I’m really happy to share a wonderful guest post by Gunasekaran Veerapillai. He is working as a competency Head in Wipro Technologies Testing Services.

Gunasekaran has covered an interesting transformation of automation industry – How it was few years ago and where is it heading now. He has also answered one core question whether we need dedicated automation experts to do the test automation or the normal testers can do automation also?

So please enjoy and take it away Gunasekaran!

“Test Automation is no more a niche skill” – “any good business tester with right attitude can create test automation scripts”.

Over the last decade test automation has undergone multiple facets of changes. Same vendors have introduced new tools, open source tools have come to stay, and still some vendors are marketing their products as the ultimate solution for Quality. CTOs of the organizations are convinced that automation is going to give them greater benefits in squeezing the cost and time over long run. Service providers have introduced several ultimate frameworks which save the effort of automation testers – right from standard data driven, Key-word, Hybrid to script-less frameworks whereby business users can create automation scripts without the hassles of Java of VB scripting knowledge.

This ultimately led us to the question if a dedicated automation test scripting community is required or the normal testers can do automation also? There are many articles stating  that test automation should be group automation not a dedicated, aligned team working on automation scripts/projects.

When I was managing a test automation project during 2002, I was hunting for testers with development background to be part of the team as the tool created the code in a propriety language similar to “C”. Any upgrade to the script is easily done by a tester who has the knowledge on the language. Then came the automation frameworks where the expertise in language helped the tester to write the “reusable functions” which are expected to save considerable time of the automation developers.

Secondly test automation developers were expected to convert the already written test cases into automation scripts; they are rarely expected to have the knowledge in the business to understand the same in right perspective before creating the scripts.

Test Automation as a preferred profession in Software Testing grew leaps and bounds over the next few years until the great recession struck us during 2008. Clients have started questioning the ROI out of the automation scripts developed over a period of time and the re-usage percentage of these scripts for the subsequent releases. They were really shocked to see that in many cases test automation has not yielded the desired result and scripts requires more maintenance to keep them LIVE to the current applications. Only very few clients where the technology is web centric have got excellent benefits in saving the cost and time due to Automation.

Test Automation – Current Status:

1) From automating the Regression test cases, automation is moving towards life cycle test automation. Clients have started exploring the various stages of test life cycle which can be automated with the right set of tools required for automating such manual work.

2) Automation testers are expected to have good business knowledge with the advent of model based testing. Clients can not hire separate testers for creating the model and automating the test cases.

3) Business Process automated test packs helps the clients to reduce the time to market for the standard, established applications and products.

4) Clients are unable to choose the tool vendors as there are multiple boutique shops which offer customized frameworks and script-less automation frameworks.

5) The Test Management tools have been completely integrated with the test life cycle and on the fly customized reports are generated.

6) Integration with different vendor tools sets in terms of requirements management, test management, test script execution, defect management are easily managed by the team which give more flexibility in choosing the appropriate vendors/tools.

7) Multiple customized utilities which helps the testers to reduce the redundant manual work has been created and promoted as differentiators by the independent testing vendors and some are even pricing them on the value client gets.

Let us come back to the question which we asked at the beginning if a dedicated automation tester is required or still automation holds key as a career ladder

While one can agree that test automation has become much simpler and manual tester with good business knowledge can pick up automation, the expectation from an automation expert has gone to different level. Anyone can execute the test automation scripts created by an expert, but still there are different skill sets with more technical knowledge which cannot be easily acquired by a manual tester overnight.

Test automation experts are expected to give the overall automation strategy for the entire product/application life cycle – gone are the days when they were requested to automate the already finalized test cases or scenarios. They need to identify the right set of tools for each stages of life cycle and given a seamless integration strategy which is cost effective. No client is ready to wait 6 to 8 cycles to get the return on investment. Apart from that, they are expected to define and develop multiple set of utilities which reduces the redundant manual testing work and test data generation work.

To conclude, Test automation experts will remain strongly as a technical professionals though the standard redundant part of test automation (sounds familiar ? – history repeats) may get merged with the group testing.

About Author – Gunasekaran Veerapillai (Guna) worked as Test Project Manager in Think soft, HCL Technologies and Covansys (CSC).  Currently he is working as Competency Head in Wipro Technologies Testing Services. With 30+ years of experience in Banking Industry and IT, Guna is specialized in Test Portfolio assessments, Test process assessments and Automation assessments for many BFSI clients.

