Testing Circus Vol2 Issue3

Testing Circus
Volume 2 - Issue 3 March 2011
YOUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE

ON
SOFTWARE TESTING
www.TestingCircus.com
6
From the Keyboard of Editor-in-Chief
Almost every day I get calls from potential testers that testing is not everyone’s cup
trainees who want to learn software test- of tea and it is not that easy how they
ing from me. They are from diverse back- think it is like. Testing requires skills,
grounds. Some are still students, some are thinking beyond the limit programmers
engineering graduates fresh out of college, can think, ability to see beyond obvious,
some are working in BPOs, some are mar- rapid learning, mental and visual se-
ried females once studied engineering – quencing ability, building up scenarios
got married – kids – and now wants go that may happen with the product and
back to work, some are from other non-IT passion for investigating into details.
job profiles. I am a choosy teacher. So I ask
lot of questions before taking someone into I heard this someone saying. Don’t re-
my training program. The first natural member who said this but agree fully to
question is why he or she wants to join or this opinion. Don’t separate product team
learn software testing. The most common into developers and testers. It should be
answer I get is “software testing is easy programmers/ coders and testers because
compared to programming” or “it is the testers are also developers, contributing to
easiest way to get into IT industry.” Oh the product development process. We test-
crap. Software testing is not easy. At least ers are no less skilled than our program-
I think so. Also it is not the easiest way to mer friends. Sometimes we are little more
get into IT industry. skilled than them and that’s why we catch
the mistake they make.
Why do these guys feel that software test-
ing is easy? Four reasons I feel are respon- Don’t let testers be the 2nd class citizen of Vol 2 - Issue 3
sible for this kind of wrong opinion on product development. Arise and educate
software testing. One - since we don’t do the ignorant crowd surrounding you.
coding as a part of our everyday job, soft- That is the message I want to convey in
ware testing is an easy task. Two – the this 6th edition of Testing Circus. Jai Ho
product development managers will put Testing!
Testing Circus
their worst coders into testing. Three –
HR guys will take anyone into testing
when the market is hot. Remember 2006- - Ajoy Kumar Singha
2007? Every other guy got into testing
editor@testingcircus.com
during that period in India. Four – last
but not the least – Testers are responsible
http://twitter.com/ajoysingha
for making non-testers feel that testing is
easy.
Today how many of us feel proud being

associated with testing? Most of us were
forced into testing. Very few people are
testers by choice. Few testers like me who
are testers by choice do not educate non-
www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -2-

Testing Circus Vol 2 - Issue 3
Where is What?
Topic Author Page Number
Editorial Ajoy Kumar Singha 2
Letters to the Editor 5

Test Coverage: How not to miss anything during
Ajay Balamurugadas 6
testing?
Cloud Computing Service: A Basic Introduction Basant Narayan Singh 9
Be an Honest Tester Vipul Gupta 13
Promoting Testing in your Organization Rob van Steenbergen 16
Why do Test Tool suppliers have such a good sale? Marcel Hogenhout 19
Automation Assisted Manual Testing Trish Khoo 23
Exploratory Testing From Wikipedia 26
A Fake Tester's Journey A Fake Tester 29
Software Testing News 32
Test Case Writing Practice Naresh Bisht 34
Testers to Follow in Twitter 36
Interview with Darren McMillan 38
QTP Code Corner Jaijeet Pandey 43

Help Chandrasekhar BN, a Software Tester,

beat Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Chandrasekhar B N is a 26 year old Software

Tester working at Bangalore. He was detected You can write a cheque or send demand draft in
with Blood cancer (Acute Lymphoblastic Leuke- the name
mia - with Ph+ve) in October.
"CANCER PATIENTS AID ASSOCIATION "
We urge all readers of Testing Circus to donate and mail it to:
generously for this purpose.
Dr. Shubha Maudgal
No donation is small. You can do it online Executive Director
through your VISA/Master Card. (Donors from Cancer Patients Aid Association
Smt. Panadevi Dalmia Cancer Management Centre
outside India can do it online)
King George V Memorial, Dr. E. Moses Road,
https://donations.cpaaindia.org/ Mahalakshmi, Mumbai - 400 011
Tel: +91 22 2492 4000 / 2492 8775 Fax: +91 22 2497
3599
Please Note: Write Chandrasekhar B N on the

back of the cheque.
h tt
p: /
/h
elpch
andru.com/
Letters to the Editor
I really enjoyed by reading the article. Its very helpful for me to learn more about
Software testing. Could you Please include One More topics in the article regard-
ing how to prepare Test Plan, Test Strategy, how to estimate the Time line for New
Release Testing and Regression Testing.
-Rajasekaran Dhanavel
Hi Raja,
Thanks for appreciating our work. We will try to publish topics of you choice in our future
editions.
-Editor.
—-----------------------
Hello,
I went through your Feb’11 magazine. Articles are really interesting. I hope you editor@testingcircus.com
don’t mind If I ask you one question. In ‘News on Software Testing’ section, it is
mentioned that ‘Mumbai has done its Mumbai Testers Monthly Meet in January
and Pune will start its Pune TMM in March.‘ I am located in Pune, and I want to
attend this meet. By any chance you guys have the some details about Pune meet?
At least some email ID /phone number of any person who is associated with Pune
TMM.I would appreciate if you could help me with this.
-Nika Khaladkar
Hi Nika, http://twitter.com/testingcircus
You will find the details of Pune Testers Meet at http://pune.indiantestingboard.com/
-Editor
—-----------------------
Hello Ajoy and team,

Testing Circus is a fantastic magazine. You and your team is doing a great work for
the software testing community. I appreciate that you are putting effort to bring
out this magazine every month along with your full time job. Hats off to you.
-Rahul Sharma
http://facebook.com/testingcircus
Thank you Rahul for your encouraging words.
-Editor
Write to editor@testingcircus.com
Test Coverage : How
not to miss anything
during testing?
- Ajay Balamurugadas

Test Coverage : How not to miss anything during testing?
One of my friends asked me a question on Test Coverage and I replied to the best of my knowledge. Please feel
free to comment,
Question: How not to miss anything during testing?
My Answer: Let me try to give a brief answer with lots of assumptions about the context. It is a good question
which will reveal a lot about the project. Different stakeholders might have different answers.
At the same time, be-aware that not every issue can be found! Not every bug can be found.
Why? Here are some of the reasons:

Difference in Test Environment & Customer Environment
The environment used by the customer might be different from the environment used by the test team.
Are you sure you have the same hardware & software combination on your machine as the customer
machine?
Lack of Information
We have no information on how the customer uses this product! We have information on how the cus-
tomer must use the product but no information on how he uses the product. Note the subtle difference.
Do we collect logs or frequent recordings or any other information which lets us know how the cus-
tomer is using the product? Customer bugs reveal information to only a small extent.
Complete Testing
We do not test every combination. Complete Testing is impossible.
We do not have time to run every test. Our mission might

not be to run all tests.
We do not have resources (machines, testers, money, pro-

grammers and tools) to test each & every possibility.
Method of Usage
I do not see any customer referring to a document other
than help guide (sometimes) to carry out his tasks. He
doesn't use a excel sheet to know what he has to do next.
He does not skip from one component to another.
Most of the times, he uses the whole system (Software +

Internet + Hardware - Printers/Controllers) Agree?
So, if we do not test/use the software like the customer,

how can we expect to find the bugs customer finds?
Tough question? :)
If we cannot find all the bugs, how can we improve the product?
How can we find more bugs (assuming finding bugs is one of the
important missions of the project)?

Here are some of the ways which can help us.
Broaden the Test Coverage

Ask yourself – are you focusing on only a part of the product?
Can you expand the coverage by expanding the right tests?
Expanding! = Writing more test cases [Expanding is

NOT equal to writing more cases]
Is your testing model good enough? Why not try the Heuristic
Strategy Test Model (HSTM) by James Bach. We both can learn
to use it to the current project.
Understand the Big Picture

Try to understand where the software fits in the big picture.
Ask the right questions to get more information about the proj-
ect. How do you know which is the right question? Any ques-
tion you ask at this stage of the career is a right question!
As experts say, if you are aware that you can be fooled, it is

easy to be not fooled then! I learnt it in one of the Rapid Soft-
ware Testing workshops.
Be aware that you can also make mistakes.
Optimise the Testing Effort

Are you & your team members working as a single group? Is
everyone aware of each others’ tasks & goals for the project?
Are you aware of the final goal? Can you see where this project
is leading to?
Are you sure the tasks are not overlapping? Are you spending
Ajay Balamurugadas, is a
most of the time on tasks which contribute to the final goal of
software tester passionate to
the project?
learn to test any software. He
If you answered No to most of the questions, it is high time you has been awarded scholarship
optimize the testing effort. I can help you provide project/product from Software Testing Club
specific help (if needed) and is a brown belt student of
Miagi-Do School run by Matt
Improve Skills Heusser. He is co-founder of
We need to constantly improve our skills as a tester to catch
"Weekend Testing". Ajay shares
those bugs which evade us again & again.
his testing activities and
Observation, Questioning, Critical Thinking, Creative Think- learning through his blog
ing, Note Taking, Bug Hunting, Bug Investigation, Bug Advo- http://EnjoyTesting.blogspot.com
cacy are some of the skills important to a tester. and tweets at
How about improving them? http://twitter.com/ajay184f

