2

BugBytes
2PIR Technolgies
April,2019
Volume 1, Issue 1

Exploratory test: Can it be Inside this

strucutured? issue:
A tester’s key skill is cannot be Session Based Test
creativity, analysis undermined. management
and innovation Inteview with Vishal
thinking. Contrary to But, the moot Gupta
the popular question arises Cost Vs Improvement
perception, testers here is that. Can
Jumping the gun-
are not to break the exploratory test be Solve this puzzle
sofware only. They structured or do we
Upcoming Events
are to break the just rely on the
software with a whims and fancies
purpose of of the tester and
eventually m a k i n g assume whatever
the software. It is far he or she has done
due that each to be right in terms
stakeholder in the of output and right
software lifecycle in terms of module
realizes this. A selection? This
tester may apply this issue explores
creativity, innovation areas around
and analytical skill exploratory test and
for test case design, how we can make it
test case creation, better?
automation
framework design,
automation script
design etc.
However, the
application of this
creativity,
innovation,
analytical skills in
exploratory testing
 Session Based Test Management: Structuring your exploratory tests

Having realized the importance of exploratory tests, we would now like to discuss one of the key
methods to measure exploratory tests. The technique we are going to talk is known as Session Based
Test Management, SBTM more popularly.

James Bach and Jonathan Bach invented the technique, way back in 2000. It intends to tangibilize the
intangibles in exploratory testing. It involves exploratory testing in sessions. The suggested length of
the session could be anything from 1 hour to 1 day depending upon the requirement.

Flow of Session based test management

As you might have noticed, the word charter is coming here frequently, so let’s crack this word before
anything else.

A charter can be understood as the script that the tester will follow and also the report it will fill.

The Key components of the charter are as follows

o Details about the test environment (To be filled by the manager first)

o Test notes (To be filled by the manager first)

 o Task Breakdown (To be filled by the tester post the charter execution)

o New areas discovered (To be filled by the tester post the charter execution)

o Results of the test notes (To be filled by the tester post the charter execution)

So essentially, Session Based test management involves filling up of the charter (the test script) by
the test lead or the manager, which the tester will execute. The tester will execute, fill his or her report
that involves what he could actually do, how much time he spent in real testing, a indication about the
health status of the different areas given by the manager.

Post the session, they will sit together for a de-briefing session to critically diagnose what happened
and decide the path there after.

Mentioning pros and cons of this technique here:

Pros

• Makes the free testing more traceable to get confidence

• Makes the tester accountable for unstructured test also

• Get the real picture of the test session (whether the tester had sufficient time or not)

Cons

• Does not mention about the issues the tester faced (however that is an easy extension one can

do)

• Test Manager need to still understand that this is an exploratory testing technique. Do not try

and give so much of a structure to this

So all in all, we have to draw the fine balance between structure and exploration, whatever
methodology you use.

If you want to use this at your place of work, do give us a shoutout at support@2pir.in
 Interview with Vishal Gupta – Test automation architect, Ciena

1. Tell us something about yourself and your career in testing.

I am a multi-skilled professional with a proven track record of executing complex automation projects
of software testing in data-communication and tele-communication domain. Having around 12 years
of diverse experience in designing and development of Automation Frameworks, complete test cycle
from Unit Testing to User acceptance testing and Project management.

I've done ISTQB certification in testing and PMI-PMP certification in project management. Currently
working with Ciena India Pvt. Ltd. in Gurugram.

2. What according to you is the most exciting thing about being a tester?

The most exciting thing about being a tester is, testers are aware about the whole product, it's
complete functionalities and how it is being developed, while usually developers work on specific
modules and don't have a big picture of the product. Testers understand both technical perspective
and business perspective of the product so he could use this unique combination to assess
customer's use-case and could define the scenarios, which needs to be tested to fulfill customer
requirements. Testing continuously improve product quality and assures that all the requirements of
customers/end-users are met.

3. What are the biggest problems in test automation?

The biggest problems in test automation includes "lack of support from management to implement it
into the culture of their organization", "lack of automation expertise", “making effective automation
strategy” and "maintenance of automated test-cases".

4. How successful do you think test automation is in general (as in the success rate)?

Test Automation is the best way to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and coverage of software
testing. It reduces testing-time and chances of any human error. Automated testing can increase
the depth and scope of tests to improve software quality.
Test automation is growing day-by-day and is being used across the industries, but still this pace is
very low. Considering benefits from automation, management should think over implementing it in
their organization, if not already.

5. Do you think test automation will really take away jobs?

Fear of unemployment due to technology is not a new phenomenon. In late 19th century it was
believed that machines will take up manual jobs and even when computers were being introduced in
India there were similar fears. But eventually after a few soft tremors it resulted in increased profits,
better skilled labor, increased productivity and vibrant economy. From long term economic point of
view technology is always good. So instead of living in fear, we need to be positive and keep on
updating ourselves with latest technologies and should be ready to adopt new things. Automation will
replace tasks, not the jobs.

6. Over the years, do you think there has been a change in the developer tester
relationship?

Yes, I felt very positive change in the developer tester relationship. Now days both understand that
they are working towards a common goal, i.e. to produce high quality product fulfilling all the
requirements of the client, just they think and work differently. Now tester start involving in earlier
stages of development, so they find and report the defects early, which make it easier to fix for
developer also. Development also takes support of tester during software integration phase also.
Hence, they're having strong bonding between them.

