Reviewing qTrace: An Heuristic Approach

Few days back I came to know about a tool called qTrace from QASymphony. I am sure most of you must have heard about this tool but if you are one of those who missed it for some reason then this blog post is definitely for you. This post can also help you if you are testing qTrace or any other similar tool.

When I came to know about the qTrace I found it interesting and thought to try it. I downloaded the free trial version from here and installed it on my machine. The trial version of qTrace is valid up to 30 days so I always knew that I would definitely get  some time to review qTrace.

To know the tool better I started with the Touring Heuristic FCCCUTSVIDS by Michael D Kelly. The following report is based on my findings by using FCCCUTSVIDS heuristic on qTrace. This report gives the idea what could be tested in qTrace or any other similar application.

Features: I started exploring qTrace for the features. Few of the features which I found include:

• qTrace captures the screen of the selected application. User can take the single picture or can record the whole session of testing. qTrace automatically records the testing steps.
• User can also record the notes while testing the application. It’s a very good feature which can be used smartly while doing the exploratory testing
• Add the Environment Information of the bug into bug report without any effort. qTrace records the environment information and avails it on a single click.
• User can edit the captured screenshots and annotate them with important information.
• Submit the bug reports directly to associated bug Tracker. qTrace can associate with major bug tracking tools like Bugzilla, Jira, HP Quality Centre etc.
• Email the bug reports to the concerned person.
• Bug Reports can be saved in famous formats like Word, PDF & JPG format

Complexity: qTrace is very user friendly and easy to use. The most complex features which I would like to test thoroughly are as follows:

• Association with different Bug Trackers.
• To handle Large size Bug Reports can be a challenge for qTrace. It’s a region where we can find the issues
• qTrace can be used on three different machines with same licence.
• Emailing the bug reports
• Recording the testing steps with important notes.

Claims: The best place to find the claims about a product is to search the product site or help documents so I used the both of them. Following are the claims which I found about the product on the product site and help documents:

Claims	My Views
qTrace is a software testing and reporting tool that makes quality control simpler, faster, and more seamless. With qTrace you can easily record defects, edit details, and share results.	Agree with most of the claims. Not Agree with the Quality Control claim.
qTrace is for anyone looking to improve defect reporting, boost productivity, and speed quality control cycles to help bring products to market more quickly.	Agree with improve defect reporting claim. Partially Agree with the boost productivity claims and not agree with the Quality Control claim.
qTrace helps you and your team be more productive. It streamlines defect documentation while seamlessly meshing with your existing tools and processes.	Partially Agree
Automatically documents every screen and every step of a defect or test case	Agree
Capture all defect information to document an issue and submit a complete bug report directly to Jira, Bugzilla, HP QC, Team Foundation Server, VersionOne or qTest.	Agree
Seamlessly integrates with leading defect tracking tools	Partially Agree
Simplify defect reporting	Agree
Point-and-click to start recordings	Agree
Publish reports with screen shots, user actions and system specifics	Agree
qTrace is Simple and Intuitive to Use	Agree
qTrace Makes Documenting Defects a Breeze	Agree
qTrace Complements Your Existing Tools	Agree
qTrace Eliminates the Drudgery of Testing	Not Agree
qTrace Helps Your Team Be More Productive	Partially Agree

Configuration: I could find only following two ways to change the configuration of qTrace.

• Settings in the Application
• qTrace.exe.config file in Program Files

Let me know if there is any other way to change the configuration.

Users: I could imagine the following users (&groups) who could use the qTrace or qTrace outcome directly or indirectly.

• Software Tester
• Software Developer
• Test Manager/ Project Manager
• IT Admin
• Top Management
• Client

The scenarios for each user is described below in Scenario section

Testability: Testability tour helped me to find out the testable feature of the qTrace. Major testable features are listed below:

• Capturing the Screenshots
• Automatic recording of the testing steps
• Adding the notes
• Submitting the bug report to Bug Tracker
• Emailing the bug report
• Configuration Settings
• Opening/Editing the .trace file
• Annotating the reports
• Association with different Bug Tracking Tools
• Adding/Editing/Deleting/Moving the Steps
• Saving Bug Report in different formats

Scenarios: I found the following scenarios for the users I found during the User Tour.

