Product Testing

Product would be developed as a project first and would undergo all the tests that a project normally undergoes, namely, unit, integration, and system testing. System testing is carried out more rigorously and on multiple systems. In addition, it needs some more

rigorous tests. These are:

1. Load Testing – in web applications and multi-user applications, large numbers of users are logged in and try to use the software in a random manner. The

objective is to see if the software is managing multiple requests and serving up accurate results or mixing them up. . This unearths the issues connected with the bandwidth, database, sufficiency of RAM, hard disk etc

2. Volume Testing – subject the software to a high volume of data and see the performance, whether it degrades.

3. Functional Testing – test that all functions expected of the software are functioning correctly.

4. End-to-End Testing – in this type of testing, one entity is tracked from birth to death in the application. For example, in a payroll application, an employee joins the system; then is promoted; then is demoted; salary increases are effected, salary decreases are effected; kept in abeyance; transferred, then retired, dismissed, terminated and so on to ensure that the state transitions designed in the applications happen as desired

5. Parallel Testing – a number of users using the same function and are either inputting or requesting same data. This brings out the system’s ability to handle requests at the same time and preserving the data integrity.

6. Concurrent Testing – Concurrent testing is carried out to unearth issues when two or more users use the same functionality and update or modify same data

with different values at the same time – normally using a testing tool. For example, take ticket reservation scenario, there is only one seat and it is shown

as available to two people. When both confirm purchase, the system should give to only one and reject the other request. It should not happen that money is

collected from both credit cards and reserve for only one – the credit card transaction must be reversed for the rejected party. Scenarios like this will be

tested.

7. Stress Testing – cause stress to the software by making expected resources unavailable or causing deadlock like scenarios or not releasing resources and so on to ensure that the software has routines built in to handle such stress. This will bring out software responses for events like machine-rest, Internet disconnection, server timeouts etc.

8. Positive Testing – test the software as specified and not trying any negative acts – to ensure that all defined functions are performing. Used mostly for

customer / end user acceptance testing.

9. Negative Testing – using the software in a manner that is not expected to be used – this will bring out all hidden defects in the software. This is to ensure even malicious usage would not affect the software or data integrity.

10. User Manual Testing – use the software conforming to the user manual to ensure that they both are in synch with each other

11. Deployment Testing – Simulate the target environment and deploy the software and ensure that deployment specified is appropriate.

12. Sanity Testing – this cursory testing to ensure that the components, of software package, are complete and are of appropriate versions, carried out before delivery or before making a software-build.

13. Regression Testing – testing carried out after unearthed defects are fixed

14. Security Testing – testing to determine that an information system protects data and maintains functionality as intended.

15. Performance Testing – testing to ensure that the response times are in acceptable range

16. Usability Testing – testing the software for different types of usage to ensure that it satisfactorily fulfills the requirements of specified functional areas

17. Install / uninstall Testing – test the software on all target platforms to ensure that install and uninstall operations are satisfactorily performed

18. Comparison Testing – testing the product with competing products to contrast the differences for determining the relative position of the product

19. Intuitive Testing – testing without reference to user manuals to see if the product can be used without much reference to user guides

Source: SQA Forum

Test Effort Estimation

Effort estimation can be done, based on different techniques available like Function Point Analysis, COCOMO, Use Case Point Analysis, Test Case Point Analysis, Metrics based.

Effort estimation is basically done any of the above techniques for different test activities like Test Case Preparation, Automation Script Creation and Test Execution.

Metrics based and very commonly used effort estimation procedure in doing effort estimation for Yahoo Mail application.

Identify the requirements (Login Page, Inbox, Compose, Address)

Classify the requirements in different complexity (Simple, Average, High)

Based on the past experience, metrics will be collected on how much time it took to write test case for simple, average and high functionality. Similarly it is collected for other testing activities.

Now multiply your complexity with the time factor which you derived from metrics to calculate the effort.

Don't report the total has your total effort, always use buffer time, it various based on the domain, tool and other factors. Example we use 20% on the previous total. This buffer will save you on risk and other deadline factors

Now add the buffer time and the effort calculated from metrics, and this is the Total effort for the activity.

Test Case Point Analysis: You can use this effort estimation technique for Test Automation and Test Execution.