7. How hard or easy do you think is changing jobs in testing?

It depends on the individuals, their profile, attitude and their quench of learning. As I mentioned, if we
keep ourselves updated with latest technologies and market demand, then it's easy to change jobs. If
our focus is just to complete our assigned work, then in future we may face a bit difficulty in job
change.

8. What are your views on AI/ML and their usage in testing?

In my views, AI/ML will make testing smarter and more efficient by changing the dynamics of software
testing. The use of artificial intelligence in automation makes it a lot easier for businesses to execute
routine operations and scale fast. AI application will effectively help in generating and optimizing test
cases, prioritizing testing and automation, enhancing UI testing and reducing tedious analysis tasks.
But one should remember that while AI/ML is promising & emerging, it is complex and has a steep
learning curve initially.

9. Some words of wisdom for the upcoming testers generation.

I would like to say to the upcoming testers that while developing test scenarios always think out of the
box and consider all the possible customer use cases. Our intention of testing should be "Quality
Improvement of product", not "Finding issues in development work". Our focus should not be only on
task completion but should be on learning also. Always keep on upgrading your technical as well as
analytical skills.
 Cost Vs Improvement

Shyam is the Manager of a QA team in XYZ Inc. whose main responsibility is to maintain the
outsource testing requirement of the larger division he works for. The outsourced testers are
generally on-boarded for a specific period during peak time loading or specific tasks which
comes 3~4 times a year.

One such task is dedicated exploratory test which they plan for every major release in the
product (The major release frequency is once a quarter). It is not that the regular testers do
not do exploratory tests. They do but since they are assigned speciic modules, they generally
do not have the cross module view and have a wired mindset of testing the same scenarios
again and again. The dedicated exploratory test is done by 5 testers for 6 weeks.

The cost associated with these testers is pretty high. Almost 1.5L a month per tester for 4
years experience professional. During the last few releases the output seems not very high
and the director(Deshant) is pushing Shyam to evaluate whether such a test activity is
required and if yes what best can they do.

Shyam thought for sometime, crucnhed some numbers and eventually found out that indeed
the dedicated exploratory tests is not productive. The dedicated testers are just able to find
few valid defects which are not niche and can be found by regular testers also. He straight
away decides to ask his director to cancel this.

Come in, Ria, who is also a module lead, she is obsserving this activity for quite some time
and identified few areas which need attention. They are right below:

1. No guidance to these dedicated exploratory testers. They come for 6 weeks and go, no
one is guiding them to what areas to focus on, what kind of defects are important etc.
2. No Training to these dedicated exploratory testers
3. No method of tracking their work and output
About XYZ Inc.
XYZ is a leading company in the consumer Internet space. Lately, they are trying to
restructure their R&D investments to put in the growth areas and reduce R%D investments in
the Leverage businesses. So much so that they have stopped giving re-hires if someone
leaves the company. Shyam’s business comes in the leverage areas.

About Shyam
Shaym is a young manager in the company. His main KPI is to reduce the cost of outsourcing
since in his business, cost-cutting is at an all time high.

About Deshant
Deshant is Rahul’s reporting manager and a senior director. Since he is just below the
business head, he knows that the R&D investments in the business are less. So his focus is
on productivity. He has a made his Goal this year to reduce overall outsourcing cost by 30%
this year.

Ria had proposed her solution, rather solutions and they have been taken decently well by
the management. Had you been at Ria’s place, what would you have proposed?

Send in your answers to submissions@2pir.in to win exciting goodies and a gift voucher from
Amazon((Mention the title as Subject line)
 Habit of jumping the gun? Answer this simple puzzle

A startup "StartyCap" provdes a social platform where people can meet and greet each other.
As a hiring process it hires a low cost QA member, who has to perfrom load test using Jmeter
on staging server.

Load to be uses is of 5 Lakhs users. He jumps into the task and prepares everything. But
later on thinks that how to create email id required for 2 lakhs users for performance test.
Then he approaches the dev. Dev suggested him two possible ways to do it.

If you are the dev (let’s say for a day) , which two methods will you suggest?

Send in your answers to submissions@2pir.in to win exciting goodies and a gift voucher from
Amazon (Mention the title as Subject line)
 Upcoming Events

Webinar on Agile for Dummies (Done and Dusted)

Date and time: 2 nd May 9 PM to 10 PM

Charcha- The QA meetup (NCR testing community)

Date and time: 18th May, 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Venue: 91Springboard, Sector-1, Noida
Details and registration link is here:
https://www.townscript.com/e/charchathe-qa-meetup-201443

Webinar on Pairwise Testing

Date and time: 23rd May, 9 PM to 10 PM
Details and registration link is here:
https://www.townscript.com/e/webinar-on-pairwise-testing-423223

Webinar on Pandas in Python

Details and registration link is here:
Date and time: 30th May, 9 PM to 10 PM
https://www.townscript.com/e/webinar-on-pandas-in-python-024142
 Hope you had an interesting time reading it!

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support@2pir.in

https://www.2pir.in