Sharon Ideas

Sharon Ideas Inc.

sharon — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:36:11 +0000

I just wanted to put a quick update out here on what is new with Sharon Ideas. As of July 1, 2010 Sharon Ideas is now fully incorporated! This is an important step for us and I’m excited to see where it will lead.

Sharon Ideas Inc. is continuing to grow and I have been fully enjoying it! Having the chance to work from home, do what I love doing and see Sharon Ideas Inc grow is, of course, personally satisfying! The more I work in this field, the more I realize that software Quality Assurance and testing is never going to go away or die. Manual testing is a key ingredient to producing solid software, and nothing is more satisfying than seeing a piece of software go from an unstable state to a stable state, a state where both the developers, the company, and I can look at it, and say, Now that is a solid piece of software (or website) that the customers are going to enjoy using!

And of course, there is nothing that I enjoy more than finding a “bad bug” and seeing it get fixed!

Are testers the developer’s back-up insurance?

sharon — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:30:24 +0000

So it’s been a little while since I last wrote a blog post. Sharon Ideas has continued to grow faster than I could hope for and I’ve learned a lot. For me, growing a business is all about learning new things. Whether it be a new testing technique or learning new ways of providing my services to companies that value quality assurance testing, and in particular, manual testing, it’s the learning process that counts.

Tonight I was thinking about the role of Quality Assurance in the software development world. Just what is the role of the tester? Is it just to test and flush out all the bugs after development is done? Or what happens when a bug is missed? Is it the testers fault? The developers fault for introducing it? What happens when the tester can’t find steps to reproduce an issue? Is the quality assurance team kind of like insurance for the developers, “QA should have found it, it’s not our fault!”?

While you may laugh at the idea of the QA team being the insurance to cover the developers asses, I have seen this played out over and over. A bug is found by the client or customers who then complain, and when the CEO of your software company comes knocking on the Development team’s door, they can quickly point to QA: It’s their fault! They should have found it! And yes, that may be true. We are the developer’s right hand helpers–we are there to find their mistakes, their oversights, the glitches that get introduced, the bugs that cause problems by 3rd party software, the bugs that jump out from no where, and help keep the developers on track to make sure they develop and release high quality software.

So what do you answer to the big boss who comes to your desk and says “Why didn’t you find that bug!”? I don’t think there is a clear answer to that. Because yes, Quality Assurance IS supposed to find all the bugs. You can mumble an answer about being human and not being able to cover everything. But that answer is not going to fly with the CEO or the customer. Or you can put the blame back on the developers, “They shouldn’t have introduced it!”. But that’s not going to set well with them either because that’s what you’re there for–to find the bugs.

So what do you answer? I don’t think there is an answer that is cut and dry. But I think there is a solution: Quality Assurance testers who work with the developers side by side to work through the issues, find the bugs, fix them, and go back to the CEO and the client with the fix. Perhaps it’s no one’s fault there is a bug–bugs exist! That’s why quality assurance is so important. When a bug is missed, learn why it was missed, and then work to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Can’t find steps to reproduce a bug? Work with someone who might know–each person has their expertise–lean on each other–that’s why working as a team is so important. Learn from each other, and the software and the development team will just get stronger and stronger.

A great file sharing app

sharon — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:05:13 +0000

I wanted to share with you all a really cool app I have been using heavily lately. Dropbox is a really neat program that allows fast and easy file sharing between computers, your phone and computer, between family and friends and in my situation, between co-workers and clients.

Dropbox puts an icon on your desktop and toolbar and a folder in My Documents where you can then drop any file you want. You can then share that folder with anyone else who has Dropbox by inviting them via email. But even more importantly, you can access everything in your Dropbox online. So anywhere I go I can access the files and folders I need, share with the people I need to share a file with and have automatic backup of everything in my Dropbox. I love having one location where I can put all my files and access them from any computer, anywhere or from my phone anywhere.

It’s great not having to worry about whether the file is too large for an email attachment or if the large picture folder I want to share with my family will download on their dial up Internet. And I don’t have to worry about backing up my files anymore–Dropbox does that for me. It has proved to be a great tool in my business in dealing with clients where we need to share files fast and easily. Whenever someone puts something in the Dropbox folder that I share with a client, a pop up notifies me from the corner of the screen. Also if anyone modifies something in the Dropbox I am also notified. New files are automatically synced with old ones. If I’m away from my computer and need to access a file, all I need to do is log into the Dropbox website from my phone and all my files are at my finger tips! Talk about being able to take your work everywhere with you!

The first 2GB are free, Dropbox Pro 50 at 50GB is $9.99/mo and Dropbox Pro 100 at 100GB is $19.99/mo. You can also earn free storage by inviting your friends to try Dropbox. Installation is easy–quick download and it’s very easy to get started. So give it a try sometime!

