Testing: What Will 2013 Bring?

I don't make New Year's resolutions. I tried to once and got a stressed and disappointed when I didn't achieve any of them. I think failing at New Year's resolutions is a common occurrence, particularly with the "lose x kg in weight", "exercise y times per week", or "cut z out for a month" ones. There's probably been a study on it and everything! 

So, I don't make resolutions. 

What I do make is a list of things I would like to do in the coming year. It could be mistaken for a list of resolutions, but it's not. It's not, I tell you!!!

 What is on my list of resolu things to do this year? Here goes...

Blog More about Testing

I am a software tester, test manager, consultant, networker, social media user, blog reader, and uTester. I get a lot of exposure to testing, both in practical and in theoretical terms. I often find myself coming up with little tips, tricks, and ideas that make me think "I should blog about that!". And then I don't. So, the first item for me this year is to blog more often. I am not going to go silly by blogging every day! That would lead me to not blogging at all (the old failed resolution pressure again)! I am going to aim for once per month and see where that gets me. 

Learn Enough Coding to Develop Something

I have spent the past few months learning Selenium, and have really enjoyed it. I have been using resources by Alan Richardson which are excellent. The flavour of Selenium taught by Alan uses junit. I get along fairly well with Selenium-RC and Webdriver using junit, but that is mainly just running tests.
What I want to do is actually make something in code! I have a few ideas, but do not have the coding skill to get them to point of going public just yet. This year I want to put at least one item which I made from scratch out there for people to look at, use, refactor, whatever. I already have a little text adventure on github which was written in python. One idea would be to take that and write it in java. This isn't difficult. I think I could handle that already. What I would do beyond that is extend the number of rooms, add a little ASCII art, and a few other bits and bobs. It will never be Zork, but it will be a way for me to work through the odd coding problem on my own. 

Present to my Peers

I spent some of 2012 talking to some of my testing contacts about talking at a networking event, or a conference. The ideas for talks that I have were well met and I have been gently encouraged to put a talk together. When I say gently gently encouraged, I mean "Stop dicking about and get a talk together!" is gently encouraged. This is one item on the list I feel I may actually complete. I have already got the skeleton of a talk. I now need to target a meetup to give me that final push. Watch this space!

Learn a New Testing Skill

This one is a bit vague, but is on the list nonetheless. There are a few areas of testing I would like to explore more, but always make excuses for not doing so. The two main ones that come to mind are performance and security testing. One of the specialities of my company, The Test People, is performance management. I was not hired to be a performance tester and so have had little exposure to the tools we use. Since I usually don't have cause to conduct any performance testing or similar, the way to use the software has been largely forgotten.
As or security testing, I just want to have a play around. I have no wish to become a security specialist, but I definitely have an interest in the field. It is just a case of making time to take a look at tutorials that are available, and see where they take me.

Contribute More to the Testing Industry

And finally the most general item for the list,  contribute more to the testing industry. One could argue that all of the above can be summed up by this point. But then you haven't seen me present or code!
What I actually mean by this point is that I will comment on other tester's blogs more often, put more questions and answers on SQA Stack Exchange (an excellent resource by the way), and maybe keep an eye on the Software Testing Club forums a bit more. That kind of thing.
My reason for this is simple, if you put a balanced well thought out comment on someone else's blog, you open a conversation or debate. Through the replies, you will learn more, and perhaps help others to learn as well.
By asking questions on places like SQA Stack Exchange, one has to think of the correct way to phrase the question, lest ye be marked down! The act of doing this usually sets me on the way to solving my issue. Instead of continuing to plug away at my solution, I am going to also ask on SQA Stack Exchange as that will help me to find other solutions, as well as help others when they encounter the same problems as me. 

And that's it. Five items. That should be doable right? Right!? I tried to do much the same last year, including writing a similar blog post to this one. I didn't manage to post my entry but did manage to complete a couple of the items, the most important of which was learning an automation framework. I hope to build on that this year.

Have a fantastic and prosperous 2013, dear reader. Let's see where this adventure takes us.

