Search Results for: software testing

This post can be quite fascinating, if you are a victim of recent layoff and desperately looking for a new job, or you might be already in a job, but fearing a pink-slip and looking out for a stable job or you being a fresher having passed out of an institute and aspiring for a job. My Story – I Got Fired From My Job I remember facing a similar situation a few years back when I was working on a project and a pop appeared on my email from the HR with the subject “Let’s meet in the evening…

Software Testing Genius came into existence in 2008 and since then it has passionately grown due to the focussed efforts of our expert consultants’ dedicatedly delivering value every day. We can help business owners and software developers in improving the performance of applications being developed by addressing the quality issues. You can outsource your software testing work to us for an absolute satisfaction of on-time delivery of application being free of errors. We provide software testing and quality assurance services across variety of domains covering following types of testing: Functional testing Integration testing Automation testing Static testing Compatibility testing Database…

Aptitude, learning attitude and understanding of the basics of software testing are the prerequisites for being a tester. Tester can’t forget that software testing is not a pure science like chemistry or physics. Software applications don’t come with an absolute solution; in fact varieties of thoughts and convictions by smart tester form approaches to an effective software testing. A tester steps into the professional world and gradually matures with experience of putting knowledge of testing into action. Importance of Branding: Branding of a special skill comes with an advanced education clubbed with some internationally reputed certification. ISTQB certifications go beyond…

The “Write and Earn” program by SoftwareTestingGenius is primarily meant for seasoned software testing engineers and Quality Assurance professionals that are enthusiastic in terms of writing and tutorials creation. What are the prerequisites for being a writer for us? Must be technology savvy, part-time freelance writer ambitious to earn INR 10-30K per month. Must be proficient in using software testing tools/techniques and experience of operating in the QA domain. Must be proficient in creating self-learning video/screencast / how to tutorials and training courses, of top quality standing out from the rest. Must be able to write unique articles/tutorials from own…

An insight to Innovative Agile or Spiral Software Testing The intent of life cycle testing promotes testing by software testing professionals from some agency outside the development organization. The prime advantage of testing with life-cycle approach are that we have crystal clear requirements defined before hand, and it is comparatively easier for an external expert to verify the facts. Software testing is generally considered as a destructive activity aimed to challenge the work done by the developers. On the contrary, spiral-testing psychology promotes more cooperation among the development organization and the quality assurance. The is based upon the hypothesis that,…

Beating the Systematic Software Testing in a Non Systematic way Many a times systematic testing of the software product becomes insufficient and frustrating for the software testing engineers! Reasons being the defects are truly cunning & call for attacking them in equally unpredictable ways. Here comes the deployment of non-systematic testing techniques as an effective substitute for the systematic testing techniques. I am discussing two non-systematic techniques that are: 1) Attacks 2) Error guessing 1) Attacks: It is a type of security testing, meant for testing how resistant a software product is to the people intending to break into it…

All About System Testing an Important Part of Our Software Testing Effort The objective of system testing is to find out the defects in features of the system in comparison with the way it has been defined in the software system requirements (SRS). In principle in system testing we test to get information about the fulfillment of both the functional & the nonfunctional requirements. The functional requirements describe what the system shall be able to perform the functionality. The non-functional requirements describe how the functionality presents itself & behaves. The execution of system test follows the completion of the entire…

20 Valuable Tips on Test Automation Suggested by Software Testing Experts   The great gurus of the testing world emphasize that we must begin the software testing effort by identifying the areas or features of the SUT (Software under test) that the users will use 80% of the time or more & these are then ensured to be working correctly on topmost priority. I am sharing a compilation of twenty test automation tips or strategies, when systematically adopted can lead you to a successful implementation of test automation.   Tips for successful implementation of test automation: 1) Write down a…

Quality Measures and Indicators Prescribed by the Software Testing Experts Software development & testing experts rightly declare “We cannot control what we cannot measure”. Thus in order to successfully measure quality of any software application, first of all we need to understand the key differences between the elements of chain of three interconnected quality terms like; measures, metrics & indicators.   Quality Measure Quality Metric Quality Indicator A measure is to ascertain or appraise by comparing to a standard. A metric is a quantitative measure of the degree to which a system, component, or process possesses a given attribute. An…

Best Practices of Test Automation Recommended by Software Testing Experts Implantation of test automation begins right from the point of taking the decision of going in for automation until the ongoing process of improvement is carried on. Testing experts apply automation at variety of stages like unit, integration and system during the STLC. Each of these stages has peculiar characteristics and is implemented in a different way. When initiating test automation, software testing experts treat it as a full-fledged project, requiring a sound plan, execution of activities & constant monitoring of results. They prefer to firstly customize the organizational test…

Know the Black-Box Software Testing Techniques to Test the Software Security As the demand for e-business & e-commerce is growing and more and more other applications are getting Web access, the need for having secure systems too is growing. Thus security-testing experts too are getting smarter in planning attack-driven testing aimed to ultimately plug the security holes before attackers find them. Breach in security could be due to various reasons, ranging from incidental mistakes, over fun, to serious crime. Before we elaborate different black-box techniques used in security testing, let us try to have an insight into an important testing…

