tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16954606504679286092024-03-16T11:52:52.399-07:00Software Testing Tricks<i>"The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Passionate Software Tester"</i>Debasis Pradhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15059356907987625705noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695460650467928609.post-40940261530714032302019-12-13T03:52:00.000-08:002020-03-20T04:29:08.602-07:00How Testing Software is a Lot Like Playing Poker<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">From Omaha Hi-Lo to No-Limit Texas Hold'Em, poker can take hours, be entertaining and at times, nail-biting fun. Poker is a popular, high-stakes game and every hand can be different. There's a <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4f81bd;">mental strategy in poker</span> that's required to tell different hands, recognize a bluff and read the actions of every player. While it might not look like it, testing out new software is similar to playing a hand of poker. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><b>Poker games and software testing both require math, probability and intuition.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>"If you can't learn from your experiences, you just aren't going to win," John Cernuto </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Play a hand of poker and you can easily find yourself calculating the risks and rewards. It's similar to any business or investment strategy and parallels software testing. </span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAo6cy9KSyM/XfN7VCKns5I/AAAAAAAAFa4/O31WstOaRow4bfoEoZBv3-MNRTI6tx8igCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/How%2BTesting%2BSoftware%2Bis%2Ba%2BLot%2BLike%2BPlaying%2BPoker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="750" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAo6cy9KSyM/XfN7VCKns5I/AAAAAAAAFa4/O31WstOaRow4bfoEoZBv3-MNRTI6tx8igCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/How%2BTesting%2BSoftware%2Bis%2Ba%2BLot%2BLike%2BPlaying%2BPoker.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Bill Gates probably summed it up best, "A player collects different pieces of information—who's betting boldly, what cards are showing, what this guy's pattern of betting and bluffing is—and then crunches all that data together to devise a plan for his own hand." This is a step often seen with processing different types of information. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Poker games require a plan of attack and players need to analyze the actions of others.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>"May the flop be with you," Doyle Brunson</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Another similarity between poker and testing software is the initial analysis. In poker, the players need to assess how all the other players are playing each hand. Are they all playing a big pot? It might be a tell that they have a big hand. Likewise, if they play loosely with small pots, it's usually an indication they have small hands. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Similarly, when analyzing software, questions may arise like what is the security concern here? Or, what are the performance considerations? Tackling these questions can help outline appropriate courses of action in both software testing and poker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Poker players develop an intuition similar to mathematical intuitions.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>"Limit poker is a science, but no-limit is an art. In Limit, you are shooting at a target. In No-Limit, the target comes alive and shoots back at YOU," Jack Strauss</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Some poker players never speak. However, the brief conversations players have can be tells. The novice might be mouthy when he has a good hand which is an obvious tell. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">There are players who are quiet the entire hand because they're busy reading the body language of other players. Similarly, developers will run quality assurance tests on their software to ensure not just functionality but accuracy. Poker players will also run tests. They want to ensure they maintain pot control so they only have small pots with small hands and save the big pots for their best hands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Final Thoughts</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">There are a lot of similarities when it comes to poker and testing software. They both take time to master and can lead to several frustrations. However, when a player masters a particular aspect of poker like pot control or knowing how to read tells, it can help him improve confidence. Similarly, while testing software may have different objectives, having a well-tested and reliable, working product is the goal. It's not just finding faults but achieving the desired effect. </span></div>
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What comes to your mind when you hear the term <i>Cross Browser Testing</i>?</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Testing an application over a combination of multiple browsers, OS, and devices – is that it? But, do you really think <b>cross browser testing</b> is that simple? <span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The reality of <b>cross
browser testing</b> is entirely different than what you think. For developers and
testers, it is the most important and challenging task of the application
development process. Apart from finding all the targeted browsers and operating
systems, finding a <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/latest-best-cross-browser-testing-tools/"><b>reliable cross browser testing tool</b></a> is considered as the
most difficult task for testers.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While among other popular browsers like Microsoft Edge, Chrome, and Firefox – Internet Explorer is still a choice for many Windows users, which makes it crucial to test your web application in Internet Explorer. And people who are using it might be using different versions of Internet Explorer. So, it becomes compulsory to test your application across all those versions. However, one question that still remains the same is – finding a reliable cross browser testing solution. </span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qk9BBbWDa9Q/XP5SW04pYNI/AAAAAAAAFO0/NqjOyoiFQg0hnoiwHjixHGxL2y-1YfSywCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Reliable%2BCross%2BBrowser%2BTesting%2Bon%2BInternet%2BExplorer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="1000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qk9BBbWDa9Q/XP5SW04pYNI/AAAAAAAAFO0/NqjOyoiFQg0hnoiwHjixHGxL2y-1YfSywCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Reliable%2BCross%2BBrowser%2BTesting%2Bon%2BInternet%2BExplorer.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, here we have mentioned some IE cross browser testing options that many developers or testers use. We will also explain why those solutions are not reliable, and then we will tell you about reliable cross browser testing solutions for IE6-IE10 and IE Edge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b>Unreliable Solutions for Cross Browser Testing in IE </b></span></h3>
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When you search on Google regarding IE cross browser testing tools, you’ll find more than ten options, out of which nine tends to be unreliable. Let’s have a look at some of these unreliable solutions. In case, if you’re using any of below-given methods, then don’t be upset with the reviews. Instead, opt for a reliable IE testing solution that we will talk later in the article. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>1) IE Tester </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is among the most popular third-party testing tools that are used by designers and developers for testing across multiple versions of IE. The reason behind its popularity is that it promises users to solve all of their IE testing despairs, but the reality is actually different than this. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">IE displays many contradictions while testing IE 6, 7, and 8 versions, out of which no one provides the real experience of the original browsers. Apart from that, there are some other issues as well, such as the rendered output of IETester varies differently than real versions of IE, pop-up interactions cause failures, conditional CSS comments fail often, CSS and Flash filters don’t work properly in user mode, and when you try to switch between versions – it becomes prone to crashing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>2) Multiple IE </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just like IE Tester, Multiple IE has multiple issues when it comes to IE testing, including inaccurate rendering. Most users complain that they encounter rendering bugs of IE 5.5 even when testing IE 6. Developers who already face other issues with IE 6 cross browser testing doesn’t want to deal with this issue. Also, Multiple IE is not updated regularly, which means if users are complaining regarding it, no action is taken to fix the issues. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to some of our experts, both IE Tester and Multiple IE rely on an exploit DLL redirection to avoid issues related to DLL naming conflicts, which enable the tools to run standalone copies of IE. So, try avoiding any of these tools for your IE cross browser testing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>3) Microsoft’s Expression Web SuperPreview </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This utility is capable of simplifying the testing and debugging process across multiple versions of browsers – as claimed by Microsoft. But, when you’ll use this testing utility, you’ll find that it is unable to test complete user interaction, JavaScript, animation, DOM manipulation, and many other fields. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We all know that web applications are very dynamic and highly interactive these days, so this type of tool is not accurate for cross browser testing. However, it can be helpful for baseline testing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>4) Browser and Documents Mode </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mentioned above are third-party software, but Microsoft itself provides solutions for testing your application over Internet Explorer. IE 9 and IE 10 PP2 – both these versions supports switchable browser and document modes for cross browser testing via F12 Developer tools. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Document mode describes the available features of the page and what else can be adjusted based on the page’s doctype. For example, web pages can take advantage of IE’s implementation of ECMAScript 5 with the help of standards document mode. However, IE 7 and IE 8 standards modes provide a different experience. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the other hand, Browser mode competes with different behaviors of IE browser versions that can be modified from the IE Developer tools directly. Emulation adjusts both the document mode and the user-agent string. The UA string ensures that the code relies on UA sniffing functions. It is necessary to know that IE comes with a new JavaScript engine known as Chakra, whereas the browser itself supports multiple compatibility modes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is because the JavaScript engine is slightly different than the engine shipped with IE 6, 7, and 8. Apart from that, there come many other quirks during the functioning of both document mode and browser mode. Many users have complaints regarding IE returning a wrong user-agent string to the server. These modes have their own issues that are not present in IE 6, 7 or 8, which makes it more daunting for testers to identify whether these issues occur due to a specific browser version or the mode that is being used. So, based on these reasons, developers should not use document or browser mode for cross-browser testing of IE. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b>Reliable Solutions for Cross Browser Testing in IE </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, we talked about some of the unreliable cross-browser testing solutions. Now, let’s put some light on the reliable testing solutions for Internet Explorer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>1) Using Dedicated VMS for Each Version of IE </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many experienced developers prefer to use a dedicated VM for testing each version of IE. And they use the original Internet Explorers with these VMs, rather than using any third-party tool.
Using the original IEs reduces the risk of individual browser configuration and ensure that you test the exact version of IE that you want to. So, if you’re planning to use this method, we would recommend the following set up: </span><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Windows Vista (SP2) for IE 7 and IE 8 </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Windows XP (SP3) for IE 6 </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Windows 7 for IE 9 and IE 10 </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, operating three to four VMs on the same system and using them for other tasks as well can be unmanageable. However, if you’re using 8GB RAM or more than that, then this set-up will work for you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>2) VNC or RDP + Dedicated Testing Boxes </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are many developers out there who use a remote desktop to log into a dedicated testing box over a network for cross browser testing. This method decreases the demand on memory for each client, and it can be utilized in many ways. However, the most useful are VNC and RDP. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is an independent desktop sharing system that enables users to control another computer remotely, which means you can access and function another computer from your desktop over a network. RDP is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft that works in the same way as VNC. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, you might be curious to know the difference between VNC and RDP. Well, RDP gives you access to more controls, fonts, and other graphical primitives, whereas VNC doesn’t offer that much access. But, for multi-user demonstration – VNC is more helpful as it permits a session to be shared on the target machine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, testing over a network might result in dropped packages that can affect your ability to test highly interactive applications. Also, web applications that are designed with rich-media experiences cannot be tested reliably over networks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>3) Remote Testing with LambdaTest </b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you’re not willing to purchase any dedicated box for remote testing of your web app in IE versions due to higher cost, then you can use <a href="https://www.lambdatest.com/" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue;">LambdaTest</span></a> that host multiple versions of Windows along with oldest versions of Internet Explorer and other browsers.LambdaTest is embedded with some extensive features for IE testing that make it unique in the cross browser testing market. Have a look at some of its features: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Live Cross Browser Compatibility Testing:</b> LambdaTest allows you to perform live cross browser compatibility testing across all versions of Internet Explorer, including IE 7, IE 8, 9, 10 and 11 along with all operating system. Also, you can record and take screenshots of the real-time browser testing.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Examine Responsiveness on Various Screens:</b> LambdaTest allows you to check the responsiveness of your website across all screen sizes with just one click. Also, the Secure Shell will enable you to test the responsiveness of locally hosted websites. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Collaborate Freely During Testing:</b> LambdaTest allows users to communicate freely with others while performing the cross browser testing, which can be very beneficial for organizations as testers can log issues and share them with their team members via slack or email. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Better Visual Testing:</b> If you’re facing problems in solving issues related to visual testing on IE versions, then you can analyze the visual appeal of your app with LambdaTest. Also, with automated visual regression testing, you can check whether web page layouts on different IE versions are intact or not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Inbuilt Issue Tracker:</b> LambdaTest not only help you in cross-browser testing, but it can also help you in detecting bugs in your web app. With the inbuilt issue tracker, you can manage bugs easily and share them with your developer’s team. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>24/7 Support: </b>Every user that perform cross browser testing on a third-party tool requires continuous support. And LambdaTest always stays at the front by providing 24/7 support to its customers.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Knowing these features, you might want to test your web application over Internet Explorer browser versions with a cross browser testing tool like LambdaTest. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusion</span></b> </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After knowing that people access your website across a multiple version of Internet Explorer, it becomes crucial to test your web app compatibility across all versions. But, most developers often don’t use a reliable cross browser testing platform. In this article, we tried to showcase some unreliable testing tools that developers use, as well as adequate testing solutions for IE versions.</span></div>
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<b>If you are searching for a Software Testing, QA Service Provider Company or Agency to outsource your manual or test automation work, then this article should help you with evaluating and selecting the <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/leading-software-testing-company/">best software testing provider company</a>. </b><br />
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With the increased focus on software quality and with the increasing competition, now a days every software development project has software testing part of their SDLC process. To avoid hiring costly resources to perform complex QA testing work, several companies choose to outsource their software testing work. Due to ease of delegating their Qa testing workload and cost-effectiveness, outsourcing testing services has become quite popular. This article will help you to decide <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/outsource-testing-automation-qa-services/">why you should outsource your QA, testing and test automation services</a> and to find and <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/find-best-qa-software-testing-company-outsourcing/">select the best software testing and QA company</a> to outsource your testing related activities.<br />
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When and Why to Outsource Software Testing? </span></h3>
Admit it or not, software testing and quality engineering (QE) are indispensable areas of software development life cycle. Unfortunately for many companies, very little attention is given to the testing activities. This can actually be an accident waiting to happen. No serious business owner would like to wait for a failed product launch to start giving proper attention to their software testing efforts.<br />
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<br />
In an average project, the cost of software quality assurance can be as high as 50% of the total project cost. Building and grooming an internal software testing team requires a lot of time and efforts, which can be costly. Letting your software testing outsourced to <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/best-qa-software-testing-companies-india/">specialized software testing companies</a> will not only allow your company to focus on the core business functions but also can prove to be cost-effective.<br />
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How to Find the Best QA, Testing, Automation Testing Company - Guidelines, Tips & Recommendations </h3>
If you are building an app or developing a software product for your business then it is absolutely necessary for you to perform rigorous testing during the software development lifecycle. Without adequately performed skilled testing, you may have to brace yourself for poor customer experience. This can further lead to failure your product. So it is very important for the success of your business to always hire the <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/">best QA testing company</a> to outsource your testing work.<br />
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There are so many testing companies out there today and it might be hard for you to choose the right one for your business. Here are several factors that you should consider when selecting the best software testing company for your business:<br />
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1) Look at Company's QA Services Portfolio and Past Projects </h3>
The QA services provider company should have a robust project portfolio showcasing a wide range of manual as well as automated testing services. The company should also have a highly matured agile testing culture. Agile testing processes should be an indispensable part of any good quality assurance project.<br />
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2) Experience and Skill of the Testing Company </h3>
This should be considered as one of the key factors while selecting the best QA company for outsourcing your testing work. They must have highly skilled software testing and automation testing professionals who can meet your project requirements. It is difficult for a development company to match with the quality of testing as compared to an independent software testing service provider agency. Evaluate their testers carefully while taking your final decision.<br />