• Software Tester: A software tester can use qTrace for testing the application. During testing he would like to use it for recording the testing steps, taking the notes, taking the screenshot of the bugs, submitting the bugs, emailing the bugs etc.
• Software Developer: A Software Developer is the one who is going to fix the bug so it is very important that recorded bugs are well described including the steps, screenshots and environment. All these information will help a developer to fix the bugs quickly. So while testing the qTrace it is necessary to know the Developer’s perspective on the bug reports.
• Test Manager/Project Manager: Test Managers/Project Managers are the one who are more concerned about the outcome and productivity. There is no doubt qTrace helps testers to generate descriptive bug reports with all the supporting screenshots and reproducible steps so overall it will definitely help their productivity with the quality of the bug reports
• IT Admin: You must be wondering how qTrace can be used IT Admin. The IT Admin is one who takes care of your machine and application installed on it. From IT Admin’s perspective following features should be available with the qTrace:
  • IT Admin may want to associate the qTest with the in-house bug tracking tool or any other commercial bug tracking tool being used in the organization. There should be an option to associate the qTrace with the in-house bug Tracking Tools.
  • Concurrent Licence similar to QTP Concurrent Licence. Managing 200 or 300 licences could be a tedious job. Having the concept of Concurrent licence will ease his job.Right now, maximum three users can use qTrace with same credentials and Licence
  • Every BT has size limit for the files being attached. IT Admin would like to Define the Maximum File Size of the attachments as per the limitation of associated Bug Tracking Tool and Email Client
• Top Management: The top management is always worried about the money. In qTrace reference they must want to know the cost about the tool. So, for there reference qTrace is not the expensive tool. The cost is very reasonable and can easily bear by the management.
• Client: Some clients want to see the issues, especially, if testing is outsourced. A good bug report gives a good impression about the testers and their organization and qTrace can help testers to generate a very good bug report.

Variability: The Variability tour is about the things which we can change in the application. Following are the things which I found testable based on the Variability Tour.

• Default Save Location
• Attachment format for email and BT
• Image Quality
• Annotation Font, Size and Color
• Defect Tracker
• Environment

Interoperability: qTrace interacts or might interact with the following applications:

• Windows Environment
• Microsoft Outlook
• Configured Bug Tracker

Let me know If I am missing any application.

Data: What could be the input data for an image grabber tool? I could find the following data which can be an input for qTrace.

• Recording Environment
• Captured Images ( for annotation of captured images)
• Input Data for eg: Text, Numeral etc. for Notes, Title, Bug Description
• Bug Reports (which will be send to Bug Tracker and Email)

Structure: Structure Tour couldn’t help me much in this context as I have only exe file of the application.

My Recommendation: Although I just had a tour of qTrace, actual testing is still pending but after touring it I can confirm one thing: This tool is a boon for software testers. Bug Reporting is an area of testing  process where a tester spends a lot of time, especially, if we are talking about good bug reports. qTrace saves a lot of bug reporting time. It prepares well descriptive bug reports for the testers which can be submitted with small changes in it. Sometime, no change is required. I would like to add this tool in my testing armour.

Things I would like to have in qTrace someday:

• Association with In-house bug tracking tool. Also, Mantis BT is one of most used bug tracking tools. I am wondering why qTrace is not allowed to associate with the Mantis BT.
• Video Recording of the bugs

Please comment if you have any question or any suggestion.

Please choose one of the following actions.

Recently, while unzipping a movie file with WinZip I found the following error message:

Did you find something weird?

The message requests to choose one of the actions from the list but they forgot to display the list of actions.

Any Comment......

Bulls and Cows

There is an old proverb - Necessity is the mother of invention. When a scientist invents something there is always a need. The Need is the final motive of any invention.

What is Need?
Need is a condition or situation in which something is required. In short need is requirement.

But what if the need is wrongly interpreted, Is the invention possible in that case? Might be possible but it would not be right invention; it would not actually do what we needed.

Now we change the above proverb according to IT Industries.

Requirement is the mother of every product.

Now what if requirement is wrongly interpreted, is the product possible in that case? Might be possible but it would not be right product because it would not do actually what stakeholders needed.

To provide a quality product to client, it is very important to understand the needs of the client. The purpose of testing can't be fulfilled if tester doesn't understand the requirement properly.

Why the requirement is mis-interpreted?
There may be various reasons such as:
• The clients/ users actually don’t know themselves what they really want or what they need?
• When it is impossible to know who yours users will be and it is quite often if we don’t consider the narrowly defined situation such as an EHR application.
• In general Requirements are not detailed enough to understand the exact needs of the stakeholders.

How the situation can be avoided?
The best solution is questioning. Questioning can be used as a tool to understand the exact requirement of a client. More you ask questions, more you clear about the product.

To depict the power of questioning and how it helps to understand the requirements of a client, we can take example of a game called “Bulls and Cows”

What is Bulls & Cows? - In childhood, you might play this game. This is also known as Cows and Bulls or Pigs and Bulls or Bulls and Cleots. This is a code breaking game played between two players.

How the Game is played? - On a sheet of paper, one player writes a 4-digit secret number. The digits must be all different. Then, the second player tries to guess this number. If the matching digits are on their right positions, they are "bulls", if on different positions, they are "cows". Example:

Secret number: 9374
Opponent's try: 4873 and asks “Is this correct?”
Answer: 1 bull and 2 cows. (The bull is "7"; the cows are "3" and "4".)

On the basis of answer, the opponent tries again until he finds the secret number. By asking a single Question again and again, Opponents finds the correct number.

