1. Testers Skill-Sets: Everyone wants to be a developer and not a tester, why? Because developers think that its a low skilled job. But testers knowledge skill-sets are very different and broad from development. It requires strong Operating Systems skillsets (including internals), databases, usability testing, scripting, networking, SDLC to processes compliances. Quality (CMM, ISO etc) and a lot more.
Problems with the Test Industry with respect to our subject: No tailored course and no specific benchmarking guidelines. All abstracts everywhere. But things have been changing, with certifications (both tools and engineering). Things hav... but not enough to convince everyone.
It calls for:
Fair insights into Operating System Concepts:
Scripting/Programming: Once I was interviewing a guy for embedded tools testing and I
asked him about the languages he's comfortable with for writing test plans. His answer was English. Is that wrong, i really do not know. I am referring to one of the world's biggest semiconductor company.
On the other hand, on a training session the trainer was referring to test scripts. And later it turned out to be simple English test steps. And this happened in one of the worlds best Security Org.
Bit of everything
Everything about 1~2 things.
Do I make sense???
2. Importance of FEVIFTTWH: Almost everyone I talk to refers to usability and
usability standards. But who defines it, and what is the standardization. Who sets
them, and how do they impact.
3. Has anyone seen an application with HWTTF....., ie, the menu starting from Help,
Window, Tools and so on from the Left Hand Side. Similar happens to be with all the
Usability/GUI's and more or less goes back to what Microsoft had implemented.
4. How would you define a bug that is least severity and still remains to be priority.
Has anyone come across any product by Microsoft that displays Win instead of Windows.
Bet you will not be able to find it as for Microsoft guys this would be priority 1
5. Measuring Quality: So how do you measure Quality. The simple answer is across what
is set as a standard that the product claims to be capable of 6. QA/QC: There cannot be any other term to start with especially with respect to our
subject. Hundreds and thousands of books/jobs/references/links/tutorials/lectures etc
etc that I have come across and each one talks about QA and not about QC/software
testing. I think the industry is yet to reach such a maturity stage where these terms
get defined. QA is a non technical job (a more of a process oriented targeted for
certification, in most of the cases, although proves out to be an umbrella activity
putting Software Testing under it, which is a pure technical job.
7. White Box Testing: And all the time, it reminds me of a continent about everyone
wants to talk about as much as they possibly can. And when you are told, or try to go
there everyone runs away like a thief saving for his life. Reason is simple, Whitebox
testing is nothing but a glass box testing, where in each and every
function/unit/module/subroutine..... is tested as per the coding guidelines specified. The only thing that a tester can do here is compliance checks with respect to the coding guidelines being followed or not. Having audits, incorporating comments and so on. Also this is true mostly for larger size organizations. For very small startups or thinengineering firms, multitasking makes more sense where the developers mostly do the development as well as testing.
8. Black Box Programming: Discussed earlier
9. Unit Testing—Is it white box or black-box: Lets do a File-->New in Microsoft Word. Is it a white box or a black-box. Before integrating various modules, it would be whitebox and when it gets integrated as a product, then it would be a black box, makes sense. In case it doesn’t, please do not curse me.
10. White Box Expectations from Testers: Since the time I started by career, hardly has any interview/conference/training/event happened wherein the said subject has not
been referred to.