QA Alchemy

  Definition Wikipedia has a definition of Exploratory testing that I like.  It says:      " A style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the quality of his/her work by treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, and test result interpretation as mutually supportive activities that run in parallel throughout the project. " Well, that's a mouthful.  See if you can say that ten times fast!  In simpler words, exploratory testing is running tests without the limitations of test steps or a test case, but rather the freedom of the tester to "explore" and to "play around".   One of the questions I like to ask on interviews is about the mystery box.  Say I gave you a box.  I tell you it has electrical components but I dont explain what the box does.  What do you do with it?  Those who are natural testers, and those who enj...

 How often does your team run regression cycles?  Is it every week?  Perhaps at the end of every sprint?  At one time, we were testing every other sprint.  The cadence for testing cycles is best defined by the business needs, and there is not one general rule for when it should be.  However, testing regression cycles can become mundane and prone to the Pesticide Paradox .  The best way to test effectively is to keep tests dynamic, keep testers interested and keep testing in new and different ways.  Here are 5 ways to keep your regression cycles strong and ensure high quality testing and high quality bug identification.     1. Integration There are multiple levels of testing including component, integration, system and acceptance testing.  When running Regression Cycles its extremely important get the tests as close to production as possible.  This means when you can test with integrations, do so.  Perhaps your product is F...

There is a great battle currently being fought on the QA battle fields.  In a popular whatsapp group of QA managers and team leaders there was a discussion about automation and manual.  My favorite part of the discussion went something like this: "All the big hi tech companies are claiming to be using only automation developers in left-shift development to write tests, and don't use manual at all, but I used to work at some of them, and I know for a fact that they contract manual testers as well - they just aren't on the same payroll." I love it.  Let's say we are doing automation only testing, but still we'll bring in some manual testers through the back door so no one sees. How much automation should we be doing? Manual testing is expensive, and short term, we should be investing in automation. Developers can write tests just as well as QA. I've heard it all, and seen it all.  Recently I met with someone who was looking for a QA manager,...

A few months ago I purchased two new suits for myself.  A blue one and a gray one.  They are a bit more modern, in the fashionable sense, and my wife was relieved I'm finally wearing something that looks somewhat reasonable.  A few weeks ago I put on the gray suit, and picked out a yellow tie, thinking "gray and yellow go together, right?  suuurree..."  Turns out I was right, and the old yellow tie that never got any feedback, suddenly became the catalyst for comments such as "nice suit!" and "is the tie new?"  Actually, its not.  I've had it for years, but apparently it looked so nice with this suit, it really made an impact. Testing software (and hardware for that matter) is a lot like matching the right tie to the right suit - except in this case you're looking to break it.  You see, in testing we run the same tests over and over again.  Often we run on the same environment and configurations.  Once we've passed the initial bug...

Testing Perfection. As we discussed in the last post, testing in agile life-cycles is a constant battle of timelines, priorities, integration and system issues and overall quality of product.  Its very important when running your tests that you are able to see the overall picture of the product and maintain a high level of quality, while keeping in line with the release time frames.  This is true whether your company is running long interval releases, short and frequent or daily releases.  QA is pressured to keep the pace of development and its important for all companies to put into place regular strategies to keep the QA on track without sacrificing quality. Hereby we present the 4 Prong Method to Testing Quality in Agile .  The 4 Prong Method explains how to ensure your testers are keeping up with the speed of agile, and still supplying the best possible quality.  Here's how it goes: Design phase QA inclusion  At what point should...

If you are a tester, or developer, or product manager, or engineer, or any kind of person who work in engineering, then stop what you're doing and listen to this podcast.  For anyone reading this blog, this podcast is required listening. For anyone who is a tester, this podcast is required listening. Have you gone yet?  What are you waiting for? This American Life - NUMMI 2015 And in case you need more convincing, here's a few hints I'll lay out for you. A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: How it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. Frank Langfitt explains why GM didn't learn the lessons—until it was too late. So go listen, and it will change your life!