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3) Time and Accuracy </h3>
When a team of expert testing professionals is selected for the job, it can result in an efficient and accurate testing effort. The time taken by specialized software testing company to test the software is usually fairly less than the time taken by an in-house team to perform testing. You should always hire the QA testing company that respects your project deadline and have enough testing experts on board to do the job accurately.<br />
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4) Communication Skills </h3>
When contacting a potential software testing provider, pay close attention to the level of communication that they offer. Things like their English (spoken and written skills), speed at which they are able to respond to your requests, the relevance of their answers, their understanding of your business goals and strategies etc matter. Another important aspect is the ability to contact the right person in the company when needed. It should be fairly easy for you to contact the right responsible person. That will ensure that any communication bottlenecks can be avoided during the project execution.<br />
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5) Budget and Cost-Effectiveness </h3>
Price can turn out to be a deciding factor if you have shortlisted several testing companies and are confused whom to select. In such cases, you should select that QA, testing service provider company that is within (or close to) your budget and have all the required qualities that are important to your project.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">
Top 5 Software Testing Service Provider Companies </span></h3>
Now that you know <b>how to find the best software testing company</b> for <b>QA outsourcing projects</b>, for your convenience, we have listed down top <b>5 best software testing companies</b> based on their core areas of expertise, years of QA outsourcing service and areas of software testing specializations. <br />
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1) CredibleSoft </h3>
Founded by some of the well-known leaders from QA, Software Testing industry, <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/leading-software-testing-company/">CredibleSoft</a> has quickly marched on to become one of the most sought after and popular Quality Assurance (QA) and Software Testing Automation Services Companies.<br />
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CredibleSoft offers expert QA and software testing services for web, mobile, desktop, and SaaS applications. The company’s web application testing services offering comprises manual and automated testing of multi-page, single-page, and complex web applications. The mobile app testing offering includes manual and automated testing of native, cross-platform, and hybrid mobile applications (iOS and Android), as well as mobile web apps.<br />
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2) ScienceSoft </h3>
<a href="https://www.scnsoft.com/services/software-testing" rel="nofollow">ScienceSoft</a> is a provider of software testing and QA services with 30 years of experience in the domain. The company is headquartered in McKinney, the US, with the offices in the EU and Eastern Europe and delivers services to its clients across the globe. ScienceSoft’s service offer includes QA consulting, QA outsourcing, quality assessment, and independent software testing. <br />
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ScienceSoft’s QA professionals carry out QA strategy development, QA process assessment, as well as QA process design and implementation. The company’s testing team that includes <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/top-software-testing-certifications-hiring-qa-team/">ISTQB-certified test engineers</a> performs functional, performance (load, stress, scalability, reliability testing), usability, compatibility testing and security (source code review, penetration testing, compliance) testing.<br />
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3) QualiTest </h3>
Founded in 1997, QualiTest is a US-based Quality Assurance Company that aims at providing software testing and QA services. The company has a large crew. QualiTest offers top quality QA services. The company specializes in offering Digital Assurance and Quality Centric Advisory services to their customers.<br />
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4) TESTRIQ QA Lab </h3>
This is an independent Software Test Consulting and QA Services company. Backed by a workforce of 30 experienced Software Testing professionals with an average 10+ years of experience in the field of software quality testing, they offer a complete range of comprehensive software testing services.<br />
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5) Abstracta </h3>
Abstracta has been in existence for over a decade. This company is providing QA outsourcing services to critically improve its customers’ QA processes via expert software quality engineering and software testing services. The company’s core offering is its agile partnership model catering various Test Automation, Mobile App Testing, and Performance Engineering services.<br />
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CONCLUSION</h3>
There are several software testing vendors and QA Testing agencies that are available in the market. You should be careful when considering how to find the best company who specialize in providing software testing services. Hopefully, this article will help you in finding and selecting the top software testing company for your project. We hope you find the right QA company that best meets your particular business needs and is able to offer the deepest software testing and domain expertise.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Debasis Pradhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15059356907987625705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695460650467928609.post-32195863289994812472018-04-07T02:01:00.000-07:002018-04-07T02:36:17.925-07:00Why Sales Shouldn’t Be Your Only Growth Strategy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are several steps you need to take in order to expand your business. This includes having a feasible idea, finding a profit making niche, defining a target market, and providing your customers with a valuable service or product. Nowadays, promoting a business is more challenging, whether the owner is providing information, products, or services. It is not possible to make a profit or stay afloat if you do not implement effective marketing strategies.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-f6737cf1-9f5f-e6d4-4d15-4eb4e342af93" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thankfully, you can use the following tactics to market and better your business for an affordable manner. Here’s how:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use Social Media Platforms</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do not ignore social media. Social media marketing is effective and some business owners solely use it to market their businesses. Social media marketing may appear to be intimidating when you just get started. However, this marketing strategy will get easier once you get used to it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tb58qOm8tbA/WsiKiUtFqSI/AAAAAAAAEDA/4cfskNilcWcYa-Ze3Kfs7cpwgUiLwEmjQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Why%2BSales%2BShouldn%25E2%2580%2599t%2BBe%2BYour%2BOnly%2BGrowth%2BStrategy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="750" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tb58qOm8tbA/WsiKiUtFqSI/AAAAAAAAEDA/4cfskNilcWcYa-Ze3Kfs7cpwgUiLwEmjQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Why%2BSales%2BShouldn%25E2%2580%2599t%2BBe%2BYour%2BOnly%2BGrowth%2BStrategy.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can even hire a social media marketer to assist you. However, if you do not want to hire such a professional, just post your thoughts, products, or anything else that your audience will find useful. You may also post direct messages on social media platforms like</span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instagram</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="https://www.snapchat.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snapchat</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and</span><a href="https://twitter.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Twitter</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blogging</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have not created a blog for your business, create one soon. Many people avoid creating blogs because they consider it boring. However, you do not have to post ideas on your blog. You can start blogging by posting your thoughts on platforms like Medium or by answering questions on Quora and Reddit.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You may also choose to use LinkedIn’s publishing platform. These authority domains will enable you to get instant and immediate reach because of the large number of people who visit them.</span></div>
<h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 4pt; margin-top: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video Tutorials</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creating video tutorials is another great way to inform potential customers about your business. Do your best to create tutorials that teach your audience something valuable. If you create great video tutorials, you will increase your sales and visibility.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is advisable to post the video tutorials you create on YouTube because it attracts many visitors. You can create perfect video tutorials by considering the problems that your enterprise can assist consumers to solve.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use Effective SEO Tactics</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Search engine optimization can appear to be challenging, but it is powerful. If you optimize your website well, you can</span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2017/03/30/12-most-effective-seo-strategies-for-2017/3/#1f479cca1a8b" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">promote your business effectively</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Some SEO firms will train you how to utilize gray hat SEO strategies such as Private Blog Networks to outsmart search engines. However, you will only gain temporary success with such SEO strategies. Avoid SEO shortcuts because the penalties will be harsh. You should also avoid stuffing your content with keywords. Instead, create useful content that contains a few keywords for indexing purposes. Make sure that your message is insightful, unique, and engaging.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider Automation</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You want your business to run smoothly, right? Why not invest in automation for the workplace to replace those boring a repetitive tasks? You may be afraid to change things around since they’ve been the same for a long time. But, what you don’t realize is that you need change in your business to stay relevant.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For example, your business can use</span><a href="https://www.dynamicinventory.net/sales-order-management-software/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sales management software</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> so your staff can spend less time entering sales orders. Your staff can use the extra time they have to make more sales.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Facebook Marketing with Retargeting</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/melinda-emerson/facebook-marketing-tips-f_b_1966766.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Facebook offers a great opportunity</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for any business owner to promote his or her business. With Facebook, it is possible to reach certain kinds of customers easily. You can target prospective customers by interest, age, the area they live and their marital status among other demographics. In order to get the best results, you should focus on conversions and retargeting through pixels. You only need to install the Facebook Pixel on your site and use the advertising pixels to build your audience.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use LinkedIn the Right Way</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can introduce yourself and your business on LinkedIn well by adding a video to your profile. Make sure that the video is linked to your profile description. It is easy to market your business in this manner and the results can be great when you do it right.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create an affiliate program</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many business owners do not know how powerful affiliate marketing can be. Affiliates can help you grow your business fast. The main challenge you will face is approaching the right partners. A bigger affiliate can only regard you as important if you have a great conversion. In order to</span><a href="https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-create-a-successful-affiliate-marketing-program-2294866" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">build an affiliate program</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> successfully, you must be persistent. Do not let setbacks discourage you. Build an affiliate program and then find potential affiliates who will inform potential customers about your business.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use Email Marketing Sequences</span></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email marketing sequences are an important aspect of good sales funnels. These are the messages that are sent automatically to the individuals who have chosen to subscribe to your list. The email marketing sequences can enable you to build a relationship with your subscribers. Once you have a list of subscribers, you can segment it by determining which subscribers have clicked on a link or responded to an email.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The subscribers who take such actions are most likely to be interested in what your business offers. It is important to tag the subscribers who show an interest in your services or products so that you will send marketing messages to them later. You should also tag the people who buy something as buyers. In order to</span><a href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/beginners-guide-email-marketing/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">create effective email marketing lists</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, you can utilize customer support software.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Identifying the appropriate strategies for promoting or bettering a business is not easy. You must determine how to reach the right audience with your message in an effective manner. Keep these tips in mind to know how to increase sales and visibility while ensuring that you keep making profit.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did you know that there are almost </span><a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2015/econ/susb/2015-susb-annual.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">six million</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> firms in America? Believe it or not, this number is still growing. If you happen to be either one of the firms or plan to join the entrepreneur world, you need to do something to be able to make your business not just stand out but also ensure that you are ahead of your competition. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The question is this: with people who never run out of innovative ideas, how can you stand out among the rest? </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">You can try these techniques: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Start by knowing your competitors. </span></span></h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9ulkcON0ByI/WsiOwl46SRI/AAAAAAAAEDI/pC053oaKJbgVrpZw88KKW7aMt0cSw5snACLcBGAs/s1600/How%2Bto%2BStay%2BAhead%2Bof%2Bthe%2BCompetition.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="750" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9ulkcON0ByI/WsiOwl46SRI/AAAAAAAAEDI/pC053oaKJbgVrpZw88KKW7aMt0cSw5snACLcBGAs/s1600/How%2Bto%2BStay%2BAhead%2Bof%2Bthe%2BCompetition.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"></span><br />
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">You can never be ahead of the competition if you don’t know who you’re competing with. Find out what they are offering, any promos employed, and their unique selling points. This will not only make you aware of the areas you need to compete in but also come up with a platform that will differentiate you from the rest. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">2. Customers are (always) right.</span></span></h3></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">…especially if you want to be ahead of the competition. </span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Aside from your competitors, your existing and future customers will set you apart from millions of businesses around the world. Find out what your existing customers such as latest product, lower price, or more flexible services. This will help you review and revise your marketing strategies to entice both existing and potential customers. You can pick up something from them, which you can use to improve your business. </span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Also, don’t be afraid to tap new target market, especially if they will benefit from the product or service you are offering. Take the risk by increasing your customer base because at the end of the day, word of mouth can still be a powerful tool to make people aware of what you can offer. </span></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Boost your marketing plan. </span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It’s not enough that people know you exist. There are people who know your competitors but don’t have any idea that you are in the market as well. If you want them to go to you, then you need to introduce yourself to them. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore, give your marketing plan a boost. You can start by improving your market <a href="https://semify.com/?Uncover-Information-Your-SEO-And-PPC-Prospects-Won%27t-Tell-You&AID=1852">positioning statement that will tell the customers</a> what sets you apart from the rest. Take advantage of social media and keep your followers posted of the latest. Traditional marketing strategies still work, so don’t underestimate that sticker about your company pasted in your car or giving out flyers. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">4. Think about the future. </span></span></h3></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">They say one thing that is constant is change. In the world of business, those who refuse to accept change are often those who don’t last long. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To stay ahead of your competition, you need to let go of the mistakes from the past, go past the present, and start looking at the future. Set your business’ short, medium, and long-term goals, know the latest consumer trends, pay attention to what’s new in the market, and consider investing in new technology if your business will benefit from it. Being 10 steps ahead will definitely help in setting you apart from your competition. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">5. Take it easy on cost cutting. </span></span></h3></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Cost cutting is fine. It allows you to still offer the same product or service that you are known for but for reduced costs. As a result, you can still maximize your profits. The problem with this is that there is a higher possibility that you might compromise the quality of what you are offering, which could drive away customers in the long run. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Should you cut costs? It depends, but it’s not advisable that you do it all the time. This will eliminate your chance of executing something new in the business, thereby making you weaker. The worst part is your competitors will recognize this weakness and consider it as an opportunity for them to grow and boost their profitability – at your expense. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">6. Improve continuously. </span></span></h3></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your customers learned about you because of what you can offer. Still, this doesn’t mean you should stop there. If you want to be ahead in the game, then you need to add “improve” in your vocabulary. Look at your weak points and target them to make them better. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Consequently, don’t be afraid to improve or upgrade your unique selling points. Customers want something new, so go ahead and offer that – as long as it will make the company better. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">7. Pay attention to your employees.</span></span></h3></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Did you know that the success of a business is also dependent on how you treat your employees? The better you treat them, the more motivated they will be, which could translate to better performance as well. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Therefore, give what is due, keep them motivated, encourage programs that will help them improve their skills, and don’t be afraid to hire new, young, yet skilled individuals. Learn to listen to your employees, acknowledge ideas that could help improve your business, and accept your mistakes. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These tricks boost your employees’ morale, which helps increase your business’ profitability.</span></span></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>Are you ready to stay ahead of the competition? </b></span></span></h4>
</div>