Guna has co-authored a book called Software Testing and Continuous Quality Improvement Third Edition, along with Bill Lewis. He also presents papers on International Software Quality conferences conducted by QAI.

Over to you

Do you work or want to work on Test automation? You must be facing some challenges in implementing automation framework. Please do not hesitate to put your queries in comments below. I’ll make sure to get those addressed from the Guna.

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Test Automation – Is it a Specialized Career? Can Normal Testers Do Automation Also?

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This is a guest post by Vishal Chhaperia. If you want to publish your article please read our article guidelines.

Today let me take a moment and explain my testing fraternity about one of the much in demand and upcoming skills for my tester friends i.e. ETL testing (Extract, Transform, and Load). This article will present you with a complete idea about ETL testing and what we do to test ETL process.

It has been observed that Independent Verification and Validation is gaining huge market potential and many companies are now seeing this as prospective business gain. Customers have been offered different range of products in terms of service offerings, distributed in many areas based on technology, process and solutions. ETL or data warehouse is one of the offerings which are developing rapidly and successfully.

Why do organizations need Data Warehouse?
Organizations with organized IT practices are looking forward to create a next level of technology transformation. They are now trying to make themselves much more operational with easy-to-interoperate data. Having said that data is most important part of any organization, it may be everyday data or historical data. Data is backbone of any report and reports are the baseline on which all the vital management decisions are taken.

Most of the companies are taking a step forward for constructing their data warehouse to store and monitor real time data as well as historical data. Crafting an efficient data warehouse is not an easy job. Many organizations have distributed departments with different applications running on distributed technology. ETL tool is employed in order to make a flawless integration between different data sources from different departments. ETL tool will work as an integrator, extracting data from different sources; transforming it in preferred format based on the business transformation rules and loading it in cohesive DB known are Data Warehouse.

Well planned, well defined and effective testing scope guarantees smooth conversion of the project to the production. A business gains the real buoyancy once the ETL processes are verified and validated by independent group of experts to make sure that data warehouse is concrete and robust.

ETL or Data warehouse testing is categorized into four different engagements irrespective of technology or ETL tools used:

• New Data Warehouse Testing – New DW is built and verified from scratch. Data input is taken from customer requirements and different data sources and new data warehouse is build and verified with the help of ETL tools.
• Migration Testing – In this type of project customer will have an existing DW and ETL performing the job but they are looking to bag new tool in order to improve efficiency.
• Change Request – In this type of project new data is added from different sources to an existing DW. Also, there might be a condition where customer needs to change their existing business rule or they might integrate the new rule.
• Report Testing – Report are the end result of any Data Warehouse and the basic propose for which DW is build. Report must be tested by validating layout, data in the report and calculation.

ETL Testing Techniques:

1) Verify that data is transformed correctly according to various business requirements and rules.
2) Make sure that all projected data is loaded into the data warehouse without any data loss and truncation.
3) Make sure that ETL application appropriately rejects, replaces with default values and reports invalid data.
4) Make sure that data is loaded in data warehouse within prescribed and expected time frames to confirm improved performance and scalability.

Apart from these 4 main ETL testing methods other testing methods like integration testing and user acceptance testing is also carried out to make sure everything is smooth and reliable.

ETL Testing Process:

Similar to any other testing that lies under Independent Verification and Validation, ETL also go through the same phase.

• Business and requirement understanding
• Validating
• Test Estimation
• Test planning based on the inputs from test estimation and business requirement
• Designing test cases and test scenarios from all the available inputs
• Once all the test cases are ready and are approved, testing team proceed to perform pre-execution check and test data preparation for testing
• Lastly execution is performed till exit criteria are met
• Upon successful completion summary report is prepared and closure process is done.

It is necessary to define test strategy which should be mutually accepted by stakeholders before starting actual testing. A well defined test strategy will make sure that correct approach has been followed meeting the testing aspiration. ETL testing might require writing SQL statements extensively by testing team or may be tailoring the SQL provided by development team. In any case testing team must be aware of the results they are trying to get using those SQL statements.

Difference between Database and Data Warehouse Testing
There is a popular misunderstanding that database testing and data warehouse is similar while the fact is that both hold different direction in testing.

