Over the past year or so, I've been experimenting with my iPod.  I have found that, while I enjoy some music, I tend to enjoy talk and good discussion even more.  So I have loaded my iPod with podcasts.

 

Here are some podcast sources that I particularly like.

 

 

FORA.tv - Audio Program of the Week
http://fora.tv/media/rss/podcasts/featured_audio.xml

FORA.tv's Program of the Week podcast delivers full-length weekly downloads of some of our most popular programming, available in either video or audio-only format.

 

Sample episode: Mythbuster Adam Savage's Colossal Failures

The 4th annual Maker Faire Bay Area hosts MythBusters co-host Adam Savage. Savage talks about failure - unmitigated, colossal failures he's experienced during his career. This program was recorded on May 30, 2009.

 

Following on President Obama's call to "begin again the work of remaking America," Maker Faire 2009 was organized around the theme of Re-Make America. Held in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maker Faire celebrates what President Obama called "the risk takers, the doers, and the makers of things." - Maker Faire 2009

 

Adam Savage has spent his life gathering skills that allow him to take what's in his brain and make it real. He's built everything from ancient Buddhas to futuristic weapons, from spaceships to dancing vegetables, from fine art sculptures to animated chocolate and just about anything else you can think of.

 

Since 1993, Adam has concentrated on the special-effects industry, honing his skills through more than 100 television commercials and a dozen feature films, including Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Galaxy Quest, Terminator 3, A.I. and the Matrix sequels. He's also designed props and sets for Coca-Cola, Hershey's, Lexus and a host of New York and San Francisco theater companies. Not only has he worked and consulted in the research and development division for toy companies and made several short films, but Adam has also acted in several films and commercials -- including a Charmin ad, in which he played Mr. Whipple's stock boy, and a Billy Joel music video, "Second Wind," in which he drowns.

 

Today, in addition to co-hosting Discovery Channel's MythBusters, Adam teaches advanced model making, most recently in the industrial design department at the San Francisco Academy of Art. Somehow he also finds time to devote to his own art. His sculptures have been showcased in over 40 shows in San Francisco, New York and Charleston, W.Va.

 

FRONTLINE: Audiocast | PBS
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FrontlineAudiocastPbs

You asked; we listened. FRONTLINE presents audio versions of select full-length episodes for listening on the go. Want more full-length FRONTLINE Audiocasts?

 

Please leave a review and let us know what you think. (For behind-the-scenes interviews with FRONTLINE producers, please see the FRONTLINE Extras podcast with host Arun Rath.)

 

Sample episode: Digital Nation - Audiocast

FRONTLINE Audiocast. "Digital Nation": How is technology changing us, and what are the implications of living in a world consumed by technology? (Orig. PBS airdate: Feb. 2, 2010)

 

Los Angeles Public Library Podcasts: ALOUD @ Central Library
http://events.lapl.org/podcasts/rss/itunes/aloudrss.aspx

The following podcasts were recorded live in the Los Angeles Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium as part of the award-winning ALOUD at Central Library speaker series presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. ALOUD podcasts are updated on a monthly basis. Initial funding for ALOUD podcasts was made possible by Arent Fox LLP.

 

Sample episode: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right BY Atul Gawande

Gawande, a bestselling author and surgeon, takes us on an intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference.

 

New England Patriots Podcasts
http://www.patriots.com/rss/public/index.cfm?ac=podcast

Browse, download, and subscribe to official podcasts produced by and about the New England Patriots.  Patriots podcasts include all the interviews, feature segments, and shows that keep you in touch with the team. For more information about Patriots official podcasts, visit Patriots.com.

 

Sample episode: PFW in Progress

Listen to this edition of PFW in Progress as we discuss a wide variety of offseason topics. Send in your questions for next show to webradio@patriots.com

 

NOVA scienceNOW
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/rss/nsn-podcast-pb.xml

Our podcast offers irreverent stories and introduces intriguing personalities from the world of science. For more content from the producers of NOVA scienceNOW -- and to watch our broadcast series online -- visit us at http://www.pbs.org/nova/sciencenow

 

Sample episode: The Littlest Planet

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided on new definition of a planet--and Pluto didn’t make the grade. It was bumped down to “dwarf planet” status.  But it’s not alone. It’s now one of five known dwarf planets in the solar system. One of them, called Ceres, may hold clues to how life formed on Earth. In this podcast, we talked to planetary scientist Mark Sykes about this tiny world.

 

Podcast produced by David Levin. Original interview by Susan K. Lewis. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.

