An improper warning message that might have resulted in product failure

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.

A test report

When I don’t have much project work to do, I do a lot of different things that add certain value to my skill as a tester. I read blogs, watch podcasts and videos. Sometime I pick up an open source project from sites like http://sourceforge.net and test it. I prepare test report and analyze it myself. In this process I learn many things. On one such occasion, I picked up a product, tested it and prepared a test report. You might like to see the test report. Below it is:

                Test Report: The Number Race 2.3.4
                                            (Author: Prabhat Nayak)

Test Mission:
The mission is to test “The Number Race” application which has been awarded as the project of the month for November by sourceforge.net and find out some important problems in a session of two hours. The quality criteria that are going to be covered in this session are “Usability” and “Capability”. I’ll not prepare any document before my actual testing. It will be more of exploratory testing and keeping note as I test.

Test Environment:
Operating System: Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3
Application Version: NumberRace 2.3.4

Test Areas:
1. Installer
2. Select Player
3. Menu
4. Level 1 Game
5. Uninstaller

Test Approach:
I downloaded the application from http://sourceforge.net/projects/numberrace/. I divided my two hours of time into 3 phases as below:

Phase1 (30 mins): This phase was dedicated to gathering information about the application. This included who are the intended users, what is the purpose of building the application and how to use the application.

Phase 2 (60 mins): This phase involved actual learning/testing efforts of the application. I started my exploration from installing the application. Then I created/selected a player and played a level. I then uninstalled the application. During all these activities I took notes of my observations.

Phase 3 (30 mins): In this phase, I prepared the final test report on my findings.

Observations:
1. Double clicking the installer invokes the language selection window. In this window appears the “how to start” instruction which could hardly be read. Ironically this is the only place which shows this information. Refer to “Starting_Point.JPG”.

2. Installation-step-5: If "Create shortcuts in the Start-Menu" checkbox is unticked, "Create additional shortcuts on the desktop" option gets disabled. In this way one cannot create only the desktop shortcut without creating Start-Menu shortcut.

3. Installation-step-6: After installation gets completed, Instead of button name "Quit", "Finish" could have been more meaningful.

4. After launching the application, "No language pack installed" dialog box appears. It asks to download the needed language pack without giving any information on where to download it. Please refer to “Language pack.JPG”.

5. The start page doesn’t clearly display the starting point by clicking which the game could be started.

6. While creating a player, providing invalid information (other than leaving it blank) and clicking the “Enter” button doesn’t result in creating a player but it doesn’t show any error/warning message either. Message is shown only in case a field is left blank.

7. Age filed is validated only against non-numeric data. It accepts 0 and all negative numbers.

8. Pre specified “Level” for an existing player cannot be modified.

9. Very less information on “how to play a level” is displayed prior to start the level. It doesn’t suffice in understanding the level.

10. After a move is finished, it takes few seconds for the sound to play and hence delays the process of going to the next move.

11. After completion of a level, the player still remains in the same level. It should get alleviated to the next level.

12. On clicking question mark icon on Select Player window, a window is invoked. This window is blank and reveals no information. Either it should display some information or it should be removed. Please refer to “Questionmark.JPG”.

13. Clicking “Quit” button terminates the application without displaying a confirmation message.

14. Uninstalling from the folder hierarchy (for eg. C:\Program Files\NumberRace-2.3.4\Uninstaller) leaves some empty folders.