An Insight to Data Flow Testing an Important White-Box Software Testing Technique Data flow testing is a white box software testing technique in which test cases are designed based on the definition and usage of the variable within the code i.e. testing of definition-use pair (du-pairs). Data flow testing must not be misunderstood with data flow diagrams, as they don’t have any connection. Before talking about the data flow testing technique in greater detail, let’s quickly run through different phases for a data item in its normal life cycle as well as understand the types of du-pairs. Phases of Data…

Important Tasks Performed by Software Testing Engineers after executing Automated Tests Once an automated test has been executed the test result artifacts, consisting of actual outcomes & various byproducts of the test execution e.g. tool log file etc. lie scattered here & there & need to be organized. It becomes quite necessary to evaluate the success of the test case plus doing certain tasks like running a report generator to extract data from the database etc. etc. If software testing engineer made his test suite ran throughout the night, then he needs to spend time in the morning looking at the…

Mutation Testing an Important Black Box Software Testing Technique Mutation testing also known as mutation analysis is one of the black box software testing strategies that are critical to the reliability of the ultimate software application. In mutation testing the product under test is changed under controlled ways and then tested. Here one-token defects, like “<” replaced with “<=,” are created in the components. For each of these defects a new version of the affected components is created and tested to see if the prepared test cases reveal the defects. If they don�t they will have to be examined and…

Methodology of Test Effort Estimation adopted by Software Testing Engineers Test Estimation in Software Testing industry is similar to time management that we do in our day to day lives. In order to understand what test effort estimation is, let us understand the term estimation first. Estimation is the intelligent anticipation of the amount of work that must be done and the resources (human, financial resources, equipment resources and time resources) needed to perform the work at a future date, in a defined environment, using specific methods. Most of you who have never done Test estimation before must have actually…

An Insight to Boundary Testing of Embedded Applications in our Software Testing Effort What is the reason that testers anxiously look at the boundaries? Reason of this is that bugs very frequently appear while handling conditions at boundaries. Boundary value testing is directed to the value on a boundary of an equivalence class. The boundary values require extra attention because defects are invariably present on the boundaries or quite near these. It’s very easy for a programmer to say < 100 instead of <= 100. For any particular boundary, we require minimum two cases for testing the condition of �On…

An Insight to Usability Tests being the Most Indispensable in Software Testing The satisfaction of a software product truly lies in is its capability to provide not only due satisfaction rather a sense of delight to the users. Hence usability attributes for any software product are reflected by its understandability, ease of learning, operability & ease of communication as practically realized by the users. The approach to usability testing uses methodologies to gather data according to the groups of the end users who use the software product with an objective of doing certain tasks which represent the ultimate usage. Participants…

Documentation Testing an Important Activity in Software Testing Documentation testing falls under the category of non-functional testing. Documentation testing activity can take off right from the beginning of the software development process. If taken up from the beginning, defects in documentation can be effortlessly fixed with minimal expenses. Poor documentation is as likely to cause problems for our customers as is poorly written code. Incorrect or poorly written or even missing documentation irritates the end users that tend to quickly form an opinion about the product. Hence quality of documentation bears a clear reflection on the quality of the product as well…

Introduction to Software Testing with Extreme Programming Approach During last couple of years many agile or iterative software development models have evolved. One famous type of agile models is eXtreme Programming model; in short it is called XP. XP approach emphasizes on the development of the tests for the product in the beginning itself. In XP the entire development remains test-driven. Every smallest bit of code written by the programmers is tested prior to moving on further. XP doesn’t expect detailed requirements documentation to begin with. The product development takes place quickly through a small-team comprising of around 3-7 people.…

Approaches to Various Levels of Test Coverage used by Software Testing Practitioners Coverage is a generic term referring to measurement and completion criteria in software testing. Test coverage is the degree, expressed as a percentage, to which the coverage items have been exercised by a particular test. Various approaches to system level code coverage and code level coverage are being described below. System Test Coverage Strategies: Software testing engineers usually use following three approaches: 1) Major features first:  Create tests which will exercise all the principal features first, to give maximum coverage. This will probably be the same as the…

Various Special Types of Tests Performed by Software Testing Engineers There are certain types of tests that are generally viewed to come under the special category. These tests are planned and documented according to the same rules and standards as the other types of tests, but they have specific applications. The special tests may have different names in different organizations, but the types are basically the same. The four major special tests are: 1) Back-out and restoration Tests 2) Recovery Tests 3) Stress Tests 4) Regression Tests 1) Back-out and Restoration Tests: To back-out and restore is the decision to remove…

Responsibility Matrix for Performing Different Type of Software Testing As a general practice in the IT industry, preference for the software testing activity is given to some independent testers or organization. While this is greatly valid in some very critical software situations, the definition of independent has been varying from application to application. On the basis of the concept that everyone is responsible for their own work and that this responsibility also applies to groups, the task of testing is being returned to the developers. This is not to say that programmers should test all their own work, but that…

Winner of Hide and Seek between a Tester and the Bugs during Software Testing Whether our testing is really able to find bugs or is seeding more of them every time we try to fix them? Is a tricky question. One of the practical way to answer this question is to find out the ration of number of bugs reported by the clients versus number of those found in-house for any release. Although this metric appears quite simple, yet it has a simple drawback that: 1) It ignores the bugs that users don�t report, may be because these are so…

