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.