•  Database testing is done using smaller scale of data normally with OLTP (Online transaction processing) type of databases while data warehouse testing is done with large volume with data involving OLAP (online analytical processing) databases.
•  In database testing normally data is consistently injected from uniform sources while in data warehouse testing most of the data comes from different kind of data sources which are sequentially inconsistent.
• We generally perform only CRUD (Create, read, update and delete) operation in database testing while in data warehouse testing we use read-only (Select) operation.
• Normalized databases are used in DB testing while demoralized DB is used in data warehouse testing.

There are number of universal verifications that have to be carried out for any kind of data warehouse testing. Below is the list of objects that are treated as essential for validation in ETL testing:
- Verify that data transformation from source to destination works as expected
- Verify that expected data is added in target system
- Verify that all DB fields and field data is loaded without any truncation
- Verify data checksum for record count match
- Verify that for rejected data proper error logs are generated with all details
- Verify NULL value fields
- Verify that duplicate data is not loaded
- Verify data integrity

ETL Testing Challenges:

ETL testing is quite different from conventional testing. There are many challenges we faced while performing data warehouse testing. Here is the list of few ETL testing challenges I experienced on my project:
- Incompatible and duplicate data.
- Loss of data during ETL process.
- Unavailability of inclusive test bed.
- Testers have no privileges to execute ETL jobs by their own.
- Volume and complexity of data is very huge.
- Fault in business process and procedures.
- Trouble acquiring and building test data.
- Missing business flow information.

Data is important for businesses to make the critical business decisions. ETL testing plays a significant role validating and ensuring that the business information is exact, consistent and reliable. Also, it minimizes hazard of data loss in production.

Hope these tips will help ensure your ETL process is accurate and the data warehouse build by this is a competitive advantage for your business.

This is a guest post by Vishal Chhaperia who is working in a MNC on a test management role. He is having extensive experience in managing multi technology QA projects, Processes and teams.

Have you worked on ETL testing? Please share your ETL/DW testing tips and challenges below.

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These tips not only survive but also advance you in your software testing career. Make sure you follow them:

Tip #1) Written communication – I repeatedly saying this on many occasions that keep all things in written communication. No verbal communication please. This is applicable to all instructions or tasks given to you by your superior. No matter how friendly your lead or manager is but keep things in emails or documents.

Tip #2) Try to automate daily routine tasks – Save time and energy by automating daily routine task no matter how small those tasks are.
E.g. If you deploy daily project builds manually, write a batch script to perform the task in one click.

Tip #3) 360 degree testing approach – To hunt down software defects think from all perspectives. Find all possible information related to the application under test apart from your SRS documents. Use this information to understand the project completely and apply this knowledge while testing.
E.g. If you are testing partner website integration with your application, make sure to understand partner business fully before starting to test.

Tip #4) Continuous learning – Never stop learning. Explore better ways to test application. Learn new automation tools like Selenium, QTP or any performance testing tool. Nowadays performance testing is the hot career destination for software testers! Have this skill under your belt.

Tip #5) Admit mistakes but be confident about whatever tasks you did – Avoid doing the same mistake again. This is the best method to learn and adapt to new things.

Tip #6) Get involved from the beginning – Ask your lead or manager to get you (QAs) involved in design discussions/meetings from the beginning. This is more applicable for small teams without QA lead or manager.

Tip #7) Keep notes on everything – Keep notes of daily new things learned on the project. This could be just simple commands to be executed for certain task to complete or complex testing steps, so that you don’t need to ask same things again and again to fellow testers or developers.

Tip #8) Improve you communication and interpersonal skill – Very important for periodic career growth at all stages.

Tip #9) Make sure you get noticed at work – Sometimes your lead may not present the true picture of you to your manager or company management. In such cases you should continuously watch the moments where you can show your performance to top management.
Warning – Don’t play politics at work if you think your lead or manager is kind enough to communicate your skill/progress to your manager or top management. In that case no need to follow this tip.

Tip #10) Software testing is fun, enjoy it – Stay calm, be focused, follow all processes and enjoy testing. See how interesting software testing is. I must say it’s addictive for some people.

Bonus tip
Read read and read – Keep on reading books, white papers, case studies related to software testing and quality assurance. Always stay on top of the news in software testing and QA industry. Or keep reading this blog to keep yourself updated

Have fun testing! Explore our other interesting posts on software testing tips and tricks. If you like these tips kindly take a moment to share with your friends. And don’t forget to join the conversation below to share your best testing tips!