Usability Attributes Addressed by Testers during their Software Testing Effort According to ISO 9126 standard usability is nothing but a nonfunctional quality attribute of a software product. Usability points towards the functionality aspect presented to the users. Usability aspect covers much more than just the look and feel of the product. Usability testing is a type of software testing effort directed at measuring to ensure the suitability aspect of the software product for its users, in terms of the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which particular users can achieve specified goals with accuracy and completeness in a particular situation. A…

Desired Skills & Capabilities for Testing Personnel in a Software Testing Team Even though software testing is a specific profession many testers have had other careers before becoming testers. However, most of the testers, who have not started their career as testers, either had a background in development or in the domain of the product they happen to work with. Past Background of Testers There is a general belief that testers should be from a development background. However It is not necessarily so, but having a development background certainly helps. Knowledge of how software development is done provides valuable insight into…

How to Define the Completion Criteria for our Software Testing Activities The completion criteria are what we use to determine if we can stop the testing or if we have to go on to reach the objective of the testing. The completion criteria are derived from the strategy and should be based on a risk analysis; the higher the risk, the stricter the completion criteria; the lower the risk the less demanding and specific the completion criteria. It is quite significant step to decide up front which completion criteria should be fulfilled before the test may be stopped. The completion…

Attributes & Skills Testers Must Have to be an Effective Software Testing Manager Every tester, may be a novice or an expert, aspires to move on his/her career progression path leading to the position of a Test Manager. The career progression path shown in the following figure though appears a bit long, yet testers having zeal to accomplish the difficult are able to cross effortlessly in a shorter span. So you too can. Attributes & skills that that ideally good software testing engineers should have are the ones described below. After careful examination you will realizes that the attributes & skills…

How Software Testing Professionals view Functional and Security Testing It is a common belief that security testing & functional testing are just the same. However the fact remains is that there are few points of differences among security testing & functional testing needing some sort of paradigm shift in the viewpoint of the testing community about testing as a philosophy. Functional testing being a type of software testing activity is carried out by the testers as if actual product user would have used it to confirm as to whether the product meets the intended functionality or not. Almost all functional…

Tips for Software Testing Engineers-For Effective Writing of Integration Tests Software testing engineers can not afford to ignore the importance of integration tests. Integration test when breaks in the event of a dependent system changing unexpectedly are nothing but early warning that the system is about to break in the real world scenario as well. As an integration test breaks, pinpointing the problematic issue, the intelligent software-testing engineer can certainly prevent the problems from piling up until they come to the surface at a later stage of the project. Integration tests are generally problematic, hence are extremely important in any…

Collection of Useful Metrics by Software Testing Managers for Effective Test Management Software testing managers usually come across a vital & tricky question, “What metrics should be collected?” There is no pin pointed answer to this question. Fact remains that, metrics depend upon the varying needs of every development and testing organization. In fact software testing itself is a measurement activity involving collection of various metrics related to the quality of the software application being developed by a different group of people. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has prescribed four basic metrics areas: 1) Schedule 2) Quality 3) Resources 4)…

How to Build Effective Relationship Between Software Testing & Development Teams For delivering a high-quality software product, it is of utmost importance that healthy relationship is inculcated among the software testing & development teams through strong leadership in the organization. Project managers constantly strive to constructively manage conflicts & handle technical and organizational problem scientifically at individual as well as at different team levels. Let us analyze different factors influencing successful relationship between software testing engineers & developers. A) Attitudinal Difference in Developers vis-a-vis Testers Developers are good at building codes. Once they have created what they feel to be…

Extent of Customer Involvement in Software Testing of a New Software As a software-testing engineer, you might have done your tiring best by successfully using various means to bring the software application to the current level, and might have helped in getting it ready for its customers. You might have even helped its customers in having their first experiences with the software. But the fact remains that – your job is still not over. No matter how much testing or how many test phases new software is put through, it can always benefit from exposure to additional environments and users.…

Attacking the Recovery Capability of Applications during Software Testing Recovery testing is an important & generally overlooked technique. Instead of ignoring the inevitably of bugs, it faces them head-on by investigating how software will react in the face of a trouble. It is applicable across all phases of software testing, and is especially productive at exposing bugs on systems under heavy load and stress. It is essential that the software testing engineers give due consideration to recovery implications while developing their test plan. Software�s ability to recover from a failure is an important contributor to its robustness. Recovery can also…

Ten Challenges Faced by Software Testing Engineers while working with QTP 1. QTP can only run on Microsoft Windows OS. Support for other operating systems is not yet supported. Hence, it is not possible to do cross platform testing with Quicktest Professional. 2. QTP can not recognize objects running on remote machines. Hence, it is not possible for QTP to automate applications running on remote machines. Also, QTP can not automate applications invoked through Citrix. The possible workaround is install QTP on the Citrix server and then launching QTP and the application might help. 3. Reporting facility and Error handling…

How Software Testing Managers Tackle the Incidents during the Development Life Cycle The activity of managing unexpected events that are encountered during testing is called incident management. It is formally an activity in the configuration management process, but being emphasized here because it is strongly connected to software testing. We can say that, Incident is a defect or an outcome of an action during testing, wherein the actual result differs from the expected result & such an event requires greater study & investigation. What are the prime causes of Incidents? When a product is being developed, tested, deployed, and maintained,…

