Questioning Software

Splendid (and old!). See also http://www.satisfice...

2014-01-09T00:03:56.678-07:00

Splendid (and old!). See also http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/67.

---Michael B.

Hi Ben, I shot you a note with a few more issues ...

2013-10-29T21:20:41.696-06:00

Hi Ben,

I shot you a note with a few more issues if you want to run with them. It was from a throwaway guerrillamail (sharksandlasers.com i think) , so you will probably need to check your spam folder.

Issue 2 is an intentional design element. They di...

2013-10-29T13:29:54.183-06:00

Issue 2 is an intentional design element.

They did not want to display unsubsidized prices, until all possible subsidies had been incorporated into the price displayed.

It's a bad design, (And example of poor government transparency) but an intentional design nonetheless.

Hi, I learned about the OFAT and MFAT today. I was...

2013-08-14T23:33:18.667-06:00

Hi,
I learned about the OFAT and MFAT today. I was searching for it. meanwhile learned about the factors to be considered for better performance with the help of your article. Thanks.

Interesting presentation, Ben, thank you. I agre...

2013-01-24T00:31:02.622-07:00

Interesting presentation, Ben, thank you.
I agree with you at the point, that any software system should be tested on multiple factors, as a whole one, because tuning one parameter we can destroy other or many others.
Do you use JMeter? I'd like to share with you article which was written by one of JMeter developers. It describes some tricks about performance testing with jmeter - http://blazemeter.com/blog/jmeter-performance-and-tuning-tips

Hi Ben Nice post, I am very impressed with your...

2012-10-11T05:34:03.734-06:00

Hi Ben

Nice post,
I am very impressed with your way of presenting all the different variance of performance with these snaps and you have minutely collected all particle that builds performance. Since I am a tester so familiar with this word and every day I use to listen all about the performance and its root cause.

But still learning the pros and con of this kind of testing and this place has proved to a good mind feeder related to performance testing and its feature.

Ben, I'm a huge fan of MFAT but pretty inexpe...

2012-09-04T10:04:11.200-06:00

Ben,

I'm a huge fan of MFAT but pretty inexperienced in performance testing.

Would you be able to share an example or two where MFAT performance testing has been helpful in revealing information that OFAT tests may well have overlooked?

- Justin

The last one is good "Don’t throw more hardwa...

2012-05-16T09:09:15.926-06:00

The last one is good "Don’t throw more hardware at a software problem" use this as short cut to resolve performance issues. Very good post..

Jaipal
http://iloveloadrunner.com

I can't help wondering... is that an online sh...

2012-05-04T08:46:52.572-06:00

I can't help wondering... is that an online shopping cart icon in the bottom right corner?

LOL. The advertisement is f.u.b.r. Some may say t...

2012-05-03T01:29:03.845-06:00

LOL. The advertisement is f.u.b.r.

Some may say the prices and the percentage are wrong (or at least misleading), but what about the extra hand on the women solder?

LOL...Tested...

I'm not sure what price "A." has to ...

2012-05-03T01:28:04.171-06:00

I'm not sure what price "A." has to do with "Men's Fleece jumper." and all of the prices are inconsistent but nice catch.

Men's Fleece jumper price is $27 on the pictur...

2012-05-03T01:02:13.363-06:00

Men's Fleece jumper price is $27 on the picture and $13 on the right (which is btw inconsistent with the price A).

Very good mnemonic. Under audience you might want...

2011-09-01T10:10:18.235-06:00

Very good mnemonic. Under audience you might want to add a question such as this:

Localizable/Internationalization: Does the error display properly in other langauges, fonts, character sets, etc (when there is more text, or right-to-left text, etc)?

Another UI consideration: is the dialog consistent with the platform or operating system usability guidelines (such as for placement of ok/cancel buttons, etc?)

Another consideration: duration. I have seen error messages that disappear too quickly to read them. This might be obvious for self-timed items, but I've had situations when the message arrives while I am typing, and before I can stop, something I've typed dismisses the dialog. Hmm...

If anybody were to ask me what my chief shortcomin...

2010-12-09T13:39:08.611-07:00

If anybody were to ask me what my chief shortcoming was, I would answer "I always try to engineer an elaborate solution to getting the giraffe into the fridge." Okay I would not have said that before reading this post, but I will from now on.

Great post. If it's OK, I might use some of yo...