Cloud Computing Service
A Basic Introduction
I strongly feel that as the cloud adoption rate increases, the

Software Testing services for cloud applications will rise
rapidly and might increase the challenges of a software
tester. I mean the tester must evolve and realign her/his
thinking to the new trend.
- Basant Narayan Singh

Cloud Computing Service
A Basic Introduction
What’s common between Gartner’s technology Hype Feb. 21, 2011. During ICC Cricket World Cup, India
Cycle Report of 2009 & 2010?
Furious cricket fans slammed organizers of the World
Cup on Monday as the official ticketing website
crashed amid a scramble for 1,000 tickets available for
the final…
---TOI
The official ICC partner for online ticket
sell, Kyazoonga, posted the following message on its
Facebook Fan Page and other social networks.
We are facing absolutely unprecedented amounts of

Did you answer Cloud Computing at the peak of traffic from all over the world, with hundreds of mil-
expectations? lions of people hitting at once. Some of you may have
Absolutely correct. Like 2009 Hype Cycle Report, trouble accessing the site. It seems that cricket fever has
Cloud Computing is still at the peak of inflated surpassed all anticipations and expectations. Please
expectations for 2 consecutive years. This has lead to bear with us as our global network team works on
a lot of buzz around cloud services. With every Glob- bringing you the tickets you all have been waiting for.
al IT major launching some sort of cloud service,
every now & then, the hype continues to grow. Defi- --- Kyazoonga FB Page
nitely, it’s just the beginning of this emerging trend as
every xyz company, big or small, is ramping-up to
somehow attach this coveted cloud tag to its profile, Everyday 8:00AM to 9:00AM, Since ? Till Date, On-
either as a provider or as a consumer. But you may line Ticket Booking - IRCTC, India
ask what is Cloud Computing? Why is there so much …The bookings & enquiry requests are 6-7 times high-
buzz about Cloud Computing in the tech-industry? er during the peak hours than the rest of the day. So
I strongly feel that as the cloud adoption rate increas- while the existing infrastructure is well equipped to
es, the Software Testing services for cloud applica- handle the daylong traffic, it is the peak hour traffic
tions will rise rapidly and might increase the that clogs servers…
challenges of a software tester. I mean the tester must ---What IRCTC can Learn from redBus Cloud Imple-
evolve and realign her/his thinking to the new trend. mentation?
I’ll take a completely different route to make you June 2009, China
understand what cloud computing is. No theory. I
A Chinese website set up so people can inform on
believe we understand better with examples and
corrupt officials has been inundated with so many
practical scenarios. These scenarios may help you in
visitors that it crashed shortly after launching.
understanding Cloud Computing and its need in
current circumstances. ---BBC
www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 10 -

Perhaps this example made you smile, or perhaps Before you guess, let me provide some facts to help you
you are equally worried as well, regarding the level make a wise guess.
of corruption! No need to worry, because this also Facebook uses 30,000 servers! (as of October, 2009)
signifies a huge number of proactive citizens willing and it’s adding capacity on a daily basis. Sounds weird.
to report it. Look on the bright side.
unofficial estimate predicts the number
of Google servers to be an incredible 1 million in its
October 2009, France world wide data centers!
A website launched by French first lady Carla Bruni The web sites discussed above are not as big as Face-
has crashed on its first day - overwhelmed by the book or Google but their spike in traffic on that partic-
number of users trying to access it at once. ular day may had beaten these giants! Given these kind
---BBC of stats, in order to purchase the necessary number of
servers, the organizations/entities involved will fork
Online mob. Wish I was even half as popular as her! out enough money to make them eligible to file bank-
What inference can we draw from above server ruptcy protection.
crashes? Even if they are financially sound enough to add huge
These examples of server crashes are but a few numbers of servers, just remember the following from
among the hundreds happening almost everywhere our above scenarios/case study:
in the world on a regular basis. What does this indi-
cate? Just one conclusion and that is: Kyazoonga get this exponential surge in the number of
The situation can only get worse. Currently, only hits once in 4 years.
25% of world population, i.e., approximately 1.75
billion people have Internet access. Compared to surge everyday at 8AM to 9AM
Television and other mass media, it’s still considered
an elite medium of communication. If this meager
Internet penetration has lead to such a significant gradually reduced to a normal level in a month or so.
number of crashes, what will happen when the Inter-
net becomes a mass medium? India and China cur- only for a week or so.
rently have approximately 15% or less Internet
penetration. Even a moderate increase in Internet
penetration and usage, say to 50%, will add more The above description clearly shows the following
than a billion Internet users! Definitely, too many trend:
clicks to handle. Going by statistics and backed up by Most of the traffic spikes are predictable and can be
almost double digit GDP growths, they are soon planned for. So adding thousands of servers to handle
going to add to this number. a few days or seasonal spikes in traffic is a humongous
waste of resources.
Can you prevent the above scenarios? Solution: There’s one model or style of
computing (Gartner's phrase) which satisfies the
Most of you will answer: following
Common, Location-independent, Online Utility that

But will adding more servers solve the problem, or is available on Demand.
compound the problems of companies/organizations
that are already on a tight budget? --- (Chan, 2009)
Moreover, how many servers do you think will be
enough to handle that kind of traffic? Take a guess.
100? 1000? … …
So, how is Cloud Computing going to help the enti-
ties mentioned in our above examples? The simple
solution is IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). The
entities (website owners, in our scenario) can simply
use the services of a specialist IaaS cloud provider
for example - Amazon, Rackspace, GoGrid. This
model works just like an electricity subscription, in
the old days, or a mobile phone or Internet usage
subscription in modern times. So
it’s subscription based, or Pay-as-you-go. If your
demand increases, you simply configure your service
to add more infrastructure. Pay-as-you-go ensures you’ll never pay anything extra.
This results in a happy customer, or, perhaps more appropriately, a customer who is delighted to be saving
money.
It’s just like a magic, sort of, in a moment time you can configure your servers to scale up or scale down (size-up
or size down) based on your need.
This is Cloud Computing in plain English. But Cloud computing is indeed a lot more than what you’ve read here
in this article. To know more about it, feel free to download (of course, without any registration hassle) -
http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/09/cloud-computing-ppt-presentation.html
Basant Narayan Singh is a Day-Dreamer, a Software Engineer

by profession, a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist &
an Instrumentation Engineer by education. He loves to de-
sign & develop software on Microsoft .Net platform. Basant
Narayan Singh writes about cloud computing in his technol-
ogy blog at http://techno-pulse.com and can be reached at
http://twitter.com/SinghBasant
This document is a summary of article series Cloud Computing Service: A Basic

Introduction - 1 (http://www.techno-pulse.com/2009/12/cloud-computing-service-
basic.html ) and is shared only for exclusive use by Testing Circus March Edition. Though,
you are free to use short quotes with proper credit, you may not republish this article
without an approval from the author. - Editor

Be an HONEST Tester!
- Vipul Gupta
www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 1 3-