 

To learn more, go to pbs.org/nova/pluto

 

NPR: Science Friday Podcast
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510221

Science Friday, as heard on NPR, is a weekly discussion of the latest news in science, technology, health, and the environment hosted by Ira Flatow.  Ira interviews scientists, authors, and policymakers, and listeners can call in and ask questions as well. Hear it each week on NPR stations nationwide -- or online here!

 

Sample episode: Harnessing Thoughts To Control A Computer

Researchers decoded electrical brain signals without implanting electrodes, according to a new study. Instead, Jose L. Contreras-Vidal and colleagues monitored brain activity with EEG sensors placed on the scalp, using those signals to reconstruct hand movement and drive a robot.

 

Point of Inquiry
http://pointofinquiry.libsyn.com/rss

Point of Inquiry is the premiere radio show and podcast of the Center for Inquiry, drawing on CFI's relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features and commentary focusing on the intersection of science and belief: religion, human values and the limits of knowledge. Point of Inquiry generally explores three research areas:

1. Pseudoscience and the paranormal (Bigfoot, UFOs, psychics, communication with the dead, cryptozoology, etc.)
2. Alternative medicine (faith healing, homeopathy, belief in "healing touch," the efficacy of prayer, etc.)
3. Religion and secularism (church-state separation, the effects and proper role of religion in society, the future of secularism and nonbelief, etc.)

Point of Inquiry is hosted by D.J. Grothe and produced by the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. The Center for Inquiry is a think-tank collaborating with the State University of New York on the Science and the Public Masters Program, and is devoted to promoting science, reason, and secular values in public affairs and at the grassroots. CFI maintains additional branches in Manhattan, Tampa, Hollywood, Washington D.C., Toronto, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, and in fifteen other cities around the world.

 

Sample episode: Chris Mooney - Unscientific America

Chris Mooney is a 2009-2010 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and author of three books, including the New York Times bestselling The Republican War on Science, Storm World, and Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co-authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum.

 

In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Chris Mooney talks about the growing divide between science and society. He contrasts the issues addressed in The Republican War on Science with the current problems facing society as outlined in Unscientific America. He argues for the unique public policy significance of science for society, and why scientific literacy matters more than other kinds of cultural or historical literacy. He discusses the policy relevance of scientific illiteracy in terms of global warming and biotechnology. He talks about the need for scientists to become better communicators to the public. He shares his criticisms of the New Atheists and explains why their attacks against religious moderates works counter to the goal of scientific literacy. He recounts his experiences as an atheist activist while in college, and how his views have changed about campus forethought activism since that time. He explores other underlying causes of scientific illiteracy, including our educational system, the media's dysfunctional treatment of science, and growing anti-science movements such as the climate deniers and vaccine skeptics. And he details concrete actions that science advocates can take in order to increase scientific literacy.

 

Science Times
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/scienceupdate.xml

David Corcoran, a science editor, explores the topics addressed in this week's Science Times.

 

Sample episode: NYT: Science Times for 03/02/2010

This Week: How the Internet is like an elephant, tapping the body for electricity, and trying to lose weight one cookie at a time.

 

Scientific American Podcast
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/sciam_podcast_i.xml

The Scientific American Podcast is a weekly science audio show covering the latest in the world of science and technology. Join Steve Mirsky each week as he explores cutting-edge breakthroughs and controversial issues with leading scientists and journalists. He is also an articles editor and columnist at Scientific American magazine and his column, "Antigravity", is one of science writing's rate venues for humor. Check our the new daily podcast from Scientific American: "60-Second Science." To view all of our archived podcasts please go to www.scientificamerican.com/podcast

 

Sample episode: Ice, Ice, Baby: The Physics of Curling

Mark Shegelski of the University of Northern British Columbia talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about the physics of curling, currently taking its turn on the world stage at the Vancouver Olympics. (Shegelski is also the author of the new sci-fi collection "Remembering the Future.") Plus, we test your knowledge of some recent science in the news

 

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/feed/rss.aspx?feed=sgu

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a weekly Podcast talkshow discussing the latest news and topics from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view. -The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: Your escape to reality -Produced by the New England Skeptical Society in association with the James Randi Educational Foundation(JREF) : http://www.theness.com

 

Sample episode: Skeptics Guide #241 - Feb 24 2010

Interview with Daniel Wilson; News Items: Homeopathy Smackdown in UK, What Darwin Got Wrong, The Bloom Box, Geller Aids Cops; Who's That Noisy; Science or Fiction