Best Strategies on Automation & Manual Testing Practiced by Software Testing Experts The management team reviews different strategies and identifies few of them that would yield highest payoff in terms of improving the testing and achieving the targeted objectives. The software testing managers burn a lot of midnight oil in working out different pros & cons of deploying �Automation Testing� or �Manual Testing� to evaluate their software under test. Following strategies on automation & manual testing are carefully examined prior to arriving at some useful conclusion. Strategies for Automation Testing: A) Based upon viability of executing automated test scripts: It has been seen…

An Insight to Six Principles of Testing Prescribed by Software Testing Experts Following six core principles of testing are prescribed by Great Testing Gurus, & out of them each one carries significant importance for the practitioners as well as the testing managers. These principles help us to better understand what testing is all about and serve to provide a foundation for the methods and techniques used by the software testing engineers. Six key software-testing principles are: 1) Complete testing is not possible. 2) Testing is creative and difficult. 3) An important reason for testing is to prevent errors. 4) Testing…

Selection of Suitable Software Testing Technique after a Good Test Case Design After spending several hours on perfecting our test case designs, a big question arises that is “Which testing technique should we use?” The best answer to that is: It depends! There is no established consensus on which technique is the most effective. The choice depends on the circumstances, including the testers� experience and the nature of the object under testing. With regard to the software testing engineer�s experience it is evident that a test case design technique that we as software testing engineers know well and have used many…

Software Testing Tools used by ISTQB certified Experts like Test Analysts and Technical Test Analysts Many tools for the support of software development are available, and the selection is growing every day. It is therefore extremely difficult to list down specific tools. Here we are discussing the classification of Nine different types of tools according to the primary users of the tools specifically ISTQB certified software testing experts like Test analysts and technical test analysts. These nine types of tools being described are as under: 1) Test design tools 2) Test data generation tools 3) Test oracles 4) Simulation and…

Software Testing Techniques to Detect Password Vulnerabilities in Software Applications Wherever a user desires to deny or restrict the accessibility of a software application or a system from others, it is secured by means of a password. Users spend lot of time & energy in protecting their systems with so called difficult passwords, but at the same time smart password crackers reveal the mystery with little effort using different tools & techniques available these days. As a matter of fact no one likes passwords, as they can be too many in number thereby making it difficult for the brain to…

Security Penetration Testing – A Software Testing Technique for Banking Applications The banking applications are extremely important and face several types of threats. Software testing engineers face tough challenge in tackling such threats. The most effective approach to ensure the security of such banking applications is to follow a secure development lifecycle and take care of security right from the beginning i.e. design and code level. The approach of secure development lifecycle works well for the future applications; but the concern remains for thousands of applications already in use. Hence two prime questions come to the mind of software testing personnel, that…

Key Aspects of Risk-Based Product Testing Managed by Software Testing Managers Generally the project managers get scared with the thorny word “Risk”. It appears scaring like police, taxes or the death. Project managers live with the fact that it is impossible to test everything. Testing is nothing but a sample control. There is an involvement of risk in sample control & there always remains a risk of overlooking faults in the untested areas. Testing is certainly the best & the major defense against risk, and an intelligent software testing manager knows how to use the risks to his/her best advantage…

How Software Testing Engineers Manage Inadequate or Substandard Software Requirements What exactly constitutes a good requirement is always subjective to some degree, but in most cases, as software testing engineers you will know a good one when we see it. You shouldn�t be concerned with less than perfect requirements as long as you understand them and know how they�re understood by the stakeholders and project team – and you can test them accurately. Once requirements have been received by the testing team they can be used for identifying and writing tests. As the process of identifying and creating tests begins,…

Security in Software Testing and Introduction to Security Development Lifecycle Software Development Life Cycle, Software Testing Life Cycle & Security-Testing Life Cycles are methodologies well known across the IT industry. Let us try to know about a sparingly known methodology – Security Development Lifecycle or SDL Security Development Lifecycle is an innovative methodology brought by Microsoft & IBM in the year 2002. This is a process wherein every security issue is made a priority during every stage of the software development process. The SDL introduces the use of several techniques like threat modeling, use of static analysis tools, code reviews, and…

Strategies & Considerations for Test Automation as adopted by Software Testing Managers It is quite natural for the business managers to aim to automate every activity that is performed by the human beings. All of us hear a lot about software test automation and its benefits. The reasons for building such common beliefs can be the following: a) Automation saves on labor costs b) Automation eliminates human error c) Automation increases productivity d) Automation brings information online and in real time etc. etc. But apart from the above the biggest fact that remains live & can�t be forgotten is that,…

Software Evaluation using Performance Metrics during Software Testing Performance metrics are very powerful tools to evaluate the usability of any software product during software testing effort. These can help us in informing key decisions, such as whether a new software product is ready to launch or more software testing effort is needed. Performance metrics are always based on participants’ behavior rather than what they say. Anyone using technology has to interact with some type of interface to accomplish his or her goals. For example, a user of a website clicks on different links, a user of a word-processing application enters…