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Like in any other software development life cycle, Testing too requires some important factors to develop and maintain for continuous process improvement. One such factor is Team Building. While building a right team, focus should be on the following key elements:

Roles and Responsibilities

It is very important for the team members to understand what they are supposed to do. This was quite often not communicated or discussed with the team. Before start of a project, the team members must be explained on the typical tasks which they will be performing on a daily basis for their respective roles. Be it a tester or a test lead, setting the expectations and explaining what is expected out of them will give correct results without unnecessary delays or errors.

Following points need to be clarified to the team:

• Scope of the Project
• Roles and Responsibilities expected from everyone
• Key points to focus like Deliverables, Timelines etc.
• Explain about the Strategy and Plan

And above all, the team members have the primary responsibility to keep in mind their career aspirations, growth, learning etc. which will be the key motivators to perform in their current roles to excel.

Knowledge Transfer

It is very vital for the Testers to understand the Domain as well as the functions of the application to be able to thoroughly test the application under test. KT sessions are very essential to make them understand the core functions and logics, which will be used to apply during testing. Brainstorming sessions are vital to share common understanding of application and domain.

Discussion should involve testers right from the project initial discussions which essentially consists of Business people, Architects, Developers, Database experts etc.. Involving testers during these early stages of software development will provide good knowledge and understanding about the application that is going to be developed and tested.

Domain Knowledge

Understanding the application’s Domain (e.g. Healthcare, Insurance etc) is very important and will be helpful for Testers to verify the functionality with a different perspective, wearing the hat of the end customer as well as a SME. It takes time and only over the period of working in a particular domain, the resource will be able to familiarize on the domain he is working. Sometimes, a tester will get a chance to test different applications belonging to the same domain, so testing becomes easier and meaningful if he has knowledge on the overall domain.

Technical and Domain Certifications

Having a talented pool of testers is definitely a big asset for the project. The focus should be to train the team and get them certified in the respective areas they work by nominating for internal certifications. There are also a host of external certifications which can also be selected and get the team trained.

Certifications will definitely give the team a moral support and maturity to perform testing with confidence. Domain certified resources will also leverage the intellectual knowledge gain which can be showcased to prospective clients for new business opportunities.

Career Ladder

It’s not enough to create just a team of testers with all skill set, but to provide opportunities for them to come up their career ladder is also significantly important. Create or nominate to programs to shape them eligible for their next level of role will obviously fulfil the needs of identifying resources when required. Team meetings can be effectively utilized to emphasize their roles and responsibilities in their next level. Educating them the various skills required to perform in their next roles is a very good advantage and also a continuous process improvement. Every Manager has the responsibility to explain about the duties that are expected to be performed when the resources are getting promoted. This will make sure that not just a set of resources are promoted, but a ready-to-work responsible and skilled individuals are.

Team Dynamics and Group Outing

It’s quite obvious to ensure there is a level of team dynamics established and followed by the team for effective group work, meeting common goals, finishing panned targets and achieving on time. Making them understand that “Project” is the common objective for all in the project and completing what the customer wants is “Priority”. To accomplish this, everyone should work together as a “Team” leaving all differences behind and completing the planned tasks is the only “Target”. During weekly team meetings, the team members should receive the information on Tasks, Priorities for the next period and have common understanding on the work to be performed, clear and loud.

Team building exercises and outings are really necessary to burn out the stress and for a good recharge. This will also help for a better understanding outside the project works and in a different environment altogether. Small token of appreciation can be announced during team meetings to identify talents and to encourage and motivate others to perform.

About Author: This is a guest post by Baskar Subramanian. Author is working as a Test Manager for a MNC.

Further reading: Read the related article “How to build a successful QA team“.

If you enjoy this post please consider sharing it with your friends. Also put your thoughts and ideas in comments on how to build a successful QA team.

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This article explains what are CMM levels and how to  achieve these CMM levels for QA processes, explained with best examples.

For any process whether it is a QA process, development process or any non-technical process, there are levels of its maturity. By levels of maturity we mean that the level of formality and processes improvement, like ad-hoc processes – to formally defined steps – to managed result metrics – to optimization of the processes.