Issues:
Issue #1:
Summary: 000101: Unticking "Create shortcuts in the Start-Menu" checkbox disables "Create additional shortcuts on the desktop" option
Product: NumberRace 2.3.4
Description: In step 5 of installation, when "Create shortcuts in the Start-Menu" checkbox is ticked, "Create additional shortcuts on the desktop" checkbox gets disabled. The only way to get a desktop shortcut is to allow the installation to create Start menu shortcut.
Steps: 1. Double click the installer
2. Go to step 5 of installation
3. Untick the "Create shortcuts in the Start-Menu" checkbox
Impact: A user can never have a desktop shortcut without having a start menu short cut. Start menu shortcut is unwanted for those who like to launch the application from desktop shortcut. They might not like this feature.
Attachements: Please refer to image “Shortcut_Issue.JPG”
=============================================

Issue #2:
Summary: 000102: Age field accepts 0 and negative numbers
Product: NumberRace 2.3.4
Description: Age field in Select Player window takes 0 as well as all negative numbers which are invalid. It is only validated against non-numeric data
Steps: 1. Go to Select Player window
2. Fill all the fields excluding Age field with valid data. Provide 0 or any negative number on Age field.
3. Click on Enter button
Impact: Age of a player is very important when this application is used to track the real progress in terms of capability vs. age of a child. In that case allowing wrong data as age can mislead the assessment.
Attachements:
=============================================
Issue #3:
Summary: 000103: Pre-specified Initial Level for an existing player cannot be modified
Product: NumberRace 2.3.4
Description: Initial Level field in Select Player window shows which level a particular player is in. According to the level selected, the player gets a game of that level to play. An existing player cannot change his level even if he has finished the same level and eligible to graduate to the next level.
Steps: 1. Go to Select Player window
2. Fill all the fields with valid data.
3. Select any level (1-14) from the Initial Level list.
4. Click on Enter button
5. Click on Modify button
6. The Initial Level list is disabled
Impact: An existing player cannot graduate to the next level by selecting a higher level even if he has completed the specified level. In a way to do it, either he has to create another player or delete the existing one and recreate a player with the same details.
Attachements:

A roadmap for an aspiring tester

I was assigned with a task to prepare a roadmap to learn testing for a batch of new joiners in our team. The roadmap should include what they should learn and why, how they should learn and from where they should learn. I have compiled an outline which I am sharing it in this post. I believe that there are much more to learn for a tester than what I have managed to list here. I welcome suggestions from all of you as comments.

A tester needs to learn:

There are many technologies a tester needs to learn. Some of them (important ones) are:

SQL: A tester has to do a lot of activities related to database. So it is obligatory for any tester to learn the SQL language. This learning includes concept of RDBMS, SQL queries, query optimization and database administration.

Sources: http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp, http://www.informit.com/library/library.aspx?b=STY_Sql_24hours

 

Excel: Excel is a very powerful tool and capable of doing much more thing than you can imagine. It’s a best friend of a tester. Gain mastery over it.

                Sources: http://www.baycongroup.com/el0.htm             

HTML/DOM: For testing web application efficiently and effectively, one has to understand HTML and Document Object Model. Knowledge on CSS is also good.

                Sources: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

http://www.tizag.com/htmlT

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

 

XML: XML is a widely used technology and supported by many testing tools to store data. It’s a must for a tester.

                Sources: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

 

Scripting languages: There are many scripting languages such as java script, PERL, python, ruby etc. Learning a few of them comes handy while testing. You can build your own tool to carry out few tasks with the help of a scripting language. Java script is of highest priority. Learning PERL or python is a bonus. Choose your own language.

                Sources: http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp

                http://www.tizag.com/javascriptT/

                http://www.learn-javascript-tutorial.com/

                http://echoecho.com/javascript.htm

                http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/10/begperl1.html

                http://www.perltutorial.org/

                http://www.tizag.com/perlT/

                http://docs.python.org/tutorial/

                http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/

The above mentioned sources are not the ONLY sources. Information is strewn across the internet. Explore as much you can.        

Tools that come handy:

There are several open source tools to carry out specific testing related tasks. There are some cool Firefox/Chrome add-ons. Explore in this area and zero on whatever suits your purpose best. Few of the tools/add-ons are:

Bug reporting tools:

Bugzilla: http://www.bugzilla.org/

Mantis: http://www.mantisbt.org/

Trac: http://trac.edgewall.org/

Redmine: http://www.redmine.org/

 

Add-ons:

Firebug: It’s the most popular and a powerful add-on for Firefox. Below is a link to a nicely compiled mind map of add-ons.

http://moolya.com/blog/2011/03/04/addon-mindmap-for-testers-from-moolya/
 

Selection of tools depends on your requirement. Google you purpose and you shall get the list of all related tools.