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</script></div>Debasis Pradhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15059356907987625705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695460650467928609.post-77525027183847382202017-10-01T05:31:00.003-07:002017-10-01T05:52:30.040-07:00The Pros and Cons to Consider When Testing Dating Apps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dating made a huge transformation from being our private life to becoming a big industry. We have no right to decide whether the romance lost its purpose in this ever-changing dating game as it is absolutely up to you because you are most likely one of those people who came from asking a girl who was your classmate in high school to searching for<a href="https://contactbrides.com/"> <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 85, 204); color: #1155cc;">East European brides</span></a> on online dating services. A few years ago the game changed again, with the arrival of dating apps. Love them or hate them, they are here to stay. And if you are single and have never used them before, you will soon. That's why you need to learn the pros and cons of using dating apps.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pros</span></i></span></h2>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tmw4xpiC23M/WdDhPXMAmYI/AAAAAAAADlU/OB3LyjL1pEQl2nGBU5BC7RAM-4OB2jROwCEwYBhgL/s1600/The%2BPros%2Band%2BCons%2Bto%2BConsider%2BWhen%2BTesting%2BDating%2BApps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tmw4xpiC23M/WdDhPXMAmYI/AAAAAAAADlU/OB3LyjL1pEQl2nGBU5BC7RAM-4OB2jROwCEwYBhgL/s640/The%2BPros%2Band%2BCons%2Bto%2BConsider%2BWhen%2BTesting%2BDating%2BApps.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1. You get what you want</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One night stand? Steady dating? Soulmate and mother of your children? You can usually be very blunt about what you’re looking for when you’re communicating virtually with people, which is almost impossible in the offline environment. Chances are, they will either feel the same way, or you can “swipe left” and move on. There’s not a lot of time to waste, and anyone who uses these apps will understand 100%.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>2. Boosting Your Confidence</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s a lot easier to flirt – or even have a simple conversation – with people if you’re not directly with them and you can read their faces as reactions to everything you say. Thank you, virtual anonymity. For a lot of people who may not have enough confidence to charm their way into a relationship in person, a virtual test run can be good practice and can let you test out how good you are at starting and maintaining conversations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>3. Apps help finding people you won't meet otherwise</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even on a big college campus or at your work you sometimes feel like there’s no one else left to meet. It’s refreshing to know that there are lots of cool people out there who you have still never interacted with. If you are fed up with your options where you are, applications today have become so advanced with location services, that you have opened yourself up to a digital world of opportunities, that can easily manifest into physical meet ups.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>4. You know what to talk about on the first offline date</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Odds are, once you finally get around to meeting the person on the other end of the line, you will have had at least a few conversations over an app or site, which will make it much easier to find topics to talk about in real life. And unlike dating sites the time gap between first online chat and first offline chat is way shorter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cons</span></i></span></h2>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1. No gambling on result</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The idea of codes, algorithms, and virtual conversations really takes out the magic and spontaneity of dating. Your grandparents probably told you about all of the stress, anxiety, and uncertainty that came with asking someone out “back in the day.” That exciting fusion is the spice that we need when dealing with romantic possibilities. Apps offers you making no efforts, and the result is less satisfying.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>2. We are spoiled</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Technology has taken out some of the charm and mystery associated with real-life dating. Matchmaking services present us with thousands of options, and we become used to the fact that we have so many choices. It’s easy for us to cancel on people, juggle a number of partners at once, and always think about who we could be missing out on. This relates to something called choice-overload theory, which explains that the more choices we have, the less likely we are to be satisfied with any single decision that we make. So, most people who use apps are living in the constant fear of missing out.</span></span></div>
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<b>Gaming, be it online games, mobile games, console games or PC games, is a multi-billion dollar industry</b> and no child's play (pun intended)! Hence, <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2014/08/tips-for-becoming-expert-video-game-tester.html"><b>expert-level game testing</b></a> is of highest importance to any game’s success. Games that are built for mobile are totally different than the web-based games, which in turn are completely different than console or PC games. However, quality of the game is critical no matter which media platform you're testing for.</div>
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A high-quality game aims to meet and exceed the expectations
of the players, remembering to throw in enough challenges to
make the game-play interesting. It also is tested to pass the cross-platform performance
criteria without compromising on
the player's privacy and security.</div>
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If your game has glitches, lags while playing, doesn’t load characters and scenes, has rendering issues, kicks players out of their sessions in middle of game play, often crashes or fails to save a high score, then the players/users will walk away frustrated, will never come back and might even caution their friends not to bother. <b>Here are a few common challenges faced by video game testers:</b></div>
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<b>Testing Multiplayer Support </b></h2>
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This can be a huge challenge especially when you are trying to emulate players who aren’t in the same room and rather playing from whole different geographies. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplayer_game">Multiplayer games</a> are a pain to test, hard to debug, can contain issues that are nearly impossible to reproduce and can break easily (flaky network connections, anyone?).<br />
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To mitigate this challenge, make sure that the game you're testing is robustly designed, makes use of some of the best game development frameworks like Unity, Unreal etc, has been unit tested on at least one Android and one iOS devices. Oh yes, make sure you setup realistic cross-platform, cross-connection networks before commencing testing. In short, don't be lazy and refrain from testing with your buddy tester who shares your cubicle (and your network connection)!</div>
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<b>Game Authenticity Challenges</b></h2>
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No gamer would ever want their saved game or high score ruined just because there is a bug in the game's authentication module. Imagine spending session after sessions worth of time (and possibly dollars on buying those weapons and gears), unlocking those difficult levels only to find out that you have lost everything because the game forgot your last saved game data along with the unlocked levels (and weapons)!</div>
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<b>Testing Across Various </b>Game Engines</h2>
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As they say, choosing the right game engine often proves to be the first step in deciding the success (or failure) of a game. With the advent of so many games platforms over the past few years and the release of the latest generation of consoles like the Play Station 4, Microsoft Xbox One and Wii U, selecting the right game engine can be difficult. With so many game engines available for each of these platforms, it can be a hair-pulling moment if you're a game tester. e.g. many <b>PlayStation games</b> are developed using <b><a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/">GameMaker game engine</a></b> while <b>most online casinos</b> like <b><a href="http://www.mansioncasino.com/au/">Mansion Casino</a></b> prefer <b>PlayTech</b>!</div>
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Although this is a decision that is often taken by the game studio executives and lead programmers, as a game tester it means you have to be trained and ready to test in most (if not all) of these latest game engines and platforms. </div>
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<b>Ensuring Accurate Social Integration</b></h2>
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It was not too long back when Facebook introduced social media games and in 2013 when the launch of Wii U (and Miiverse that came with it) made it obvious that social integration and social media as a whole were going to play a major role in videogames over the coming years. Today, the video games are becoming increasingly more connected to various social networks, but this also means that as game testers you will have to be even more attentive.</div>
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Social media can be a double-edged sword; if used intelligently can not only serve as a way to bring together like-minded gamers into a closely knit community, it can also be a great way for the companies to push their products (gaming accessories, weapons, gears etc) to targeted and loyal gamers. However, if done poorly it can be the end of the game and the gaming studio! Hence, as the game tester you need to make sure that the social integration is accurate, and is able to be interesting to the demography that your game is targeting.</div>
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<b>Game' Ability to Withstand Heavy, Concurrent Load</b></h2>
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No testing is complete without a round of good, old load testing before the product can be launched and it applies to Game Testing as well. With more and more network based games emerging everyday, and the focus shifting to MMO and MORPG games, your game should be tested to withstand real-time concurrent load before it can be shipped. Load testing should be done to achieve consistent performance across all hardware/software/platform/device combinations that your target audience might use.</div>
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I'm glad to announce that we are giving away a <b>FREE copy</b> of the <i><b>much awaited eBook</b></i> "<b>Software Testing Complete Guide</b>" to our readers. The regular price of this testing book is <b>$19.99USD</b> but for a <b>limited period</b> we are <i>giving away this book absolutely FREE </i>to "<b>Software Testing Tricks</b>" <b>readers</b>.<br />
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This comprehensive book will help freshers and newbies in testing with <i>how to get started in testing</i>, understanding various <i>testing concepts, QA methodologies, fundamentals</i> and other day to day activities that a software tester must know when joining this field. <br />
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Alternately, you can also Download your FREE “Software Testing Complete Guide” ebook directly by entering your email ID and then clicking "Download" button below:</div>
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Once you enter your email ID and click on Download button, you'll receive an email that looks something like as shown below. It is important that you click the "<b>Yes, Subscribe Me To This List.</b>" button to be able to <b>grab your FREE Software Testing eBook</b>.</div>
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As soon as you click the "<b>Yes, Subscribe Me To This List.</b>" button in the above email, the FREE eBook link will be emailed to you. </div>
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And don't forget to let me know how you felt about this eBook. There are more such interesting testing books that I'm writing right now and your feedback is important to me. </div>
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"Recently I came to know from a friend about <b>career in video game testing</b> and it sounds too good to be true; doing what I enjoy doing most (<i>playing video games</i>) and <i>getting paid</i> for the same sounds awesome. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that someone can actually get to <b>play the latest video games all the time and get paid good salary</b> for... uh... <i>playing games</i>! I think I already have the <i>basic traits to become a good video game tester</i> and I have <i>love and passion for video games</i>. What's the requirement for video game testers? What are a video game tester's main responsibilities? Can you please give me some <b>instructions on becoming an expert game tester</b>?" <b>--A Video Game Tester Wannabe</b></div>
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If you are also wondering if you should start a career in video game testing industry, this article is for you. The gaming industry itself has come a long way in the past decade and as the modern day games like the <a href="http://www.ea.com/new" target="_blank">latest cutting edge games from EA</a> are evolving and becoming more interactive, feature-rich, faster and complex the need for good gaming tester who can push the limits of these games also has increased. </div>
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<b>What is Video Game Testing?</b></h2>
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Like any other testing related activities, <b>video game testing</b> has an important role in the <b>video game development</b>. Testing begins while the game is still in development phase ("alpha" or early versions of the game) and when finished, the game testers go a final end-to-end testing to ensure that gamers have a good experience out of it. Like software testers, video game testers perform video game testing to find mistakes, defects, bugs and other issues that could frustrate or turn off the end user (gamers) if not fixed.</div>
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<b>Video Game Testing; Not as Easy as It Sounds!</b></h3>
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But do not let the word 'game' in the job description fool you. Video game testing is a complex job and involves meticulous planning, can be tedious at times and requires an structural, disciplined approach to product testing, which in this case is a 'video game'. A good game tester is required to have a good pair of eye for detail, out-of-the box critical thinking and the ability to remain focused while on the job.</div>
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<b>What are the Qualities of an Excellent Video Game Tester?</b></h2>
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Some of the fundamental qualities and skills that video game studios look for in a good game tester are:<br />
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<b>Computer/Game Skills:</b> Prior experience with games and game play, basic know-how of computer programming and fundamental understanding of computer hardware components. <i>To become successful in this area,</i> hone your video game skills, learn about various genres like puzzle games, FPS (first person shooters), arcades, multiplayer games, online games, mobile games, console games etc. Keeping up-to-date on latest gaming trends will help you in this career.</div>
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<b>Attention to Details:</b> A good tester needs to be very meticulous and must have excellent attention span. If you get bored of a game after you’ve been testing it for a while, then this job is not for you. <i>To become successful in this area, </i>beta test new video games that you can find. Game studios often release beta versions of their upcoming games to get user feedback and you can use that to hone your testing skills.</div>
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<b>A Good Bug Hunter: </b>A good tester needs to be able to detect bugs, find reliable ways to make them happen easily, and document the shortest steps so the development team can replicate and fix those bugs. <i>To become successful in this area, </i>use beta release games to find bugs and glitches and write them up in a nice bug report. When you contact the game studio with your report, try to be as detailed as you can and who knows they might give you a job if they think you are good at it!</div>
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<b>Communication Skills:</b> Both verbal as well as written communication skills are the key here. A game tester needs to constantly communicate with the programming team and fellow testers to inform them about the bugs and other issues that they find. So the ability to document your bugs precisely and concisely in the bug tracking tool, to explain it to the dev. team if the need arises and to inform other testers about it so they are also aware of the existing problems are going to help.</div>
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<b>Soft Skills:</b> Other soft skills like good attitude, being a team player and getting along
with co-workers will be an added advantage. And yes, testing is hard work and can often be tedious and extremely frustrating at times. So keeping a cool head in those circumstances is a big plus.</div>
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<b>Word of Caution! </b></h3>
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But before you make up your mind and decide to become a video game tester, keep this in mind! These days the field of video game testing has come under serious criticism for being excessively strenuous and lack of much rewards, both financially and emotionally. But if you think you're passionate about video games and want to make a career out of it, this is probably for you.</div>
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If you are someone who expects to just play video games all day and get paid then you will be
hugely disappointed. But testers who realize that video game testing is a serious job and hone their skills accordingly will be much more successful. <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2015/05/Game-Testing-Challenges-and-How-to-Overcome-Them.html"><b>Here are top 5 challenges in video game testing career and how to overcome them</b></a>!</div>
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If you are a <b>software tester</b> and have been in this field for a while then you might have run into situations (let me call them <b>traps and hurdles</b>) that <b>limit your efficiency and effectiveness as a tester</b>. It could be a common problem like lack of enough time and/or resources to finish testing or could be because you are surrounded by coworkers and colleagues who don't realize the importance of your work. But if you're like me who cannot work on projects and with people unless you have got credibility, respect and their confidence in the work you do, then you must be aware of these <b>pitfalls, mistakes, traps and hurdles that any tester can face in their life</b>.</div>
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I started writing this blog when I began my software testing career (exactly 9 years from today) and I don't know about you but I have run into plenty such <b>software testing traps</b> while working on various testing projects at various stages of my career. And every time I ran into them, it gave me a chance to look for <strike>magic spells</strike>, ways, methods, techniques, tricks, tips and anything and everything that could help me come out of such situations. And today's article is a <b>compilation of some of those top 5 traps</b> that I've ever run into in my <b>software testing career</b> and some of the ways that helped me overcome them, in my context. <i>The following case points and suggested solutions can help you overcome many common real-life software testing problems.</i><br />
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<b>#1 Running Out of Testing Ideas? </b></h3>
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This is by far the most common problem that a tester can run into while on a project. How many times have you been in a situation where <b>you didn't know what else to test and how</b>? I call this phenomenon as "<b>tester’s block syndrome</b>" [<i>a condition, associated with testing as a profession, in which a tester may lose the ability to <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/09/testing-lessons-bug-hunting-success.html">find new bugs and defects</a> in the software that (s)he is testing</i>]. If you're curious, which you should be (if you are or aim to become a good tester), then you can read more about it in the article titled <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2010/05/seven-deadly-sins-of-software-testing.html">The Se7en Deadly Sins in "Software Testing"</a> that I wrote a while back.</div>
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<b>How to overcome this trap?</b></h3>
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<b>Pair Testing:</b> You can use Pair testing to your advantage to generate test ideas that seem to have dried up when you try alone. Pair testing is nothing but a testing technique where two testers work in pair to test the software under test. </div>
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<b>BCA (Brute Cause Analysis):</b> Testers can employ this unique brainstrom technique when one tester thinks about a bug and the other tester thinks of all possible functions and areas where this bug can manifest.</div>