 

Star Talk
http://rss.sonibyte.com/rssfeed/56.xml

StarTalk bridges the intersection between pop culture and pop science, covering subjects like space travel, extra-terrestrial life, the Big Bang, the future of our Earth and the environment, and other breaking news from the universe. The podcast is hosted by Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedienne Lynne Koplitz, and it airs as a radio show in select markets. For more info, visit: http://startalkradio.net/

 

Sample episode: StarTalk: Time Travel

Time marches on - except in astrophysics. Einstein taught us that time is a coordinate in space, and it's all relative. Learn about the weird physics of our universe that could make time travel possible. Standing in for Lynne Koplitz this week is J. Richard Gott, author of "Time Travel in Einstein's Universe".

---

Know of any really good podcasts?
Email Me

I got an IM from a developer I used to work with and he had that good old familiar question "do you have a copy of that graph that shows the cost of fixing a bug?"

 

Well I didn't at the time, mostly I dealt with this with the book I keep on Quality Assurance, it has the graph and a little blub about it.  Since he needed one online, and pretty much everything is on the internet I did a check and lo and behold, I found a developer centric version.

Rate of Diminishing Returns Of Fixing Software Bugs

He needed an online version because he had a VP who wouldn't drink the water on catching defects early, I guess there are still plenty of them out there.  Either way, I found the link and he went away happy, another QA-centric developer satisfied.

 

It feels good to help on a Monday.

 

 

My popular Blog article "Optimistic Developers, Pessimistic Testers" was included in the inaugural edition of The Software Testing Club Magazine.

 

http://wiki.softwaretestingclub.com/The+Software+Testing+Club+Magazine+-+No+1

 

Check it out, and let me know what you think:

• Do you like the style and tone of the magazine?
• Do you like the graphics?
• Do you like "magazines" that are online, PDF-only, rather than print?
• Should I contribute to upcoming issues?

STC Magazine is a new venture from the folks who produce the online Software Testing Club site.  From their website:

The Software Testing Club was founded in 2007 by Rosie Sherry after a clear need for a community for software testers with a *quality approach*.

 

It started out as an experiment without high expectations. It is now a leading and thriving community for software testers.

The founders are into "social" websites as much as QA and Testing.  In addition to the main STC website, they also have blogs, forums, newsletters, a StacExchange-based forum, lots of cutesy graphics, and now an online "magazine".

 

You can find them at http://www.softwaretestingclub.com/

---

Let me know... do you like this magazine?  Do you want to see more?
Email Me

 

 

 

For years, I've been using StatCounter on this blog.  (see: http://www.sqablogs.com/jstrazzere/832/A+New+Tool+for+Your+Website+or+Blog+-+StatCounter.html)

 

Over time, I had seen hits from many, many different countries.  In the past year or so, I had not gotten a hit from a new country.  I thought perhaps the list was complete, and there would be no more.

 

Until yesterday. 

 

Yesterday, I got my first hit from Windhoek, Namibia.

 

I knew Namibia was in Africa, but I knew little else.  So I did a bit of research:

• It is officially known as The Republic of Namibia
• It's in Southern Africa, bordered by the country of South Africa to the south and east
• It gained independence from South Africa in 1990
• The official language is English
• Windhoek is the capital, and largest city
• It has a population of about 2.1 million people

And, apparently one person from Namibia wanted to read something about "formal testing".

 

Welcome, new friend from Namibia!  I hope you were able to find the information you were seeking.

---

Any comments on this article?
Email Me

 

 

One thing that I believe strongly is that QAers should strive to avoid bugs whenever they can, rather than just finding them later on.  Every bug that can be avoided saves time all around.

Now, lots of people make mistakes when typing out month names.  So I have a solution!

 

All month names should be shortened to just three letters to save time, assist in txting, and avoid spelling mistakes.

• January becomes Jan
• February becomes Feb
• March becomes Mar
• and so on

Except for May.  May should be lengthened to Maytober.  May has had it good for too long now, and consequently must pay.

(inspired by JakeBrake's discussion at SQAForums.com http://www.sqaforums.com/showflat.php?Number=612098 )

---

Any comments on this article?
Email Me

Hello All,

We have a venue for the next London Tester Gathering: LVPO Bar in Soho.
50 Dean Street
London, W1D 5BQ
020 7255 8617
http://www.lvpo.co.uk/location/
Closest tubes are: Leicester Sq and Piccadilly Circus

We also have speakers/presenters:
Jeremy Gidlow (Intechnica)- speaking (I believe) about various performance tools (pros and cons) and experiences with them
David Evans & Mike Scott - TDD and Testify: http://code.google.com/p/testifywizard/

We just need the people, which the following information along with the chance to hear the speakers and meet people should cover:
Happy Hour is from 5pm-8pm. Half price wine and cocktails, bottles of beer are £2.50.

