risks associated with security has increased.
Security risks are legion. They include viruses
between them is a concern.
and worms, criminals breaking into servers,
vandals causing denial of service attacks, Can You Think of Other Quality
bugging and intercepting e-mail and Internet Risks?
communications, and more. Yes, and so could I. But isn’t this list already
too long? What if you tried to cover all the
Timing and Coordination quality risks discussed so far? Could you test
When you have communicating components, or them all? Would they fit into the budget and
shared components, timing and coordination schedule context of the project? Would you
between those components is a concern. For end up wasting time and effort on unimportant
example, with an e-commerce system, how long problems? Surely any attempt to test this whole
should the system wait between events like set of quality risks would be neither effective
mouse-clicks and submitted screens? At what nor efficient!
point can it safely conclude that the customer So, what shall we do? In the sequel
has abandoned the transaction? to this article, we will discuss some
As another example, consider the ideas of how to trim the infinite
automated teller machine. What number of things you could test
happens when the central computer into a finite list of risks you should
times out or the network goes down? mitigate.
What if that happens in the midst of a
transaction? If we’re testing an inventory About the Author:
system, what happens when two salespeople
try to sell the same item at the same time?

Documentation
For many people the quality of the documentation
significantly affects their experience of quality
when using the system. Documentation quality
problems include being technically incorrect, of
course, especially the examples. The user can
find the documentation insulting or offensive,
teeming with grammatical or spelling errors, or
afflicted with distracting cosmetic or formatting With a quarter-century of software and systems
problems. engineering experience, Rex Black is president
and principal consultant of RBCS, Inc., a leader
Documentation refers not only to hard copy, but in software, hardware, and systems testing.
also to electronic documentation. Help screens,
installation instructions, error messages, and
wizards are a form of documentation. This article is based on an excerpt from Rex
Black’s book, Pragmatic Software Testing,
published by Wiley


That Have I got a deal for you?

Time
of Year

Have I got
a DEAL
for you …?
A
s this is our first issue, we are in a unique giving something up – time, money, energy, or
place—: This issue will set the ground effort, in exchange for something we value more.
rules for every issue that follows. Future If you don’t think it’s like that in the world of
issues will build on this one, so we have to lay software testing … think again.
the right foundation. I would like to start that
Having an independent test group splits
foundation with a simple assertion:
management attention and costs money, but it
also decreases risk and provides an impartial
The methods and extend of our testing are assessment of the quality of the software.
all choices; you could even say they are Using bug-tracking software costs money and
creates the risk of “information overload”, but
trade-offs.
also ensures that every incident is logged and
tracked. With a complete list
Life is all about trades. We trade of incidents, a change control
a “work week” of our lives for a board (CCB) can determine
pay check, then we trade that which defects should be fixed
pay check in for a home, for food, in the next release, by priority,
and utilities or clothing. We trade but that invariably slows down
some of our freedom for a family. bug fixes and decreases the
personal touch.
At each stage of the game, we are


Wit magazine april_2008

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