Blogs: Repositories of failure/success stories

Make a habit of reading few blog posts regularly. There are hundreds of good blog sites and they narrate their success as well as failure stories. Learn from their learning. You can’t afford to make all the mistakes by your own and learn from them. Life is too short for it. Better if you start writing your own.

The link below provides list of top 100 testing blogs:

http://www.jayphilips.com/2009/11/30/100-software-testing-blogs-and-tweeters/
 

Following are links to some really good blogs out of the above 100:

http://www.satisfice.com/

http://testertested.blogspot.com/

http://tuppad.com/blog/

http://curioustester.blogspot.com/

http://help.utest.com/testers

bangalorehackers.com

http://testobsessed.com

testomate.com

testingideas.blogspot.com

vividtester.blogspot.com

testeriq.blogspot.com

Videos:

This is an effective way to demonstrate things. What you can’t express in writing you can show it through videos. It is a plus who hates to read much (though you have to get rid of this habit).

Following are links to few really nice videos:

1. http://testertested.blogspot.com/p/audio-video-podcasts.html contains audio and video related to exploratory testing and basic of software testing.

2. Future of Software testing by James Whittaker - http://blip.tv/utest/james-whittaker-the-future-of-software-testing-utest-webinar-1507610

 

3. Exploratory testing by Jon Bach - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7894844001159492923

 

4. Open lecture by James Bach - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILkT_HV9DVU  

5. How to think efficiency in software testing by James Bach- http://vimeo.com/10715536  

6. Becoming a software expert by James Bach- http://loadstorm.com/2009/software-testing-experts-james-bach

 

7. Agile testing- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqrOnIECCSg

 

8. Agile Testing Challenges- part 1 and 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ9hY7NNesk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exUrdzpdTg4&feature=related

Knowing the programmer

Having a propensity towards programming, I often sit beside my friend who is a web developer when he is on work to learn the basics of web development. I being a tester, he enjoys my involvement on his work for I scrutinize when he develops. He asks me how should a functionality be implemented, how should the GUI look like etc. Though I am not a connoisseur of programming, there are many occasions when looking at his code, I have found out many potential issues and conveyed it to him. On one such occasion, I was sitting beside him and he was writing some java script codes to validate a form. He was writing a java script function which was supposed to be called when a checkbox is ticked or unticked. I noticed a potential issue on this part of the code. To illustrate it, I have designed that part of the form and also written the java script function. There were few more functionalities in his code but I have kept it simple because it suffices my purpose of addressing the issue. And of course his GUI looked different than mine.

Below is the image of that part of the form. 

Look at the image and guess how this is supposed to work. There are two fields; a present address and a permanent address. If these two addresses are same for a user, he doesn’t have to fill the two fields with same data. Instead, he will just tick the checkbox and the content of first field will be copied to the second field and the second field gets disabled. When he unticks the checkbox, the content of the second field gets removed and it gets enabled.  In fact, this functionality was suggested by me and he appreciated. 

Now I shall give you the code. You copy it and paste it in an editor, save it as an html file. Open the html file and try to figure out the issue. Do not view the code for the java script function. Try out different combinations to figure out the issue. I expect everyone to figure it out because this form has very limited possible combinations and if you work out all of them, you can find it out. If you cannot figure out by looking at the application, go view the code and then try.