Be an honest tester!
A typical product testing scenario And as this bug is critical in nature, it is a very high
The final round of testing was going on in full swing in a probability that the end user will definitely report it
Product company and the team was under pressure to and that will put us in the soup again. It is better to
certify the product for release. The Project Manager was report something earlier than later!
driving the whole efforts and Test Manager was also re- He asked the tester to report the bug in bug manage-
porting to him. ment system. The tester was very much afraid to do so,
The Project manager was a smart person who, to but then he had faith on his Test Manager and followed
fulfil his interests, wanted testing team to certify the the orders. This was more than enough to irritate the
product with minimal testing and also asked team project manager. The project manager came in and
not to report any issue that they find in the bug shouted at the tester for identifying the issue at the last
management system. This was due to the fact that the moment as this critical issue definitely needs to be
development team slipped their deadlines and to fixed. The project manager went to his room and talked
release the product on time, it cannot go into bug to development team to review and fix the bug. The
fixing iterations. The PM definitely did not want to development team found the possible cause of error
miss the release deadline. and fixed the same.
He was playing safe too. On one hand he was pro- Now the testing team again tested the issue and the
gressing to deliver the product to the market, on the affected areas and found another critical defect, which
other hand he himself was not to loose anything. If again was reported and went to development team for
the product works successfully, he can claim the fixes. The Project manager was now getting red as each
praises of stakeholders and if it crashes in produc- minute was passing as the iterations were increasing
tion, he could easily put the complete blame on test- and the testing team was not following *His orders!
ing team. To safeguard his interests, he wrote an e-mail to all the
As the testing team proceeded further with testing stakeholders. He mentioned that as the testing team is
and as the critical areas were being tested, the team keeping everyone busy and finding the bugs at the last
found a bug… a critical regression bug that got intro- minute of the release cycle, we need to postpone the
duced due to the fixes made for another bug. The release by a day.
team was in a dilemma! If they reported the bug, the The stakeholders called up a meeting and discussed the
Project manager will be literally killing them, but if issues. On analysis, it was found that the bugs reported
they don’t report the bug, they will get the wrath of in the builds are due to the fixes that were being pro-
the top management in case the customer finds it. vided by the development team. The testing team had
As they were struggling to get out of this situation, nothing to do with the stage at which the bug was
the Test Manager came in. Everyone asked him, what getting caught.
to do? Can you predict what happened at the end?
He was very clear in his thoughts and what was Few days later, all the stakeholders praised Test Man-
expected from the testing process. He said, we are ager and testing team in front of the whole group and
into testing business and we are providing a service told that if they released the product with those defects,
to the product team. In case we don’t report this bug, it might have pushed them into legal battles with their
it will be clear that we are not performing our duties. clients.
What is my intention of writing all this?
The testing team often faces pressures like the above one during the product development life cycle, they should
always remain persistent in following the mission that is defined for testing. There will be various people on the
top who will sometimes try to build pressures on you, but remember the fact that though these will be decisive
times for you. Never divert yourself from the mission that you are on! Believe me, doing this, you will not only
get self-satisfaction, but will also gain respect of others.
Vipul Gupta leads the Test Engineering R&D at Impetus Labs. As a resident
testing expert, he is responsible for innovating test engineering methodologies
and designing solutions viz. Test360 Degree (integrated toolset and best prac-
tices for mature software product testing), Test Engineering Maturity Model
and iLeap (best practices based test automation platform), to meet the upcom-
ing trends and demands to overall simplify product testing. As a test architect
he is also involved in defining test strategies for various small to large organi-
zations. Prior to this he managed several large to medium testing assignments,
across different verticals for Impetus’ clients. Vipul is an active contributor to
online testing community and a regular speaker at testing conferences in India
and US. To know what he is doing, follow http://twitter.com/vipsgupta

Promoting Software Testing in Your
Organization
- Rob van Steenbergen

How to promote Testing in Your Organization
I had written on ideas and tips for promoting software presentations; you should avoid being noticed as: "No,
testing in an organization in the last issue of Testing not again the same story.” After telling the story in the
Circus. In this issue I am discussing few more tips. same way too much people will not listen anymore.
Tip: If someone asks you to give a presentation the mirror or for your friend, even your cat or
on testing: always say YES! your dog would be a good audience to practice
One of the tips that I listed down in previous issue on.
was - “If someone asks you to give a presentation on
testing: always say yes! “
The following may happen: presentation. And memorize your presentation
by heart.
meeting with presentations
sentations.
colleagues
you can give the test kick-off presentation And don’t be afraid to give one next week! The sooner
you've always wanted to present you start, the sooner it will show some effect.
department within your organization about

testing. Tip: Decorate your walls!
Well, always say yes when asked in these situations, Promotional testing tips 2 and 3: Place posters about
or be proactive and say you want to give a presentation. testing on a wall, place articles about testing from IT
There are probably even more situations that you can magazines walls (the test wall?).
create for yourself where you can promote testing
with a positive talk about testing or opportunities to Articles from IT magazines and Internet sites
give a presentation to a larger group of people. Certainly there are some interesting articles in IT
magazines and on Web sites that relate to the types of
Well, the main tip with telling the “testing story” is: products that are comparable with the products your
do not repeat yourself too much in the various
organization creates. The articles you pick should be Don’t put a picture of your boss on the poster,
articles that touch the emotions of your colleagues. this is a friendly warning 
Internet of problems in comparable products show anywhere, since many people do not
that your organization is producing. have this process memorized (especially the
non-testers can use a reminder).
wall, that was coming from the free magazine Check your specific situation in your organization, are
"The testing planet" I printed in A3 and posted there already a lot of posters hanging around, place it
on the wall. on the wall of the development team, or in a
manager’s office. For example, I once managed to
trying to get ideas to the development, search place the test process on A2 size to the wall of my team
the Internet about the five key areas of manager.
performance testing!
Will this help your mission? Well, nobody knows in
advance. A good example is the success story of
software problems, get them from the Internet Google: "Testing on the toilet".
and put them in the wall for the months to
come (not all at once, just distribute these over Read this story at
time). http://googletesting.blogspot.com/2007/01/introducing-testing-on-toilet.html
Posters of your test projects against the wall How to create a beautiful poster yourself? The Internet
is pretty loaded with tips and tricks
convert to a nice visio workflow, with nice

pictures too? Find the A2 color printer in your you have quite a few results where you can
organization, make a few prints and put them find plenty of tips!
on the wall.
In the next issue – Rob will write more on how to promote
poster and hang up! testing in an organization. Keep reading Testing Circus.
- Editor
A3 size, with the word "bug" underneath?
Rob van Steenbergen is an independent software test consultant from

The Netherlands. In the last 4 years he has been involved in infrastructure
projects and is working now on a desktop virtualization project where he
is testing and coordinating the tests. For more information visit –
www.chickenwings.nl
Rob can be reached at http://twitter.com/rvansteenbergen

Why do Test Tool suppliers
have such a good sale?
- Marcel Hogenhout
Why do Test Tool suppliers
have such a good sale?
More and more organizations buy, often very

expensive, licences for having the opportunities
to use test tooling and test automation in their
organization. Have new licenses or planning to buy some!? That
sounds nice in itself, but now it appears that we are
Test automation makes a great development at not quite able to deal with all these tools. Take care
this moment and surely can help you simplify or of "just" to purchase (additional) licenses, we must
accelerate your testing, or can take care of make sure that, apart from a well-run development
executing very complex test cases for you. But... process, we implement the tooling / test automation
seriously and structured. I notice now at projects
or organizations that they deploy the tools and
Unfortunately a poorer development is that lots actually not (yet) have the abilities to use them...
of organizations buy licences from tool providers
because of their good Sales Managers, instead of A test tool should not be an purpose in itself, but
the right reasons: helping them to test more an "aid" that supports one or more test activities,
efficient and effective. Sales are very able to have including planning and management, specification,
smooth presentation at the customer, with demo's building (initial) test files, test execution and
of how well their (test) tools can do "the" work analysis. Even just for the sake of completeness I
and how quick and simple tests can be automated will briefly explain a structured selection and
and then executed. Organizations then take the implementation process of (testing) tools.
risk in buying the tools (or licences) and don't
really know what to do with it. In most cases, after Formally, you would have to go through the next
buying the licences, their test professionals are selection process, with a structured tool evaluation:
instructed to do all the testing with these tools
from now on, even test types that are not suitable Preparation:
for automation! Identify and quantify the problem;
Consider alternative solutions;
Prepare a business case;

Identify terms; Identifying real test architecture;
Identify required tool features and Scripting techniques;
characteristics. Naming conventions;
Configuration management of testware;
Step 2: Manage expectations;
Step 3: Provide training (specialists, users), ideally

an implementation team is working full time on a
pilot project of between 3 and 6 months. Hereby
develop a minimum number of roles:
Champion: the driving force behind the
implementation;
Change agent: planning and managing the
implementation (including the pilot project);
Tool custodian: responsible for technical
Selection and Demo: support and consultancy.
Compile a list of possible tools;
Perform a more detailed assessment. Step 4: Setting up the tool organization;
Proof of concept: Step 5: Pilot in a number of projects;

Perform a competitive test / trial run, and
possibly, if necessary: Step 6: Evaluate;
Identify required changes to the testing
process; Step 7: Roll out the tool.
Collect metrics;
Determine actual costs and benefits. These steps are to prevent inappropriate or
unnecessary tools purchased that ultimately end
Decision (to take): up the "shelf"!
If positive:
Based on a successful evaluation; For completeness here is why you would you
Negotiate with the tool provider; automate testing?
Buy tool (and / or licenses). Saving time (faster testing);
If rejected / failed: Saving money (cheaper testing);
Restart process; Increasing quality (better testing, more
(If necessary). complex testing);
"Motivating testers" (testers find it nice ...);
Then, a well performed implementation will have Regression testing with less effort.
the following steps:
When to automate testing?
Step 1: Plan the implementation process (start If many tests must be performed (complex);
with a small project to live up to the business case Many iterations of the same test (regression);
and to develop a standard approach to use the The testing process should be structured!
tool in your organization), by:

Especially the last bullet is important. First bring structure to the process and only then use tools! In
other words, automation of chaos results in computerized automation of chaos! Moreover, first start
small and use pilots ...
So please observe the pitfalls:

Test automation requires a structured test process;
Test automation requires a structured selection and implementation process;
Range of test tools is overwhelming, research, expertise and a selection process is necessary.
Summarized; Structure your test process first, by implementing or improve the right policy and strategy
in your organization. Remember, automate a chaotic test process will result in an automated chaos...
Contact me (www.marcelhogenhout.nl) if you have any questions on the above or want me to help you
with Test Process Improvement, with use market standards like TPI Next, combined with best practices
like the "Quality Blueprint" and "Life Cycle Testing".
Marcel Hogenhout is a testing advisor, with 13 years

of experience in the software testing industry.
Experiences: testing expertise & -design, information
analyse, test- & project management, portfolio
management, process improvement and community
lead testing (@ Getronics and Capgemini). Currently
he is Operational Director & Test Advisor @ Praegus,
an organization with high potential test professionals
with a great focus on test automation, cloud & testing,
test process & -policy and workshops. In 2001 Marcel won a quality reward for an e-test
proposition. Besides testing, Marcel is passionate about gadgets, cloud, SaaS, Web 2.0, Google
and Social Media. Marcel loves music, movies, swimming and poker. Marcel can always be found
at testing events & conferences.
Marcel can be reached at

http://www.marcelhogenhout.nl & http://twitter.com/marcelhogenhout

Automation Assisted Manual Testing
- Trish Khoo

Automation Assisted Manual Testing
Sometimes testing is like pouring a bucket of confetti Here's an example of a Ruby script to generate a
on a snow leopard. Have you ever tried pouring a somewhat unique email address in the format
bucket of confetti on a snow leopard? Probably not, joe+[random word]@example.com:
but now that the thought occurs to you, don’t you
really want to know what happens? That’s like testing dict = File.open('DictionaryFile')
– you want to know what happens when you do lines = dict.readlines
something. But before you can shower the snow email = "joe+" + lines[rand(lines.size)].rstrip +
leopard with confetti, you have to buy the confetti, "@example.com"
steal the bucket, walk to the zoo, distract the guards, `echo #{email} | clip`
break into the leopard enclosure and lure the leopard puts email
out with kitty treats. It’s pretty tedious stuff, and all
you wanted to do was the fun stuff at the end. Don’t The script uses a text file which contains a long list of
you wish there was a shortcut? dictionary words. It selects a word at random from the
file, creates a string in the format of the email address
Tenuous metaphors aside, shortcuts to do tedious that I need, and copies the string to my clipboard, ready
stuff are full of win and not difficult to set up. If you to be pasted into the form I am testing.
already use tools to automate tests, it’s just a matter
of making some handy methods to do common tasks. Go faster! Linking data generation to hotkeys
Do you already have a test that steals buckets for you?
Just modify it so that you can substitute whatever My latest fad is to link up data generation to hotkeys. If
values you need to help you do your manual testing you’re using a Mac, you can use the lovely Keyboard
and hey presto, you’re already well on your way to Maestro for this. Otherwise if you’re on Windows (like
pouring paper on an endangered species. I am), you can use the less glamorous AutoHotkey,
which gave my antivirus software a small panic attack
One simple way to speed things up is to automate data when I installed it (which I just ignored, with no dire
generation. Chances are that in your everyday testing, consequences so far). Once installed, take a look at the
you often require data in a particular format, or tutorial. It’s quite easy to follow.
unique data. Each type you have to think up unique
data and type it in you waste valuable time and, more At my workplace we already had a few little data
importantly, you risk losing focus on your original generation scripts written in Ruby, so it was a simple
task. matter to hook them up to some hotkeys using
AutoHotkey, like so:

#w::Run ruby random_words.rb 2
#e::Run ruby random_email.rb
#c::Run Ruby random_campaign.rb
Respectively, these lines do the following:

Windows key + w = Generates 2 random words and copies them to my clipboard.
Windows key + e = Generates a randomized email address that will still point to my account and copies it to my
clipboard.
Windows key + c = Randomly selects a URL from a list of test email campaigns and copies it to my clipboard.
Trish Khoo works as the Test Lead for Campaign Monitor in Sydney,
Australia. She writes a testing blog at http://trishkhoo.com, occasionally
helps out with Weekend Testing Australia / New Zealand, and organizes
meetups for testers in Sydney.
Trish can be reached at http://twitter.com/hogfish

Exploratory Testing Wikipedia
Information from Internet!
Exploratory testing er in his book Testing Computer Software and expanded

Exploratory testing is an approach to software testing upon in Lessons Learned in Software Testing. Exploratory
that is concisely described as simultaneous learning, testing can be as disciplined as any other intellectual
test design and test execution. Cem Kaner, who coined activity.
the term in 1983, now defines exploratory testing as "a Description
style of software testing that emphasizes the personal Exploratory testing seeks to find out how the software
freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to actually works, and to ask questions about how it will
continually optimize the quality of his/her work by handle difficult and easy cases. The quality of the test-
treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, ing is dependent on the tester's skill of inventing test
and test result interpretation as mutually supportive cases and finding defects. The more the tester knows
activities that run in parallel throughout the project." about the product and different test methods, the better
While the software is being tested, the tester learns the testing will be.
things that together with experience and creativity gen- To further explain, comparison can be made of freestyle
erates new good tests to run. Exploratory testing is exploratory testing to its antithesis scripted testing. In
often thought of as a black box testing technique. In- this activity test cases are designed in advance. This
stead, those who have studied it consider it a test ap- includes both the individual steps and the expected
proach that can be applied to any test technique, at any results. These tests are later performed by a tester who
stage in the development process. The key is not the test compares the actual result with the expected. When
technique nor the item being tested or reviewed; the performing exploratory testing, expectations are open.
key is the cognitive engagement of the tester, and the Some results may be predicted and expected; others
tester's responsibility for managing his or her time. may not. The tester configures, operates, observes, and
evaluates the product and its behaviour, critically in-
History vestigating the result, and reporting information that
seems like to be a bug (which threatens the value of the
Exploratory testing has always been performed by product to some person) or an issue (which threatens
skilled testers. In the early 1990s, ad hoc was too often the quality of the testing effort).
synonymous with sloppy and careless work. As a re-
sult, a group of test methodologists (now calling them- In reality, testing almost always is a combination of
selves the Context-Driven School) began using the term exploratory and scripted testing, but with a tendency
"exploratory" seeking to emphasize the dominant towards either one, depending on context.
thought process involved in unscripted testing, and to According to Cem Kaner & James Bach, exploratory
begin to develop the practice into a teachable discipline. testing is more a mindset or "...a way of thinking about
This new terminology was first published by Cem Kan- testing" than a methodology. They also say that it cross-

es a continuum from slightly exploratory (slightly am- Usage
biguous or vaguely scripted testing) to highly Exploratory testing is particularly suitable if require-
exploratory (freestyle exploratory testing). ments and specifications are incomplete, or if there is
The documentation of exploratory testing ranges from lack of time. The approach can also be used to verify
documenting all tests performed to just documenting that previous testing has found the most important
the bugs. During pair testing, two persons create test defects.
cases together; one performs them, and the other docu- Content Source
ments. Session-based testing is a method specifically
designed to make exploratory testing auditable and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_testing
measurable on a wider scale. ____________________________________________
Exploratory testers often use tools, including screen
capture or video tools as a record of the exploratory
session, or tools to quickly help generate situations of
interest, e.g. James Bach's Perlclip.
Benefits and drawbacks
The main advantage of exploratory testing is that less
preparation is needed, important bugs are found quick-
ly, and at execution time, the approach tends to be more
intellectually stimulating than execution of scripted
tests. Make A Single Donation
Another major benefit is that testers can use deductive A massive earthquake, the seventh largest re-
reasoning based on the results of previous results to corded in history, struck the east coast of Japan
guide their future testing on the fly. They do not have on Friday 11 March.
to complete a current series of scripted tests before
focusing in on or moving on to exploring a more target The earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter
rich environment. This also accelerates bug detection scale, triggered a tsunami which hit the east
when used intelligently. coast of Japan with 7-metre-high waves, leav-
Another benefit is that, after initial testing, most bugs ing a trail of destruction.
are discovered by some sort of exploratory testing. This
can be demonstrated logically by stating, "Programs More than 2,000 people have died in the disas-
that pass certain tests tend to continue to pass the same ter and some 2,000 are injured. The number of
tests and are more likely to fail other tests or scenarios confirmed dead is expected to rise to around
that are yet to be explored." 10,000. The earthquake triggered fires and
caused severe damage to buildings, leaving 1.2
Disadvantages are that tests invented and performed million homes without electricity and 1.4 mil-
on the fly can't be reviewed in advance (and by that lion without water.
prevent errors in code and test cases), and that it can be
difficult to show exactly which tests have been run. More than 500,000 people have been evacuated
Freestyle exploratory test ideas, when revisited, are and are being housed in temporary centres set
unlikely to be performed in exactly the same manner, up in schools and public buildings where the
which can be an advantage if it is important to find new Red Cross is distributing thousands of blankets.
errors; or a disadvantage if it is more important to
repeat specific details of the earlier tests. This can be http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-
controlled with specific instruction to the tester, or by Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-
preparing automated tests where feasible, appropriate, Appeal
and necessary, and ideally as close to the unit level as
possible.