The plan:
I'll be there from about 5:30pm and we have a private room (with bar) booked from 6-7:30 for the speakers and then we have a private area in the main bar.

http://events.linkedin.com/London-Tester-Gathering-Wednesday-17th/pub/228937

Hope to see you there.

Cheers and Kind Regards

Tony Bruce.

 

 

Joel Spolsky is hiring a Tester.  See: http://www.fogcreek.com/Jobs/QA.html 

 

As he often does, he expounds a bit on his ideas behind the role on his terrific "Joel on Software" site (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2010/01/26.html), before he leads the reader to the ad for that particular job.

 

Joel seems to believe that one part of a tester's role is to boost the morale of developers.  He says "Believe it or not, one of the most valuable features of a tester is providing positive reinforcement."  I have to say that I've never heard that expressed before, and I can't say that I agree.  While I do want my testers to be professional, and enthusiastic about the company and their job, I really don't want my testers concerned with programmer morale.  What if programmer morale starts to dip?  Should we blame the testers?

 

Joel also seems to see some sort of connection between liking puzzles and testing.  I hear this from lots of folks, mostly from those who aren't testers but also from some who are, and I remain skeptical.  I've never seen any real correlation between puzzle-playing affinity and testing.  I've seen great testers who dislike puzzles.  And I've seen fanatic puzzlers who make terrible testers.  I wonder if he asks Microsoft-style puzzles during interviews?

 

I also noticed that he is hiring a Software Developer as well.  See: http://www.fogcreek.com/Jobs/Dev.html

 

The two job ads make for an interesting contrast.

 

For the tester role

• no experience is necessary
• they require intelligence and curiosity
• they require a track record of success.  By that they mean "a bachelor's degree with top grades"
• they require a scientific approach and unusual attention to detail
• the applicant must love a good puzzle
• the applicant must like to think about things methodically
• the applicant must generally like working with software and computers

While for the developer role

• the applicant must be able to "master any technology, language, or development environment"
• they require incredible coding skills
• the applicant must be described by friends and coworkers as an "animal"
• the applicant must have a continuous string of successful projects

So testers don't need any experience, but they must love good puzzles?  And developers must have experience, but apparently don't need to love puzzles (good or bad)?  Seems odd to me.

 

Oh, and presumably Fog Creek Software wants to attract the kind of no-experience tester that likes to point out flaws in their corporate website.  The ad for the Tester is sprinkled with typos like

• no necessary, rather than not necessary
• you`ve
• and and
• moral, rather than morale
• ıt, instead of it
• va1uable
• etc.

Clearly this was intentional, since similar flaws are not present in the ad for the Developer.  While I suspect it would be rather off-putting for a professional QAer or Developer, perhaps this tactic is actually exciting to someone with no experience?
 
So, if you want to apply for this job - go solve some puzzles, proofread their website carefully, and study up on the best ways to improve someone else's morale.  I hear that a good backrub, a nice cup of hot tea and a pep talk can work wonders!  Experience is no necessary.

 

---

And if Fog Creek really wants to raise the morale of their programmers, perhaps they should just hire a consultant?

http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2010-02-01/

---

Any comments on this article?
Email Me

QA

Q&A

 

Question:  What is a Bug Triage?

 

Answer:  A meeting or discussion focused on an item-by-item review of every active bug reported against the system under test.  During this review, fix dates can be assigned, insignificant bugs can be deferred, and project management can assess the progress of the development process.  [R. Black]

 

In medicine, Triage is the process of prioritizing patients based on the severity of their condition, rationing patient treatment efficiently when there are insufficient resources for everyone to be treated immediately. 

 

The term dates back to World War I where French doctors treated battlefield wounded at stations near the front.  At its basic, triage aims to divide the wounded into three categories:

• Those who are likely to live, no matter what care they receive
• Those who are likely to die, no matter what care they receive
• Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome

In software, Bug Triage is a way to allocate your scarce debugging, development, and testing resources among all open bugs so that your time is spent in ways that can most positively benefit the project.