CMM (Capability Maturity Model) is process based model which is used to assess the maturity of an organization for different domains. Although this model is normally termed as the software development model but eventually it was used for other processes as well like QA and testing.

It has 5 different levels of maturity from 1 to 5. As we go towards level 5 from 1, variability and inconsistency reduces. Below are the details of 5 levels. Here we will go through the 5 CMM levels with respect to QA process and what all output/result is expected for each level to mature a QA/testing process and reach up to level 5.

Level 1 – Ad-Hoc: Unplanned, unsystematic, and inconsistent

As the word ‘Ad-Hoc’ states: unplanned, unprepared, at this level significance is not given to planning, following processes, guidelines and standards. There is no standardized & consistent way of doing any task. The only thing which is important at this level is meeting the timelines, irrespective of the quality of the end product and deliverables.

As there are no pre-defined standards and processes, same task is done in different ways by different people.

And this becomes even more unsystematic and inconsistent if same task is done differently next time.

Example -
QA – The example would be that in an organization although QA is 1 of the phases in a product life cycle but there are not any standard & no process defined, no templates for QA deliverables like plan, strategy, scenarios, and cases are standardized. Even if these are documented then all team members have their own way of doing it and not consistent at all.

Level 2 – Control: initiate defining processes at high level:

Solution to the problem which we saw at Level 1 of unavailability of QA processes, methodology & standards would be to have all these in place. The standards and processes are not only finalized but also are well documented, so that those can be re-used by any one for similar task.

Example -
QA – Define overall QA process and methodology for different types of testing like functional, data, performance etc. Define the role of a QA engineer in project’s life cycle and prepare templates for deliverables in each phase. Not only define and prepare rather share within team

Level 3 – Core Competency: Come up with a generalized process for wider audience and domains:

At this level 3, people are motivated to follow the standards and processes defined at level 2. For this first of all the processes need to be conveyed to all people and need to identify what all skills are needed to use those effectively and efficiently and also if any training is required for that and then motivated and supported to follow those standards and processes. Here people having more experience share their knowledge with others.

Example -
QA – Conduct webinars and training sessions to let people get acquainted about the newly defined QA process and standards and motivate them to make use of those during their day to day project’s life

Level 4 – Predictable: Measure the processes

At this level processes defined at level 3 are measured quantitatively. This is done to control the effort required on any task. Based on this quantitative analysis, processes can be adjusted if needed, and that to without degrading the quality of the end product. Analysis is done by dividing complete process into smaller sub-processes and then quantitative techniques are applied on these sub-processes and as per the result, sub-processes are adjusted if needed. This level is called predictable as based on prior experience; we can predict the process quantitatively and make use of that for the upcoming processes.

Example -
QA – Performing regular audits would be a good idea here. This can include to check if teams are actually following the processes defined, using the standard templates, adhere to methodology or not.

Level 5 – Innovative: Continuous Improvement

At this level, innovative ways are identified to further improve the pre-defined processes and standards. This is a continuous process. For this our own processes are watched and re-engineered continuously by adding new tools technologies, by continuous studies and by keeping ourselves updated with new information in the market. This can also be achieved by benchmarking other organizations and learn from them and try to improve our process by adding new innovations to it.

Example -
QA – Keep on improving the methodology, processes defined based on prior audit results.

Based on some studies it has been concluded that the organizations at level 1 may spend $1000 for any particular task then for the same task organization at level 5 needs to spend $10.

After going though all 5 levels mentioned above, looks like reaching up to level 3 is difficult. Once it achieved then next levels are not too far and difficult to achieve

This is a guest article by Meenal Balajiwale
Meenal is working as a Team lead in a MNC. She is specialized in overall QA process for performing functional, data, performance and security testing. Worked on Waterfall and Agile models. Have worked on BI testing, web testing, data quality as well.

Please feel free to post your queries in below comments.

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I am glad to share “Manual Testing Help” eBook prepared by one of our readers. The content of this eBook is very useful to understand manual testing concepts, testing methodologies and preparing for software testing interviews.

