In my team, there is a group that tests a file sharing application. Knowing the detailed functionality of this application is impertinent to what we are going to discuss in this post. But I must mention how a user may use this application as there hides the food for the post. This is a small application (but having a lot of combinations of tests) where user can share files up to certain GBs. User has to provide the email id(s) of the person(s) with whom he wants to share the files along with file(s) up to a maximum allowed size.
The application was stable and performing well. For some reference purpose, we shared the application with couple of other users. Within next few minutes, I got a ping from one of them and he told me that he was unable to share files with users. I was surprised. I inquired about what exactly went wrong. He said he entered two email ids and attached a couple of files that come within the maximum allowed size and then clicked on Send button. Then he got a warning message that read something like "Sorry! We found the following email Ids entered in sender or receiver fields, which are blocked by our system: "xxx@yahoo.com, xxx@gmail.com". Please remove them and try again". He then told me that he had already tried with several other email ids but to fail. He thought there was a serious problem and the application is not able to perform its intended task. He even said that it was a showstopper until I asked him to hold on.
I asked him what were the things that came to his mind when he saw this warning message. His reply was:
1. First attempt: The system has blocked only the emails that I had provided. I was clueless about why an application would block my email ids especially because it was the first time I was using the application. What algorithm it must be using to block email ids or it is just that the application didn't like my name in the email id :)
2. Second attempt (with another set of email ids): The same warning message.There has to be a problem with the system and not with the email ids I am providing.
3. Third attempt: I just wanted to confirm that the problem was with the system and provided another set of email ids and BANG! I was right. The system has a problem. It has blocked every other email ids. What are the ids then it has not blocked? Do I have any information on that? NO.
Apart from these three attempts, he said, I have marked another thing "Please remove them and try again". I simply followed the instruction pretending to be a dumb and removed the email ids I had provided and clicked on the Send button. Bollocks! Sender and Receiver fields are mandatory. I knew this had to happen. Otherwise whom do I share the files with? Then why did it ask me to remove the email ids and try. Oh, did it ask me to remove the email ids, provide new set of email ids (which are of course not blocked by the system) and retry? I don't know.
He was curious to know what exactly the problem was. He asked me why it behaved like this. He wanted to know what are the sets or rather types of email ids that are not blocked and are eligible.
My answer to all his questions was "Commercial email service providers like Yahoo, Gmail, Rediffmail etc. are not allowed. You have to use only official email ids".
Did we convey this message to the users who are mostly likely to use email ids provided by these so called commercial mail service providers(CMSP)and get to see this very warning message? How the hell on earth anyone could know that email ids provided by CMSP are not allowed by the system. It may happen and the probability is very high that a user, after having tried many such email ids with failure each time, in exasperation may give up and look for a better application. He may never come back again to use this application.
We lose a customer and then many customers and then the product fails. Just because we didn't put a proper message.
The application was stable and performing well. For some reference purpose, we shared the application with couple of other users. Within next few minutes, I got a ping from one of them and he told me that he was unable to share files with users. I was surprised. I inquired about what exactly went wrong. He said he entered two email ids and attached a couple of files that come within the maximum allowed size and then clicked on Send button. Then he got a warning message that read something like "Sorry! We found the following email Ids entered in sender or receiver fields, which are blocked by our system: "xxx@yahoo.com, xxx@gmail.com". Please remove them and try again". He then told me that he had already tried with several other email ids but to fail. He thought there was a serious problem and the application is not able to perform its intended task. He even said that it was a showstopper until I asked him to hold on.
I asked him what were the things that came to his mind when he saw this warning message. His reply was:
1. First attempt: The system has blocked only the emails that I had provided. I was clueless about why an application would block my email ids especially because it was the first time I was using the application. What algorithm it must be using to block email ids or it is just that the application didn't like my name in the email id :)
2. Second attempt (with another set of email ids): The same warning message.There has to be a problem with the system and not with the email ids I am providing.
3. Third attempt: I just wanted to confirm that the problem was with the system and provided another set of email ids and BANG! I was right. The system has a problem. It has blocked every other email ids. What are the ids then it has not blocked? Do I have any information on that? NO.
Apart from these three attempts, he said, I have marked another thing "Please remove them and try again". I simply followed the instruction pretending to be a dumb and removed the email ids I had provided and clicked on the Send button. Bollocks! Sender and Receiver fields are mandatory. I knew this had to happen. Otherwise whom do I share the files with? Then why did it ask me to remove the email ids and try. Oh, did it ask me to remove the email ids, provide new set of email ids (which are of course not blocked by the system) and retry? I don't know.
He was curious to know what exactly the problem was. He asked me why it behaved like this. He wanted to know what are the sets or rather types of email ids that are not blocked and are eligible.
My answer to all his questions was "Commercial email service providers like Yahoo, Gmail, Rediffmail etc. are not allowed. You have to use only official email ids".
Did we convey this message to the users who are mostly likely to use email ids provided by these so called commercial mail service providers(CMSP)and get to see this very warning message? How the hell on earth anyone could know that email ids provided by CMSP are not allowed by the system. It may happen and the probability is very high that a user, after having tried many such email ids with failure each time, in exasperation may give up and look for a better application. He may never come back again to use this application.
We lose a customer and then many customers and then the product fails. Just because we didn't put a proper message.
3 comments:
Nice and it seems to me as if a passionate tester and a curious user are interacting with each other throughout the post.
And finally the problem was identified which might have been encountered on the POST RELEASE of the product.
Awesome piece of writing Prabhat...:)
Why block gmail? I wouldn't use this app just for that reason.
@James Bach,
I agree. We shouldn't block gmail, yahoo etc. But since the client had specified that he didn't want these email services to be allowed in his application, being a tester, what can we do apart from telling him that user might not use it for this very reason?
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