 

During a Bug Triage Meeting, representatives from Project Management, Development, Testing, Support, and other areas gather and discuss the remaining open bugs.  Usually, the team attempts to:

• Note which bugs do not need to be fixed at all, perhaps because there will be no end-user impact
• Note which bugs can be fixed in at a later release (deferred)
• Note which bugs must be fixed immediately, perhaps because they are blocking further testing or demos
• Note which bugs must be fixed for this release, but not immediately

One of the key questions I like to ask about a bug during triage is "Would you be willing to delay the release until this bug is fixed?"

 

To make a Bug Triage Meeting run effectively, the team should either come to the discussion with an understanding of the bugs which will be discussed, or a discussion about the bugs, their context, and associated risks should occur duing the meeting itself.

 

Often Bug Triage Meetings will only commence during that latter stages of a release, when all features have been delivered, and only bugs remain.  Depending on the nature of the release, the schedule, and the people involved, these meetings might take place weekly, or even daily.

 

Usually, the only topics open for discussion during a Bug Triage are:

• Should this bug be fixed at all?
• Should this bug be fixed now, or can it wait until later?
• If later, must the bug be fixed during this release, or can it wait until some future release?
• What is the relative priority of this bug versus other bugs?

Topics that should not be open for discussion during Bug Triage usually include:

• Blame for how the bug occurred, or why it wasn't discovered sooner
• Discussion of the overall architecture
• Debugging or redesigning
• Rescheduling of the release

Some teams consider it necessary to estimate in the Bug Triage Meeting how long it will take to fix a particular bug.  But some teams don't consider this estimate a valid discussion topic during the meeting itself.  I personally favor leaving this estimation out of the meeting.

 

Many teams will update the bug reports themselves either during the Bug Triage meeting, or immediately afterwards - adding the outcome of the Bug Triage decisions into the bug report, and chaning the bug's Status and Priority accordingly.

 

For other QA and Testing Terms, see: http://www.sqablogs.com/jstrazzere/46/A+Glossary+of+Testing+Terms.html

---

Periodically, I'll pick a QA or Testing term and try to explain it in a bit more detail.  If you have a term that you'd like explained - Email Me

On the 12th Jan 2010 we held a London Tester Gathering, it was quite successful, we had around 20 participants. 
It was held at the Grosvenor Gloucester Casino where the staff were very helpful and friendly.  Thanks must be given to Stephen Allott for organising the venue.
In the past these have been purely social events, a chance to meet or catch up with people in testing. 
This time we offered the opportunity to speak and I'm glad to say we had some takers.  We had:

Stephen Allott
John Reber
Paul Gerrard
Tom Gilb

Unfortunately Steve had lost his voice so instead of speaking about 'The Testing Community' he printed out some details.

John spoke about ownership of automated
test tools in a TDD environment, he discussed the 'TDD's', his experiences and touched briefly on tools.  It was a good talk and generated some discussion which was excellent.

Paul introduced the first equation of testing, quantum testing theory and testing uncertainty principle.
He also spoke about the Test Management Summit. If you haven't already got your spot booked, get in now.
And gave away copies of The Tester Pocketbook of which you should own a copy if you don't already.  This was also a good talk and generated some discussion.

I might be the only person ever to have Tom Gilb at an event and have a short talk from him.  This is not any kind of good achievement and one hopefully he'll give me a chance to rectify at another gathering.  I wasn't aware Tom had a prior engagement to get to and the other talks over ran (which is not a bad thing) so we had a short talk from talk about his Lean QA course which is being run with TSG.

This was unfortunate as I've yet to hear Tom speak, something I hope to rectify as well.

Lessons learned:

Next time, limit it to two speakers and start it a little bit later, give everybody plenty of time to get there.

All in all it was a good night, people met, people talked.  It was good enough to organise some more.

If you're interested in attending and/or speaking please join the 'London Tester Gathering' Linkedin Grp for details.

I've noticed a fairly annoying trend to do with me and interviews and more specificially how if it's a job I really want I give an embarrassingly bad interview.  I have had good interviews, brilliant interviews but when it's something I really really want for some reason, my brain says 'Nah, not happening, screeeeeeeeeeeeew you'.
I had one of these recently.  My mind went blank and I mean totally blank, if I'd been asked my address I would not have been able to give it.  I believe at one point I may have actually been sitting there with my mouth open drooling on myself.  It wasn't quite the image I was hoping for.
I was embarrassed to be me and embarrased for the people trying to interview me as I responded with 'me......test......me test....eeeer....me tester'
I think that I over think these things and I actually, for some stupid reason decided that it would be a good idea to re-read a book, learn a new tool, learn abit more about another tool, read up on a few other things, all within a couple of days ontop of normal work and life matters.  It didn't work, everything went straight out of my head.  After the interview I spent the rest of the day and night gritting my teeth and getting a stress headache.
Yet on the way home, I stopped off to catch up with a mate and actually spent a little bit of time telling him about the new tool, everything that I couldn't remember in the interview, all the cool things this tool does, I could sit there and talk about it.  20minutes earlier, nothing, nada.
So, I'm not somebody who you would want interview advice from but I'm going to give it anyway.  If you have an interview, don't cram, you know your stuff, just let it come out naturally.