Here are some of the topics covered in this book:

• Fundamentals of software testing
• When defects gets introduced in SDLC?
• Why does software have defects?
• What is Verification?
• What is Validation?
• Software Testing Techniques
• Static Testing
• White Box Testing
• Black Box Testing
• Gray Box Testing
• Objectives of Testing
• Software testing Principles
• Reviews
• Types of Reviews
• UI / GUI Testing
• Test Planning
• Test Plan and Test Plan Template
• SRS/FRS template
• Test Scenario
• Example Test Scenarios
• Test Case
• What is a good test case?
• Test case design techniques
• Requirement traceability Matrix (RTM)
• Defect Reporting
• Configuration Management
• Software Configuration Tools

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A couple of months ago, I wrote about database testing strategies. It covered the aspect that is entirely related to the execution of test cases. It was all about black-box testing of a database. There is another important aspect of DB testing activity which we will cover in this article.

As a tester, you have to test the ‘Examination Results’ module of the website of a university. Consider the whole application has been integrated and it is in ‘Ready for Testing’ state. ‘Examination Module’ is linked with ‘Registration’, ‘Courses’ and ‘Finance’ modules. Assume that you have adequate information of the application and you created a comprehensive list of test scenarios. Now you have to design, document and execute these test cases. In ‘Actions/Steps’ section of the test cases, you must mention the acceptable data as input for the test. The data mentioned in test cases must be selected properly. The accuracy of ‘Actual Results’ column of TC Document is primarily dependent upon the test data. So, step to prepare the input test data is significantly important. Thus, here is my rundown on ”DB Testing – Test Data Preparation Strategies”.

Properties of Test Data:

The test data should be selected precisely and it must possess the following four qualities:

1. Realistic: By realistic, it means the data should be accurate in the context of real life e.g. in order to test ‘Age’ field, all the values should be positive and 18 or above. It is quite obvious that the candidates for an admission in the university are usually 18 years old (this might be defined in requirements).

2. Practically valid: This is similar to realistic but not the same. This property is more related to the business logic of AUT e.g. value 60 is realistic in age field but practically invalid for a candidate of Graduation or even Masters Programs. In this case, a valid range would be 18-25 years (this might be defined in requirements).

3. Versatile to cover scenarios: There may be several subsequent conditions in a single scenario, so choose the data shrewdly to cover maximum aspects of a single scenario with minimum set of data, e.g. while creating test data for result module, do not only consider the case of regular students who are smoothly completing their program. Give attention to the students who are repeating the same course and belong to different semesters or even different programs. The data set may look like this:

There might be several other interesting and tricky sub-conditions. E.g. the limitation of years to complete a degree program, passing a prerequisite course for registering a course, maximum no. of courses a student may enroll in a single semester etc. etc. Make sure to cover all these scenarios wisely with finite set of data.

4. Exceptional data (if applicable/required): There may be certain exceptional scenarios that are less frequent but demand high importance when occur, e.g. disabled students related issues.

Test data preparation techniques:

We have briefly discussed the important properties of test data and it also elaborates how test data selection is important while database testing. Now let’s discuss the ‘techniques to prepare test data’.

There are only two ways to prepare test data:

Method 1. Insert New Data:

Get a clean DB and insert all the data as specified in your test cases. Once, all your required and desired data has been entered, start executing your test cases and fill ‘Pass/Fail’ columns by comparing the ‘Actual Output’ with ‘Expected Output’.  Sounds simple, right? But wait, it’s not that simple.

Few essential and critical concerns are as follows:

1. Empty instance of database may not be available
2. Inserted test data may be insufficient for testing some cases like performance and load testing.
3. Inserting the required test data into blank DB is not an easy job due to the database table dependencies. Because of this inevitable restriction, data insertion can become difficult task for tester.
4. Insertion of limited test data (just according to the test cases needs) may hide some issues that could be found only with the large data set.
5. For data insertion, complex queries and/or procedures may be required, and for this sufficient assistance or help from the DB developer(s) would be necessary.

Above mentioned five issues are the most important and the most obvious drawbacks of this technique for test data preparation. But if there are some advantages as well:

1. Execution of TCs becomes more efficient as the DB has the required data only.
2. Bugs isolation requires no time as only the data specified in test cases present in the DB.
3. Less time required for testing and results comparison.
4. Clutter-free test process

Method 2. Choose sample data subset from actual DB data:

This is the feasible and more practical technique for test data preparation. However it requires sound technical skills and demands detailed knowledge of DB Schema and SQL. In this method you need to copy and use production data by replacing some field values by dummy values. This is the best data subset for your testing as it represents the production data.  But this may not be feasible all the time due to data security and privacy issues.

