A Simple Solution of A Common Problem

Problem:

A new aspiring tester in the team was given the test cases and asked him to execute the test cases. This new aspiring tester was just completed his degree in computer engineering. He was one of the brilliant students in his batch. Everybody including the management of the company was expecting him to do well in his job. So this new tester started executing the test cases for the first time and then for the next time and so on. All test cases were passed and no bug was logged.  

After a month the tester was terminated from the project.  As per management the new aspiring tester couldn't become a tester because he didn't have the flame that a tester must have. The Tester was expelled from the team. Now he was sitting on the bench and thinking what went wrong.

How many of you have seen this problem? Actually I have seen a few and I had been also thinking what went wrong in this case.

Understanding the Problem:

Recently I was reading a clinical tale by Oliver Sacks. The tale was about a patient who was congenitally blind with cerebral palsy. The conditions are more pathetic than we can think of – she was suffering of spasticity and athetosis, i.e., involuntary movements of both hands, which was added due to failure of the eyes.

After initial tests and checkup it was found that there was no sensory ‘deficit’. Her hands would seem to have the potential of being perfectly good hands—and yet they were not. They were functionless—’useless’—because she had never used them. Had being protected and looked after since birth prevented her from the normal exploratory use of the hands which all infants learn in the first months of life.

Can you correlate the problem with the case mentioned above?

The real problem is that new aspiring tester was being pampered by the management itself. Instead of really doing the testing he was asked to follow the test cases which are most probably written by someone else. Initially, following the test cases made his task easy. He used to execute the test cases and finishes the task early. He couldn’t learn how to test from this exercise and we all know the result. The tester was put on bench (Literally killed the aspiring tester)

Solution:

A new aspiring tester in the team was given the application and asked him to test it for all the functional and usability issues. This new aspiring tester was just completed his degree in computer engineering. He was one of the brilliant students in his batch. Everybody including the management of the company was expecting he would do great in his profession. So this new tester who was hesitant initially started with exploring the application. Think about the infant who reaches for the breast when feeling hungry. Similarly the new aspiring tester took some time but he did some testing and logged few good issues.

Benefits from this Solution:

• Confident and satisfied tester
• Better Testing
• More No. of bugs
• A lively job
• Better Self Education
• Happy Management

What do you think? Does it seem a right solution to you?

Reference: "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" by Oliver Sacks

Search by POST method–A small research

This post is based on a small research I have done on Mozilla Firefox Search Plug-in.

The research started with the study of cookies stored by Mozilla Firefox and moved towards building the Mozilla Firefox Search Plug-in for my blog. My research is not finished yet but still I would like to share an opportunity I found testing these Search Plug-ins.

While exploring these search plug-ins I noted that every search plug-in is using GET method to send the search query to Search Engine. It seems fine to me as it is just a search so using POST method to send the request doesn’t make a sense to me, but then I thought other way – What would happen if POST method is used to send the request to server. I got curious about this and start to edit the properties of these plug-ins. I have tested multiple search plugins to see how corresponding search engines handles the request sent by POST method and found these three different behaviours:

Google: Google was first search plug-in I tested. When I sent search request to Google using POST Method, I got an error page like this:

It seems appropriate. Google doesn’t serve any search request being send by POST Method but then a question is raised - does a non technical user really understand what is POST method? For eg.: My wife doesn’t know this terminology and she will definitely call me for help if she get such error from the Google.

(See the Error Code 405. I have not seen this error earlier. So my research also helped me to find a new error message )

Yahoo: The next search engine was Yahoo. Initially I thought that Yahoo will give the same result as given by Google but it proved me wrong. To my surprise Yahoo has given the result for the search query I sent using POST method.

Bing: The third major search plugin which I tested was Bing – A Microsoft Product. I love my job because it surprises me and it surprises me daily. Till now I have tested two major search engines Google and Yahoo dealing with the request sent using POST method and both of them have given me different results. Once again I was guessing the result before testing. Based on my two previous results I was thinking that Bing should either display the error message or it should display the search result. I have not thought of any other result but surprisingly, Bing has given some unexpected result:

Instead of displaying search results or any error, it has opened Bing Search Engine.

I have tested for few other search plugins for different search engine but result are more of the same as these three. Now, question is which search engine has served the user’s request properly: Google, Yahoo or Bing. Think as a tester, Think as a developer and Think as an end user.

Post me your answers with the reason in Comments section, we can have a good discussion on it.

Just Chit - Chat

Finally, I am writing this blog post. It has been a long time I have written something. For last few days I have been trying to write but I couldn't make it but as it is said Better Late Than Never so here I am. Before moving further let me inform you that this post is not about software testing but still you can find it useful and interesting.

For last six months I was not much active on the web. No chat, No blog post, No discussion – Everything was like stopped. This six months were least productive in my career. Although I have learned testing but a little, I have discussed testing but a little and the worst part is I have practiced testing but a little.

Officially, I am doing good (Its my Manager's view not mine) but personally I was missing the freedom in testing. I have realized that software testing is an art and art can't be crafted without freedom. If thoughts of a poet is bound, he can't write the poem. Similarly, a tester mind bounded by test cases can not test actually. Its better to leave it free. I was also trapped with them but now I have started to learn how to separate the official life and tester life. Now, I think I can handle both together.

Although last few months were not good but still I have learned few things which I would like to share with you:

1. Quantity matters in corporate life :)
2. It is very difficult to change the perception of others. Believe me, I have tried and I was miserably failed.
3. Team is good; individual is better and I am still looking for best :)
4. A person can do anything – it just needs strong determination. I have experienced it.
5. There are only two kinds of tester – Good and Bad. Rest categories falls under these two.

And yes, two most interesting quotes which I heard. You can laugh after reading them:

1. 60% of testing is completed once you have written the test cases good enough.
2. Exploratory Testing is a luxurious kind of testing.