When does the development life cycle end?

sharon — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:14:48 +0000

The “development life cycle” is a way of managing the development and implementation of software, websites, and web applications. It can be implemented in countless ways but some of the most popular methods are System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Prototyping Model, Rapid Application Development Model, Component Assembly Model and my favorite, Agile System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

So whatever development life cycle you choose, where does it start and where does it end? In my opinion it starts with market research: What does your audience want and need and how can you help them? If you keep your customers at the forefront, and their wants and needs, you will end up with a product that they will enjoy using. Once you find out what they want, you can then begin to brainstorm on how to create a product, application, or website that meets those needs. Then determine what your budget is, and then how you will design this product. This is when the development team can start their work. Meanwhile the marketing team can begin to market to the potential customers, getting them excited about the upcoming product, or, if you don’t want to advertise it before it’s ready, work on researching the market more to find out how to cater to your audience.

I prefer the agile development life cycle, where testing is done throughout the whole development process. Scott Ambler wrote an excellent blog about it. He has some great diagrams in his blog that speak more than a thousand of my words can. I recommend you go take a look at it.

After you’ve developed the product, using whatever development cycle you’ve decided on and you’ve tested it thoroughly, what is next? Do you think it’s ready for your customers? Are you 100% happy with it and feel comfortable releasing it to them? Great! Then release it, and elicit feedback from your customers. Keep track of all the feedback–the positive feedback is pats on the back–job well done! What areas do they like the most? Hone in on these and make plans to keep those features and maintain them. Negative feedback? Keep track of these–put it in the pile of “improvements that need to be made”. Now begin planning how you can improve these weak areas!

So does testing end once you’ve released to the customers? In my opinion, the answer is no. I believe a company that is rooted in customer satisfaction is going to continually test their products, finding hidden bugs hopefully before the customer, and discover new ways to improve it. Once you have a good set of improvements that can be made, develop an update, go through thorough testing, release the update, elicit feedback and start the process over again.

Now obviously a tester can’t spend their life testing one product, but a couple hours a week on each product you have can go a long ways in seeking to improve the product, flushing out potential bugs, and keeping feedback coming in on weak areas. As long as your customers are using your product, shouldn’t you too? If you’re getting annoyed with something, or bored with it, do you think your customers are? These are questions to ask yourself. If you’re producing a web application, or website, these are even easier to constantly update and keep fresh — software takes a bit more work, since it requires a release cycle.

I am passionate about testing–it is what I live and breathe and for anyone who is also in love with testing, thinking outside the box in terms of the development cycle, release cycle and testing process is key to taking the development life cycle to the next level!

Does snail mail still have a place in the corporate world?

sharon — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:20:54 +0000

So with more and more people moving to the clouds, to virtualization, to social networking and social media, to anything and everything online, does the printed paper hold much value anymore?

I’ve been talking to a couple people who have been involved in marketing for 20-30 years, and while they are now also utilizing the online world, they still feel the printed paper has a place in society, and especially in the corporate world. The average CEO or owner of a large firm has hundreds of emails and messages coming his way each day. But how much real paper mail are they receiving every day, besides the ads and the type of spam that arrives in a paper envelope? A large percentage of company owners and CEO’s are older, and have done business before communication moved to the clouds. “Snail mail” was the norm, and what was trusted. And many still see this as a valid way to communicate.

Invoices, bills, and money are still traditionally sent via the US Postal system. But will a letter, on paper, in an envelope, still make an impact if sent through “snail mail”? Or will the almighty email, the blog, the website, the Google Wave, take precedent and hold more weight?

Taking virtual environments into the clouds

sharon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:03:28 +0000

One of the dilemmas often faced by quality assurance professionals and testers is the setup, maintenance, and dependability of virtual computer environments. I have usedvpc and VMware extensively. While I prefer VMware over vpc, the large footprint of VMware makes it very slow on a machine with a host system of Vista and even slower if you’re using a Vista VMware image.

So now I am wanting to explore some new ideas for a virtual environment. One of the first options I looked into was Skytap. Impressively extensive, with a huge variety of options and flexibility, this seems to be a tester’s dream come true.

What appealed to me the most is that it is a cloud computing service. I love services that will go with me, wherever I go, whatever computer I may be on. I don’t have to worry about messing up the configuration on my host computer, or my hard drive failing and loosing all my data, etc. For a solid quality assurance management and testing platform, Skytap offers a lot, without the hassle and drawbacks of hosting an extensive virtual environment physically on your host computer. It operates in the clouds, so no more huge footprint and custom built host machines. According to their website, it offers three main components:

Virtualized cloud infrastructure, including hardware, storage and networking resources
A ‘Software-as-a-Service’ lab manager application
The Skytap Library

With an impressive Virtual Lab Management Application where you can manage up to a complete system of images, a pre-built library of operating systems, databases, applications, test tools such as JMeter and Selenium, public content and a great list of Premium ISV Partner content, this is the tester’s one stop for testing needs. You can also upload existing virtual images to the clouds.

With the ability to custom manage a network of images and configure the network any way you wish, including specifying IP address, subnet settings, memory allocations, CPU usage, AND the ability to run multiple images side by side, this makes a great virtual lab. (Huge plus for me!) You can also share links byIM or email to a image that is up and running, so collaboration is a breeze. I see Skytap as a great tool to do integration, system, performance and localization testing.