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<b>Think 'Out of the Box':</b> Instead of thinking about the feature/function/application in front of you, rather try thinking in opposite directions. Take a step back and reassess the situation. Have you been trying to run functionality test when you ran out of ideas? How about performance, load and stress tests? How about tests involving data, structures, platforms, browsers, devices, operations? </div>
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<b>#2 Missing the Testing Goal?</b></h3>
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How many times were you in a team meeting where your manager or someone from the dev. team was talking about this cool new/enhanced feature that needs testing and everybody else in the meeting room appeared to be 'getting it' whereas it was only you who had no idea what it was? When in such situation, nodding your head as if you are able to understand everything may seem like the natural (easy) path but trust me; it is not the best path to go unless you want to end up in trouble later in the test planning and execution phase of this feature!</div>
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<b>How to overcome this trap?</b></h3>
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<b>Ask Relevant Questions:</b> The importance of good questioning skills can not be stressed enough if you plan to be an excellent tester. And this very skill can come to your rescue when you are trapped in a situation like the above. It's okay to admit you don't understand something and then get it clarified than to not admit and be ignorant for rest of your life. </div>
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<b>Brainstorm:</b> Okay, so you have asked tons of relevant questions about the upcoming feature/application/product that needs testing and have taken notes. Now what? Now is the time to pull your testing team and brainstorm ideas to find all sorts of possible test ideas, strategies, plans etc for this test project by gathering a list of ideas that come spontaneously by the teammates. </div>
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<b>Read between the lines:</b> More often than not, when starting working on a new product or technology or even a tool you can find some level of available documentation on the same to help you get started. But a word of advice -- take everything that you read there with a pinch of salt. I'm not saying not to read them at all. But when you do, be careful about <b></b>all those things that might not have been put down in words but are implied. Sometimes, proactively being able to find and underhand these implied messages in the project documents can help you in a big way to understand the testing goal.</div>
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<b>#3 Suffering from In-attentional Blindness?</b></h3>
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How many times have you missed a very obvious bug or a defect or an error that was right there on the screen, staring right back you and yet you missed it because you were busy ticking off the other test items from the testing checklist or executing the test case document? Situations like these can be very embarrassing not only because you missed something that is so basic and so obvious but also because it happened when you were actually busy religiously following the test cases to find things just like these!</div>
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<b>How to overcome this trap?</b></h3>
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<b>Stop blindly following the Test Case and Test Matrix:</b> Before starting to use a test case for your testing always ask yourself the following questions and then adjust your test cases to fill any missing links.</div>
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<i>- "Why is this test case important?"<br />- "What are the things that are covered by this test case? What are not?"<br />- "What portion of the product functionality does this test case cover?"<br />- "Can this test case be tested in any other methods or ways? If yes, how?"</i></div>
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<b>Change the Focal Length of Your Testing Approach:</b> When following the test cases and test matrix to test something, keep and open eye for anything else that might be going on during test execution. Explore other related areas even though they are not mentioned in your test case/matrix. A control object that flickers a little when you save your inputs in another section of the form, a ding sound coming from the speaker when certain button is clicked, a slight change in the color of a Submit button when you click inside another test area -- all of these subtle looking actions may be an indication of an <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/09/testing-lessons-bug-hunting-success.html">approaching catastrophic system failure</a>.</div>
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<b>#4 Not Sure if 'It' is Really Working... or Not?</b></h3>
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How many times have you come across issues that you didn't report as errors and bugs because you were not sure if it was really a bug or something that you did wrongly and later those same issues were found and picked up by a coworker or your manager or, god forbid, your clients or the customers?</div>
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<b>How to overcome this trap?</b></h3>
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<b>Trust Your Tester's Instinct:</b> IF your instinct is telling you that something is fishy and what you're observing and experiencing could very well be a bug, then follow your instinct and report it to the devs. After all, what could be the worst case scenario? The devs might come back and say it is something that you did wrong (misconfiguration of certain settings, misunderstanding of the actual feature etc) and not a bug. It is still much more better than ignoring it thinking it might not be a bug and later your manager or customer finding it.</div>
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<b>Start with a fresh set of eyes:</b> Fresh eyes find bugs, and if you are still unsure then take a short break and retest and confirm that what you're seeing is really not a bug.</div>
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<b>Have it tested by a fellow tester:</b> Pick one of your fellow testers and ask them to go through the same test scenario and see what they come up with.</div>
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<b>#5 What to Test and What can be Skipped... Safely?</b></h3>
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How many times have you been in a situation when you felt overwhelmed by the number of possibilities and choices to approach testing? With the complexity of software and technology becoming more complex day by day, often the number of things that a tester needs to consider while testing can be overwhelming. And with the project deadline approaching fast it can be very challenging to decide what to test, where to begin, how to begin and what can be skipped.<br />
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<b>How to overcome this trap?</b></h3>
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<b>Gather Intelligence Data:</b> First of all, look at the existing bugs in your bug tracker tool and make a note of critical bugs. Talk to developers and ask them to think of top 10 most critical things in the product that affects majority of end-user functions and make a list of them too. Go though the review docs, user manuals, implementor's guide and basically anything that can give you an idea of things that are going to be most important for your customers and end users.</div>
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<b>DIQ approach (Dive In/Quit):</b> Now that you have the list of all these important things that need testing, let me introduce to you the magical <i>DIQ approach (Dive In/Quit)</i>. In this testing approach, pick any of these most critical test items and just dive in and test. While testing, if it appears too hard for you then quit and take another item, dive in and test until you have exhausted all your test ideas on it. Repeat! So basically you take an item > dive in > quit when you can't test it any further > repeat it with another item > come back to initial item when you have finished all other test items.</div>
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<b>#And finally... Learn to Accept FAILURE, once in a while!</b></h3>
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Due to the intrinsic nature of complexity of modern day software and communications systems, software testing is turning more complicated. As a result, more efficient and effective testing heuristics, techniques and methodologies needs to emerge. If you are not evolving fast enough as a tester then the chance of failure is exponentially high and you should be prepared to face failure once in a while. After all, we are testers; not magicians! But as long as you are learning from your past mistakes, upgrading your testing skills and updating your testing heuristics to accommodate those mistakes so they never happen again, I think you should be fine.</div>
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The digital world is becoming hugely popular around the world. Business houses are taking several steps to promote their business globally. However, in order to do that, one needs to go for effective software testing. The online industry has really helped businesses expand and promote their products on a large scale. To say the least, <b>the <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/03/how-important-is-regression-testing.html">importance of cost-effective software testing</a></b> is immense. Before delving further into the topic, it is really essential to understand what software testing exactly is. </div>
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Software testing is basically directed towards ensuring that the desired software meets its predefined objectives. For instance, an application crafted to view several pictures needs to carry out basic tasks like displaying the image properly. Software applications or tools have become a basic requirement of sorts for almost every company, irrespective of whether the firm is a large scale establishment or a small scale business. Many companies take advantage of these products in order to track viruses and other malware issues within their computing systems. Some other companies, on the other hand, seek the guidance of a professional developer in order to have a stern and safe program pre-installed. Software testing services will reassure whether the software is an apt one or not. This procedure is normally useful to recognize the safety, completeness, quality and correctness of the computer software. </div>
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The dependency of companies on the digital world and the Internet is
increasing at a swift rate. It is extremely important to carry out some online research on the <b>online software testing company</b>. <b>Choosing a cost-effective <a href="https://crediblesoft.com/leading-software-testing-company/">software testing service provider company</a></b> is never an easy task in the online industry. An important factor that one should take into consideration is the experience of the company. An experienced team of experts can certainly do well with anyone’s project. Their testing techniques and methods are usually up to the mark. One should get an idea regarding the company’s working ways before appointing their team. No doubt, there are several testing firms and consultancies that can be appointed for flexible solutions. However, an informed decision should be made regarding the same.
The<b> importance of cost-effective software testing</b> is as follows. </div>
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<b>To Enhance Quality </b></h2>
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Software products and computers are used a great deal in several critical industries, including airplanes, air traffic control, medical diagnosis and market reporting. Even a small bug in the application can lead to some serious issues and losses for the company. Therefore, the quality of the software testing process matters a lot and which calls for the need to check the standards of the desired company before appointing them. </div>
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<b>For Validation and Verification </b></h2>
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<a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/08/testing-lessons-from-kitchen.html">Validation and verification</a> of software is the procedure of evaluating whether the computer system meets its predefined objectives or not. Proper planning should be done before the validation and the verification process so that the results are suitable and effective. This procedure can be easily executed by any other company that developed or has the potential to create the software product. However, an independent testing company can do better when it comes to software testing. </div>
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<b>For Dependability Estimation </b></h2>
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From the client’s perspective, dependability implies how reliable the software product actually is. In the field of medical diagnosis, even a small wrong suggestion to the physician can result in heavy loss of life. This is the reason why crucial software products are comprehensively checked for all major aspects of its methodology. </div>
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<b>Prove Operability and Usability </b></h2>
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One of the most significant objectives of software testing process is to prove or test the usability and effectiveness of the product. Usability testing is a process in which the product is carefully released to a chosen group of clients and their functioning with the software is observed. All the major aspects of a client’s interaction with the product, such as simplicity, are analyzed and recorded. </div>
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<b>Put a Stop to Defect Migration </b></h2>
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Errors and issues that are normally introduced in the software need to be detected. In case the issues are detected early on, they can be prevented from migrating to the next development phase.
Software testing has innumerable applications within the digital world. Every business owner needs to select a suitable service provider that can help the business grow in the long run. Cost-effective software testing is the most important thing to carry out for an online business.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wLEzLzslGM8/USsY3B_Z5mI/AAAAAAAABI0/O_CbgGP2uTs/s1600/ehendrickson_photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wLEzLzslGM8/USsY3B_Z5mI/AAAAAAAABI0/O_CbgGP2uTs/s1600/ehendrickson_photo.jpg" /></a>I am back with the final part of the interview with <b>Elisabeth Hendrickson</b>, who writes at <a href="http://testobsessed.com/about/" target="_blank">Test Obsessed</a> and is a <b>world-renowned expert in Software Testing</b> and <b>Quality Assurance</b>. In case, you missed out the first part, I would highly suggest you to <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2013/02/interviewing-testing-expert-elisabeth.html">read it first</a> before proceeding to read this one. </div>
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So here we go:</div>
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<b>Debasis: What do you think as the most essential skills that make a great tester?</b></h3>
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<b>Elisabeth: </b>Great software testers are investigators, able to apply their technical, analytical, and observational skills to uncover information that has value to their stakeholders, and communicate effectively about their discoveries. That means that great testers:<br />
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<i>- Use a variety of analysis techniques (such as modeling states and events in a system) to design tests<br />- Have the technical skills necessary to dig below the surface of whatever they're testing<br />- See things--clues to system behavior--that other people tend to miss<br />- Have an understanding of how the software or system serves the business so they understand what information is significant and what is not<br />- Have the communication skills necessary to explain their findings both verbally and in writing</i><br />
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<b>Debasis: Tell me about the most fascinating bug that you have encountered in your entire testing career.</b></h3>
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<b>Elisabeth: </b>Probably the most fascinating behavior I got to see turned out not to be a bug at all.<br />
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We were running a series of automated tests against software that ran on custom hardware. It was an interesting project because everything was custom: the hardware, the firmware, and the end user client was all being developed at the same time. <br />
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I was part of a small group that was creating early end-to-end test automation to exercise the whole system.<br />
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One day the end-to-end test automation started failing for no apparent reason. This was a huge surprise because we were running the test automation just to confirm what tests we'd automated so far. We expected all the tests to pass. They had all passed just the day before and nothing in the system under test had changed. But the tests that had passed just 24 hours before were now failing left and right. Clearly something had changed.<br />
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We could find nothing that was different from the previous passing test run. The client software was the same version. The firmware was the same version. And the custom hardware, sitting on the rack, had not been touched in a couple of weeks. So what had changed? Those of us on the test automation team investigated, pondered, poked, and prodded with no results. Finally we consulted an integration engineer who was responsible for maintaining the test lab.<br />
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The integration engineer investigated, poked, and prodded. <br />
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Finally he looked at the rack of custom hardware. Noticing an unshielded coil of high voltage wires, he moved the coil 12 inches away from the custom boards we were testing against and said, "try it again." We did, and the tests all passed. It turned out to be magnetic interference from the unshielded coil.<br />
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That project taught me that the things that there can be a variety of factors that affect software behavior that have nothing whatsoever to do with the software itself. And thus analyzing the variables - the things that we can vary that affect the behavior of the software - turns out to be really important.</div>
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<b>Debasis: How do you see software testing as a career, lets say after a decade? What would be the biggest challenges for the field and what would be the biggest advancements?</b></h3>
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<b>Elisabeth: </b>To understand what I think represents the biggest ongoing challenge in testing, let's look at the frequency with which a typical organization ships software. Back in the 1990s it was typical for software companies to do just one major release a year. Ten years ago, it was common to release every month or two. Today the hot new thing is Continuous Deployment, where businesses are able to roll out tiny incremental enhancements multiple times per day. <br />
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For example, a blog post from Chuck Rossi, a Facebook engineer, claims that at Facebook, "changes you make in the code will be in front of your mom and 175 million other people in less than 60 minutes." http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=59150988919 . Timothy Fitz at IMVU explains that they push new code into production 6 times every hour. http://timothyfitz.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/continuous-deployment-at-imvu-doing-the-impossible-fifty-times-a-day/<br />
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In fact, I think that the need for speed is helping to drive widespread Agile adoption. Agile development practices like Continuous Integration enable implementation teams to keep pace with business demands.<br />
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And now testing has to keep pace. There just isn't time to do six week manual regression cycles anymore. Organizations need faster feedback.<br />
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We have some answers. I'm delighted to see widespread adoption of automated unit testing, automated functional testing, and Exploratory Testing. We have better tools now, including FIT, Fitnesse/Slim, Robot Framework, Twist, Concordion, Cucumber, and a host of other Agile-friendly test automation frameworks. And in many organizations, the silo walls around independent QA organizations are melting as testers are integrating their efforts with the rest of the implementation team. <br />
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But there's still more work to be done. And ten years isn't enough to do it all. </div>
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<b>Debasis: What single thing would you want to tell every newbie who is struggling in the early stage of building software testing career?</b></h3>
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<b>Elisabeth: </b>I would want to tell them, "Your job is to provide information; work with your stakeholders to make sure you understand what information they will find valuable."<br />
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Too many new testers think their job is to do something other than provide information, like assure quality (impossible), or find bugs (too narrow; bugs are just one kind of information), or execute pre-defined test cases (again, too narrow).<br />
