One of the reason I am the software tester is the need to learn something new everyday. For every new project there may be different testing missions, different stakeholders, different technologies - different project context. My latest project was completely different from previous because user names were displayed in local alphabets - eg. Chinese. It was great that I've had the opportunity to learn new alphabet. After couple days I was able to spot some character patterns however I have also realized that I can not see problems in places where I were not looking for. It seemed that it was much easier and faster to test when user names were presented in English. When I complained about this to one of my colleague he suggested to translate those names to more readable format and thanks to this we've found FoxReplace.
"This tool lets you replace text in web pages. You can define a substitution list and apply it automatically or at your own discretion, or make individual substitutions."
Fortunately e-mail addresses of our Chinese users were stored in database using English alphabet, I created substitution list where for each name written with Chinese characters I could assign replacement name based on email login eg. '亞歷山大' -> 'Alexander'.
Thanks to this substitution list I was able to replace all names on the page and easily find (and remember) any user name I was looking for.
Session-based testing is the structured way of exploratory testing developed by James and Jon Bach. In the article Session-Based Test Management we can read :
"What we call a session is an uninterrupted block of reviewable, chartered test effort. By "chartered," we mean that each session is associated with a mission—what we are testing or what problems we are looking for. By "uninterrupted," we mean no significant interruptions, no email, meetings, chatting or telephone calls. By "reviewable," we mean a report, called a session sheet, is produced that can be examined by a third-party, such as the test manager, that provides information about what happened"
As mentioned above after each session tester hands a report with important information and results. There is an example of Sample Session Report on James Bach page. The session by design should be uninterrupted which means that things like note taking should be done on fly. It can be easy achieved with applications which support session-based testing.
This is tool created by Shmuel Gershon. Rapid Reporter is really small, stays always on top of the screen and doesn't interrupt the testing process. You can type into the app all information worth noted. The types of information like : "Installation", "Bug", "Issue" etc. can be tailored to the individual needs. In addition you can easily assign time range for the session.
What is really cool is the possibility of doing screenshot with just one click, moreover this screenshot will be printed next to the inserted comment in a session report.
After the session the app generates session report with all entered information along with screenshot taken during the session. The report can be presented in e.g. HTML format
This is tool created by Jonathan Kohl. Before the session you need specify: Tester Name, Mission, Session Length.
Once you start your own session Session Tester window is opened. You can type there all information learned during the session. This app stays also in tray and thanks to this you can get information in form of the balloons about time left. You can also find in this app some nice little feature called "Prime Me". When you click the button you get some random inspiring notes which may help you during the session. e.g.:
- Consider self-reference. - What are the boundaries? - Try something negative. - Testability first. - Who's your client? - What's the language? - Consider the opposite. - Unless... etc.
The results of the sessions are initially saved to the xml files but there is also an option to produce session report in formatted HTML file.
3. Atlassian Bonfire I haven't had chance to work with Bonfire yet but if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million :)