Below is the code: (Please replace "#" with "<" and "%" with ">" while saving )

#html%
#head%
#title%#/title%
#script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"%

function setAdd() {
var chkStatus = document.forms["myform"]["chk1"].checked;
if (chkStatus==true) {
document.forms["myform"]["txt2"].value = document.forms["myform"]["txt1"].value;
document.forms["myform"]["txt2"].disabled = true;
}else if(document.forms["myform"]["txt2"].value!=""){
document.forms["myform"]["txt2"].disabled = false;
document.forms["myform"]["txt2"].value ="";
}
return true;
}
                   
#/script%
#/head%

#body bgcolor="gray"%
#form name="myform"%
#center%
Present Address:#input type="text" name="txt1" id="pradd" /%#br%
#input type="checkbox" name="chk1" id="addsame" onclick="return setAdd();" /%
#font size="2" color="white"%Click if present and permanent address are same#/font%#br%
Permanent Address:#input type="text" name="txt2" id="peadd"/%#br%
#/center%
#/form%
#/body%
#/html%

For them who still could not figure out the issue, I shall explain what the issue is and how was I able to figure it out by looking at the code. If you look carefully at the “else if” condition of the java script function, it implies that the second field has to contain some value (it is not blank) in order to be enabled when the user unticks the checkbox. I asked him what if it is blank. Then he replied how can it be blank?  If the user has ticked the checkbox, he must have entered some value in the first field. So obviously the second field has that value. Then I asked what if the user has ticked the checkbox without providing any value in the first field? He immediately launched the application, ticked the checkbox without providing any value in the first field. The second field got disabled. When he unticked the checkbox, the field was still disabled because it had no value. In a way to enable it again, he had to provide some value in the first field, tick the checkbox and again untick it.

When I unveiled the issue before my friend, he confessed that in his work, he has made several such types of silly mistakes and no tester has happened to report them. He could then literally recollect on which project and on which part he had made such mistakes. God forbid those issues to be figured out by the users. He candidly revealed before me that he was under an impression that a tester is not necessarily required for a good developer. But now he had understood the importance of a good tester. He learnt a lesson.

What lesson we the testers learned? By knowing the mindset of the developers, how they implement certain functionalities, we can actually uncover many issues of similar types on different areas of a project or even different projects where that developer is involved. To know about their programming habit, we have to build good relations with them. We have to spend some time with them. We can ask questions to them on how they would implement certain functionalities.

Guessing the password

Being an avid reader, every day I make a point to read some blog posts on testing. I am a regular follower of some good blogs written by some revered testers of the world. One of them is Pradeep Soundararajan’s Tester Tested ! On one such occasion of going thru his blog, I came across a post where he has written about how he uses puzzle exercises to teach testing . Having a great propensity towards riddles, the post seemed very interesting to me. With utmost alacrity, I jumped into solving few of them. This article is about my experience of solving such a puzzle, Guess the Password - Version 1 & Version 2. Anyone who is reading this post and has not yet solved these two puzzles, I request them to go solve them first and then come back and read further.

I tried version1 first. Having solved many online riddles earlier, it didn’t take much effort of mine to guess the correct username/password. I navigated to the version 1 page and tried to find out if any clue related to username/password was displayed on the page. Initially I thought this application must be validated at server side.  I thought there must be some clue displayed on the page itself looking at which we have to guess the credentials. After we give the credentials and press Log In button, the data is being sent to the server and there it is validated against correct credentials stored in the database. Not finding any clue on the page, I viewed the page source thinking I might get some clue written there as comment lines. To my amazement, the first comment line I saw read something like “Oh, you think you could crack it from the source code? You thought it would be so simple?” I was disheartened reading this. If there is no clue either on the page or the page source, how would I suppose to guess the credentials? But knowing something about the way Pradeep and Santosh present exercises, I took no time in understanding that this comment line was meant to deceive the solution seeker. I therefore started looking at the code at it took merely 2 minutes to guess the correct credentials. I started from the form. My knowledge on java script helped me here. I saw a java script function “validate” is being called when the Log In button is clicked. I then realized that my earlier view on credentials being validated at server side was wrong. I jumped into the validate function code. And it was pretty much simple. The values of the username and password fields are being retrieved and stored in two variables. There are two more variables which contain the correct username and password. There is a condition which checks the username and password values given by the user against the correct username and password stored in two variables. If it matches, you have cracked the username/password. Mine matched on first try. 