How do we measure the Costs of Software Testing? Measuring the cost of testing is an important step toward justifying any software testing initiative. All software testing expenditures are justified by comparing the benefits accrued with the cost. The benefits could be in terms of quality measurement and failure prevention or earlier detection etc. Before testing managers start thinking on the testing cost measurements, following questions essentially come to their mind. Q. 1: How much should be spent on software testing? Q. 2: How much should be set aside for dedicated testing resources? Q. 3: What levels of software testing…

An Insight to Software Testing Policies & Strategies used by Expert Test Managers There can be a very high level of management at an organizational or corporate level. This might be limited to a definition of how testing is expected to be conducted throughout the organisation. Wherever organizations have ISTQB certified Test Managers, the management of software testing can be done either at the programme level or at individual project level. For every such level of test management there is an associated document. When structured in a top-down fashion, it is called the test management documentation hierarchy. An example of…

Self Appraisal for Managers & Team Leads – Who Manage the Software Testing Functions Manager’s job is to obtain results through the work of others. Everything a manager does can be categorized in one of the following areas of responsibility. 1) Leadership: It involves pointing the way and motivating individuals to seek common goals. It includes setting objectives, expectations, and plans. 2) Support: It involves facilitating the workers’ performances. It includes training, work methods, tools, and general assistance. 3) Control: It involves ensuring that the organization stays on the intended track. It includes monitoring, follow-up, reporting, evaluating, and redirecting.A balanced program of action…

Testing Documentation Plan – An indispensable Control Tool in Software Testing Effort Most critical aspect of proper control over the testing activity is testing documentation. The development life cycle is often characterized by the documents produced during each phase of work. In the same manner, the software testing life cycle may be defined, and controlled, by the documents produced during each of the testing activities. Structured test documentation has been largely neglected in majority of the organizations. In some organizations, the documentation exists, but it remains haphazard and is generally left to the discretion of the practitioner. However recently the…

Pros & Cons of HP QTP & Selenium the New Generation Software Testing Tools The IT sector is aware of the emergence of QuickTest Professional (QTP) & Selenium as the popular choice of testers & programmers for their test automation effort. First of all let us have a quick overview of both the software testing tools, before going into a broad comparison among the functionality of the two. 1) Quick Overview – HP QTP: QTP is automated testing tool meant for performing functional and regression testing of various software applications and environments through a user interface like native GUI or web…

Objectivity of Entry & Exit Criteria at Varying Levels of Software Testing In software testing terms, entry and exit criteria represent the objective criteria that must be met before a test level is entered or exited. Entry and exit criteria can be applied to every test level. The exit criteria from the final test level (typically user acceptance testing) may be known as acceptance criteria or completion criteria, but the difference is in name only and the criteria serve the same purpose as any other exit criteria. To ensure that the software projects are properly defined and to have a…

Design-Based Test Case Design an Effective Software Testing Technique Software design errors and faults can be discovered and software designs validated by two techniques like: 1) Requirements-based test case design being the primary technique 2) Another important technique being the early design-based test case design. In design-based test case design the information for deriving them is taken from the software design documentation. Design-based test cases focus on the data and process paths within the software structures. Internal interfaces, complex paths or processes, worst-case scenarios, design risks and weak areas, etc. are all explored by constructing specialized test cases and analyzing…

Stages of Risk Management Encountered by the Software Testing Managers Software testing managers� come across following four stages while managing risks associated with their projects & products: 1) Risk identification; 2) Risk analysis; 3) Risk mitigation; and 4) Risk monitoring. Stage � 1: Risk Identification: In risk identification the risks presented by the project & product are identified & documented for further analysis It is the initial step of recognizing what risks are present (i.e. what unwanted events might occur). At this stage the main priority is to ensure that as many risks as possible are identified rather than analyzing any…

Importance of Testing the Requirements Documents before any other Software Testing Requirements Testing Objectives There is a general tendency to ignore the importance of testing the Requirements documents first. In general requirements documents are the most poorly “tested” work products in the development cycle. Only recently the concept of testing such work products has become popular. Testing the Requirements documents involves answering two basic questions: Question-1: Are any requirements missing? a) Have all needed functions been addressed? b) Is required performance specified? c) Is the software quality specified? d) Is the software fully defined? Question-2: Can any of the requirements…

How a Good Bug Hunter Prioritizes his Bug Hunting Activities in Software Testing Let us firstly understand as to what is a bug hunter? A bug hunter is an experienced & enthusiastic exploratory tester. Good bug hunters usually do the following: 1) Do initial exploratory testing of a suspect area, to develop ideas for more detailed attacks that can be performed by less experienced testers. 2) Explore an area that is allegedly low risk – can he quickly find bugs that would lead to reassessment of the risk? 3) Troubleshoot key areas that seem prone to irreproducible bugs. 4) Find…

Exploratory Testing an Indispensable Nonsystematic Software Testing Technique Going by the versions of ISTQB certified experts like “Advanced Test Managers” & “Technical Test Analysts”, we can say that systematic testing is not enough always! Since faults are sly we have to attack them in unpredictable ways. This is where the nonsystematic testing techniques come in as a valuable supplement to systematic testing techniques. The great Testing Guru – Cem Kaner drafted the term “Exploratory Testing” being a type of nonsystematic testing techniques more than two decades ago, to elaborate a methodology of performing skilled activities that were quite common in the Silicon Valley.…