So what type of computer system requirements are there to run this? It’s simple:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Firefox 2+
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 1.5+

You can download a trial and also receive a virtual training session. The price tag? A low cost model starts at $500/month. If you are looking for a high quality virtual lab environment or a extensiveQA and testing platform that lives in the clouds and goes where you go, Skytap might just be the solution for you!

New business tools for the New Year?

sharon — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:18:25 +0000

Awhile back I discovered Outright, a free bookkeeping, tax record keeping service that is designed for people involved in self employment and freelance work. I signed up for it and have been quite pleased with the over all style of it. It has a great way to keep track of your income, your yearly profit, your expenses, and your estimated taxes, including self employment taxes. It generates a lot of nice reports and easily breaks down your expenses and income for you. I see this as being a great tool for any self employed person to keep an eye on their financial side of their business and help them calculate their income, expenses and taxes in an easy to understand format.

The only disappointed aspect is that, as far as I can tell, you can’t invoice with it. If there was an invoice feature, it would be a perfect, all-in-one accounting service. But as it is, there is no invoice service. It also won’t accept any files from QuickBooks–instead it only allows you to import files from FreshBooks. It will allow you to sync with PayPal though. So you plan on using QuickBooks, you must enter data in both places in order to utilize the services of Outright. This is rather disappointing but might be worth the hassle in the end.

But I see Outright as being a great tool that I plan on at least taking on a test drive to see how I like it. If any of you have tried it, let me know what you think!

Merry Christmas!

sharon — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:03:00 +0000

Just want to take a moment to wish you a Merry Christmas from Sharon Ideas! I hope everyone takes some time to enjoy family and friends and take the time to build and renew relationships and friendships. And to those who are traveling, safe travels!

My impressions of the HP TouchSmart PC

sharon — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:41:18 +0000

I just got the HP TouchSmart 300 computer–a 20in monitor and computer built into one. Overall I have to stay I am extremely impressed with it. With 452GB of hard drive space and 4GB of RAM, it is a welcome step up from my previous laptops with Windows XP and Vista. While I have had my mind made up I wanted to stick with laptops, this computer has changed my mind. Only a couple inches thick, the hardware runs behind the HD LCD Brightview screen and is quiet and ends up taking up less space than a laptop. A wireless super thin keyboard and a wireless mouse make up the hardware.

As far as the touchscreen capabilities, I’m still getting used to it. I have trouble typing on the touchscreen keyboard and have so far stuck with the physical keyboard but find myself frequently pushing it under the monitor and just touching the icons to navigate around. If you can use the iPhone, you can definitely get used to this. The HPTouchSmart apps include music, videos and movies, and there is a built in webcam that is actually very clear for a built in webcam and has a lot of cool effects and things it can do.

I’m enjoying Windows 7. Personally, I loved Vista–huge upgrade from XP for me, and i have been using it since the RC1. Windows 7 is like Vista but with a bunch of bug fixes! One cool thing is you can dock frequently used items on thetaskbar easily with the TouchSmart by simply touching and dragging it. What is missing is tooltips for docked items though. But brush your finger or run your mouse over them and it gives you a quick preview of each item.

I also chose a 64bit OS. This is a pet peeve of mine as a tester. Many people test in 32 bit and forget to test in 64 bit, and especially when Vista came out, there was a lot of issues with software working in a 64 bit system. I’m not sure if this is still going to be something I run into with Windows 7 or not, but I am eager to find out!

I am sure the TouchSmart and Windows 7 has a lot of other interesting features I haven’t discovered yet. I will keep you posted on the interesting things I learn!

Where is Facebook headed?

sharon — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:54:49 +0000

So first Facebook came out with a new privacy statement, which promoted making all information public. While they did give users a pop up about it when they logged in the first time after the switch, they didn’t make it very clear that they were indexing your Facebook status messages under the Privacy–>Search section, or that unless you specified, your “status” updates were probably becoming public unless you had specifically set them otherwise. While some users might like this, others of us prefer to keep our personal Facebook world separate and only share it with whom we wish to, such as that random post about your sister you didn’t want her to see or those pictures in your photo album that you might not want your boss to see!

Next Facebook came up with a URL shortner. Some of the benefits include better analytics and mobile browsing, and in the future may provide Page owners with analytics so that they can track their Page sharing on the web. And the Facebook was quick to add that this would enable easier sharing with Twitter, the competitive social network they are, do I dare say, trying to imitate? Now they are going to start enabling you to share your status updates with Twitter sometime this week, according to TechCrunch. What do you think of this? Is sending your Facebook status to Twitter going to be something you are interested in or benefit you in some way?

Personally, it concerns me a bit that they are not actively protecting the privacy of their users pages, but instead seeking to make it more public as to interface better with Twitter. Not everyone wants their status’ indexed and shared on Google but many users may not have the technical experience or be proactive enough to manually go through their privacy settings and adjust them until it is too late and they are reaping unwanted results of having their information on the web. Many users are young and inexperienced, some might be older and just use Facebook to connect with old friends and know just the bare basics of navigation. Whatever the case, Facebook is not jibing with my personal policy of keeping personal information secure and private from the public eyes. But then, is that just me, or are their others who share my opinion?