Testing Circus
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A Fake Tester’s Diary
Status Report
By Fake Software Tester
Julius Caesar was warned “Beware of the ides of March”. and any questions during this period from the client would
This seemed to make a lot of sense to Tanash when he updated be handled by their onsite counterparts.
his diary for the events that transpired at the project kick-off The first 10 minutes
meeting on March 1 2011. The 1st ten minutes were spent on Introductions. Although
Following his training program and induction from the ear- everybody knew everybody, everyone went through the mun-
lier months, Delspe (Tanash’s manager, the Delegation Spe- dane process of introductions since the company’s process for
cialist) assigned the task (delegated, rather) of listing down kick-off meetings mandated this process. Tanash introduced
the all the relevant “Bug Status” fields for the project and himself as the tester and almost immediately, the process
present it as part of the project kick-off meeting. manager questioned the need for test team members to be
involved from the beginning of the project. With the phone on
The Participants in the Project kick-off meeting mute, people also hinted at high profitability if test team
Almost everyone in “Ele Info Systems” attended this meet- members get involved only at a late stage of the project.
ing. Participants included representatives from develop-
ment, project management, HR, financial teams, certification Delspe stated that they do not want to compromise on quality
manager, networking team, process team, other project team and that’s why they have testers involved from the beginning.
that interacted with the clients, other team that worked on the Ensuring that the phone was still muted, Delspe also men-
same domain, people from marketing and sales team, training tioned to the others that the client was particular on having
department representatives, business analyst team, a set of a tester from beginning, but he’s a low-cost resource and so,
people who were biding time in a maintenance project, etc. it would not affect profitability by all that much. To Tanash,
it seemed that quality had been sacrificed for profitability.
Looking at the crowd, Tanash felt that most of them attended
this meeting only to display their existence. The funniest Tanash’s definition of Statuses
thing was that out of the 30-odd number of people in this When his turn came to speak out, Tanash said --- “Trying to
project, only 2 or 3 would be working hands-on in the project. keep the statuses simple, I propose to have only 2 statuses for
a defect – Open and Closed. Open would be evidence that
Apart from the above crowd, the onsite team and client the bug is still around in the system, and Closed would be
representatives also attended this meeting through a telecon- evidence that the bug is not in the system anymore. That’s
ference. The unwritten understanding was that the offshore all, folks!”
teams would keep the phone in mute, whenever they need to
discuss something that they did not want the client to know, Stunned silence all around. Then, everyone started talking.

The developers spoke first. They said – “We need to identify to classify what you have seen and what you have not?”
defects that are resolved by us, but are not yet tested by the Delspe whispered into Tanash’s ear “Since those onsite folks
test team. Let’s have a status Fixed!” usually don’t know about the project and the clients keep
The project manager with an eye for metrics spoke next. He

said – “We would also need to identify defects which have
been opened and not fixed properly by Dev. Let’s have a new
status called – Reopened.” And he whispered to Tanash ---
“That way, I’d also have a bigger status report. Heh heh!!!”
The Database administrator, who was in a deep sleep, sud-

denly woke up. He said --- “What if I cannot re-create the
defect on my machines?” Tanash replied --- “But does it ever
occur to you that defects are not a figment of our imagination,
and that it’s only since they occurred tat we file them in the
1st place?” Giving him an angry glare, the administrator
ignores Tanash and tells Delspe “That doesn’t matter. If I
cannot re-create it, I cannot fix it.” Delspe plays pacifier and
adds a new status called “Non-Reproducible”!
Another developer speaks up. “What if I see a defect which is

already logged earlier?”. Tanash says “Then simply close badgering them for this information.” And a defect status
one of the two defects. Life would be much simpler”! Taking called NEW is added.
a cue from the database administrator, this developer ignores
Tanash and tells Delspe “We need to track the number of The onsite folks talk again. He says “What if I don’t under-
such defects separately. This would also be a parameter for stand a defect?”. Tanash says “then, please call me. I am just
effective testing”. The process manager nodded his agreement a phone call away”. The onsite folks tell him “Maybe we may
saying “We are a CMMi5 company and cannot afford not to be looking into something of higher priority and may not have
follow CMMi standards.” Tanash says “When 15 testers the time to call you”. Tanash says “In that case, may be the
test a project; duplicate defects would definitely come up. defect is not that important at all”. The developer says “We
Don’t you think that the simplest thing would be to close cannot come across to discuss every minor thing. Let’s add
them and continue? What I…” The client’s voice on the another status – Need more information!!!” Tanash felt
telephone says “Let’s add a status DUPLICATE!” Nobody overpowered!!!
questions the client. The sales and marketing folks were heard
telling the client “It’s a brilliant idea!” They also went on toLooking up from his blackberry where he was following the
add “We are thrilled to see you being so participative in our cricket world cup scores, the business analyst speaks up now.
calls. We are happy to see you treat us as an extension of your He says “What if I don’t agree if it is a defect?” An exasper-
company…..” Tanash tuned out!!! ated Tanash says “If you don’t agree, then close it!!!” The
Development manager thinks and says “I have an objective
Having been silent for so long and wanting to contribute to to have fewer defects. Let’s add another status – Rejected!!!”
the meeting, the onsite counterpart says “We would need a Delspe simply nods in agreement.
classification for defects so that our client’s would know that
a defect has been raised, but not have been looked into yet, The BA continues “Hey, I want a status to indicate I have not
since it’s not yet been assigned.” Tanash said “You have to yet looked into the defect. Can we add a status?” Tanash says
look into each defect based on the priority. Why do you want “But isn’t it your 1st priority to look into defects? Defect

triages can go for a long time, you know”. The meeting
manager, having been silent till now, speaks up and says The testing manager who loved interviewing was heard say-
“Let’s add 2 statuses – To be triaged, Being Triaged. Every ing “Hey, that's 1 great bug life-cycle that you've got in here.
morning, we'll do a small triage to decide the defects that Now onwards, asking the defect life cycle is a part of our
have to be triaged on that day and add it to the "Being interviews and if anyone gets a status wrong, they cannot
Triaged" bucket. We'll leave the others in the "To be become a tester at our company. That way, we would hire
triaged".”. The client speaks up and says “Very innovative only smart testers!!!”
and an exemplary suggestion”. And the sales and marketing
team sing praises of the client once more, which I am not Exerpts from Tanash’s
mentioning here since it is too redundant. thoughts… Today, I learnt how we
complicate our life to satisfy idiots. I
Now the engineering director mutes the phones and speaks also learnt to create a complex solu-
up “We need to indicate defects which we will fix in a tion to a simple problem. Bug statuses are created for conven-
subsequent release. After the meeting’s over, add another ience. Why do we let them “inconvenience” ourselves? I
status – Deferred”!!! understand that I made a mistake suggesting only two stat-
ues. But do we really need 27 bug statuses for our project?
The training department representative says “Hey, this de-
fect is assigned to a developer. But what if he is yet to fix it?” And… 35 people spent 1 hour at this call. That means 35
Tanash says “So? Add a new status To be fixed. That way, hours of productivity has been lost, but this has been billed to
everyone would know I am working on this defect, but am yet the client. Should not the focus be more on productivity,
to fix it. And, also do add 2 more statuses Defect By design, quality, instead of “Client Satisfaction” and
Existing System limitation” The process and metrics “Profitability”? Where are we headed? Where are these
managers nod their agreement and say “Excellent idea!!!” leaders leading us?
The meeting goes on for some more time and more statuses Keep reading future issues of Testing Circus to know more!!!
are added --- Not a Defect, Partially Fixed, Re-assigned, Do you have anything to say about fake testing practices?
Withdrawn, Redundant, Pending retest, Pending reject, Write to us. faketester@testingcircus.com
Remind Me Later, Unconfirmed at the start, Won't fix,
Works for me, Verified in QA Env”. By the way, have you seen the blog on fake software testing?
Here it - http://fakesoftwaretester.blogspot.com
Originally the two nominated defect status list now read -
Open, Closed, Fixed, Reopened, Non-Reproducible, New, [A fake Tester’s Diary was first published in Testing
Duplicate, Need more Information, Rejected, To be Triaged, Circus January issues. New Readers are encouraged to
Being Triaged, Deferred, Defect by Design, Existing System read the January and February issues to understand the
Limitation, Not a Defect, Partially Fixed, Re-assigned, With- journey of Tanash as software tester. – Editor]
drawn, Redundant, Pending retest, Pending reject, Remind
Me Later, Unconfirmed at the start, Won't fix, Works for me,
Verified in QA Env!!!!!
The client says that it’s his lunch time and so, everyone ended
the call.
The training manager was heard saying "Wow. Let's draw

an enormous defect life cycle diagram and add the defect
Life-cycle as a separate course in our curriculum!!!”