I came into Regular Expressions using Perl, and I must say I liked it and enjoyed it immensely once I was able to actually figure out how to do the syntax, never mind doing captures in order to use specific values from strings later.  Although, like most things, once you do it then its simple and you think, "that was not so bad" when you look at something that looks like you kid typed when you left the computer on.

 

Perl was one thing, PowerShell is another.  Now that I have this figured out its simpler, but finding the information on it was not so simple, although I will say one thing that made it easier was having a Designer tool that went over some of it.  The Rad Software Designer is a very good tool for being able to help figure out the syntax as well as give you a place to assure that the results will be what you want, and since PowerShell is based off the .Net Regular Expression implementation the result will work fine there.

 

My goal was to be able to match a line like this:

    Assertions: 8 right, 0 wrong, 0 ignored, 0 exceptions

So I could get the numerical values for display, turns out I only needed this:

    :\s(?\d+)\sr.*(?\d+)\sw.*(?\d+)\si.*(?\d+)\se.*

...and then I could use some named capture values to then display the information I need.  Now if I could only figure out how to turn off the True statement being displayed, that would be great.

A second free course for the under employed, is now planned for 14-15th January, at TSG Liverpool St, on Lean QA. This is technical and aimed at test people who want to learn other QA approaches.
Application to Tom Gilb (tomatgilbdotcom) with statements of employment status at that time.

http://www.gilb.com/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=351  slides

http://www.gilb.com/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=288   test experience paper

http://www.box.net/shared/8oaggjt61k Real QA Tutorial Outline

(Put the links above in your browser to see details)

SEE TSG SITE FOR SYLLABUS OR Look at the attached document about the one day tutorial given at Unicom & the Real QA manifesto on which this two-day course is based.

I am doing some of the Microsoft Hand On Labs (HOL's) for SharePoint 2010, normally I would post a link to these but they are so amazingly buggy with typos and code that doesn't compile (or write without errors appearing) that I would rather let anyone really wanting them to seek them out.  I downloaded them from Microsoft somewhere, they are from early 2009 and it looks like someone wrote them up quick and then somehow got them on the Microsoft site; I can't get past two pages without a typo and I hate that.  The code has errors, I know enough to fix some of the warnings that show up in Visual Studio 2010 when I write out the C# examples, so I would not push this on anyone.

 

Still, because of this I have had to go out and research errors now and again, what I have found are a couple of interesting posts on sites:

• Sharepoint 2010 beta release known issues
• (I encountered this in the lab I was running [HOL 8]) - Interesting little bug in VS 2010 beta-2

So far I am having middling luck in scripting many of the Web Parts I have been able to compile with Fitnesse, I have also found that I right now need to deploy and add Web Parts on the same environment.  I cannot deploy through Visual Studio 2010 on one machine then add that Web Part on another machine, I kept getting errors regarding that the object did not exist even though it appeared in the Web Parts list.  So, I am running things locally until I know they are on the site and working, then I go to another machine and script with Fitnesse.

 

Fitnesse also doesn't seem to like the naming conventions that SharePoint gives for certain objects, I am trying to find a solution for that as select lists may have their own ID's and Name's with the SharePoint strings in the future - so I am working that out now.

 

Enjoy!

 

Note: I've edited this page to now note the Labs, they are for 2010 and I figure why not share the fun.

Now that my current web redesign project is going to be based on SharePoint 2010, yes its in Beta and we know this but we are still going forward with this anyway...not my decision but it should be interesting, I have migrated some of the old Fitnesse scripts I had to the new platform.  In addition, I have upgraded from using the Fitnium add-on to FitLibrary and the SpiderFixture since it gives better Internet Explorer integration than Fitnium did, while FireFox will still be tested it won't be the focus that it was in the past.