However, version 2 was not a kind of cakewalk for me. Though the way of puzzling is almost similar to that of version 1, it took me one whole day and a mail to Santosh to guess the correct username and password. After I succeeded, I realized that I had already guessed the correct username and password much earlier but wasn’t combining them properly. The first difference between version 1 and version 2 was the interchange of variables that store the actual username and password. This didn’t take much time to figure out. The next was the username seemed to be a “blank space” and the password as “testing”. I tried the combination only to fail. I then suspected the character which looks like a blank space was not actually the same blank space that can be generated by the space keystroke on the keyboard. I was aware of a character like this. But I acted over smart, copied the space like character and pasted it in the username field. This didn’t help either. Then I thought of copying the entire source code to a notepad and save it as a local html file. I did so. I then opened it and gave the combination “blank space” and “testing” and hit Log In. Bravo. This time it worked. I was perplexed. It seemed to me weird. I did a lot of research on why this behaved differently when saved as a local html file. I had no more patience to try more combinations. I wrote a mail to Santosh asking what was the correct credentials. I briefly wrote about my effort. He got back to me saying the character looking like a blank space is a variant of space. He asked me to go to StartàRunàType Charmap and search for that special character and copy it from there and paste it in the username field. I did so and this time it worked. This evoked me to try the character which seems like a space but is not a space I was aware of. I pressed Alt+255 to generate that character in the username field and provided the password. This time it did work. I then confirmed that the character displayed in Charmap was same as the character obtained by pressing Alt+255. I was curious to know why when I did a “view page source” to the application and copied the space and pasted did not work. All these time I was using Firefox. I thought of opening the application in IE. I opened it in IE, did a view source, copied the entire source code and pasted in notepad. I then saved it as a local html and try the “no-break space” and “testing” combination. It worked perfectly fine this time. Copying the source code from firefox and saving it as a local html file didn’t work but with IE it worked. From this I drew a conclusion that firefox was not able to display the “no-break space” character. It was displaying it as a blank space. I do not know whether it is a limitation of firefox to be not able to display the special character and converting it into a blank space.

There are few things I learned from this exercise. They go as below:

1.      Analyzing the code gives an idea about how the system works. If some part doesn’t work properly, by looking at the code we can deduce the possible reason. In order to do so, we need to have the basic understanding of programming.

2.       Something which looks like a very usual thing (No-break space in this case) may not be that thing in reality. So if we have to think of other possibilities of what that thing might be. Having an earlier knowledge on “what that thing might be” can be very helpful. Though in case of unavailability of prior knowledge, we should be able to figure out a way to find it.

3.       Trying the same process in different environments or browsers for that matter, many new things can be discovered about the application as well as the environment. In our case the inability of firefox to display the “no-break space” in the source code.

Is QUALITY all about customer’s need and satisfaction?

In our organization, we (testers) have made a point to discuss on a weekly basis about testing, what we do at our work, what we do to test better. Besides, we discuss the possible ways of acquiring knowledge on this craft. We learn, unlearn, and relearn. We argue, we agree. Sometimes we fight to impose our own views on others on certain things. To justify self, we learn more about those things and resume the argument (fight rather). Sometimes we give up without any conclusive decision on whose views were more appropriate and applicable on a particular context. We keep our own views with us and move ahead. But never have we given up our discussions or fights for we enormously get benefited from these. 