1. Identify the total number of test cases to be automated or executed.

2. Classify the steps into High, Medium and Low complexity based on the business process it performs.

3. Based on the previous experience (metrics based) on how much time it would take to execute High complexity steps. You can have the average time.

4. Multiply this average time with total number of steps and get the total

5. Add the buffer time with the total to get Final estimation time. This buffer time will vary based on the application, domain and other factors.

Most of these effort estimation techniques use Metrics Based, which you are going to calculate the actual time for all effort and then take the average.

Source: SoftwareQA Blogspot

TestLink 1.9.1 - Released

TestLink 1.9.1:

New features

- Requirement revisioning

- Requirement history with log messages

- New requirement and test case comparison method

- Expand/Collapse Buttons for trees

- PHPMAILER update (allows SSL or TLS) - googlemail can be used

- Mechanisms implemented to prevent data loss on editing when sessions times out or the user tries to navigate away without saving latest changes

Important Bugfixes (~70 in total)

- better MSSQL support

- Query metrics: start and end date input fields are respected

- minor usability improvements

- event viewer fixed for IE8

Source: opensourcetesting

Requirements and Test Management Repository [RTMR]

What RTMR?

RTMR stands for Requirements and Test Management Repository translated Repository requirements management and testing .

This is a test tool open source software that allows:

manage software requirements throughout its life cycle

describe the scenarios and test cases to ensure the validation of these requirements

run test campaigns targeted

follow all the anomalies encountered during testing:

via the internal fault handler

via an external fault handler (bugzilla, mantis)

The solution includes a system for version management by project, by requirement, by scenario and test cases that keeps track of software changes and can easily cover all regression tests.

Why would a software testing tool?

The test objective is to validate the proper functioning of software to the needs and requirements gathered from users.

It ensures a sufficient level of quality during the development cycle and software life.

The test phase allows to identify such malfunctions, abnormalities or regression that prevent full or partial coverage requirements formluées initially and as functional changes.

The software testing tool comes at this time to structure, organize and target testing (risks, priorities ... etc.).

RTMR Why?

Although fundamental, the profession of software testing will become widespread only recently in the computational structures of small and medium sizes.

Although the panel of test tools grows, existing solutions are often architecturally binding (proprietary software) and require substantial financial investment (initial cost of licensing, training, maintenance) for the structures that need it.

Through RTMR, materializes the idea of an alternative open source solutions based on open (GNU / Linux, PostgreSQL, Qt), a robust architecture (3 others), while providing a rich client interface available on different platforms ( Linux , MacOS X and Windows ).

Source: opensourcetesting

Paper Based Storage overrides CDs and DVDs

Can you believe that now you can store your valuable data, music, videos in a paper ? With the Revolution in Technology there are new inventions day by day which changes our lifestyle completely and that’s how Sainul Abideen of MES Engineering College have. His Rainbow Technology, a structure and technique for data that can be stored on normal paper.

What is Rainbow Technology ?

Rainbow technology is a method or technique by which data can be stored in an ordinary paper and retrieved later with the help of a scanner. Sainul calls the storage medium as Rainbow Versatile Disc (RVD) which believed to be store upto 450GB of data.

Cost and Performance:

Wonder how much a CD / DVD cost nowadays ? Basically a DVD cost around Rs.20 and a CD for rs.10 but this RVD will cost not more than Rs.2, The cost is absolutely very low when compared to other storage medium. Also the storage capacity is 130 times more.

Behind the Technology:

Sainul has completely changed the Zero’s and One’s Computing instead he uses a geometric shapes combining various colours. His new format is called ‘Rainbow Format’

Advantages and Highlights:

* Nature of this storage medium is Biodegradable and Eco-Friendly
* Magazines like Digit, Chip etc can attach Data in a tearable sheet
* Rainbow Cards that is equal to sim card size can store 5 GB of data that cost 50 paise.

The Future:

Mr.Sainul is working with a project called Databank that reduces the server demand which costs upto Rs.25,000 crores to just Rs.35 lakh. He promises that his DataBank will meet the 123.60 Peta Byte (PB) capacity Demand.

Thanks for the Information 'Sankar Anand'