Testing: Editing Tests In-running with Microsoft Test Manager

A couple of weeks ago one of my colleagues here asked if it possible to edit test scripts while you are running them in Microsoft Test Manager. I didn't know, and a quick bit of google-foo resulted in nothing conclusive. So, I reached out to the testing community through the fairly new and excellent SQA Stack Exchange.

Here is my original question:
http://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/3411/is-there-a-patch-in-microsoft-test-manager-to-allow-for-editing-tests-while-runn

Although the answer given didn't didn't deal with my issue on MTM 2010, it did set me on the right path.

So, can you edit a test case while running it? The answer is, sort of.
You can't add a step into the test you are currently running, but you can edit the original test case so future runs are correct. Below is an explanation on how to do this.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/gautamg/archive/2010/12/11/faq-editing-test-case-while-using-test-runner.aspx

I tried to find out if MTM 2012 was going to have such a useful feature, but I have not been able to find a definitive answer. Most of my searching seems to lead back to Microsoft telling us how good MTM 2012 will be for exploratory testing.
Hmmm..
Unless they have done a complete ground-up redesign of the interface, I do not think Microsoft Test Manager 2012 will be the right tool for that job.

I will cover that in another post. 

Testing: Some Thoughts on Microsoft Test Manager

It was about two years ago when I was first introduced to Microsoft Test Manager *(MTM). It worked quite well for us; we were a completely .net environment so the running tests and pushing bugs through to the developer through TFS workflow was fairly smooth. I remember thinking at the time that once the software was out in the wild for a year or so Microsoft should send out a service pack to fix the obvious bugs, correct the UI issues, and hopefully add reporting tools as standard.

Fast forward to now. I am again in a .net environment. I am again using MTM as the tool for running tests and reporting bugs.During the interim I have been exposed to many different tools, most of which, in their way, out class MTM:
For record and playback of test steps I use Selenium IDE, or iMacros
For progress reporting I can format them natively in the application or export a CSV from just about any test tool (Testlink, Testrail, Jira, Bugzilla) and manipulate in Excel.
And for reporting of bugs, there are multiple pieces of software, Bugzilla, Jira, TFS to name a few.

You can imagine my disappointment to see that MTM had not moved an inch from where I last left it. The software is still buggy, chews up resources, crashes at the slightest misuse, and has a UI that was designed by a, well, by something that has never used software before. It is so frustrating as to almost make you weep. I have tried to fathom Microsoft's strategy with MTM. It isn't cheap, so companies invest a lot to get it set up and integrated. It seems like Microsoft are willing to let the tool mothball whilst still receiving license money from the few companies unfortunate enough to have this as their main testing, bug reporting, and progress reporting tool. Yet it fulfills none of those functions to a satisfactory level!
I can only hope that with the new generation of software versions coming out (Windows 8, Office 2012, etc.) there is a major upgrade to MTM that makes it usable.

* I started inserting links after I wrote the article. Attempting to find MTM 2010 on the Microsoft site is almost impossible. Perhaps they realised what a dog it was and hid it in the cupboard under the stairs.



[End Note] At the beginning of 2012 I was going to start up (yet) another blog about my life as a tester. I haven't done that yet, so I will be posting here for a while until I get off my lazy arse and actually set up the bloody thing!

Welcome Visitors from Estherderby.com

With my renewed attempt to blog often has come the inevitable use to the statistics part of the blogger dashboard to see if you, dear reader, are taking a look at these ramblings I put out.

The statistics for this site aren't mind blowing, but I do find it fun seeing where people come from, and what they searched for to get here. It was while looking at these stats I noticed that a large number of referrals are coming from http://www.estherderby.com.

I have gone to the site, and searched for this blog, my name, and anything else I can think of which would tie my blog to the site. I have come up with nothing! So, if you have come here from Estherderby, please drop me a note and say hi. Also, please let me know what is bringing you here, even if it is an instruction to look at this site as an example of how not to do something. My curiosity is certainly piqued!

In the meantime, welcome my Estherderby.com friends. Come in, and have a look around!



Image:
Magnifying Glass | Michael Connors

Recipe: Guerilla Pizza

This isn't really a recipe as a money saving technique. Pizzas delivered from the local takeaway take around 20 minutes and cost between £10 and £15 depending on how crazy you go on size, toppings, and extras.
To save a bit of money, we have stopped getting takeaway pizzas, and have started "topping" our own. It takes just as long as waiting for the delivery person, even less on a Friday or Saturday night!