This strategy deserves one separate post which we’ll discuss in next article ‘Database gray-box testing’ and precautions to take while testing database.

This is a guest article by Rizwan Jafri.
Author is having more than 4 years of experience and Currently working as a Sr. QA Engineer in Systems Limited Lahore, Pakistan.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in below comment section.

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Database Testing – Properties of a Good Test Data and Test Data Preparation Techniques

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In previous article we discussed on how WAPT pro performance testing tool can be used for website performance testing. But if you want to generate much higher load on web site you must use the latest x64 Load Engine release from WAPT team. This article and ultimately the testing tool is very useful for performance testers.

This is in fact most crucial test for time critical applications such as stock management systems which gets refreshed every minute creating huge load on web site as there are thousands of users accessing the web site at the same moment.

For such applications stress testing with more than 10,000 users is a basic test. The WAPT Pro comes with default “Load Agents” functionality to test average load on any web site. But for high capacity test with more than 10,000 users we can now leverage the power of x64 Load Engine extension.

x64 Load Engine is similar to Load Agents feature on WAPT Pro installation. The main difference is in the ability of load engine to generate huge load using 64 bit Windows systems. Using one 64 bit server you can dramatically increase the load testing capacity on web site under test. The x64 Load Engine can be configured in such a way that using slightly high end hardware you can easily generate more than 100k virtual users load on web site.

Assume that you want to stress test your web site with 100,000 concurrent virtual users. You can achieve this using 4 servers each with 25,000 virtual users. Setup this load engine on 4 systems and use them concurrently to achieve desired web site load. This powerful x64 Load Engine effectively utilizes the available memory resources on 64 bit system architecture.

WAPT Pro x64 Load Engine Installation:
- You can install x64 Load Engine on 64 bit version of Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/Win7 OS.
- x64 Load engine works best on following hardware configuration:
Core i5/Phenom or CPU better than this, 8+ GB RAM and Gigabit Ethernet

How to install:    
x64 Load Engine is a WAPT Pro extension so it runs on WAPT Pro tool similar to Load Agents. To use this load engine you must have WAPT Pro installed first. You can download and install x64 Load Engine from below mentioned link. After installation you can start using load engine using the WAPT pro workplace itself.
Download WAPT Pro x64 Engine.

x64 Load Engine Pros:
- You can generate almost unlimited virtual users (test load) on Windows 64 system.
- Easy to install, learn and configure
Check out below screenshot to know the simplicity of x64 Load Engine Manager:

- No restrictions on the size of used virtual memory

x64 Load Engine Cons:
- No evaluation period available
- Works with WAPT Pro only

As said earlier in my comment, this tool is very useful for performance, stress & load testers. Other testers can get a glimpse of the performance testing scope which is very interesting to work on!

Please ask your queries in below comment section. Your feedback is always appreciated!

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I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Want to Stress Test Website with 10,000+ Users? Use WAPT Pro x64 Load Engine

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We’ve reached 10000 Facebook fans!! I’m so excited about reaching the 10,000 Facebook fans milestone and thankful to all of you because you are the ones that helped us to be here.

To celebrate this achievement I’m giving away a software testing book and one best book of the year (see details below). This giveaway will be open for a week starting from today 20th Nov 2011.

Check out what we are giving away:
1) QuickTest Professional Unplugged: 2nd Edition

2) Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

Simple one rule to be the lucky winners!
Just add SoftwareTestingHelp.com to your Google+ circle. Similar to Facebook fan page now Google has rolled out Google+ pages and I have created brand new Google+ page for SoftwareTestingHelp where you will quickly get latest software testing updates and resources to download.

Click below Google+ badge to add us in your circle!
(Click on the badge, sign on to gmail and click on ‘Add to circle’ button in top right)

Two lucky winners who will add us on Google+ circle will be chosen randomly. Then I’ll announce the winners on Monday, Nov 28th on our Facebook fan page, Google+ page as well as on this blog post. Prizes will be shipped to winner’s addresses.

Thank you once again for all of your support. Good luck!

Update:
Winners are declared on our Google+ page: Software Testing Help on Google+

Thank you to all those who added us in their Google+ circle. If you have not added us in your Google+ circle yet, you should do it right away to get regular updates on testing articles, free ebooks and many more testing tips!!

