Posted by Albert Gareev on Jul 22, 2010
You must unlearn what you have learned. Master Yoda to Luke Skywalker Although Unlearning is not a testing heuristic itself, I found it very helpful in many activities – from testing and test automation to problem solving and management. That is why I wrote about Unlearning on quicktestingtips.com. Yet I wanted to share even more […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 17, 2010
Blink testing, as described by James Bach and explained by Michael Bolton, is an oracle heuristic based on “snap judgment” effect. Try catching “bug” (an odd character) in patterns below. I arranged them by difficulty I had. Feel free to put your experience in comments. In full-screen view all characters are 10pt capitals, as in standard […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 03, 2010
Participation Based on stats I have, over 70 people navigated to Escapa game page directly from my blog. I hope everyone is enjoyed, and I thank those who took a challenge of testing, found stuff, and posted their findings. I tracked on Software Testing Club and Twitter, in addition to my blog. If I missed […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 01, 2010
Now Closed – Proceed to Results A short intro I wholeheartedly support Matthew Heusser‘s (update: this blog is now only available under paid STP membership but you can access another Matthew’s blog) call to practice craft of testing, anywhere and anytime, above and beyond work responsibilities. Exploring, experimenting, and learning is always fun. To make […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 21, 2010
Testing Evolution (mindmapped) After reading A Transpection Session: Inputs and Expected Results by Michael Bolton and James Bach ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 20, 2010
Beware of checking tools! (Inspired by Andy Glover) (click on the image to see it full-size) ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Apr 01, 2010
A few facts to now Most of cell phones now come with a built-in GPS receiver hardware unit and GPS tracking software module. Basically, you can assume that any smart phone whether it’s Blackberry, iPhone, or Nokia, (or whatever) model has it, and it’s turned ON by default. A GPS tracking equipped cell phone can precisely […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 02, 2009
Complex Data Boundaries: overflow or type mismatch? Complex data types are created by composition of basic data types. Compositions of data of the same type are formed as arrays. Compositions of data of different type are formed as records. There are internal (technical) rules defining how complex data types are managed. The rules are platform and […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 19, 2009
Hospital error leads to radiation overdoses The article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cedars13-2009oct13,0,1200257.story (…) Doctors believed it would provide them more useful data to analyze disruptions in the flow of blood to brain tissue. That meant resetting the machine to override the pre-programmed instructions that came with the scanner when it was installed. “There was a misunderstanding about an […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 07, 2009
Data Container Boundaries: where is the weakness? All the values used by computer programs are classified by type (integer number, floating point number, string, date, etc.), and all data types are internally encoded with numbers. Digital nature of computers makes them specific and discrete with numbers; once-and-forever defined memory cells serve that purpose. The capacity […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 05, 2009
Software Testing is an empirical process. Empirical approach as an opposite to theoretical requires observation, investigation and experimenting. Results of those actions performed are collected, documented, analyzed, and categorized, before conclusion is made. A Scientific Method of Learning consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 10, 2008
The story Maybe the story began when I noticed that a status message (a line displaying text at the bottom of the window) looked somewhat unusual. Or maybe when I checked the log file to investigate, and found out that the program reported “______ file updated”. That looked as a typo, or unsupported characters in the […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 24, 2008
Reference page: Error, Bug, Issue, Incident More often than other developers, about incidents hear product managers, customer support techs, and product support programmers – whenever an end-user experienced and reported a problem with the software product. However, incident is not necessary a bug. It might be caused by a variety of reasons, like following: Configuration […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 21, 2008
Reference page: Error, Bug, Issue, Incident The notable comment about word “issue” used in software testing context is that it’s often referred as a problem or an obstacle – which is uncommon meaning. Generally, an issue is defined as “something that is sent out or put forth in any form” (Dictionary.com). Wikipedia explains this discrepancy with […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 16, 2008
Reference page: Error, Bug, Issue, Incident Let’s start from definitions. A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Wikipedia.org “An unwanted and unintended property of […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 14, 2008
Reference page: Error, Bug, Issue, Incident Let’s start from definition. “Error – a deviation from accuracy or correctness; a mistake, as in action or speech.” Dictionary.com Indeed, in the most circumstances when it was referred as “error” it was a mistake, as in the examples below. Typo, or syntax error in the programming code Logical […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 05, 2008
“We have a build error…”, “You need to investigate that incident…”, “Today I fixed two bugs…”, “We already saw this issue in the last release…”. Are you used to hearing that? Have you ever wondered why there are so many words used talking about software problems? So did I. Looking back to my 15 years being in […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jul 10, 2008
The Limited Warranty that appears above is the only express warranty made to you and is provided in lieu of any other express warranties or similar obligations (if any) created by any advertising, documentation, packaging, or other communications. Except for the Limited Warranty and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, COMPANY and its suppliers […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 10, 2008
Proverbs and quotes Never say, “oops.” Always say, “Ah, interesting.” Author Unknown There is no failure. Only feedback. Robert Allen Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them. Andrew V. Mason Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success. Author Unknown A successful person […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Apr 10, 2008
Proverbs and quotes Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses: We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the Author. John Keats A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 15, 2008
Design first Before producing any code we need to think of an algorithm first. This is a design phase. Design could be narrow – in this case all the details are created “on the fly”, while coding; or it could be very detailed, with functional diagrams and pseudo-code. Unit Function Design Unit function design aims […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 10, 2008
Proverbs and quotes I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas Edison Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment. Rita Mae Brown If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Feb 10, 2008
Proverbs and quotes You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. Clay P. Bedford Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jan 10, 2008
Software Testing Club Test Republic ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 15, 2007
A challenge Requirements are never complete or detailed enough… It might be a risk we have to consider or a challenge we need to take. This applies to anything in our job: from testing to development tasks. How do I handle this? An approach The approach I use I usually call a breakdown or decomposition. One might […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jul 15, 2007
Is your automation asset or debt? Test Assets? Vendors, offering Test Automation tools, often refer to automation and its elements (i.e. scripts, data files, logs) as “test assets”. I could certainly agree with such reference, if it’s based on the assumption that since time, money, and effort were put [invested] to create those elements, they are assets. […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 10, 2007
SoftwareQATest.com – Software QA and Testing Resource Center by Rick Hower StickyMinds – Software Quality Engineering. Browse articles. ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jan 15, 2007
Test Data should be designed. Data, that we input to application-under-test, control business logic flow. To explore every branch of the flow, we need to choose data accordingly. Wrong data trigger error-handling functionalities. To try and see all of them, we need to create data in different equivalence classes. Test Data from Production might contain non-disclosing […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jan 10, 2007
Ten Usability Heuristics by Jakob Nielsen GUI Test Checklist by Barry Dorgan ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jan 05, 2007
Why testing? Word Origin & History – by Online Etymology Dictionary late 14c., “small vessel used in assaying precious metals,” from O.Fr. test, from L. testum “earthen pot,” related to testa “piece of burned clay, earthen pot, shell” (cf. L. testudo “tortoise”) and texere “to weave” (cf. Lith. tistas “vessel made of willow twigs;” see […] ...