On one such occasion, I and one of my colleagues had a long discussion on whether “Quality is all about customer’s need and satisfaction”. Not until we saw a bunch of people gathered at our cubicle to listen to what we’re discussing we realized that we were literally fighting. And unfortunately it was such of a few occasions when we give up our fight. I was against of the view that quality is ALL about customer’s need and satisfaction. She was for it. Actually she had prepared a set of questions for the new joiners in our team. One question was “What is true about Quality” and the correct answer (as per her) was “It’s all about customer’s need and satisfaction”. I was given to correct few papers and the moment I saw this question, I was surprised. I didn’t buy the answer. I called her to ask her views on this. Below is the conversation of mine with her.” I” represents me and “S” represents her.

I:  Do you really think Quality is ALL about customer’s need and satisfaction?

S: Yes, I do.

I: (reiterated the question)

S: Of course it is. What else do you think quality is?

I: What about a case where your customer is not the user? (By customer being not the user, I meant someone who pays us but has his own customers who’ll actually use the product)

S: I didn’t understand. Tell me a case like that.

I: Our client who pays us to build the product. But he is not going to use it; rather he has customers that are going to use it. The client is the customer for us in that matter. He might be quite happy with our work but the end user may feel unhappy using the product.

S: But by customer, I meant users only. So in that case, the end users are the customers.

Somewhere at my deep inside, I knew that it was not correct though I couldn’t at that point of time able to think of a situation by which I could convince her that quality is not all about customer’s need and satisfaction. I hastily searched my Skype to see who were online. Fortunately James Bach was. More fortunate I was when I pinged him and he responded in no time. I was on cloud nine since I knew that I was going to learn few things now. Besides, I was prepared to be amazed by his dexterity on “on-spot thinking of a situation to explain things”. Plus I was prepared to answer few of the questions I was anticipating I’ll be asked by him. That’s been his way of explaining things. You keep answering his questions until you realize you’ve got the answer to the question you’ve asked him. The discussion went as below:

I: Hi James

JB: Hi

I: Can quality be ALL about customer’s need and satisfaction?

JB: No

I: (whew, I was correct )

I: I even think “No” in case the customer and the user are different

JB: It’s not all about anyone

I: then?

JB: It's about the relationship between the vendor, the product, and anyone whose opinion of the product matters.

I: including testers, right?

JB: No, testers don’t matter.

I: who are the people then whose opinions matter but they aren’t the customer?

JB: You tell me. It depends on the project. But testers do not matter. Testers are agents for the people who DO matter.

(Then I was amazed by his dexterity I was talking aboutJ)

JB: Let's say you are selling pet food. The customer is a human. Their opinion matters, because otherwise you won't have customers anymore. But the government may matter, too. If there are laws about what can be in pet food; and the pet may matter... because if the pet refuses to eat the food, the customer will not buy more of it.

I: Oh yes, probably that's why we need to meet industry-specific standards.

JB: plus, if your pet food is found to contain toxins, the pet may love it, but pet lover organizations will go after you. So there are various stakeholders whose opinion matter.

I: True.

JB: One of your jobs is to figure out whose opinions matter.

I: Thank you so much, James.

I then conveyed it to my colleague. She seemed to get impressed but to justify her own view, she asked “if there are already rules to dictate you what not to do, why would you do it and hence ruled out the government’s role in pet food case”. I preferred to keep quiet for sometimes it is best weapon to use. But I had already learned a big lesson that “Quality is not ALL (all big case) about customer’s needs and satisfaction”.

The T&D relationship

People who are into IT field are well aware of a very popular relationship; a tester-developer relationship. And presuming that people who are reading this article are into IT, let me not describe the relationship in details. Rather lets dive into why this blame game is perpetual and what can be done to reduce it, if cannot be eradicated fully.

A tester is supposed to judge the quality of the work done by a developer. Wait a minute, here lies the root cause of all discussion, all this sensibly nonsensical blame game or war would I say rather. I am a developer, I am intelligent and smart and geek and self-respected (does not being a developer itself prove that I have all these qualities? I bet this does). How heck is this that a tester (now guess being a tester proves what and what) will raise questions on my work; who literally could not have been written a part of the code that I have written in his whole lifetime. I am not going to accept whatever he’ll say. We have a word in English which expresses this feeling; yes you got it right. It’s EGO. And in this context it’s DEGO, a developers ego (you can forget the term DEGO, I have no intention to add more buzz words to the ongoing term-coining-competition). 