White-Box Unit testing – A Bottom-Up Approach of Software Testing Unlike black box software testing, white box unit testing is a strategy that requires knowledge of the internal structure of a program to design test cases. Based on this structure, white box software testing also called glass box testing, exercises statements, branches, paths, loops, and data flows in order to expose construction defects and security vulnerabilities. Because of the level of detail required to implement and verify its results, traditionally this type of testing has been performed for relatively small code elements. However, with the use of the modern technology…

Analysis of defects found during software testing & action plan to prevent them ISTQB certified experts like “Technical Test Analysts” perform comprehensive root cause analysis of defects uncovered during software testing. Such root cause analysis leads to the formation of the customized best practices that prevent those defects from recurring in subsequent iterations of software development. When testers uncover defects during integration, system, and acceptance testing, they assess defect severity and report severe defects in the problem tracking system. Defects should be considered severe if they cause intermittent or long-term system failures, or produce incorrect outputs, or if frequency of occurrence warrants…

Four Best Policies for Regression Testing as Suggested by Software Testing Experts The regression testing system is a part of an intermediate or expanded infrastructure. It consists of a suite of tests, developed gradually as the white and black box tests pass. Once in place, the regression software testing suites verify that implemented functionality continues to work properly after each new code addition to the application. The following policies are formulated to ensure that the regression system is used effectively to identify all code regressions immediately on getting diagnosed and that the timely removal of regression defects is properly facilitated.…

Download Link for your Favorite Presentation is at the End of this Page ************************************************************************************** Why Software Testing Experts use Test Execution Tools for Automation? This type of software testing tools are known by different names like – test execution tools, or test running tools, or capture and replay tools, and is probably the most commonly known category of software testing tools. These tools are primarily used for automation of regression testing. They can execute test scripts much faster and more reliably than human beings, and they can therefore reduce test execution time when tests are repeated and/or allow more tests to…

Integration Testing a Key Software Testing activity – Why, Who & How? After the test progression criteria for units, sub-modules, and modules have been met, it is necessary to verify that these elements work correctly together. The role of integration testing is to conduct such a verification by an orderly progression of testing in which all the individually tested software parts are combined and tested together until the entire system has been integrated. Let us firstly try to gather the answers of Why, How & Who related to Integration Tests Q. 1: Why do we need to carry out Integration…

Dynamics of Reporting System of Software Testing Progress & its Completion Test managers play an active role in managing the entire process of testing & plan concrete strategies for an effective reporting of completion of the testing effort. A discussion is being presented here to explain the system of test progress management & subsequent reporting on completion. Test execution, recording, control, re-testing, and regression testing must be continued until we believe that the exit criteria have been achieved. The purpose of the test progress and completion reporting is to stay in control of the testing and deliver the results of…

Difference between Change Related Software Testing like Confirmation Testing & Regression Testing During software testing we get failures. In most cases the underlying defects are corrected and the corrected test object is handed over to the testers for confirmation. This is the situation where we iterate in the test process and go back to the test execution process. We go back to perform confirmation testing and regression testing. Confirmation testing and regression testing are important activities in test execution. They can appear in all the test levels from component testing to (one hopes rarely) acceptance testing and even during maintenance…

How Bright our Career is in Software Testing? A question of great significance comes to the mind of most of the IT professionals i.e. What kind of future I can have in a Software Testing Career? The answer is to this is complex. It’s easy to reach a dead-end in testing; we need to intelligently manage the career or we may get bewildered. There is a general belief that pay is lower in testing than in other development positions, but this belief can be proved otherwise if we actively build our skills and pick our employers a bit carefully. Attrition…

How to Quickly Classify Different Software Testing Techniques Testing techniques are groups of inter-related procedures responsible for producing the desired test deliverables. Industry experts have prescribed many classification schemes for software testing according to six fundamental types like: 1) Manual Testing 2) Automated Testing 3) Static Testing 4) Dynamic Testing 5) Functional Testing or Black-Box Testing 6) Structural Testing or White-Box Testing Popular software testing techniques classified alphabetically are given below:   Testing Technique   Manual Auto – mated   Static   Dynamic   Black Box   White Box   Basis Path Testing Y Y Y Black-Box Testing Y Y…

Importance of Beta Software Testing in Application Development During beta, the software application is considered completely functional but it continues to remain in the process of review and refinement. That is the reason why software developers release the new application among a wider audience with an objective to see how it performs under real life scenario. Beta Software testing is a conventional or standard practice in application & programs development. Two types of beta testing are there. 1) Open beta testing 2) Closed beta testing Open Beta Testing: Here the software is released among the common public & provided as a…

