Software Testing Video

Hi Folks,
I have a superb video about software testing. It is been discussed by James Bach, where he talks about the secretes of becoming software testing expert. His famous definition of perfect testing

" Testing is the infinite process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous so as to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous "

To view this Video, Click here...

GaneshKB

Advantages of QTP

Hi All,
Dexter is back with some information about QTP:

1.QTP allows even novice testers to be productive in
minutes. You can create a test script by simply pressing a
Record button and using an application to perform a typical
business process. Each step in the business process is
automated documented with a plain-English sentence and
screen shot. Users can easily modify, remove, or rearrange
test steps in the Keyword View.

2.QTP can automatically introduce checkpoints to verify
application properties and functionality, for example to
validate output or check link validity. For each step in
the Keyword View, there is an ActiveScreen showing exactly
how the application under test looked at that step. You can
also add several types of checkpoints for any object to
verify that components behave as expected, simply by
clicking on that object in the ActiveScreen.

3.You can then enter test data into the Data Table, an
integrated spreadsheet with the full functionality of
Excel, to manipulate data sets and create multiple test
iterations, without programming, to expand test case
coverage. Data can be typed in or imported from databases,
spreadsheets, or text files.

4.Advanced testers can view and edit their test scripts in
the Expert View, which reveals the underlying industry-
standard VBScript that QuickTest Professional automatically
generates. Any changes made in the Expert View are
automatically synchronized with the Keyword View.

5.Once a tester has run a script, a TestFusion report
displays all aspects of the test run: a high-level results
overview, an expandable Tree View of the test script
specifying exactly where application failures occurred, the
test data used, application screen shots for every step
that highlight any discrepancies, and detailed explanations
of each checkpoint pass and failure. By combining
TestFusion reports with Mercury Quality Management, you can
share reports across an entire QA and development team.

6.QTP also facilitates the update process. As an
application under test changes, such as when a ?Login?
button is renamed ?Sign In,? you can make one update to the
Shared Object Repository, and the update will propagate to
all scripts that reference this object. You can publish
test scripts to Mercury Quality Management, enabling other
QA team members to reuse your test scripts, eliminating
duplicative work.

7.QuickTest Professional supports functional testing of all
popular environments, including Windows, Web, .Net, Visual
Basic, ActiveX, Java, SAP, Siebel, Oracle, PeopleSoft,
terminal emulators, and Web services.

GaneshKB

What is Manual testing

Hi Lab Folks,

Manual testing is the oldest
and most rigorous type of software
testing. Manual testing
requires a tester to perform manual test operations on the test software
without the help of Test
automation. Manual testing
is a laborious activity that requires the tester to possess a certain set
of qualities; to be patient, observant, speculative, creative, innovative,
open-minded, resourceful, unopinionated, and skillful.

As a tester, it is always advisable
to use manual white
box testing and black-box
testing techniques on
the test software. Manual testing helps discover and record any software
bugs or discrepancies
related to the functionality of the product.

Manual testing can be replaced by
test
automation. It is possible
to record and playback manual steps and write automated test
script(s) using Test
automation tools. Although, test automation tools will only help execute
test scripts written primarily for executing a particular specification
and functionality. Test automation tools lack the ability of decision-making
and recording any unscripted discrepancies during program execution. It
is recommended that one should perform manual testing of the entire product
at least a couple of times before actually deciding to automate the more
mundane activities of the product.

Despite the proliferation of automated
solutions, manual testing still accounts for at least 80% of all testing.
Automation can only be justified where repeatable consistent tests can
be run over a stable environment. When this isn't the case (i.e. during
the early stages of the test cycle), then testing teams almost always revert
back to manual testing. So manual testing is here to stay! Here are some
reasons why...

Business critical / Heavily tested
software: With constantly changing applications, automation can simply
be too daunting. New to testing: Those that are new to testing may not
want to dive right in to complex automation tools. Using a tool such as
TestDrive-Assist[1]
]] can provide an easy and cost effective way to gain real advantages in
a short space of time and use it as a springboard to full automation. Script
based automation tools not living up to their hype: Many people still find
that despite investing in script based automation solutions this only covers
10-20% of their total testing. The rest is still carried out manually.
Full Automation simply not appropriate: You may be testing new functionality,
or a new platforms/OS. Or there maybe insufficient time and/or skills to
develop test scripts. Agile Development: With Agile development techniques,
there is no place for traditional automation tools because they take too
long to set up and need to be re-scripted after the first change to the
application.

Manual testing helps discover defects
related to the usability
testing and GUI
testing area. While performing
manual tests the software application can be validated whether it meets
the various standards defined for effective and efficient usage and accessibility.
For example, the standard location of the OK button
on a screen is on the left and of CANCEL button on the right. During manual
testing you might discover that on some screen, it is not. This is a new
defect related to the usability of the screen. In addition, there could
be many cases where the GUI
is not displayed correctly and the basic functionality of the program is
correct. Such bugs are not detectable using test automation tools.

Repetitive manual testing can be
difficult to perform on large software applications or applications having
very large dataset coverage. This drawback is compensated for by using
manual black-box testing techniques including equivalence
partitioning and boundary
value analysis. Using
which, the vast dataset specifications can be divided and converted into
a more manageable and achievable set of test
suites.

A manual tester would typically
perform the following steps for manual testing:

1. Understand
the functionality of program

2. Prepare
a test environment

3. Execute
test
case(s) manually

4. Verify
the actual result

5. Record
the result as Pass or Fail

6. Make
a summary report of the Pass and Fail test cases

7. Publish
the report

8. Record
any new defects uncovered during the test case execution

There is no complete substitute
for manual testing. Manual testing is crucial for testing software applications
more thoroughly. Test automation has become a necessity mainly due to shorter
deadlines for performing test activities, such as regression
testing, performance
testing, and load
testing.

Ganesh.KB



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