On the other hand testers have also an ego, a TEGO. Some might call it as blasphemy to say so as I belong to testing fraternity. But that is the truth. A tester’s ego hurts when he is seen as an inferior to the developers. And how would he retaliate? By reporting more and more issues and in that way he can prove his superiority over the developer. In a way it seems good as the number of defects found will increase. But the number of defects alone is not the synonym of good testing. The issues reported should be valid and the way it is reported is another important factor. A tester who is obsessed with the aim that he has to prove the developer inferior has very less time to focus on the quality of the issues he reports. And he ends up reporting whatever looks suspicious at one glance without rechecking it the second time. Sometimes we need to change the setting somewhere to see a correct result for an event. But we don’t do the settings work, get the incorrect behavior of the application and report it as a defect in one go and hence eat up a good amount of time of others rechecking it. And the level of bitterness in the relation rises up.

Now, what could be the possible solutions to curb the battle? Once we sort out the root cause of any problem, the solution is not miles away. Following things can come handy to maintain a healthy relationship among testers and developers.

To err is human: This is the reason why testing comes into picture. We make mistakes and this is what we do our best, don’t we? And it is very difficult for us to find out our own mistakes due to lack of objectivity. And we need some other person, a tester to check it. This is as simple as it. Testers are not employed to prove that whatever a developer has done, he has done it wrong. They just help a developer doing things correct. And at the end of the day when a product has relatively less issues and performs well, credit goes to developer, right? Then why not thinking that a tester brings credit to a developer by questioning his work and he is not an enemy, a friend rather. Just imagine what have happened if your parents had not judged every action of yours since childhood. If they had not taught you to discriminate between right and wrong. Would you have been here where you are now? And are your parents’ enemies of yours? They were constructive critics. So are the testers to the developers. And a critic is the father of a craft and the craftsman the mother.

Testing is a part of development: Many often make the mistake to segregate testing from development. They divide software engineering into two parts; software development and software testing. And hence they think testing as a redundant activity for a software development process. Many developers think that they can test their work and don’t need a tester. I have heard many developers saying they find more bugs in the system than their testers do. Here is where a tester loses respect.  In fact, testing is a part of software development. It provides information about the quality of the product and process. It helps producing a qualitative product and hence is equally important. The day developers start respecting testing and testers, we are in a better world I bet. Again developers, give it a thought!

If development (as they say) is primary, testing is not secondary: Many think that development (in reality, they mean programming or coding) should be our primary focus as it yields the product. Who cares about the quality? It’s a secondary thing and we’ll focus on it if time permits. And the irony is some organizations share this view. They underestimate testing and testers and boost the morale of the developers. They instigate them to feel how unwanted the testers are for them. But quality can never be compromised; at least you cannot afford to compromise it. Organizations/Managements, it’s worth of a thought, for your better sustainability!

Testers are bug-warriors, not developer-warriors: As mentioned above, when a developer underestimates a tester’s skill, the tester becomes ferocious and reports vague incidents. Incidents which are not worth investigating. But this not a way to prove the skill or retaliate. You can never leave quality apart if you want to show your skill, can you? If you really prove that you have skill, test the application rigorously, if something seems suspicious, recheck it twice or thrice. If it still persists report it. But report it in such a manner that it gives enough information about the defect and the way to reproduce it but yet being precise and succinct. It becomes easy for the developer to debug and fix the defect. Ease of work makes them happy. And happiness creates a healthy relationship. Testers, just a thought!

These as per me are the main reasons behind an unhealthy relationship between a testers and developers and these can be pretty much worked out to improvise the relation.