*
Software Testing News
4th NCR Testers Monthly Meet Vipul Gupta concluded the meeting with his closing
comments thanking Initto being a good host and Indian
4th NCR Testers Monthly meet was held on 12th Testing Board for supporting the meets going.
of March in Initto Technologies India in Gurgaon. The
NCRTMM has decided to conduct a full day software
meet was attended by more than 40 testers from NCR
testing conference on 16th April in Noida. The theme is
region. A brainchild of Vipul Kocher, Ajoy Singha and
Agile and Automation – Software Testing Trends. This
Vipul Gupta, the main objective to start NCRTMM is to
meet is expected to be attended by celebrated speakers
build formal/informal platform learning, sharing and
from all over India.
solving problems related to software testing.
Few highlights of the meet of the fourth meet. Ajoy
Singha opened the talk and invited Ritesh Sinha, Direc- Ofqual blames flawed software
tor – Testing of Initto Technologies to for a welcome
talk. Later Mona Thakur of Initto shared few facts and testing for 'A' level grading errors
best practices adopted in testing arena in Initto. Lalit Examinations regulator Ofqual has highlighted three IT
Agrawal then presented a topic on the trends of regres- problems with the marking system that caused thou-
sion testing. Manoj Papneja of FIS Global presented sands of students to receive incorrect GCSE and A-level
how continuous integration can help automation marks in 2010.
projects. Manoj’s talk was well discussed and well in-
A report from Ofqual has highlighed shortcomings in
teracted by attendees. This was followed by tea break.
the way the examination board, Assessment and Qual-
Navneet Sharma then started the key notes on module ifications Alliance (AQA), dealt with project manage-
champion versus reshuffling project resources. He dis- ment, user acceptance testing (UAT), and software
cussed pros and cons of keeping and not-keeping the training for its onscreen marking system, used by GCSE
same person in same project for a long time. Amit 'A' level examiners.
Kumar of Tarara Systems then shared his thoughts on
The marking system was extended to support longer,
what to do and what not to do in software testing. Ajoy
written answers to exam questions. However the
Singha of HCL Technologies emphasized the role of
project to extend the system to support this did not
software testers outside routine work in office. R Sai of
adhere to project management best practices, according
Adobe discussed on what we should learn from our
to the examination regulator.
frustrations.
The failure in the system, which was used to mark 3.3
Anju Bala of IBM India and Ajay Sharma of Firstrain
million GCSE and 'A' Level exam papers in the summer
discussed how to update regression suite and how to
of 2010, resulted in 3,353 students receiving incorrect
get rid of regression monster using automation tool.
marks and 622 being issued incorrect qualification
grades.
*News in Hindi Script.
"AQA could have identified the failure earlier if more Ranga Reddy, CEO of Maveric Systems, says the com-
effective risk assessment and arrangements for han- pany failed to take advantage of the opportunity over
dling and reporting problems concerning the onscreen the last two years when the Indian BFSI segment was
marking of scripts had been in place," said Ofqual. opening up. It is now trying to shift senior management
Isabel Nisbet, chief executive of Ofqual, said: "Factors people from Chennai to Mumbai and also in the process
that contributed to the marking error included limited of hiring executives to dedicate leadership for the Indi-
piloting of the on-screen marking system, a lack of an market.
effective risk assessments and deficiencies in the role Source -
and training of examiners on the system." http://www.mydigitalfc.com/opportunities/software-testing-firms-shift-
focus-india-825
Ofqual also says AQA did not treat the extension of the
system as a new project, which meant project manage-
ment method, Prince 2 (Projects In Controlled Environ-
Testing Circus Blog

ments, version two) was not used and project managers
and business analysts were not assigned to the project. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The regulator's report outlines a "lack of rigour" around See our blog for discus-
user acceptance testing.
sion on software testing
In the report, Ofqual states that the absence of proper
user acceptance testing process meant some of the like- topics. Topic that is cur-
ly process errors were not picked up before the system rently discussed is
was used in a live marking environment.
“Good and Bad Interview Ques-
"The onscreen marking software for the June 2010 ex-
aminations was released later than expected. Testing tions in Software Testing.” Many of
was undertaken by IT staff rather than the end users. our readers have given their opinion
The testing focused on the technical functionality of the
marking software rather than looking at the whole already. You can too post your opinion
process," said the report. in the form of comments. Let us make
Source - the discussion interactive. We will
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2011/02/23/245563/Ofqual-
blames-flawed-software-testing-for-39A39-level-grading.htm publish the summarized form of the
discussion in our magazine’s future
Software testing firms shift focus issue.
to India
Independent software testing firms are focusing on http://testingcircus.blogspot.com/
India to offset sluggish growth in key markets such as
Europe. Few responses that we got from twitter so far -
@riyajshaikh "What is testing?" Good question if it asked
Thinksoft Global Services announced on Wednesday
by who has done testing and bad if who had not done ever
that it is setting up a sales cum delivery centre at And-
and still asking. :)
heri in Mumbai to expand regional presence. Maveric
@gkpandey Bad - what is the diff between smoke/sanity
Systems is also planning to strengthen its presence in
testing. Good - which understanding of differ between
Mumbai by bringing in senior management personnel.
smoke/sanity do you subscribe?
AV Asvini Kumar, MD of Thinksoft Global Services, @vipsgupta Not only who is asking, but to whom it is
said in a statement: “There are mega plans in India as being asked also makes it good/bad. What if you ask a
the BFSI sector in the country is yet to exploit the poten- fresher about this?
tial of IT deployment.”

Test Case Writing Practice
In this section we will practice to write test cases on various items, objects and
applications. We do not claim that test cases written here are exhaustive. It is
just to give ideas to testers, beginners on how to approach for writing test cases.
Readers are encouraged to share their views on the test cases.
– Naresh Bisht
Naresh Bisht has over 3 years

experience in Software Testing. He
has hands on experience in both
manual testing as well as
automation testing using QTP and
LoadRunner tools. He is currently
employed with HCL Technologies, Requirement - An
Gurgaon. Naresh has been writing ATM Machine.
test cases writing column in
Testing Circus from the very 1st Objective - To
issue. He is an active contributor in generate and write
testing activities in NCR area of test cases to test an
India.
ATM machine.
Naresh can be reached at
http://twitter.com/Naresh_Bisht
*Actual Results are written when you get to test the actual ATM Machine.

Sr. Actual
Steps to Execute Expected Result Remarks
No. Result*
Check if ATM accepts only valid ATM should not accept invalid, broken
1
(debit/credit/cash) cards. cards.
2 Use an expired card. Expired cards and should be rejected.
3 Check ATM using other bank cards. Should accept other bank cards as well
Check the acknowledge message if card It should show the message "Please insert the
4
is not properly inserted. card properly."
Check for the text "Select your
Message should appear having different
5 Language" option after successfull
language option like Hindi, English
insertion of the card.
Check "Enter your four digit PIN"
6 Message should be displayed on screen.
message on screen.
Check the message in which it asks to
7 generate the balance info slip at the end The message should be displayed.
of transaction.
Check content displaying on screen
8 PIN should displayed in "*" form.
while entering PIN.
Withdraw amount more than maximum Appropirate message should be displayed to
9
allowed limit. warn the ATM user.
Warning message for invalid PIN should be
10 Check validations for invalid PIN
displayed.
Check when user enter invalid PIN
11 Card should be blocked.
more than three times
Check for the different options on screen ATM screen should display different options
12 such as withdraw from the current like mini statement, balance enquiry, fast
account or saving account. cash, cash withdrawal etc.
Amount should be equal to amount asked
13 Verify withdrawal amount from ATM.
for.
Check validation for entering invalid
14 ATM only accept amount multiple of 100.
amount like Rs.50
Check for printed slip after each Paper slip should be generated if user selects
15
transaction. print statement option.
Verify the withdrawal amount and
16 Both amount should be equal and correct.
balance amount in printed slip.
Check for withdraw operation when A message should appear if ATM do not
17
ATM has insufficient cash. have cash
Error message should appear if current
Try to withdraw more than the balance
18 balance is less than the amount entered by
available in the account.
user.
Does the atm machine warn user when "Out of Order" message should be displayed
19
it is out of order. if machine is not working.
Check if cash is not collected by user for Cash should be taken back by the ATM if the
20
30 sec. cash is not collected by user with in 30 sec.
What happens when card is withdrawn
21 Welcome message should be displayed.
or transaction is completed by the user.