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So I recommend asking your stakeholders, "What information can I provide you that will help you move the project forward?"</div>
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<b>Debasis: Is there anything else that you would like to say?</b></h3>
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Thanks very much for including me in your interview series!<br />
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For <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/search/label/Interviewing%20a%20Testing%20Expert">more such interviews with other testing experts</a>, check the older articles and feel free to suggest a testing guru whom you'd want me to interview next time. Happy testing...</div>
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</script></div>Debasis Pradhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15059356907987625705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695460650467928609.post-42765584539245681002013-05-29T06:01:00.001-07:002013-05-29T10:43:23.904-07:00Cloud-Based QA Test Management Tool qTest from QASymphony [Review]<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">If you're in the <b>field of software testing</b> for a while then I'm sure you might have already come across a hoard of <b>test management software </b>by now. Some of today's <b>best test management solutions</b> are designed to organize, store and execute test cases, view test reports and to store historical data for these tests. In other words, a <b>great test management tool</b> provides features like managing test scripts, test planning, reporting, requirements tracking and easy out of the box collaboration with bug tracking tools. <b>qTest</b>, the new </span><a href="http://qasymphony.com/?utm_source=softwaretestingtricks&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=qTest_review" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">test management software</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://qasymphony.com/" target="_blank"></a> from <b>QASymphony </b>is an exciting new addition to the list of such<b> test management tools</b> but has a lot of promise if you intend to <b>empower your test teams</b>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">With software development increasingly moving towards<b> Agile environments</b> and with the focus shifting on fast delivery, test cycles in many organizations have shortened. Today, the test teams of an average organization have much less time to identify and document defects as compared to a decade earlier. But with all these change that Agile has brought upon us, one thing that has remain unchanged is the customer's expectations; <b>expectations for bug-free software</b> still remain high.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> Interestingly, <b>qTest </b>is designed to mesh seamlessly with a typical Agile development and provides a comprehensive set of easy-to-configure options for most of your testing needs. It enables you to easily enter project requirements, extrapolate test cases, run them, and store all the results for generation of future reports.</span><br />
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<b>Why qTest?</b></h2>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Moreover with <b>qTest, the cloud-based SaaS solution</b> implies that everybody from your test team can access work from anyplace on any browser at any time, as long as they have internet connectivity.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b> </b></span>qTest additionally integrates with the
qTrace <a href="http://qasymphony.com/qtrace-overview.html?utm_source=softwaretestingtricks&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=qTest_review" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">screenshot capture and defect capture tool</a>, which might submit
bug reports directly into qTest to extend the <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2008/10/automation-tools-replace-manual-testers.html">testing team's productivity</a>.<br />
<h3>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>qTest; Creating Projects</b></span></b></h3>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Once you create a project and add your start and end date, and any other admins, you can begin to populate it. You’ll notice the following options in your navigation bar at the top – Test Plan, Requirements, Test Design, Test Execution, Defects, and Reports. These options are followed by a tools menu that permits you to configure user permissions, custom fields, external systems, notifications, and environments. The final option is the help guides, where you can also submit bugs or feature requests for the qTest tool itself.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pwojgbMGdic/UaRdqpNgYgI/AAAAAAAABKo/VG276krPnaM/s1600/qTest-dashboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pwojgbMGdic/UaRdqpNgYgI/AAAAAAAABKo/VG276krPnaM/s400/qTest-dashboard.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>qTest; Managing Test Cases, Defects</b></span></b> </h3>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">As you open each section you’ll realize that the navigation panel on the left hand side gets updated. This is where you'll be able to produce a hierarchy of project modules and their </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">requirements</span></span></span>, test cases, and defects. If you’ve already been employing a defect tracking solution, like JIRA or Bugzilla, or if you have test cases written in Excel sheets, then you'll be able to begin by importing data. That choice works each way. Also, you'll be able to export XLS files. To link up an external system you move to Defect Management within the tools menu and all new defects you enter in qTest are automatically exported and vice versa. </span></span></span><b> </b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">qTest integrates with defect tracking and ALM providers like VersionOne, Fogbugz, JIRA, and Bugzilla as alternatives to the application's integral defect tracking tool. qTest additionally integrates with the qTrace screenshot capture and defect capture tool, which might submit bug reports directly into qTest to extend the testing team's productivity. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XDc43meE91s/UaRhZJ8aN0I/AAAAAAAABK4/84_w9IhpGHQ/s1600/Test-execution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XDc43meE91s/UaRhZJ8aN0I/AAAAAAAABK4/84_w9IhpGHQ/s400/Test-execution.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>qTest; Generating Reports</b></span></b></h3>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">You can extrapolate all kinds of essential data in here. Customize your test reports to display whatever you want, drill down to individual defects, or generate a top-level overview, filtered by date or field.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ew40tMhwIyo/UaRhaGvOnoI/AAAAAAAABLA/i4R3EBmGZ00/s1600/Test-reporting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ew40tMhwIyo/UaRhaGvOnoI/AAAAAAAABLA/i4R3EBmGZ00/s400/Test-reporting.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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In addition, qTest has the capability to manage requirements and you can have requirements
associated seamlessly with test cases, which provide a fully Traceability
matrix. Planning Test execution can be done by selecting scope of
build, fixed defects or test cases itself. These are auto filled and comes with a one button
submit defect at test execution sessions.</div>
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<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>qTest; Pricing</b></span></b> </h3>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Like numerous new releases today, it's a <b>SaaS solution</b>, based mostly within the cloud and it’s offered at <b>$20 per month per user</b>. The <b>30-day free trial</b> provides you <b>5 licenses</b>, thus you can check it out for yourself. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9fafc; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span> </b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>qTest </b>is a very <b>comprehensive testing tool</b> and it works hard to fit in with the ethos of Agile development. The automated fields, coupled records, and complete history are priceless for test teams. Not only is qTest serving to extend speed and potency, but also to supply transparency. Compared to existing solutions, at first glance, qTest ticks all the same boxes, but there are lots of little touches that you won’t find elsewhere. The end result is a smooth workflow and a dynamic, sturdy system that’s extraordinarily accessible.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">This is a <b>competitively priced, scalable solution</b> that any company may adopt instantly, with none hardware or package setup. Clearly <b>QASymphony </b>is targeted on empowering testers. Compared to ancient test management systems, that are complicated, expensive, and suffer from a steep learning curve, <b>qTest</b> <b>might be the last testing tool you’ll ever need</b>. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>qTest; The Verdict</b></span></b> </h3>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>qTest </b>is clearly making an attempt to take care of the <b>most common test team issues</b>,
by arming testers with a quick, intuitive tool capable of handling
complicated projects. It’s designed to be simple to use, it’s totally
customizable, it will plug into existing bug tracking software systems,
and it creates a sequence of transparency that lays bare the <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2009/02/tight-testing-schedule-how-to-test.html">whole life cycle</a> of every defect. It is a tool that’s appealing to groups
attempting to avoid wasting time by implementing agile testing. </span> </span></span> </span></div>
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</script></div>Debasis Pradhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15059356907987625705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695460650467928609.post-66217078086531079542013-03-12T23:30:00.000-07:002013-03-12T23:55:43.903-07:00AgileLoad; An Enterprise Class Load, Stress and Performance Testing Tool [Review]<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-55rDjm-2IIo/UUAcPfIA2aI/AAAAAAAABJg/26dDXGswQfA/s1600/AgileLoad+Starter+Load+Testing+Tool.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-55rDjm-2IIo/UUAcPfIA2aI/AAAAAAAABJg/26dDXGswQfA/s320/AgileLoad+Starter+Load+Testing+Tool.png" width="320" /></a><span class="Georgia15"><b>Performance engineering</b> has experienced phenomenal changes in the last decade with the advent of advanced technologies, renewed processes and a serious focus of businesses on cost, time and
reliability of their web applications. </span>If you have been reading '<b>Software Testing Tricks</b>' regularly, then you might be already aware that I've been doing lot of experiments and <b>reviewing various <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2013/02/best-load-stress-performance-testing-tool-WAPT.html" target="_blank">enterprise-class load testing tools</a></b> recently. As part of this ongoing exploration recently I came across <a href="http://www.agileload.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>AgileLoad</b></a>, a <b>Windows tool for performance testing of web applications</b> designed for use in internal networks or on the ‘Cloud’. The <b>cloud load generation support</b> provided by the tool help <b>generation of the load from distributed locations to simulate near real scenarios</b>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
47% of your customers expect your web page to load within 2 seconds. 40% of your visitors (out of whom many could be your potential buyers/customers) will leave your site if the page loads longer than 3 seconds. And this 1 second delay will cost you an approximate loss of 7% revenue from your site. Every web application that is designed for the load of users, need to be optimized for that load and hence the need for an <b>Enterprise-class load, stress and performance testing tool</b> becomes even more important than ever.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>How Good is AgileLoad?</b> </h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-37asIxHd2UA/UUAcP7fy3ZI/AAAAAAAABJo/9AMtl-EcNsc/s1600/AgileLoad+Using+Amazon+EC2+Cloud.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-37asIxHd2UA/UUAcP7fy3ZI/AAAAAAAABJo/9AMtl-EcNsc/s400/AgileLoad+Using+Amazon+EC2+Cloud.png" width="400" /></a>AgileLoad features advanced functions like automatic modeling, real time data correlation, anomaly diagnostic and recommendations, automatic reporting tailored for stakeholders for a fast resolution of performance bottlenecks. And it doesn't matter how complex is your web server deployment as AgileLoad supports all of the following configurations:</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- On-premise <br />
- On-premise with load injectors on the cloud<br />
- On the cloud (pre-configured machine on Amazon Ec2)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>AgileLoad Modules</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
AgileLoad is made of 3 modules:</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
1) Script Editor : Create test scenarios and script</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Capture test scenarios by browsing through the application.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Automatic parameterization of common parameters (session ID, view state etc…)<br />
- User can teach the tool how to manage custom dynamic fields by creating models : data parameterization done once and reused any time, which ease the tool use and speed up scenario creation<br />
- Validation and debugging<br />
- 4 records mode: integrated in IE, Proxy, Tunnel HTTP, Tunnel TCP.<br />
- Technologies supported:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
a) <b>Web apps:</b> J2EE, .Net, PHP, AJAX, AMF (flex), GWT, Silverlight, Applets, WPF, SharePoint Apps, Oracle Apps, SAP Net Weaver<br />
b) <b>Web services:</b> SOAP, JSON, XML, REST</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
c) <b>Protocols:</b> HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, WAP, POP3, SMTP<br />
d) <b>Browsers:</b> IE, FireFox, NetScape, Chrome and Safari</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
2) Test Center : Manage test setup and execution</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Setup of distributed load injectors, workload and SLA. IPSpoofing<br />
- Setup of monitoring collectors: Apache, IIS, Windows, Unix, Linux, SQLServer, Mysql, PostegreSQL, DB2, Informix, Sybase, Oracle, Sharepoint, JBoss, Weblogic, Websphere, OracleAS, Tomcat, VMWare ESX , Microsoft Hyper-V, SNMP</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Real time monitoring during test : drag and drop metrics and statistics to see what is going on</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Generate test reports using a specific template</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Generate anomalies report list (according to SLA and pre-defined anomalies profiles) with fix recommendations</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
3) Report Designer : Custom reporting template</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Drag and drop metrics to create specific graph and tables<br />
- Create different reporting template (presentation/content) tailored by stakeholders</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Need windows Word to work</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
AgileLoad; Unique Features</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Features that makes this tool unique and different from other similar tools are:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- The <b>Starter Kit</b>, makes quick ramp-up on usage of the tool super easy.<br />
- <b>Automatic Modeling</b> makes life easier for the load tester by reducing scripting time for subsequent test cases against the same app.<br />
- <b>End to End diagnostic features</b> of the tool not only monitors the front-end but also the back-end of the web apps and thus helps detecting the exact reason for performance degradation.<br />
- <b>Anomaly detection and suggestion features</b> help the tester to quickly identify and resolve the <b>performance bottlenecks</b>.<br />
- <b>Configurable Reports</b> add visibility into your tests and hence is a very useful feature.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Pricing</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The <a href="http://www.agileload.com/signup-download/getting-started-with-agileload" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>Free version of AgileLoad</b></a> provides support for free scripting and <b>10VU supported testing</b>, for both on Premise and On Cloud variants. Using the free version of the tool, you can <b>design, setup and execute load tests with 10 concurrent users for 15 minutes – for unlimited test (no trial period)</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For large test, a license based on a number of concurrent users and a time frame can be bought directly online and the <b>cost for a 50 virtual user license</b> (21 collectors) including full technologies support and monitoring starts at <b>$72 per day</b>. Additional pricing is available on <a href="http://www.agileload.com/Product/products_list.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">their website</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Earlier this year, when my friend <b>Vijay Shinde</b> from <b>softwaretestinghelp.com</b> contacted me to be the <b>co-author and editor</b> of his <b>long-planned Book with software testing tips and tricks</b>, it was a pleasant surprise. Vijay is a <b><a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/03/years-of-testing-experience-vs-hours-of.html" target="_blank">passionate tester</a> himself</b> and there were many occasions in the past where we had sought each others opinions, helped and shared ideas on software testing. So when I was approached with the honor to co-author this book and let my words find their way into this <b>long-awaited testing help guide</b>, I couldn't say no.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Why 'Software Testing Career Package eBook'?</b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SVUi98Qik0M/UTiGnDqXelI/AAAAAAAABJI/3oVPS3sjMIE/s1600/Software+Testing+Career+Package+-+A+Software+Tester%27s+Journey+from+Getting+a+Job+to+Becoming+a+Test+Leader.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SVUi98Qik0M/UTiGnDqXelI/AAAAAAAABJI/3oVPS3sjMIE/s320/Software+Testing+Career+Package+-+A+Software+Tester%27s+Journey+from+Getting+a+Job+to+Becoming+a+Test+Leader.png" width="246" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm really glad to let my readers know that the eBook, '<b>Software Testing Career Package - A Software Tester's Journey from Getting a Job to Becoming a Test Leader</b>' has been announced now and now up for the grab. This book has tried to answer over <b>300 different</b> <b><a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/search/label/FAQs" target="_blank">frequently asked software testing questions</a>. </b>The comprehensive chapters in the book take you through the details of getting a job in software testing field,
getting started in software testing, and advancing in your career to
become a software testing expert.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It doesn't matter if you’re a fresh graduate and looking for a software testing job or if
you just got a software testing/QA job and wondering how you can get started. Even if you
are an experienced tester this book explains <b>useful tips to take your testing career to next level</b>. The six comprehensive chapters of this book tries to answer all your questions relating to testing and software quality. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Every crucial aspect of software testing is covered in this eBook. It is a valuable training and reference source for new software testers, managers, and developers, alike. It has a lot of good information, which is unbelievably practical and easy to understand. If you test software, or depend on people who do, then read this book. Each page contains hard-won advice for handling the practical problems you encounter every day.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Book Stats</b></h2>
Publication Date: 18th Feb 2013<br />
Promotional Launch Price: $14.95<br />
Total Pages: 132<br />
Total Chapters: 6<br />
Format: PDF file size 2.78 MB </div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Pricing</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For a limited period, now this book is available in a <b>nicely formatted PDF version</b> for just <b>$14.95</b> <a href="http://www.softwaretestinghelp.org/software-testing-help-ebook/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> and the <b>Kindle version</b> is available for only <b>$6.55</b> on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Software-Testing-Career-Package-ebook/dp/B00BNLRDZK" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon</a>. As someone, who has co-authored and edited this book I can tell that this is a very small price to pay for the information that the book provides.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Discount Coupons:</b> For '<b>Software Testing Tricks</b>' readers here is an exclusive offer. Use the code '<b>STHLAUNCH</b>' in the payment checkout page to avail a <b>flat 30% discount</b> on the ebook. Alternately, you may <a href="http://www.softwaretestinghelp.org/software-testing-help-ebook-sub-offer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">use this direct link</a> to get this eBook for <b>just $9.72</b> (this offer is for limited time only).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>DISCLAIMER: </b>Please note that I'm not commercially associated with this eBook in any way (and <i><b>none </b></i>of the above links are affiliate links). I'm writing about this book here as I sincerely believe that this book brings a fresh perspective on the <b>software testing, as a career</b> and that every tester, new or experinced should read it.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>How to Win FREE Copy of "Software Testing Career Package" eBook?</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Are you a passionate tester who would love to read this book but can not afford buying it? Okay, it is <i><b>not the end of the world</b></i>! I have <b>5 copies of </b>'<b>Software Testing Career Package - A Software Tester's Journey from Getting a Job to Becoming a Test Leader</b>' eBook that I'm going to <b>give away for FREE</b> here on 'Software Testing Tricks' site. But to receive a free copy of this testing book, all you have to do is to: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1. <b>Vote for it here</b> <g:plusone annotation="bubble" href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com" size="Standard" width="150"></g:plusone><br />