When a single question can help to find a number then imagine how many questions you can ask in a requirements document. Asking Questions is a skill and it comes with lots of practice and time. But if you know the skill of questioning, there is no way to mis-interpret the requirements.

My Suggestion: If you find problems to understand the requirements then you should practice “Bulls & Cows”. If there is nobody to play with you, don't panic we have an open source version of “Bulls” and “Cows” called 4 digits.
The game's objective is to guess a four-digit number in 8 times using as less time as possible.

Test Report: Tasks

Introduction:

Tasks is a simple To Do manager, using GTK+ and libecal. It eschews complicated features for a simple interface and functionality that does the right thing.

This application is provided by the Ubuntu community.

Objective: To explore the application, review it, list the features and find the issues in the application.

Assign Time: 1 Hr.

Environment: Ubuntu 8.04

This week I tested a small application called 'Tasks'. I start my testing with exploring the application to become familiar with it. The intention was to find the capabilities of the product.

Features: 

• Simple and Easy Interface make it very user friendly. Very easy to use.
• Light Weighted Product, Very low CPU usage

 

• Auto Synchronization if multiple instances are opened
• User can distribute the tasks in different categories. A category name can hold up to 65534 characters.
• Long Task Name is allowed. A Task Name can hold up to 65534 characters.
• The Task can be associated with web address/es if required.
• Tasks are listed in chronological order of Priority – High Priority task displays on top followed by normal and low priority task.

My Findings:

• User is able to uninstall the application without closing it which causes user to use the application after un-installation without any error. Here I assumed un-installation doesn't remove the database from the system. Again installing the application recovers all the task listed before un-installation. It strongen my assumption.
• Allowing the long name for tasks/categories causes the problem sometimes as it expand the dialog boxes and windows out of screen area.

•  Notes Text box is free length text area. Limited input don't cause any harm but if user enters more and more data, the application starts to display strange behavior like all characters disappears, overwriting of characters and finally application crash.

 

• No notification to separate the task on the basis of priority. All tasks looks same. Different color or image notification for each priority can increase the usability.
• The product is stand alone program. A user can use it for personal purpose only. In that case creating tasks for previous date doesn't make any sense to me.

My Review:

Tasks is a very simple and easy to use. The application is very much stable and can be used by anyone in daily life without any problem.

My Doubt: 

Why the max length of the field is set to 65534 and not 65536? Can anyone clear my doubt, please?

Test Report: KArm

I have been doing the testing since more than two years but I never got a chance to test and desktop application. So I thought to try my hands with desktop applications also. As this is my first chance with testing of desktop application so I would like your suggestions and comments. Your comments will surely help me to improvise.

Here, I would like to share that I usually works on Windows OS and know very little about the Ubuntu which caused me to face few hurdles during testing of the KArm. So, for the time I have limited myself to functionality testing only until I learn the Ubuntu properly.

Now, lets start the testing...

Product Info:

Name: KArm
Version: 1.6.0
Description: KArm is a time tracker for busy people who need to keep track of the amount of time they spend on various tasks.

This package is part of KDE, and a component of the KDE PIM module.
Environment: Ubuntu 8.04

Mission: To test the functionality of the KArm and find the issues in the application.

Date: 27-Feb-2010
Start Time: 11:30 AM
End Time: 01:00 PM

I started my testing with exploring the product so that I could become familiar with the features and functionality of the application. After spending little time with the product, I gain confidence about the product.

After spending 1.5 hrs with the product I found the following issues in the product.

Issues:

• User can create a subtask for a super task. If no super task is there in the tracker, the Sub Task button should remain disabled
• The default 'Detect Desktop as idle' time is set to 15 minutes but user is notify just after 1 minute.
• Unable to launch KArm Handbook
• There is a feature in Help menu called 'What's This?' On clicking this menu item, the cursor is converted in to a question mark (?). When user click this question mark on any button in the standard menu bar or column header, it display the details of that screen element. The feature doesn't display detail for 'Sub Task' button
• User should not be allowed to open the multiple instance of the product.As each instance displays the same task list so there is no use of opening multiple instance.
• Opening the multiple instances also caused the KArm to display different timings of same task.
• If multiple instances of the product is opened, it displays the error of shortage of disk space although there is sufficient disk space.

• While adding/editing a task, the user can enter absolute/relative hours. Here the hours field can accept number up to 9 digits. If user inserts a long digit, it cause the error in time calculation.
• Clock should display whenever it is started by user but the clock displays only if Session Time column is configured to display and user has started the clock.
• Product crashed twice during the testing although I couldn't find out the reason due to lack of time but I hope to find it soon.

Learnings:

Overall it was a good experience to test an application for self confidence and improvisation. Today, I came to know that I lacks in test ideas while testing desktop products. Moreover, I need to learn the Ubuntu to do well with my testing. If a tester is not able to use the environment properly, he could not perform the satisfactory testing of the product.