 

So far I have encountered some issues with the way Fitnesse sees the pages, since SharePoint's web parts can act like Ajax some adjustments need to be made, also SharePoint masks some of the standard ID's of the base pages with its own ID scheme.  Some of those ID's are not only odd, but sometimes they are very long, in addition SharePoint's ability to be made of many dynamic pieces makes validating some pages very tedious.

 

In the past I did make Fitnesse a service on my machine, that way I always had it up and running, however, in recent releases I have had trouble with the connections from the browser to the site under test.  Today I noticed something odd, when I was running a new install on the command line everything worked, running the same script on the Fitnesse server that ran as a service there would be failures.  On the command line the browser would open a new instance and run its tests, on the service version nothing would show up.  So I did a check and sure enough I did a nice default, when I set up the service I set it to run as Local System, but when I run command line I run as myself.  Changing the Log On to myself, and granting myself access rights, I can now get the same scripts to pass on the new install.

 

I'm now running FitLibrary 20091021 release with Fitnesse 20100103, so far basic stuff looks fine and good, I just hope I can keep this running.

 

 

Some Oracle datatypes are not directly supported by WinTask.

 

For example you cannot use DbGetFieldNumeric() with Oracle Number fields.  When you try, you will get an execution error that indicates the field is not a numeric field:

Error at line 13 : XXX is not a numeric field

WinTask Tech Support indicates that they don't support this type of numeric field.

 

Here are some Oracle datatypes and how to deal with them:

 

Char(x)

DbGetFieldString()

Date

DbGetFieldString()

Float

DbGetFieldString()

Then, use ToInteger() or ToNumber() below to convert to a number

Integer

DbSelect("select CAST(MyCol as VARCHAR2(x)) from MyTable t",SNAPSHOT)

DbGetFieldString("CAST(MYCOLASVARCHAR2(x))",val$)
Then, use ToInteger() or ToNumber() below to convert to a number

Number

DbGetFieldString()
Then, use ToInteger() or ToNumber() below to convert to a number

Number(x)

DbSelect("select CAST(MyCol as VARCHAR2(x)) from MyTable t",SNAPSHOT)
DbGetFieldString("CAST(MYCOLASVARCHAR2(x))",val$)
Then, use ToInteger() or ToNumber() below to convert to a number

Number(x,y)

DbSelect("select CAST(MyCol as VARCHAR2(x)) from MyTable t",SNAPSHOT)
DbGetFieldString("CAST(MYCOLASVARCHAR2(x))",val$)
Then, use ToInteger() or ToNumber() below to convert to a number
Note: Will lose trailing zeros (e.g. 1.000 -> "1" and 2.220 -> "2.22")

NVarChar2(x)

DbGetFieldString()

RAW(x)

DbSelect("select CAST(MyCol as VARCHAR2(y)) from MyTable t",SNAPSHOT)  'where y = x*2
DbGetFieldString("CAST(MYCOLASVARCHAR2(y))",val$)

TimeStamp()

DbGetFieldString()

VarChar2(x)

DbGetFieldString()

---

Some helper functions:

 

Function ToNumber(test$)
    Local i
    Local new$
    Local work$
    work$=""
    i=1
    While i<= len(test$)
        Select Case Mid$(test$,i,1)
            Case "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9"
                new$=Mid$(test$,i,1)
            Case Else
                new$=""
        EndSelect
        work$=work$+new$
        i=i+1
    Wend
    ToNumber=Val(work$)
EndFunction

 

Function ToInteger(test$)
    Local i
    Local new$
    Local work$
    work$=""
    i=1
    While i<= len(test$)
        Select Case Mid$(test$,i,1)
            Case "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9"
                new$=Mid$(test$,i,1)
            Case "."
                new$=""
                i=len(test$) 
            Case Else
                new$=""
        EndSelect
        work$=work$+new$
        i=i+1
    Wend
    ToInteger=Val(work$)
EndFunction 

---

Any comments on this article?
Email Me

So I'm looking for work.  I thought I'd check the Guardian jobsite:


Going to be tougher than I thought!

 

QA

Q&A

 

Question:  What are Release Tests?

 

Answer:  Tests designed to ensure that the code (which has already been thoroughly tested and approved for release) is correctly installed and configured in Production.  This is often a fairly quick test, but may involve some migration tests as well.

 

In my company, we develop applications that we host on the web.  When the development and testing cycle is complete, we must release the new version to Production.  Part of that release involves a different kind of testing that we call "Release Testing".