2. and then leave a comment below justifying,<br />
a) '<i>why you really deserve to win a free copy of this ebook' </i>and<br />
b) <i>'how you're going to use the book when you test something'</i>.<br />
<br />
As I said earlier, I've only 5 copies to give away for FREE here so I'll select the winners based on how you answer these simple questions as comments below. <b>Good luck and Happy testing :)</b><br />
<h2>
<b>Winners of Free eBook</b><b> </b></h2>
Though I had promised to give away 5 copies of this eBook to my readers, due to the overwhelming number of some interesting comments I could not pick only 5 winners and hence I've decided to gift this book to <b>6 winners</b>. And they are:<br />
<br />
<b>WRYUN <br />Srinivas Kadiyala<br />Dimpal Pindoriya</b><br />
<b>Sneha Lahane<br />Dilipkumar<br />SatishLK</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Important Notice: Hence most of you left your comments using Google ID, I do not have your email address with me and hence I'd like each of you to <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/01/contact-me.html" target="_blank">contact me</a> so I can email you the ebook.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Hoping each of you are going to use this book to make yourselves a better tester than you're today. Happy testing...</b></div>
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wLEzLzslGM8/USsY3B_Z5mI/AAAAAAAABI0/O_CbgGP2uTs/s1600/ehendrickson_photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wLEzLzslGM8/USsY3B_Z5mI/AAAAAAAABI0/O_CbgGP2uTs/s1600/ehendrickson_photo.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I know, it has been a really long time since I published any of <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/search/label/Interviewing%20a%20Testing%20Expert" target="_blank"><b>my testing interviews</b></a> with a <b>software testing expert</b> from around the globe. So here I'm again; and this time I'll be interviewing <a href="http://testobsessed.com/about/" target="_blank">Elisabeth Hendrickson from Test Obsessed</a>. [Feel free to visit her blog to know more about what she has been doing and about all the interesting testing stuffs she has been carrying out of late; of course <i><b>after</b></i> you've finished reading this interview here first :)]</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For those who haven't known her, she is one of those rare breeds of experienced testers who have been in the software development for past 3 decades. She has held positions as a <b>tester, developer, manager, and quality engineering
director</b> in a variety of companies ranging from small start-ups to
multi-national enterprises and today I'll be interviewing her here on <b>Software Testing Tricks</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Since this interview grew bit lengthier, for the sake of easy readability I have decided to <b>present it in 2 parts</b>. So, here is what <b>Elisabeth </b>has to say:<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Debasis:</b> <b><i>What led you to become a software tester? And what was the topmost reason that attracted you to the field of testing?</i></b></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Elisabeth: </b>I became a software tester entirely by accident. Back in the early 1990's I accepted a 4 week contract to help a QA group automate their test configuration setup. I had the UNIX scripting and database skills they needed. In my first week onsite, I realized that I'd found home. Testing enabled me to leverage my odd combination of technical skills, communication skills, and analysis skills in creative ways that I had not been able to in other roles (including programmer, technical writer, and 2nd level support). The 4 week gig turned into 4 years of employment.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Debasis:</b> <i><b>Did you try testing anything other than software before diving into software testing?</b></i></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Elisabeth: </b>Not intentionally. In retrospect, I can see that I was destined to be a tester however. I was one of those kids who took apart mechanical clocks and old electronics to see how they worked, and then couldn't get them back together or working again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Debasis:</b> <i><b>Tell me 5 unknown/least-known facts about you.</b></i></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Elisabeth: </b>1. I had not traveled outside North America before 2001. (I've now visited 19 countries and consider international travel to be one of the great benefits of my work.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2. I find it much, much easier to learn new computer languages than human languages.</div>
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<br /></div>
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3. I collect folk music from all over the world. My current favorite: Finnish folk.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
4. I have a white belt in Nia, a movement form that combines dance arts, martial arts, and yoga. ( See http://nianow.com )</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
5. I tried waiting tables in college and was terrible. They would have fired me but I quit first. I admire anyone who's good at waiting tables; it's really hard.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Debasis:</b> <i><b>What was the hardest challenge that you found in your career as a tester?</b></i></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Elisabeth: </b>I found it most challenging when I was a QA manager in an organization that had severe quality problems and an executive team who didn't want to hear bad news. It was so hard to tell the truth in that environment. There were times when I just wanted to pretend I had not seen a bug so I wouldn't have to fight with the executives or the developers about it. While I never did pretend not to see a bug, I am sure my testing was not as good as it should have been because I unconsciously wanted to avoid discovering bad news.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ultimately, I quit because I could see that I would not be able to contribute effectively. Four months after I left, the company was dead. My team (jokingly) accused me of having inside knowledge of the company's imminent demise. But truly, I had no idea the company was about to fail. All I knew was that I had no idea how to help.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That experience reinforced two critical lessons:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1. Always always always tell the truth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2. When you realize there is nothing that you can do to help your project, team, or organization, it's time to leave.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Debasis:</b> <i><b>Tell me about the most satisfying moment in your testing career. </b></i></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Elisabeth: </b>There has not been just one most satisfying moment; there have been many. I derive great satisfaction from helping teams and individuals, participating on successful projects, and creating things that stand the test of time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But let me choose one moment to tell you about: deploying software that just plain worked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was 2pm on a Friday afternoon, the day we were scheduled to go live with http://www.bringlight.com. It's a website for taking charitable contributions for specific projects, so while it's not safety-critical, it is financially critical. I was a member of the implementation team at Pivotal Labs, where we built that first release. We decided to start the deployment process at 2pm so that we would have a full 3 hours to resolve any issues before the end of the day.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We deployed. We checked the deployment. I used my own personal credit card to make a donation to a worthy cause. And by 2:15pm we were all looking at each other saying, "OK, it's live. Now what?"</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Deploying the first live release was a complete non-event. And that made me grin from ear-to-ear.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Drew McManus, one of the founders of Bring Light, Inc. and the person who played the role of Product Owner (PO) on the project, has given me permission to talk about it publicly. And he deserves a lot of credit for its success. As the PO, Drew had a clear vision of what he wanted us to build and was able to make good decisions about what was in-scope and out-of-scope.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As a team, we worked really well together. And we applied sound engineering practices including Test Driven Development (TDD), automated end-to-end acceptance tests, Continuous Integration (CI), and Paired Programming. We succeeded because we tested throughout, and had fast feedback. As a result, we minimized the number of late-stage surprises. So the project released on time with high quality, and Drew was delighted with the results.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In fact, there was only one bug in the first several months of use that required a quick-turnaround-bug-fix. And that issue was something that other organizations I'd worked with in the past would have considered a low priority, customer-education issue.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That was one of the best projects of my whole career. And that Friday, at 2:15pm, I knew it was a huge success, and something that I was really proud to be a part of.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Debasis:</b> <b><i>Tell me of any situation when you had wished you were NOT a tester!</i></b></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Elisabeth: </b>I've never wished that I were not a tester. I have, however, wished to have more influence over quality than being an end-of-the-development-cycle tester usually affords. I really hate it when all I can do is point out the bugs, and there are too many to address in a tight timeframe. That's why I'm so drawn to Agile teams where everyone tests and testing activities move to the forefront. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>I hope all of you enjoyed the interview as much as I did. I will be posting the final part of this interview soon. So stay tuned. Happy Testing...</b></i></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s amazing how many <b>product teams never give enough importance to testing (and testers)</b>. And the excuses you hear are even more astonishing; albeit funny. With all the free and open source testing tools, services, sites, blogs and books available, one can no longer have any more excuses not to perform software testing on their product before they release it. It might come as a surprise to some, but in most cases many developers do not get the opportunity to work with a <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/09/testing-lessons-bug-hunting-success.html" target="_blank"><b>truly competent tester</b></a> and hence they don't know what that is like. <b>Ignoring the importance of testing and testers in a team</b> is such a hideous <b>false economy</b> that it is hard to believe so many organizations and people still believe in it and hence have to resort to these<b> stupid excuses for not having enough testing/testers</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I realize that it may be hard to rank these (dumb) reasons that people like to use for not doing enough testers (and hiring enough testers) but here are the <b>top 5 stupid reasons people don't hire testers</b>. <b>Read on...</b></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J70_zAQ-whg/Vd2KfxYqdGI/AAAAAAAAC2E/-cN28GKMD4o/s1600/Top%2B5%2BLame%2BExcuses%2Bfor%2BNot%2BHaving%2BEnough%2BTesters%2BTesting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J70_zAQ-whg/Vd2KfxYqdGI/AAAAAAAAC2E/-cN28GKMD4o/s640/Top%2B5%2BLame%2BExcuses%2Bfor%2BNot%2BHaving%2BEnough%2BTesters%2BTesting.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
My Product isn't Finished Yet</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In today's rapid development age where methodologies like agile scrum and sprint are mainstream, how more absurd could your excuse be than this one? Even if you work in an environment where several Beta versions are released first before the final product, will you be willing to risk losing your customer's trust and your reputation by releasing versions that are laced with defects?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Also, will you be willing to bet that your star programmer doesn't leave you and join another organization with a dedicated testing team and proper QA methodologies in place, because he got fed up reading through and fixing hundreds of customer reported bugs everyday? The sooner you realize the importance of finding and fixing bugs earlier in the product cycle, not only will it save you revenue but also your reputation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Quality is Everyone's Responsibility</b>; No Dedicated Testers are Needed</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Such excuses usually come from teams that (at least believe that they) follow the mantra "<i><b>Quality is everyone's responsibility</b></i>", and hence they jump into this inappropriate misconception that you can
actually get great results without dedicated testers. Theoretically, this all works. But the problem begins when <i><b>everyone</b> </i>starts assuming that every other guy in the other cubicles are already testing the product and hence <i><b>it is okay </b></i>if he skips it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An extension to the above excuse that I hear frequently is that the programmers will become lazy and end up writing buggy code if they know there is a testing team responsible of finding the defects. But let's face it; programmers are either lazy
or they're not! A programmer who takes pride in his work will rigorously test
his code no matter whether or not you have a dedicated team of
testers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
We have Budget/Time Constraints.</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Who doesn't? Do-it-yourself testing by your programmers can save you some dollars and can even be effective (if they’re imaginative). Also, it is still cheaper to hire an average tester than it is to hire an average programmer. And if you don't hire testers, you're going to end up having your programmers doing testing. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From my own experience, not only the programmers are mediocre when it comes to testing but they also tend to overlook errors in their code as compared to a tester testing it. Everyone has budget constraints. But great product teams are good at realizing the importance of a dedicated QA team on board and they know it is more of an investment than an unnecessary expense. And here are some things to consider if you're worrying about <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2009/02/tight-testing-schedule-how-to-test.html" target="_blank"><b>testing on a tight schedule</b></a>.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
My Product is Perfect. It doesn’t need Testing.</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Actually, NO! If your product is perfect then either it is not a product or isn't actually perfect. In either of the cases, this means that all products need testing as long as they are complex enough to qualify as good usable products (software, website, web application etc).</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
A separate QA team can build an 'Us vs Them mentality', which is not Healthy</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="comment-copy">I've worked in teams where test and dev
reported to the same manager, and also in teams where the testers reported to dedicated test managers. In my experience, both of these can work well provided the office politics is kept under control and the team's manager is responsible at ensuring so. Good teams realize that a dedicated testing team is essential to the team's overall success and that the QA team not only saves the programmers a lot of time (and credibility) by helping them fix defects before they find their way to the customers but also save the stakeholders substantial revenue that would otherwise be spent on fixing the bugs in a post-release scenario and would require subsequent patches to be released; not to mention the frustrated customers and angry investors.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="comment-copy"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="comment-copy">As per the 'Us vs Them mentality', it is in the hand of the team's managers and the stakeholders and how they manage their resources. There is a reason why people still use the old saying -- 'garbage in is garbage out'!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="comment-copy"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="comment-copy"><b>Let me know if I missed any more stupid excuses that people make justifying their decision not to hire more testers and not to do more testing. Happy Testing...</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div itemprop="description" style="text-align: justify;">
In my constant search for new and interesting <b>testing tools</b> I recently came across <a href="http://www.loadtestingtool.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WAPT</a>, which claims to be one of the <b>best <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2007/08/stress-test-now-or-get-stressed-later.html" target="_blank">load, stress and performance testing tool</a> for
websites and web-based applications</b>, and unlike most other similar vendors WAPT surprisingly delivers its promise in most areas. One thing that I <i><b>really like</b></i> about using WAPT is its unmatched simplicity. Unlike many other <b>widely used load and stress testing tools</b> that you might have already used, WAPT uses a <b><i>fully customizable set of
virtual users to simulate a real-life load</i></b>. And to make things even more interesting, with WAPT, your test scenarios can be
detailed up to unique parameters for each individual user.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>What makes WAPT a Good Tool for Any Web Application Load, Stress, Performance Tester?</b></h2>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
WAPT is designed to generate maximum possible load on your web site that you are testing. While most other similar tools also offer this ability, what makes WAPT impressive is its ability to use a number of techniques to <b>make this
load as similar as possible to the activity of real users browsing the
web site in real life</b>. This unique approach ensures that if your tests are
passed, you can safely assume that the web site under test will show similar performance characteristics in
real-time usage.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<h3>
WAPT Features </h3>
They have 2 product types to select form: <b>WAPT and WAPT Pro. </b>Both of these products comes with free 30 days trial packs during which period you're allowed to ramp up to 20 virtual users. But once you are satisfied and purchase either of the products, you can generate thousands of real-like virtual users to put load on your web site and web applications. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6aGiiQbcUCE/URSe53zwtzI/AAAAAAAAA4A/SfuljK2CnwQ/s1600/WAPT+Load,+Stress,+Performance+Testing+Tool.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6aGiiQbcUCE/URSe53zwtzI/AAAAAAAAA4A/SfuljK2CnwQ/s320/WAPT+Load,+Stress,+Performance+Testing+Tool.png" width="320" /></a></div>
The regular version of WAPT works as a single application that delivers test design and load generation features. Tests
can be recorded using any desktop or mobile browser. Your test design and optimization can be done using their user-friendly product GUI and you run test scenarios with <b>up to
approximately 2,000 concurrent virtual users</b>.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Supported OS</h3>
Your web site under test can
run under any OS, including all UNIX and Windows platforms. Also, your web application can be
implemented using any web technology and can have a distributed architecture
consisting of multiple web servers and database servers. All you need is a web interface through which WAPT can simulate the
activity of real site visitors.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Bonus Features in WAPT Pro </h3>
Besides the regular functionality of the normal version <b>WAPT Pro</b> has some extra benefits for serious <b>load testing
professionals</b>. If you require performing periodic load testing at
different geographic locations, or if you <a href="http://www.softwaretestingtricks.com/2012/02/cloud-testing-how-to-test-on-cloud.html" target="_blank"><b>run cloud-based tests</b></a>, create high web site load, receive
detailed information on the server performance or have more flexibility
in processing web site responses, WAPT Pro is probably the best choice for you.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ohF8ORF3dSQ/URSfBW9WQmI/AAAAAAAAA4I/-yXwjNWwaj8/s1600/WAPT+Pro+Load,+Stress,+Performance+Testing+Tool.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ohF8ORF3dSQ/URSfBW9WQmI/AAAAAAAAA4I/-yXwjNWwaj8/s320/WAPT+Pro+Load,+Stress,+Performance+Testing+Tool.png" width="320" /></a></div>