Great News-Software Testing Genius broke all records of number of visitors :=) You may be aware of the fact that our web-site is too young that it has not completed even its first year on the web. :=) In less than 5 months of its initial existence, it got a great recognition from Google by way of acquiring prestigious Page Rank � 4 (PR4) The day of 26th October 2009 (Monday) became so special & full of great pleasure, we thought of sharing it with our Esteemed Readers !!!! Now once again we have two breaking news to share !!!! 1) Largest number of visitors…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 261 to 270 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 251 to Q 260 are at the end of this page: Q. 261: which of the following would be applicable as part of a test policy for testing these types of systems? a) Systems must be tested for compliance to industry standard routing protocols. b) Testing for the latest upgrade will require testing of increased network traffic of 100�10. c) Testing for the fix…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 251 to 260 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 241 to Q 250 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 251: Which of the following methods of test estimation would be most appropriate for each Sprint? A. Ask the testers to talk to each other and reach a consensus. B. Take 30% of the total development time required for the Sprint. C. Conduct a test point analysis on…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 241 to 250 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 231 to Q 240 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 241: Which of the following provides the best example of a product risk leading to a project risk? A. The signaling systems may have more defects than anticipated, leading to the need for more re-testing to be carried out. B. There may be unexpected lags on the network…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 231 to 240 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 221 to Q 230 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 231: Give three components included in a system test report. A. Description of Testing; resource requirement; and Recommendation B. Testing requirements; defects; and usability C. Description of test results and findings (defects); Summary (environment and references); and Recommendation <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 232: Non Statistical tools are used…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 221 to 230 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 211 to Q 220 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Questions related to “Status Management of Testing Projects” Q. 221: Which is not test result data A. Test factors B. Interface objective C. Platform D. Test estimation <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 222: What type of test that will be conducted during the execution of tests, which will be based…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 211 to 220 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 201 to Q 210 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Questions related to “Test Management” Q. 211: Essential Testing Skills are A. Test Planning, Risk Management, Tool Usage, Test Execution, Defect Management B. Test Planning, Tool Usage, Test Execution, Defect Management, Test Measurement C. Test Planning, Tool Usage, Test Execution, Defect ManagementD. Test Planning, Tool Usage, Test Execution, Defect…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 201 to 210 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 191 to Q 200 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 201: System testing include all the following except A. Performance services B. Security services C. Usability services D. Monitoring services <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 202: Compatibility testing for products involves all the following except A. Certified and supported client environments B. High and low level sanity testing C.…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 181 to 190 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 171 to Q 180 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 181: Which part of Test plan will define “What will and will not be covered in the test”? A. Test scope B. Test objective C. Both A & B D. None of the above <<<<<< =================== >>>>>>   Q. 182: What do you mean by “Having to say…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 171 to 180 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 161 to Q 170 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 171: Testing, which is carried out using no recognized test case design A. Failure Testing B. Adhoc Testing C. Exhaustive Testing D. Empty test case Testing <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 172: A test case design technique for a component in which test cases are designed to execute A.…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 161 to 170 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 151 to Q 160 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 161: How many Deming principles are there? A. 10 B. 14 C. 5 D. 7 <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 162: How many levels are in the CMM? A. 18 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5 <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 163: The Pareto analysis is most effective for:  A. Ranking items by…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 151 to 160 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 141 to Q 150 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 151: Some of the metrics which are collected in a testing project are 1) Productivity 2) Test effectiveness 3) Requirement stability 4) Bug fix rate A. 1 and 2 B. 2 and 3 C. 1, 2 and 4 D. 1 and 4 <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 152: Baseline means…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 141 to 150 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 131 to Q 140 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 141: 80:20 rule can also be called as A. Fish bone diagram B. Pareto analysis C. Scatter diagram D. Histogram <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 142: Review is one of the methods of V&V. The other methods are A. Inspection B. Walkthrough C. Testing D. All of the above <<<<<< ===================…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 131 to 140 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 121 to Q 130 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 131: Which of the following is not Risk characteristic A. Inherent in every project B. Neither intrinsically good not bad C. Something to fear but not something to manage D. Probability of loss Questions relatedto “Software Testing Metrics” Q. 132: What is the purpose of code coverage tools? A. They are…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 121 to 130 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 111 to Q 120 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Questions related to “Risk Management” Q. 121: What is Risk analysis? A. Evaluating risks B. Evaluating Controls C. Evaluating vulnerabilities D. All of the above <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 122: Formal testing guidelines suggest which one of the following as the correct source of functional test cases? A. The developer�s knowledge of what…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 111 to 120 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 101 to Q 110 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 111: File Integrity falls under _______ A. Compliance testing B. Disaster testing C. Verifying compliance to rules D. Functional testing E. Ease of operations <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 112 : It�s an unfair test to perform stress testing at the same time you perform load testing A. True…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 101 to 110 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 91 to Q 100 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 101: Which of the following is not a form of performance testing? A. Spike testing B. Volume testing C. Transaction testing D. Endurance testing <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 102: Which of the following is not a client side statistics in load testing A. Hits per second B. Throughput…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 91 to 100 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 81 to Q 90 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 91: When Integration testing should begin _______ A. During black-box testing B. Once unit testing is complete for the integrating components C. Before unit testing is complete D. All of the above <<<<<< ===================>>>>>> Q. 92: Which is NOT a part of integration testing A. Validation of the…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 191 to 200 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 181 to Q 190 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 191: Which of the following technique is the most suitable for negative testing A. Boundary value analysis B. Internal value analysis C. State transition testing D. All of the above <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 192: How do you test a module for integration? A. Big bang approach B.…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 81 to 90 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 71 to Q 80 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Questions related to “Performance Testing” Q. 81: Operations testing is _______ A. Compliance testing B. Disaster testing C. Verifying compliance to rules D. Functional testing E. Ease of operations   <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 82: Security falls under _______ A. Compliance testing B. Disaster testing C. Verifying compliance to…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 71 to 80 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 61 to Q 70 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 71: Recovery Testing aims at verifying the system’s ability to recover from varying degrees of failure. A. True B. False <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 72: The testing attempts to violate those procedures, which should test the adequacy of the security procedures. A. Disaster testing B. Functional testing C.…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 61 to 70 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 51 to Q 60 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 61: The following defines the statement of what the tester is expected to accomplish or validate during testing activity A. Test scope B. Test objective C. Test environment D. None of the above <<<<<< ===================>>>>>> Q. 62: As a tester, what is your main objective in reviewing a…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 51 to 60 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 41 to Q 50 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 51: Characteristic of a good test A. Reasonable probability of catching an error and can be redundant B. It is not simple or too complex C. Reasonable probability of catching an error and cannot be redundant D. It is either simple or too complex <<<<<<=================== >>>>>> Q. 52:…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 41 to 50 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 31 to Q 40 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 41: _________must be developed to describe when and how testing will occur. A. Test Strategy B. Test Plan C. Test Design D. High Level document <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> [GoolgeAd336] Q. 42: It is difficult to create test scenarios for high-level risks A. True B. False <<<<<< =================== >>>>>>…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 31 to 40 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 21 to Q 30 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 31: Which document helps you to track test coverage? A. Traceability Matrix B. Test plan C. Test log <<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 32: _________ test is conducted at the developer�s site by a customer. A. Beta B. System C. Alpha D. None of the above <<<<<< =================== >>>>>>…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 21 to 30 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 11 to Q 20 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 21: User Acceptance Testing is A. Same as Alpha Testing B. Same as Beta Testing C. Combination of Alpha and Beta Testing D. None of the above <<<<<< ===================>>>>>> Q. 22: Error seeding A. Evaluates the thoroughness with which a computer program is tested by purposely inserting errors…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 11 to 20 (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Correct Answers to Earlier Questions – Q. 1 to Q 10 are at the end of this page: Set of 10 Questions Q. 11: Branch Coverage is A. Another name for decision coverage B. Another name for all-edges coverage C. Another name for basic path coverage D. All the above ;<<<<< =================== >>>>>> Q. 12: The following example is a If (condition1 && (condition2 || function1())) statement1; else statement2; A. Decision…