Testers at Twitter
Phil Kirkham
A programmer who got test infected
http://expectedresults.blogspot.com/
345 Following
362 Followers
33 Listed
http://twitter.com/pkirkham
Shmuel Gershon
I test software. Stats: 5 kids, 4 rooms, 3 cages, 2 buses, 1 tweet ac‐
count.
http://testing.gershon.info
348 Following
283 Followers
24 Listed
http://twitter.com/sgershon
Markus Gärtner
Tester with special interests in Agile methodologies and software
craftsmanship, CSM, black‐belt tester in Miagi‐do school, author,
conference speaker
http://www.shino.de/blog
445 Following
768 Followers
75 Listed
http://twitter.com/mgaertne
Michael Larsen
Software Tester, Podcast Producer, Instructor, Weekend Testing
Americas Co‐Founder, Husband & Dad, Boy Scout Leader, Snow‐
boarder... pretty much sums it up :).
http://mkl‐testhead.blogspot.com/
170 Following
311 Followers
33 Listed
http://twitter.com/mkltesthead

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INTERVIEW WITH TESTERS
DARREN MCMILLAN
Organization – Sword Ciboodle
Role/Designation – Software Test Engineer
Location – Glasgow, Scotland
Q: How long have you been associated with software testing? is write stuff. That’s what I and many others want to change.
And how did you become a software tester? I really do think the community is doing a fantastic job of it
A: It’s been close to four years now, having finished up as a already, bringing more of an understanding of what testers
fresh faced graduate from University and falling into the land actually do to each other.
of software testing by chance, having applied to become a It’s bringing that understanding into a common language
Network Engineer with the company I now work for. which is understood by all that’s the problem. Just now I
I remember it well; I was running late for a university class think we are some way off from that, having about twenty
one morning and was just about to catch the train that would definitions for every discussed technique.
have gotten me to my lecture with minutes to spare, when my The bigger challenge though is bringing an understanding
phone started ringing. I took the call, missed my train and that “testers don’t just test” to the rest of the world. That’s
spent the next ten minutes discussing a role as a tester with a challenge we can begin to solve in our workplaces by
the personnel manager of what was then called Graham bringing understanding of what the modern day role of a
Technologies. If I’m being honest I wasn’t expecting to take the tester is and how it has evolved from traditional views of
job, but I went along for the interview in the hope that it would what a tester should and shouldn’t do.
give me some more experience for when a role as a Network
Engineer came along. Q: Do you think software testing is less respected than other
The next day I got a phone call saying I’d been offered the job, departments in IT industry?
cool I thought, but I had another interview lined up for a role A: Possibly, but I think most of that is down to ourselves
I really wanted in the field I’d studied in, so I went along to sometimes. Do I think documenters earn less respect than
that and got offered that position as well. developers? Possibly, but I think that’s down to them as well.
So sadly I informed the first company I’d not be taking the If you demonstrate your skills as a testing to others, you’ll
position after all. That day I received a phone call from the quickly earn their respect. If you collaborate with them
personnel manager who’d interviewed me for the first role. solving difficult problems you’ll earn their respect. If you
After about thirty minutes of buttering me up as I’d call it and take the time to show you care they’ll respect you even more.
offering me more money I said I’d give it some serious thought. Here’s a pro tip that will instantly earn you the respect of
So here I am nearly four years later as a Software Tester, others, well three tips: Communicate, communicate,
probably down to money if I’m being honest, but hey! Perhaps communicate! While we’re in there why don’t we toss in
it was fate? I’d certainly like to think so, as to me this role has another three pro tips: Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate!
become more than just a nine to five job; it’s a hobby that I love! Seriously, don’t underestimate the power of both, they’ll not
only gain you respect, they’ll make you job so much easier.
Q: By any means, do you regret being associated with software They’ll get you places too!
testing?
A: I dislike the stigma that some associate with it. I dislike the Q: What will you suggest to people who want to join IT
lack of understanding in our field by non testers and testers industry as software testers?
alike. Testers just test right? Developers, umm, they write A: Firstly just like any job I’d ask you to make sure you’d
code? Those documentation guys, hmm, well all they ever do actually enjoy it. Now that’s the great thing about testing,
INTERVIEW WITH TESTERS
Darren McMillan has been working in the testing field for just over three years now.
Having only become aware of the vibrant online testing community in the past year, he is
already making big impressions via his web viral blog http://bettertesting.co.uk
With a genuine passion for all things testing he actively seeks to solve the problems others
tend to accept. Having quickly made waves in his workplace he is now seeking to share his
experiences with others, in the hope that he can help people near and a far. He strongly
believes that opportunities are there to be taken & actively promotes self learning to others.
When he is not testing or writing about his experiences he enjoys nothing more than some
quite family time. A proud father to a beautiful daughter he hopes that from leading by
example he’ll encourage her to follow her own dreams.
Blog/Site – http://bettertesting.co.uk
Twitter Url – http://twitter.com/darren_mcmillan
we have that open forum to try it out with others via I’d preferably want you to come to me with your skills on
activities such as the Weekend Testing chapters all over the display. If you’ve got a blog and write about your experiences
world.Secondly if you find you do like it, share your in testing then you’ve probably got my interest already. If
experiences with others! There must be about two hundred you participate in Weekend Testing sessions or can display
testing blogs around now? People might be scared they’ve me some form of testing report and I like what I see you’ll no
missed their chance for an early audience to share their doubt get an interview.
experiences with. We’ll you’ve not! If you’ve got I’m less interested in what you can say and more on what you
interesting things to say, people will listen! Now you could can do! Anyone can answer questions, but how many can
also reverse that question and ask yourselves “Why do you test?
think people don’t want to join the IT industry as software
testers?” How many like me found a love for testing when Q: Your weekend routine?
they didn’t have intentions to be testers in the first place? A: Weekends for me are family time! A might get onto
Well no one’s teaching testing right? How many Twitter a little bit, but apart from that I’ll be spending quality
universities offer dedicated courses on Software Testing? time with my beautiful daughter and her talented mum, who
despite everything I achieve or might achieve in the future
Q: Where do you see software testing in next five years? will always outshine me just because she’s such a wonderful
A: People think it’ll change a lot! I don’t. Sure new mother.
technologies and tools will appear which will make things
easier and harder in some cases. However, the role overall I Q: Movie you would like to watch again?
don’t think will change much.I hope that understanding of A: I’m a big fan of films! It doesn’t even require a good plot
testing will improve. Hopefully more will recognise that for me to enjoy it, just some action and I’m happy.
traditional testing methods don’t work in reality and instead A film I watched not so long ago that I’d like to watch again
work to becoming diverse, multi talented, social creatures would probably be Kick Ass! What an amazing film!
that all good modern day testers are.Who knows perhaps in I’d probably have to go with “Fallen” though since it’s one of
five years time I’ll hire a graduate with a degree in Software my only favourites that I’ve not watched in a few years.
Testing?We can’t tell the future, what we can do though is
make paths towards a better, brighter future for all. Q: “I am a social networking site geek” Or “I hate facebook
/orkut / twitter”?
Q: What qualities will you look for in a candidate when you A: What’s Facebook? Seriously I don’t have one, or want one
want to recruit someone for software testing job? for that matter. I do love Twitter though!
A: A good communication skill is a key! A bit of an ego is ok. In fact I could write a whole blog about Twitter and how
A bad attitude is a no no! I want team players, who all have useful it has been in gathering information about testing for
their own qualities that compliment the team. They can be as me. If I don’t talk to you on Twitter already, look me up and
opinionated as they like, just as long as we’re all working let’s get to know each other! I love getting to know other
towards the same goal. testers.

We need people from all over the world.
Become a Testing Circus Representative
(TCR)
Visit our web site for more information.

http://www.TestingCircus.com/TCR.aspx

First edition | June 23rd, 2011
June 23rd 2011, Stadion Galgenwaard,

Utrecht - The Netherlands
Today, 'Test automation' is a much talked about topic in the
world of software testing and quality. The next generation test
tools facilitates a faster, better and cost-effective test process.
So there is much to gain, but only if we use the right tool in
the right place.
This challenge in the “World of Testing” has led to the

first edition of the annual Conference for test automation
practitioners and experts on June 23rd:
Test Automation Day 2011!
The program consists of (inter)national keynote speakers,

best practices and workshops. In collaboration with an
independent Program Committee, CKC Seminars ensures an
interesting day with lots of Test Automation content.
The speakers will contribute to the main theme:
“Optimizing the profits of the next generation Test Tools.”
One of the top experts presenting on the Test Automation

Day 2011 will be Elfriede Dustin, Software Engineer at
Innovative Defense Technologies (USA) and author
of the book 'Implementing Automated Software
Testing: How to Save Time and Lower Costs While
Raising Quality' (2009).
In short: This is the 2011 Test Event not to be missed!
Register before April 1st, and receive an early bird

discount of E100,- excl VAT.
A unique chance to visit this conference for only E195,- excl VAT!
Register now at www.testautomationday.nl
Conference organization and initiative CKC Seminars | Founding partner Squerist

Testing Circus is everywhere.
Recommend it to your your tester friends.