WAPT Pro can also measure different parameters of your web server's performance, thus letting you see how your web application responds to the increasing
load in terms of CPU, Memory (RAM) or network usage. In addition, you can collect
various database performance data for MS SQL, Oracle, or any other
database that can be accessed through ODBC. This data is presented in the
test results along with other parameters. <br />
<br />
<h3>
WAPT; <b>additional modules (Optional)</b></h3>
If your web application involves specific web technologies then you can significantly improve your test
experience by opting for the following extension modules. These <b>additional modules</b> can be installed with both standard or professional version of WAPT:<br />
<br />
- ASP.net testing<br />
- JSON format<br />
- Adobe Flash testing<br />
- Silverlight testing<br />
- GWT testing<br />
<br />
<h3>
Things I like in WAPT (Pros)</h3>
- I like the way WAPT lets you simulate thousands of virtual users on your website and its ability to test various user interactions.<br />
- I like the way WAPT tries to emulate real user interactions and try to make its virtual users perform <i><b>near real life user interactions</b></i>. <br />
- WAPT also allows for in-depth reporting that can be viewed in both HTML and Excel
formats.<br />
- The ability to generate load quickly, without the need to wait a long time before your thousands of virtual users are ready.<br />
- The way, WAPT provides automatic handling of standard session data and a number of functions to work with application-specific values. And it spports of all types of proxy servers: HTTP(S), SOCKS4(5) etc.<br />
- The support for <b>SSL enabled web site load testing</b>. <br />
- Advanced error reporting that is backed up by an integrated log-viewer.<br />
- Distributed load generation which also supports cloud based testing and remote test control. [WAPT Pro only]<br />
- JS (Java Script) supported <b>server response processing</b> that can be extended to 64 bit load engine.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Things I Don't Like in WAPT (Cons)</h3>
- Though you can test any website running any OS and technology, you cannot install WAPT in any other OS other than Windows. In today's environment where most of the web sites and web applications are run on Linux based environments this is a big setback.<br />
- If you are a fan of scripting and like to write and edit your tests, then here is bad news! WAPT doesn't allow for scripting and rather uses <i><b>Record > Configure > Verify > Execute > Analyze</b></i> workflow.<br />
- WAPT is not a load testing tool that can be termed as inexpensive. Even the <b>regular version of WAPT costs $700 and the advance version WAPT Pro costs $1200</b>. However, if you are into some serious load, stress and performance testing then you may find this price justified for the extensive and unique capabilities that this tool delivers.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Bottom line</h3>
Load testing doesn't have to be limited to the only large
corporate development infrastructures because of cost and people power constraints. Overall, WAPT is a a relatively affordable, easy-to-use load, stress and performance testing tool that can help you poke holes in your developer's code and if you are like me and <b>enjoy bringing your web application under test to its knees</b> then you are going to enjoy using WAPT!</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I just realized that it has been little over 5 years since I wrote about <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.in/2007/04/software-testing-from-testers-eye.html" target="_blank">five software testing myths</a> and it is unfortunate that I still see, hear and find people arguing about some of those myths after half a decade. While there are literally tens of those myths floating around, here is my take on <b>five of the most common testing myths</b> that I keep hearing these days.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Be it the blogoshpere, the so called expert columns on various sites, social media discussions, tech industry journals, or casual after-lunch office gossips, these myths are as easy to to be spotted as easy it is to find bugs in a half-baked software developed by a novice programmer.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SthJWx4scvw/T5pzoj-p9PI/AAAAAAAAAqs/ptrjJ6AMXcI/s1600/Top+5+Common+Myths+in+Software+Testing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SthJWx4scvw/T5pzoj-p9PI/AAAAAAAAAqs/ptrjJ6AMXcI/s1600/Top+5+Common+Myths+in+Software+Testing.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So without further ado, here goes the <b>top 5 software testing misconceptions and myths</b> (in no particular order) that are plaguing our modern day testers these days:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><h2>
1. Software Testing is a Mundane, No-Brainer Job</h2>
</b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Ohh, yeah? On second thoughts, perhaps there is some element of truth to that statement. Testing can indeed be boring and feel like a mundane monotonous task if <b><span style="color: red;">YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!</span></b> I've seen people jump to this conclusion (that <b>testing is boring</b>) because they see (and believe) testing as '<i>repeatedly</i>' doing same/similar tasks over and over again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Going by that logic, programming, web designing, analysis, accounting, banking and any day-to-day vital activities like eating, sleeping etc can also be considered boring if you just look at the '<i>repetition</i>' part. Moreover, do you stop eating and sleeping because it is a repetitive task that you are needed to do daily? Or do you change your food menu and sleeping habits when you feel bored?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But if you are really a <b>good tester</b>, then you would probably look at testing as an information gathering activity done with an intent of exploring and discovering answers [NOT just flaws or bugs in the software] to questions that nobody had asked before. To achieve so, you would need to study, explore, observe, analyze, use the software to be able to evaluate it. Does that sound boring to you?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you ever get bored of testing something, don't blame your job. Rather blame yourself and CHANGE the way you are testing, thinking and devising your test ideas and before you know it testing the same software would start feeling so much of fun, once again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>2. A Tester Should Be Able To Test Everything</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Yes, as a tester I can of course <b>test everything</b> provided as a project stakeholder you can provide me with indefinite supply of resources, infrastructure, budget, time and what-not!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is foolish to expect that a tester (or a testing team) can test each and every test scenario, theoretically possible within their given time-frame and with the supplied resources. While a good tester would generate critical test scenarios and prioritize them and test, it is impractical to hypothesize that it is possible to test ALL those scenarios. Wouldn't that be same as expecting '<b>testing can deliver a 100% bug free product</b>'?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The reasons why this is not possible can be many -- lack of <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2009/02/tight-testing-schedule-how-to-test.html" target="_blank">enough time</a>, lack of available infrastructure to test something, vastness of all permutation and combination that can exist and so forth. It is an inherent quality of software testing that it can show that bugs exist, but not that bugs doesn't exist. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lets take a simple example. We all know that life critical systems like instruments used in medical facilities, airplanes, space ships etc go through a stringent set of testing procedure to ensure nothing goes wrong when they are operational. However, can the tester(s) testing a flight actually predict and test considering the actual air pressure, altitude, number of passengers and crews, total load on the flight, wind speed, temperature etc, on any particular day? Can their simulator simulate any random day's environmental and other variables that the flight will have to take when in production?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><h2>
<br />3. A Tester's Job is to Find Bugs</h2>
</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I don't blame you if you don't see how this is a myth or misconception -- many don't. It is easy, especial for someone who has just recently started her career as a software tester, to get confused about her responsibilities as a tester. And many often fall into the trap of believing that finding lot of bugs in the software is their prime goal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I admit that <b>finding bugs in the software</b> is an important part of what a tester should do. But the story doesn't end there. Along with just finding bugs, testers do analyze the requirements, review the product architecture, provide ideas to make the product more user-friendly, validate the help documents and a lot of other things.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><b>4. Testers Add No Value to The Software</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
People who conceive this myth often are made to believe that a tester’s role is strictly limited and <b>adds no <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/10/software-testing-add-value-to-project.html" target="_blank">value to the product</a></b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the contrary, a skilled tester is often an expert of the system (product) under test.
Unlike the programmers who often spend most of their time working on a very specific area, function or
component of the application, the tester analyzes and understands how the entire system works from an end-to-end standpoint. Testers get a better chance to demonstrate their understanding of the product in a way that adds value to to the product.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><b>5. Test Automation Will Eliminate Human Testers:</b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
This is perhaps the most outrageous prediction that many so called self-proclaimed test automation gurus are making at the moment. What is even more insane is the fact that there are actually testers who are believing it!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/10/automation-tools-replace-manual-testers.html" target="_blank">Can test automation tools replace human testers?</a> I'd say a big NO. Why this is not going to happen ever, is simple. I remember not so long ago when the concept of <b>Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)</b> emerged and suddenly people started talking how computers would start writing codes and in turn can make human programmers obsolete. But whether that actually happened is a matter of everyone's guess today.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Similarly test automation is never going to replace human testers, UNLESS, of course, humanoid auto-bots take over our planet one day. Until that (judgment day) arrives, we human testers will never be expendable for a very simple reason. We have something that the test automation tools do not have; it is '<i>emotions</i>'. And since the users of the software we test are almost always be humans, it is the human testers who are going to have this advantage of testing it better than any automation tools.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For instance, a tool can tell me if the fonts, color and layout of a screen is as per the test script but it can never tell me if a human being is going to find that screen pleasant enough to use. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Having said that, test automation tools are not necessarily bad for testing. They can actually be useful for testing certain aspects of testing (like large calculations, testing involving performance and load, repeated regression tests etc) that would otherwise be very time-consuming and hectic for a normal human tester. Hence, under certain contexts, <i>automation tools can act as supplementary tools to aid human testers; NOT to replace them</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unless you've been living under a rock you must already be knowing that 'Cloud Computing' has been making a lot of buzz over past couple of years -- whether it your peer meeting, a client interview, a demo POC session with a prospect, the recent <a href="http://www.redhat.com/virtual/" target="_blank">Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Online Event</a> on January 18, 2012 -- the talk about cloud is everywhere.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOR42KdL0F4/Vd2MLMerMWI/AAAAAAAAC2M/UHtcJWQizHk/s1600/Cloud%2BTesting%2BHow%2Bto%2BTest%2Bon%2Bthe%2BCloud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOR42KdL0F4/Vd2MLMerMWI/AAAAAAAAC2M/UHtcJWQizHk/s640/Cloud%2BTesting%2BHow%2Bto%2BTest%2Bon%2Bthe%2BCloud.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
And why wouldn't it be? After all, if industry analysts and virtualization experts are to be believed then cloud based computing and business solutions are going to be the NEXT BIG thing of this decade.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I guess it is only natural if you find yourself to be asking yourself questions like '<i><b>what is cloud testing?</b></i>', '<i><b>how to test on cloud?</b></i>', '<i><b>how can we use cloud to better our testing?</b></i>', '<i><b>how does cloud impact how we used to test before?</b></i>' etc.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, since all these queries pose different questions, the answers to them would be unique. For starters, if you are looking for <b>cloud testing</b>, it simply means a testing environment that utilizes cloud infrastructure for performing software testing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>How to leverage Cloud to Transform Software Testing? </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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If you are someone who heavily use tools while testing then IBM (IBM Cloud) and Hewlett-Packard have already jumped into the market for software testing in the cloud. Thankfully, if done smartly, cloud based computing can prove to be a <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/10/software-testing-add-value-to-project.html" target="_blank">great value-addition</a> for both software development and testing. The reason is simple -- the very nature of a cloud based infrastructure allows for great team collaboration.</div>
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As an added advantage, cloud based testing (as well as <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/04/programming-skills-and-testers.html" target="_blank">programming</a>) environments are easy to setup (on-demand). In today's tight budgeted IT world, this can be a much bigger advantage than it appears at first. It is no secret that IT managers are operating under a very tight budgetary constraint and when it comes to testing phase, the budget is even smaller.</div>
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Traditional approaches to setting up a test environment involves high cost to setup multiple servers with various OS, hardware configuration, browser versions etc. And if you are going to simulate user activity from different geographic locations you will have to setup test servers with localized regional language OS, which in turn can add up to the cost. But using cloud based infrastructure, the team wouldn't have to setup expensive physical servers -- rather, setting up new testing environment will be fast and efficient and VMs (virtual machines) and test servers can be launched and decommissioned as needed. </div>
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On the other hand, as a tester you might also be required to one of those ever emerging <b>cloud based SaaS applications</b> that aim to cater to various large and small customer base, on-demand. If you are testing such a cloud based application then your challenges are double-fold. Because, testing all the layers - from your application to the cloud service provider - is something that as a tester you will have to become efficient in.</div>
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As a closing note, if you are a <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/05/software-testing-for-freshers-tested.html" target="_blank">tester</a> and if you are intrigued by all these buzz surrounding cloud testing, then here are 2 main reasons why you might consider trying it out -- Cloud based software testing infrastructure greatly helps in reducing capital expenditure and these testing setups are highly scalable, thus allowing your team to expand or decommission your test servers on-demand, as needed.</div>
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Are you someone already using cloud testing? <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/03/years-of-testing-experience-vs-hours-of.html" target="_blank">Share your experience</a> with me and other readers by leaving your comment below.</div>
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<b>1. Lack of "Lust for finding Defects"</b> – Lust could be an objectionable vice in the Bible, but in the "<b>Bible of Software Testing</b>", lust is a good thing; lust for<a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-are-bugsdefects-in-software.html"> finding defects</a> that is. Have a craving, appetite, or great desire towards finding defects is something that differentiates a great tester from that of a mediocre one. Once this lust dies down inside a tester’s heart, it would be very difficult to keep going. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/S-Ec4bhmdnI/AAAAAAAAAeM/vE_X1pUAv68/s1600/The+7+deadly+Sins+of+Software+Testing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/S-Ec4bhmdnI/AAAAAAAAAeM/vE_X1pUAv68/s400/The+7+deadly+Sins+of+Software+Testing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Having said this, I do realize that there could be times like the "<b>tester’s block syndrome</b>" [<i>a condition, associated with testing as a profession, in which a tester may lose the ability to <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/09/testing-lessons-bug-hunting-success.html">find new bugs and defects in the softwar</a>e that (s)he is testing</i>]. It can happen with anybody. But don’t let it become the <b>end of the world</b> for you. If you are struggling to find bugs in the software and feeling burnt out, "<b>change the way you have been testing</b>" – adopt new test ideas, try new ways to find where the AUT (application under test) might be broken, try out pair testing, explore new unexplored areas of the AUT and even try taking a short break. And still, if nothing at all works… then change your AUT! I know how difficult it can be to change the AUT (and your project) in certain <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/11/context-driven-testing-best-practices.html">contexts</a>. In such cases, try out new applications (there are tons out there begging to be tested; just look around) and once you start finding defects in the new AUT, it won’t be long before you would start discovering defects (again) in your old AUT. <br />
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<b>2. Envy</b> – If you are in the field of testing then I can almost certainly bet that you must have come across testing teams where only few team members <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/09/testing-lessons-bug-hunting-success.html">perform exceptionally well</a> and the others instead of taking it as a reason of motivation rather feel envious about them. Enviousness and jealousy leads to hatred and hatred in turn takes you further away from the path to success. <br />
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<b>3. Lack of "Greed for Knowledge"</b> – Like lust, greed also is a good thing to have for a software tester. Some call it the "<b>burning desire to learn</b>" and others call it "<b>the passion to excel</b>", but to me they all mean essentially the same thing. Once some great mind said -- "<b>knowledge is wealth/money</b>". And it couldn’t be agreed more for software testing. I believe that a tester should be like a "<a href="http://techchunks.com/technology/35-interesting-but-lesser-known-facts-about-google-the-search-engine-king/"><i>search engine king</i></a>", <i>who is a jack of all trades and the master of many</i>! As a test manager I would want my testers to be knowledgeable in every aspects of computing -- knowledge about <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/04/programming-skills-and-testers.html">programming languages</a>, operating systems, <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/12/website-testing-did-you-miss-anything.html">web services</a>, <a href="http://techchunks.com/">technology updates</a>, gadgets, <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/05/testing-google-boundary-value.html">search engines</a>, scripting skills… everything counts as long as they help the team to be better at testing.<br />
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<b>4. Sloth</b> – Laziness is not a luxury if you are in the software business; and the onus is even greater if you are a <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2009/02/tight-testing-schedule-how-to-test.html">tester working in a tight testing schedule</a>. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest sins a tester could ever commit – laziness in testing, laziness in learning new stuffs, laziness in updating your skills, laziness in showing interest in finding defects in what you’re testing… all can doom you and your <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/05/software-testing-for-freshers-tested.html">career as a tester</a>. So <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/08/software-testers-beware-is-your.html">beware</a>!<br />