Software Testing Skill Review Test-Q 1 to 10 This Question Bank contains especially designed High Quality Multiple Choice Questions on Software Testing. (Questions are useful for beginners as well as experienced QA Managers; who can review their skill before appearing in any interview) Set of 10 Questions Q. 1: What is Critical in Web Testing? A. Performance and Functionality B. Functionality and usability C. Usability and Performance D. None of the above <<<<<< =================== >>>>>>   Q. 2: Testing across different languages is called A. Linguistic Testing B. Localization Testing C. Both A and B D. None of the above.…

What is the Motive behind Software Testing? Testing is necessary due to the following reasons 1) Due to Technical Compulsions: a) Competent developers are not infallible. b) The implications of requirements are not always foreseeable. c) The behavior of a system is not necessarily predictable from its components. d) Languages, databases, user interfaces and operating systems have bugs that can cause application failures. e) Reusable classes and objects must be trustworthy. 2) Due to Business Compulsions: a) If you don’t find bugs, your customers or users will.b) Post-release debugging is the most expensive form of development. c) Buggy software hurts…

How Debugging is different from Software Testing When the testing of any software application gets completed successfully, debugging activity starts. During testing errors come to the light through efficiently designed test cases. Thereafter the process by which the detected errors are practically removed is called debugging. After testing, we immediately start our hunt for the errors i.e., to identify the interface or the module responsible for causing it. Then that section of the code is to be studied to determine the cause of the problem. This process is called debugging. Hence, we can say that debugging is the name of…

Presentations cum Tutorials on Software Testing Following Presentations are a sort of Tutorials meant for deeper understanding of various concepts. What you may read from a good book on testing, has been expertly explained through presentations. The Presentations are available for Free Download on to your PC. Just Click on the link of your desired format & the download shall start in the background & the downloaded file shall open automatically. Please have patience, since download may take some time depending upon the speed of your Internet Connection. Available Formats are (*.pdf ) Openable in Acrobat Reader & (*.ppt) openable in MS Powerpoint software. <<<<< ==============…

Comparison among various Black Box or Functional Software Testing Techniques Testing Effort The functional methods vary both in terms of the number of test cases generated and the effort to develop these test cases. To compare the three techniques, namely, boundary value analysis (BVA), equivalence class partitioning and decision table based technique let us focus our attention on  the following graph.   The domain-based techniques have no recognition of data or logical dependencies. They are very mechanical in the way they generate test cases. Because of this, they are also easy to automate. The techniques like equivalence class testing focus on…

Cause-Effect Graphing-Black Box Software Testing Technique This is basically a hardware testing technique adapted to software testing. It considers only the desired external behaviour of a system. This is a testing technique that aids in selecting test cases that logically relate Causes (inputs) to Effects (outputs) to produce test cases. A �Cause� represents a distinct input condition that brings about an internal change in the system. An �Effect� represents an output condition, a system transformation or a state resulting from a combination of causes. According to Myer Cause & Effect Graphing is done through the following steps: Step – 1: For…