2010-09-10T01:15:47.768-06:00

Great post. If it's OK, I might use some of your comments as quotes in presentations I will be giving. I'm piloting a move towards the exploratory testing end of the spectra and your experience and comments will be useful.

@Joe & @Ben - Having seen and been the target ...

2010-07-30T13:56:41.303-06:00

@Joe & @Ben - Having seen and been the target of more of these questions than my karmic debt could possibly warrant, let me assert you can spot the honest questions from people new to the industry a mile off. The honest questions are usually a) somewhat specific even if they reference company domain knowledge, b) show evidence of a little research already (ie: at least a Wikipedia search), c) are not phrased in a way that suggests the poster already knows the answer and it simply looking for ammunition they can carry back to the person who disagrees, and d) are not posted by people who's profile claims eight years of software test experience or lays claim to the title "lead," "senior," or "manager."

Testing Error http://www.sdtimes.com/default.aspx?...

2009-12-01T06:34:58.889-07:00

Testing Error
http://www.sdtimes.com/default.aspx?CustomError=404

F - Can not test, I dont know if the link is in their database

A - Pass, I came when I tried to access the link

I - Pass, no impact except for not reading the page

L - Can't test. This should be logged so that they can know which links people are trying to access but can't find.

U - Not so good. It looks very nasty and evil red. And it's very small. But it does draw attention to it by the annoying color.

R - Pass, It tells me to browse the page or search

E - A bit annoyed yes, and the color does not make it look any better

Summary:
All in all it's a decent error message which could be made nicer and bigger.

I would like to add a letter to the heuristic. S...

2009-12-01T05:24:49.553-07:00

I would like to add a letter to the heuristic.

S - How is the system *situation* after the failure? Many error creates follow up failures because the system does not recover properly. Do extensive testing after the failure. Recreate the error several times and see if the system behaves the same.

Now it spells FAILURES! Even better.

Thanks for a great post, I added this heuristic to my personal Testing Toolbox document and will use this in the future.

Happy Testing / Jonas

Why don't we just called a spade a spade? In ...

2009-11-16T21:00:02.282-07:00

Why don't we just called a spade a spade? In your usage Testing is "having or showing deep understanding and intelligent application of knowledge" in relation to making an evaluation of the item in question.

Sounds like some wise and sage advice to me. Very judicious and prudent, and just sensible. Sound rational and levelheaded?

But just for brevity let's say I was being 'sapient' in my application of thought on this subject.

Bayesian/Gaussian neural nets only enforce known r...

2009-11-16T14:09:19.506-07:00

Bayesian/Gaussian neural nets only enforce known rules. Bayesian neural nets are prescriptivist.

Markovian neural nets actually learn when they discover a new hidden Markov node.

So what does that mean in terms of your discussion of testing as discovery? It means that using different statistical methods can impead the discovery of the discovery you test is intended to capture.

A test is but one sensor in a decision support network. If the fusion is Bayesian/Gaussian, you will not discover, you will just be informed relative to expectations set when you designed the test.

Take a careful look at your entire process.

Yikes!!!

2009-10-02T12:22:55.125-06:00

Yikes!!!

why ur blog listed on testing blogs list. i nothin...

2009-09-10T06:37:29.867-06:00

why ur blog listed on testing blogs list. i nothing found anything like testing here. please suggest if you have some other section of that.

The barrier imposed by testing tool is real. Even...

2009-08-06T19:06:47.103-06:00

The barrier imposed by testing tool is real. Even with all the flexibilities provided by the tool, it is often very difficult and time consuming to make it work for Model-Based Testing. Many already shy away by the first barrier of requiring "a change in thinking" or find it too difficult to make the change, fighting the tool to make it do what it is not designed for often outweight the benefits the Model-Based Tesing might bring to the project.

Finding a good testing tool that is built right for Model-Based Testing is almost imperative for any successful MBT implementation.

I have been looking for a good review of list of testing tools that are built for Model-Based Testing and I have not found one. There are many like myself understand the benefit of MBT but are unable to use MBT due to lack of a good MBT testing tool.

It seems that random quote generator has gone: htt...

2009-07-30T23:33:45.375-06:00

It seems that random quote generator has gone:
http://screencast.com/t/CotRnBJrE
Is there a problem here? :)

And the bug is... You have to stay focus about tes...

2009-03-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

And the bug is...
You have to stay focus about testing. It is easy to get stuck in the game not remembering that bugs must be found. We are testing it or are we playing?
Maybe we should "skip" this, no?