 

Because of our Service Level Agreements with our customers, we often have to perform these releases after hours - when most users would not be using the system.  For some of our systems, that means any time outside of weekday business hours.  For other systems, that means Sunday evenings.  For still other systems, they are required to stay up essentially 24 x 7.  Those systems require special architectures that let us make most changes while the system stays running.

 

Our developers create a "build package" containing all the code, scripts, etc that must be moved to Production, along with the instructions for doing so.  The IT team actually make the changes.  And QA performs the Release Tests to make sure everything went as planned.

 

It wouldn't make sense to test all the features of these applications in Production - they have already been tested extensively in the QA Environment (and sometimes in a Staging Environment), and approved for release.

 

Instead, we test with a specific goal in mind - to check that the new release arrives safely in Production, and that the application is up and running correctly again.

 

When designing a Release Test, the QAer must consider how she/he will know that the new code is now running in Production, and hasn't been missed.  Often, this means quickly checking whatever changed in this release - perhaps new features, perhaps modifications to existing features.  In addition, we want to ensure that things that shouldn't have changed remain running as before.

 

When problems are found during a Release Test, it sometimes means the abandonment of the release, and a roll-back to the previous state.

 

Some of the attributes of our Release Tests:

• planned
• quick
• often after-hours
• often under time pressure
• sometimes coordinated with customers
• designed solely to check that the code we have been testing all along is safely in Production, without adverse side-effects
• we don't re-run all our prior tests
• sometimes, must test each server in a load-balanced group individually
• check that configurations are correct
• sometimes, check migrations from the prior version
• sometimes, must check that all active users are first drained from the system
• sometimes, must check that the "Under Maintenance" page and process are working correctly first
• pretty much any new bug is a showstopper bug, requiring roll-back

 

For other QA and Testing Terms, see: http://www.sqablogs.com/jstrazzere/46/A+Glossary+of+Testing+Terms.html

---

Periodically, I'll pick a QA or Testing term and try to explain it in a bit more detail.  If you have a term that you'd like explained - Email Me

8FP6UF4WBYNU

 

Just testing to see if Technorati picks up this claim code.

---

Any comments on this article?
Email Me

The Tester Types ebook has been released, mosey on over for a looksee.

On Saturday 5th December I attended the Electromind and Atlantis Software Selenium workshop.

I enjoyed the workshop and learnt a few things to get me started with Selenium.  This is pretty much what I was looking for.

Anand Ramdeo of Atlantis Software (and of www.testinggeek.com) ran the workshop.  The first hour was intros and covering the history, uses, future of Selenium and a little bit on Automation in general.  Why to automate, etc.

Initially although the history and etc was interesting, it dragged on a bit longer then I thought it would.  I actually thought we could probably have done without this, or it and the intros should be kept to half an hour.  I wanted to get to the dirt.  I know why I would automate,I was there to learn about a specific tool.

However, after the day was over, I did feel like I'd taken a lot in, so I don't feel that I have lost out on anything.  I would suggest though that possibly it would be better just to have some slides or links that could be sent to attendees before hand to cover this stuff and/or keep it to half an hour.  That way we could have got straight into Selenium.

Anand is a fountain of knowledge and is quite obviously passionate about what he does and makes a great instructor, the pace was good and Anand explained things well.

I found that a lot of the first half was Anand talking and us listening, when he got to the stages of discussing Actions, Assertions etc it would have been better for him to actually demonstrate as he talked.  We could have then followed along on our laptops.

More time doing, less just listening is better when it comes to learning as far as I'm concerned.

That's not to say we didn't work through a few exercises, we did, in the second half, but there's no reason we couldn't be following a demonstration while the basics were covered.

I also believe this course would work better if it was actually over a number of weeks, say 5 or 6 weeks in the evenings for a hour and a half.  This way contractors could attending without losing a days pay (which was one of the reasons for a Saturday course) and could also attend with permies.

If it was over a number of weeks you could have a set exercise to work on, come back the following week, discuss, learn a bit more, go away with another exercise.  This would be a lot more useful as a learning process.

After the course you'd have some practical experience along with a mentor who you've been able to discuss things with.

Although the content was spot on for me: basically talked about Selenium, how it worked, covering IDE, RC and others, created a few test cases and went away with course material to continue learning.  It was a intro or beginners course.

I'm not sure how somebody who already uses (I don't) Selenium or has used Selenium would feel, I think it would actually probably be better to have a  Novice, Intermediate and Advanced course.

All in all I enjoyed the course, got what I wanted out of it and will be back for more.

I however would also suggest to pick a name and stick with it, I've seen the course posted around with different names, could get confusing.