Ingredients:

You can put just about anything on your Guerilla Pizza (although, perhaps steer clear from actual Guerillas). Below is a set of ingredients we use as standard with a variation of the odd ingredient depending on what is in the fridge.

1 Frozen pizza
1/4 Medium onion very finely chopped
1-2 Garlic cloves very finely chopped
A handful of grated cheese (because store-bought pizzas never have enough!)

Cooking:

It is important to allow for the extra ingredients when considering the cooking time and temperature, especially if you are cooking from frozen. The solution we use is to lower the temperature by 15-ish degrees celcius and cook for the allotted time on the back of the box (add 5 or so minutes to this if you don't have a fan assisted oven).
Check about 3/4 of the way through cooking, and then as the time is up.

There you have it. For about 1/3 the cost of a [Insert Pizza Company] delivered pizza you get to choose your own ingredients and have a bit left over for some extra beer!

Enjoy

Recipe: Guerilla Risotto

I have not ever posted a recipe on this blog. Mainly for the fact that I have no real idea how to write one. It's not a great excuse, I know. So, I am sending out my opening gambit - Guerilla Risotto.

I love leftovers. I usually have them for lunch the next day, but have been known to have leftovers for breakfast, and even dinner. One of may favourite left over ingredients is rice. Leftover rice for me is a comfort food. Whatever I add to the rice it becomes a yummy unctuous mess that warms me through.


Before I begin, I must put forth a disclaimer. It is important to note that it is not recommended to re-heat rice the next day. So, follow this recipe at your own risk. For my part, I always make sure I heat the rice until it is boiling hot, and then I keep it there for as long as possible.

Ingredients:
150-200g Leftover cooked rice
Whatever other leftovers are with the rice ideally including some vegetables
50g grated cheese
20-30ml cold water
Oil for us in frying (sunflower/olive/groundnut)

Cooking:
1. Place the rice into a bowl and sprinkle over the water
2. With a fork or spoon separate the rice grains a bit to allow the water to work its way around the rest of the rice
3. Pour some oil into the frying pan and place on a medium heat
4. Add the leftovers (without rice)to the frying pan and fry until hot throughout
5. Add the rice and stir-fry until the rice is very hot
6. Empty the contents of the frying pan onto a plate.
 7. Season, and stir 1/2 the cheese into the mixture.
8. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese onto the top of the 'risotto'

So there you have it. The Guerilla Risotto may not look much, but it should be hot, a bit sticky, and hit the spot. Particularly on a winter's day.

Chesham Dads and Family Stay & Play a Success

Today saw the return of the Saturday dad's session at the Waterside Sure Start Centre in Chesham.

Late last year, many fathers in the area were saddened to lose their monthly "Dadtastic" get together. The leader of the session, Lee, recently qualified as a teacher and did not have the time to continue with them.

A few weeks back I bumped into David Rogers who mentioned that the sessions were beginning again on January 14th, and they were every week from then on. I have to say, I was a bit surprised that there was a switch to a weekly meeting. This is because Dadtastic wan't really growing, and the attendance was quite sporadic by all except a core few dads (I was a sporadic one).

Today I went to the first session of what has been billed as Dads Stay and Play, and was pleasantly surprised to see 30+ people at the centre. I think this is the most people I have ever seen there! It was fantastic! And all that despite there being very little advertising of Stay and Play outside of the regular weekday activities.

Hopefully this can be built on by the attendees today telling their friends about it, I know a couple of people I will mentioning this to. It is also worth noting that this is not just for Dads. It's for anyone. Dads are targeted as quite often they miss out on the activities due to working during the week. Having said that, in a modern society, it isn't necessarily the dad who misses out; it could be the mum, or even both.

I also hope that Sure Start and Family Lives (who were also there today) will be able to get Bucks CC to mention the session on their activities calendar.

Long may Stay and Play continue!

Further Reading

To find out more about Sure Start centres there is information on the Direct Gov site.
Click the links to find out more about the Sure Start Centres at Waterside and Newtown. This includes their timetables.
See also the Buckinghamshire Family Information Services website.