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I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Software Testing Book Giveaway – Celebrating 10000 Facebook Fans!!

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Recommended: Low Cost Software Testing Templates - For personal or organization use. 50 Word + 27 Excel templates Includes Test Plan, Logs, Forms, Reports, Test Case, Script, Report.

What is loadUI?
LoadUI is a free and open source load testing tool that allows you to do complex load tests and test the performance by simply dragging the different components around. LoadUI lets you to create and update test cases while you run them. What is making loadUI powerful is the focus on usability through its visual interface and intuitive design combined with the flexibility that comes from the possibility of making changes during the test.

How loadUI works:

LoadUI consist of building blocks called Components that you drag from the Component Toolbar to the Project you’re working on. These components connect to each other by wires and there is no limit for how many components that you can create and connect.

This way of drag-and-drop testing is especially useful during the test, since you can do complex load tests. The overview that you get makes it easier to try different combinations during the actual test and react to them immediately. In loadUI, Instant feedback is king.

Creating load tests in loadUI:

In order to run a test in loadUI you need at least two components (and an empty Project to work in);

- A generator
Which creates load, for example 100 requests per second.
- A Runner
That runs a certain type of test, for example a web test.

So let’s do it; drag out a Fixed Rate Generator and a Web Page Runner.
You can’t run them yet though first you need to connect them. You do this by connecting the nodes, or terminals, located above and below the components to each other with connections.

So now connect the Fixed Rate Generator to the Web Page Runner.

Now that everything is connected you should enter what website you want to load test into the Web Page Runner. Your test is now ready to run! Click the play button in the top menu to make your generator start sending requests to your site.

You can now follow, in real-time, how the test is going by clicking the Results Workbench button. Once there, double click on your Current Run and, from the left hand menu, drag out Response Time to the rack.

Congratulations! You have now created your first load test in loadUI. Play around with the widgets you have on your dashboard, experiment by adding some more, and try tracking other values in the Results Workbench. A good next step would to add an Assertion component and connecting it to the Web Page Runner. Then you can, for example, test how many times you your requests come through while following certain rules you set up (like taking less than 10 milliseconds).

Pro Tips:

Let a manager test!
This is the modern way of gorilla testing.  Let someone less proficient do the testing for you and see what breaks your service. It will also create an understanding and passion for testing within the management. A usual comment is “This is fun! But hard…”

It’s interactive, use it!
LoadUI is highly interactive and configurable in real-time, so take advantage of that.

Create a second test in real time against the same server with a different Generator and see if the system shows weaknesses when exposes to chaotic, life-like, behavior. Change this in real time and experiment.

Record your tests
Since loadUI is so interactive, reproducing the tests can be difficult. Use a screen recorder like Wink (which is free) to be able to replay your tests and see what caused the service to crash.

Work structured
LoadUI has support for test cases. Break up your tests into smaller test cases; you can always start them all at once.

Don’t double-work
If you have created functional tests in soapUI, you can simply run these in loadUI with the soapUI component. This way you don’t have to redefine the test another time in loadUI.

Write your own component
LoadUI is not only free; it’s open-source, too. That means that you can write your own components, in Groovy, if you wish. Only you set the limits for what is possible in LoadUI! Read more about creating your own components here.

Read more about loadUI, and download it here: Latest loadUI version

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This is a guest article by Henrik Olsson.
About Author:
Henrik is a software developer for loadUI from Stockholm, Sweden with an academic background in Distributed Systems and a passion for usability. He is experienced in teaching and thinks that most things can be easily explained, if well modeled and accurately targeted.

Editor’s Note:
I’m glad to share this open source load testing tool with my readers. LoadUI and soapUI are the best open source software testing tools from trusted company eviware (now SmartBear). If you are thinking to introduce load testing tool on your project try loadUI and soapUI (functional testing tool).  Also I personally used soapUI  for many projects and will soon cover it in a separate article. I love the power and beauty of these open source tools!

If you used this tool and have some tips to share, please do it in below comment section. Also we would be happy to hear and answer your queries on loadUI.

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I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Load Testing Using loadUI – A Free and Open Source Load Testing Tool

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Recommended: Low Cost Software Testing Templates - For personal or organization use. 50 Word + 27 Excel templates Includes Test Plan, Logs, Forms, Reports, Test Case, Script, Report.