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5. Wrath</b> – Numerous situations may arise in a tester’s life where (s)he would find her/him <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2009/04/software-testing-diplomacy-deal.html">against the team of programmers</a>. But anger and wrath are never the solution to such scenarios. Hate the defects, NOT the programmer. <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/12/criticize-software-defects-not.html">Criticize the software that we test</a>, NOT the programmer who coded it. And don’t ever forget that <b>to err is human and if there were no errors, there would be no need for us (testers) in the team</b>. Being diplomatic and factual with a small dose of humility can do wonders in dealing with any such adverse situations; NOT anger/wrath.<br />
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<b>6. Pride</b> – I can imagine how an occasional self-pat can help boost self-confidence and create room for the much needed motivation. But be careful NOT to overdo it and keep it at "occasional" level. Pride is probably the easiest gateway to witness failure and the feel-good factor associated with pride makes it even more dangerous.<br />
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<b>7. Gluttony</b> – Yes, I said that greed is a good thing for you if you are in the profession of software testing. But greed is not same as gluttony (<b>over-testing, excess testing</b>)! Learning to know where to stop testing is a lesser known art. If you didn’t find any new defects in the past hour of testing, then perhaps you wouldn’t find any, even if you extend the testing session for another couple of hours! In such cases taking a much needed break is a wiser decision than to extend the testing session. Furthermore, every test projects are associated with budget constraints and you wouldn’t probably want to make your testing efforts look like a liability to the whole project instead of <a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/10/software-testing-add-value-to-project.html">adding value</a>, would you?<br />
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What are the other <b>deadly sins for a software tester</b> that you would want to add to the above list? Share your thoughts via comments.</div>
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you have still no idea on what twitter is then in a single sentence - 'it is the most happening micro-blogging phenomenon in web right now, which is redefining how people used to communicate with each other"! In case you have not joined there, I would recommend you to give them a try. It can be a very productive tool to collaborate with peers, colleagues, friends, clients and virtually everyone who is using Twitter.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This particular issue that I'm going to discuss today is basically an issue in <a href="http://twitter.com/#replies">Twitter replies page</a>. I understand that they are doing lot of changes to their interface (both under and above the hood) and so this could very well be a manifestation of some regression bug. At any rate, here is what is happening [please click the screenshot to enlarge].<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/Sw4mC1P0j0I/AAAAAAAAAdY/N2iYsM-OHCQ/s1600/Twitter+%40reply+Bug.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/Sw4mC1P0j0I/AAAAAAAAAdY/N2iYsM-OHCQ/s320/Twitter+%40reply+Bug.PNG" /></a><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I understand it, the @replies page on Twitter is supposed to list out ONLY those tweets that mention your twitter username (e.g. @MyTwitterName). But as you can see above, I'm seeing one tweet that doesn't contain my twitter username and rather is one that was tweeted by me! This is something that can NOT be treated as a reply. How can my own tweet be considered as a reply message aimed at me? Can someone make any sense out of it? What do you think? <b>Can this be due to a bug in twitter?</b><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Happy Testing...</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I believe that </span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">technical investigation </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">is one of the major responsibilities that we are often required to perform as testers. Personally, I love this aspect of testing more than anything else and I take pride in describing my role as a tester to be a “</span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">technical investigator</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">” who helps the project stakeholders by providing important project related information that in turn guides the stakeholders in taking critical decisions. While trying to get rid of (fix) the above problems I think I did quite a bit of technical investigation to get around the problem and learned the following lessons that, in my opinion, can be helpful for a tester in her work:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a) How to maintain a cool head while being confronted with </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-are-bugsdefects-in-software.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">tough problems</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">/situations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">b) How to narrow down the problem and get to the root of it. This particular skill can help testers while trying to narrow down the reproducibility criteria for </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/05/my-top-5-ways-to-reproduce-hard-to.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">hard to reproduce bugs</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">c) How to engage in </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2008/12/criticize-software-defects-not.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">critical</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> problem solving.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">d) How to explore free information that is available via </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/05/testing-google-boundary-value.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">search engines</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and how to use them to your advantage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">e) How to use your </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/06/testing-testing-testing-oops-word-is.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">observation skills</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to spot any subtle clues that can lead you to the error triggering condition of the problem.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">f) How to use your </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/06/software-testers-do-we-assure-quality.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">critical thinking</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> skills to pinpoint the problem.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">g) How to use your </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/09/testing-lessons-bug-hunting-success.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">lateral thinking</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> skills to identify multiple possible causes of the problem.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think each of the above lessons can also help someone in </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/12/tips-effective-bug-defect-report.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">becoming a better tester</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. As testers, often we are required to do some research to learn more about a bug and do some investigation to narrow down it's reproducibility factors. As we all know, the shorter and crispier are the steps to reproduce certain bug, easier it is for the programmers to reproduce it and hence the chance of the bug getting fixed gets higher. Good </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/10/testing-lessons-learned-sherlock-holmes.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">technical investigation skills</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> can also empower a tester to quickly nail down a critical defect that may be too subtle for a mediocre tester to spot and recognize. So overall, I think while trying to *fix* the above problems in my real life I learned important testing lessons.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moreover as Dr. Cem Kaner says, “</span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best software tester isn’t the one who finds the most bugs in the software or who embarrasses the most programmers. The best tester is the one who gets the most bugs </span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fixed</span></b></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.” (~The Bug Advocacy) I thought, why not move one step ahead and </span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fix</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the problems whenever we have the opportunity to do the same? I completely understand that as testers we seldom get the chance to fix the problems (bugs, defects, issues) that we find in the software. But while testing (problem solving) in real life I did recognize opportunities where I had the chance to hunt down the problem and at the same time try and fix it myself. Thus my recent “How I Fixed” posts took birth. At any rate, I like to solve problem that has the potential to tickle my gray matter and problems like the above proved to be worth trying. And I thought that it would be appropriate to record my approach in the form of blog posts as the documentary of the episodes!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you feel that this is against the mission of a blog that is supposed to be testing-oriented? Do you think that I should stop writing these posts? Do you think that I am deviating from my goals as a tester? I would like to hear you out.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Happy Testing… </span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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When I post them under this category it essentially means that these are the kind of software failures that are ambiguous and one can’t be very sure if something indeed is a software failure or it is just the way it was designed to work! I would leave the final decision (whether this is a Bug or not) up to my readers and will just post here my observations. I think this is going to be fun. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So here goes the first post of the “<a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/search/label/Is%20this%20a%20Bug%3F">Is this a Bug?</a>” series:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Login to your <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> A/C (yes, you need a LinkedIn profile to be able to verify this).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Update your LinkedIn status. You can find the corresponding text box to enter and update your status on the home page, on the left side bar and elsewhere. “Your status was updated” message should be displayed by LinkedIn.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Now simulate a scenario of network failure. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">[<b>Hint:</b> unplug your modem and connect it back OR disconnect the connection and connect again OR simply logout of LinkedIn -> hit the browser Back button -> Page Refresh (F5) OR use your own ingenious method to simulate a network failure.] </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had a REAL network failure and when I connected back to the internet I saw this rather confusing LinkedIn screen (please refer the screenshot) that displayed on one hand that *my* status was updated and on the other hand asked me to Join/Sign-In to LinkedIn. This is same as asking a guest at your door to come in and take a seat in your living room, offering her with coffee, chatting with her for a while and then asking her "do I know you?"!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/Sq43Vjzu5TI/AAAAAAAAAdI/F0EejzdEh5A/s1600-h/LinkedIn+Status+Update.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/Sq43Vjzu5TI/AAAAAAAAAdI/F0EejzdEh5A/s320/LinkedIn+Status+Update.bmp" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">[click on the image for an enlarged version]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">What do you think? Is this a Bug? Feel free to share your opinion by commenting below.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>P.S.</b> If you had experienced such a bug?/not-a-bug? situation, feel free to </span><a href="http://software-testing-zone.blogspot.com/2007/01/contact-me.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Contact Me</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> with the details (if possible screenshots) and I will try to post it on Software Testing Zone with your name.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>P.P.S.</b> This “Is this a Bug?” series is inspired by Ben Simo’s </span><a href="http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is There A Problem Here?</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Blog. If you liked this post I recommend you to visit Ben’s Blog as well. Chances are very high that you would like it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Happy Testing…</b></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: red;">Update!</span> For more such awesome <a href="http://techchunks.com/">Tips and Tricks</a> do visit the <a href="http://techchunks.com/">Technology How To</a> section. </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">3 days back I was browsing a popular website and I spotted “</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Zwinky</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">” (which is supposed to turn a photograph into a 3D image)! It did look harmless and hence I installed it willing to give it a try. If you read me regularly, then you might probably know that I prefer Firefox over any other browser. I had used Firefox while downloading and installing “Zwinky”. But my excitement was short-lived when I spotted a new </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><i>web search tool bar (MyWebSearch)</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> that was added to my Firefox toolbar without my permission during the installation. I uninstalled this toolbar and thought it was the end of it; but soon I was going to be proved wrong!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">Sometimes later, while trying to lookup something in Google, I directly typed the search query into the Firefox location/address bar. Usually, it should have displayed Google search results or a direct website based on Google’s "I'm feeling Lucky" algorithm. But this time, I got this instead:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
</span></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/SpaM05H6IWI/AAAAAAAAAcA/bN0GfLPV3Ec/s1600-h/MyWebSearchHijackedFirefox.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374638045628342626" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/SpaM05H6IWI/AAAAAAAAAcA/bN0GfLPV3Ec/s320/MyWebSearchHijackedFirefox.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 183px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: justify; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;">I</span>t was super-annoying because I couldn’t search with Google, my primary search engine and Firefox, my primary web browser. It was clear that my dear browser (Firefox) was hijacked by MyWebSearch, which was causing browser redirection to their site. What the hell? I went through all of the Firefox preferences (Tools </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">--></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> Options) to see if I could change back the default search engine to Google but I couldn't find any such option! Searching in Google for “MyWebSearch” gave me <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mywebsearch" target="_blank">loads of information</a> about this spyware. Yes, I would call it a spyware because it collects and stores information about the web pages you view, the data you enter in online forms and search fields, the "clicks" you make, the IP address, URL and country of the sites you visit, your IP address, information about your browser and operating system, and the products you purchase online while using the service. Instantly I did a scan of my PC using “Spybot – Search & Destroy”. It did find some instances of “MyWebSearch” and claimed to clean it too. But when I started Firefox, I saw it remained hijacked! Damn! :(</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><b>"MyWebSearch" Spyware Removal - Getting rid of Firefox/Google redirect Hijack</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><b>:</b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><b></b></span></span>The most irritating thing about a spyware is that it can manage to hide in your system and thus hard to be cleaned/removed. And “MyWebSearch” appeared to be quite good at it. I did the following things trying to hunt it down:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">1. I checked again in “Add & Remove Programs” list. It wasn’t there. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">2. I did a manual search in the “C:\program files”. I didn’t find any suspicious folder here as well. I expanded my search to whole “C:\”, without any luck.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">3. Now I opened the “Registry Editor” (Start </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">--></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> Run </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">--></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> regedit). I did a search (Ctrl+F) for “MyWebSearch” and found 3 registry entries. I deleted them after making sure that they were the ones I was looking for. To make sure I was not missing any more registry keys, I did a search for “search” and this gave me some more entries. Out of these most were genuine Windows registry keys. But I found 2 of them were pointing to “MyWebSearch” entries; so I deleted them as well. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">WARNING!</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> If you are doing this, please be very careful while deleting a registry entry. Accidental deletion of a genuine entry </span><span class="entry-content"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">may result in corrupted Windows that can only be fixed via reinstalling Windows.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="entry-content"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="entry-content"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">After deleting the relevant “MyWebSearch” entries from the registry I was almost sure that this time it was finally removed. I started Firefox and oops; I was wrong! It was still hiding somewhere and hijacking my search results everytime I tried to do a quick Google Search via Firefox </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">location/address bar. I searched on Web in hopes of finding out a <b>MyWebSearch </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><b>removal tool</b>. But most (all) of them described how to get rid of the toolbar, which I had removed already. I could hardly find any info that could help in getting back my hijacked Firefox. I tried </span><a href="http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">HijackThis</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> (a free spyware removal tool by Trend Micro) too. But it was unable to sniff out “MyWebSearch” in its scan result.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">I was beginning to get frustrated at this point and suddenly another “test idea” came across my mind. I went to the configuration mode of Firefox by typing “about:config” on the location bar. But searching for “defaultSearch” in the filter bar, gave me “Google” as the default engine! Damn. Where did they hide the redirect hijack configuration then? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">Baffled, I now keyed in “myweb” in the filter box and here it was. It showed me the entries where the user setting was modified to hijack the browser, without my permission.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
</span></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/SpaPj2QAOvI/AAAAAAAAAcI/5Lo_5TfKkpE/s1600-h/FireFox_MyWebSearch_AboutConfig.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374641051334097650" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/SpaPj2QAOvI/AAAAAAAAAcI/5Lo_5TfKkpE/s320/FireFox_MyWebSearch_AboutConfig.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 49px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: justify; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">I right-clicked both the entries, choose “Reset” and restarted Firefox. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
</span></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/SpaQGCdkzkI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/CRtAGe_HmM0/s1600-h/GoogleBackAsDefaultSearchInFireFoxAboutConfig.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374641638727798338" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_U08AbEz5lx4/SpaQGCdkzkI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/CRtAGe_HmM0/s320/GoogleBackAsDefaultSearchInFireFoxAboutConfig.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: justify; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">Hurray! And now the search result is back to Google. I am glad that this nasty hijack episode is finally over for me. Sorry Firefox. You had to spend 3 days in hostage situation due to my stupidity (in deciding to try out a malicious program like “Zwinky”). If you are facing a similar situation of browser hijack and looking for a way out, feel free to try my above steps and let me know if it helped. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: red;">Update!</span> For more such awesome <a href="http://techchunks.com/">Tips and Tricks</a> do visit the <a href="http://techchunks.com/">Technology How To</a> section. </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;">Happy Testing…</span></b></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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