Problem: Is it possible to shorten the long line of code in QTP?
Solution: Yes it is possible, You just need to define some temp object like below and you would
be able to replace long code with short words
‘The long sample code
1. Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway").Link("Train Type Information").Click
2. Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_2").Link("Train Berth Availability").Click
3. Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_3").WebEdit("lccp_src_stncode_dis").Set "new delhi"
4. Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_3").WebEdit("lccp_dstn_stncode_dis").Set "bang"
5. Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian
Railway_3").WebButton("Get Details").Click
Railway_4").WebRadioGroup("lccp_trndtl").Select "12628NDLSSBC YYYYYYYYA"
Railway_4").Link("+KARNATAKA EXP").Click
Railway_5").WebRadioGroup("lccp_trndtl").Select "12650NZM YPR YYYNYNYYA"
9. Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_5").Link("+KTK
SMPRK K EXP").Click
Railway_5").WebList("lccp_quota").Select "Defence Quota"
Railway_5").WebButton("Get Full Fare").Click
'Define temp objects

Set page1=Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway")
Set page2=Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_2")
Set page3=Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_3") Jaijeet Pandey has over 5 and half
Set page4=Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_4") years of experience in Application
Set page5=Browser("Welcome to Indian Railway").Page("Welcome to Indian Railway_5") Development, Maintenance and
Testing. From more than last 4 years
'Short Sample Code
1. page1.Link("Train Type Information").Click he is involved in automation testing
2. page2.Link("Train Berth Availability").Click with QTP and Load Runner tools.
3. page3.WebEdit("lccp_src_stncode_dis").Set "new delhi" He is associated with various testing
4. page3.WebEdit("lccp_dstn_stncode_dis").Set "bang"
initiatives in NCR region of India.
5. page3.WebButton("Get Details").Click
6. page4.WebRadioGroup("lccp_trndtl").Select "12628NDLSSBC YYYYYYYYA"
Jaijeet writes his blog at
7. page4.Link("+KARNATAKA EXP").Click http://jaijeetpandey.blogspot.com
8. page5.WebRadioGroup("lccp_trndtl").Select "12650NZM YPR YYYNYNYYA"
9. page5.Link("+KTK SMPRK K EXP").Click He is currently employed with
10. page5.WebList("lccp_quota").Select "Defence Quota" Birlasoft, Noida. He can be reached
11. page5.WebButton("Get Full Fare").Click at http://twitter.com/jaijeetpandey

NCR Testers Monthly Meet (NCRTMM) Software Testing Conference
16th April 2011 – Noida, India
Call for Papers

In any profession continuous learning is the sure sign of progress.
For continuous learning, learning culture has to be in place. The
learning culture gets developed either as an individual discipline or
as an outcome of organizational environment where learning and
application of the learning happens in a seamless manner. With the
goal to further learning in the domain of testing, Indian Testing
Board has launched NCR Testers Monthly Meet (NCRTMM) where
Where to submit: testers come together at regular intervals and teach and learn.
Send your paper to NCRTMM started its meet in December 2010 and has continued its
monthly meets till date. As a part of its monthly meet, NCRTMM
ncr@indiantestingboard.com has decided to organize a full day Software Testing
conference in Noida on 16th April 2011. This conference
Important Dates – is focused on exploring innovations, controversies, and challenges
faced by the Software Testing community today. The conference
Last date of submission –30th brings together theory and experience to propose and evaluate
March, 2011 solutions to Software Testing problems. The conference also
provides a forum and an opportunity to assess the current state-of-
Notification of Acceptance/ the-art in Software Testing and to chart future directions for the
Rejection – 5th April, 2011 Software Testing community.
Conference Date – 16th April Theme for the conference:

2011
Agile and Automation – Software Testing Trends
Agile is the buzzword in recent times and the word is used to sell any
Organizing Committee – and everything. Automation is a painful thing where framework is a
word used to scare the managers and clients alike. Let us combine
- Vipul Kocher
this fun or take them separately. Bring your papers that lay bare
- Vipul Gupta the mysteries of Agile, Automation and Agile-Automation.
- Ajoy Kumar Singha
Instructions to the Authors:
-----------------------------------
Papers will be accepted ONLY BY ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION in
Venue – Adobe Towers PPT/PDF format. Please include a cover page containing title,
I-1A, Sector 25A, NOIDA author's name, address, affiliation, e-mail address, telephone
number and topic area.
Website –
http://ncr.indiantestingboard.com Write to us at ncr@indiantestingboard.com
Want to write for us?
See our article submission guidelines.
Article submission guidelines –

Subject of article can be based on any area of Software Testing. If you want to publish
your article on theme based subject please read our announcement of monthly theme
published in our site. Article can be submitted without any theme based subject.
There is no minimum and maximum length of article. If you feel the article is lengthy,
please divide the article into logically separated parts so that we can print them in a
monthly series.
Give a meaningful title to the article. If you want a sub-title as well , then add that in a
different line.
Add images/pictures if necessary. If you are using any image/picture which is not yours
own work, please include the source. Take care of copyrighted materials.
Send us the article in MS word (doc/docx) format only. Pdf files are not accepted.
Write a short write up on the author(s). Usually 7/8 liners in 3rd person descriptive
language.
Include photograph of author(s). Preferred in high resolution .jpeg format. Ideal size
would be 50mmX 50mm.
Mention theme and month of article – if applicable.
Send in your article to editor@testingcircus.com with a subject line “Article for Testing
Circus – Author Name – Title of the article”
If you think you can write a column in Testing Circus for at least 6 months, please submit
3 articles in advance. We are open to any idea that may improve the user experience
of Testing Circus.
http://testingcircus.com/ArticleGuidelines.aspx

Testing Circus Team
Founder & Editor‐in‐Chief – Ajoy Kumar Singha
Assistant Editors ‐
Brian Osman (Wellington/New Zealand),
Gagan Talwar (Mumbai/India),
Selim Mia (Tokyo/Japan),
Ajay Sharma (New Delhi/India),
Ashik Elahi (Dhaka/Bangladesh),
Asif Iquebal Sarkar (Bhubaneswar/India)
Core Team – Jaijeet Pandey, Naresh Bisht, Kumar Gaurav, Sunil Godiyal
Publicity Team – Maheepati Tyagi, Amit Agnihotri, Pankaj Sharma
Online Collaboration & Advertisement – Bharati Singha
Technical Team – Debasish Nath, Nasim Ahmed, Rajat Verma
Volume 2 ‐ Issue 3 – March 2011
The contents published in this magazine are copyright material of respective authors. Testing Circus does not hold any right on the
material. To republish any part of the magazine permission need to be obtained from respective authors.
Testing Circus. Published from New Delhi/India. © Copyright 2010‐2011

What do you think of Testing Circus?
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Our team will try to implement all your
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issues of Testing Circus.
editor@TestingCircus.com

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Testing Circus

Volume 2 - Issue 3 March 2011

YOUR MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Today how many of us feel proud being

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -2-

Editorial Ajoy Kumar Singha 2

Letters to the Editor 5

Be an Honest Tester Vipul Gupta 13

Promoting Testing in your Organization Rob van Steenbergen 16

Automation Assisted Manual Testing Trish Khoo 23

Exploratory Testing From Wikipedia 26

A Fake Tester's Journey A Fake Tester 29

Software Testing News 32

Test Case Writing Practice Naresh Bisht 34

Testers to Follow in Twitter 36

Interview with Darren McMillan 38

QTP Code Corner Jaijeet Pandey 43

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -3-

Help Chandrasekhar BN, a Software Tester,

Chandrasekhar B N is a 26 year old Software

Please Note: Write Chandrasekhar B N on the

Hello Ajoy and team,

Testing Circus Vol 2 - Issue 3

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -6-

Why? Here are some of the reasons:

We do not have time to run every test. Our mission might

We do not have resources (machines, testers, money, pro-

Most of the times, he uses the whole system (Software +

So, if we do not test/use the software like the customer,

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -7-

Broaden the Test Coverage

Can you expand the coverage by expanding the right tests?

Expanding! = Writing more test cases [Expanding is

Understand the Big Picture

As experts say, if you are aware that you can be fooled, it is

Be aware that you can also make mistakes.

Optimise the Testing Effort

How about improving them? http://twitter.com/ajay184f

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -8-

I strongly feel that as the cloud adoption rate increases, the

- Basant Narayan Singh

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -9-

We are facing absolutely unprecedented amounts of

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 10 -

Common, Location-independent, Online Utility that

Basant Narayan Singh is a Day-Dreamer, a Software Engineer

This document is a summary of article series Cloud Computing Service: A Basic

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 12 -

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 1 3-

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 15 -

- Rob van Steenbergen

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -16-

department within your organization about

convert to a nice visio workflow, with nice

Rob van Steenbergen is an independent software test consultant from

Rob can be reached at http://twitter.com/rvansteenbergen

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 18 -

More and more organizations buy, often very

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 -20-

Step 2: Manage expectations;

Step 3: Provide training (specialists, users), ideally

Proof of concept: Step 5: Pilot in a number of projects;

www.TestingCircus.com March 2011 - 21 -