Software Testing Blog

After Twitter-stalking him, making some harassing phone calls and sending threatening letters, Jon Bach (@jbtestpilot) cheerily agreed to take part in our Testing the Limits series. Much like his brother, Jon has a remarkable understanding of software testing – both in theory and in practice. Having worked for companies like Quardev, LexisNexis, HP and Microsoft, Jon is also a blogger, author and software testing consultant. An expert, in the truest sense of the term.

In the first installment of our two-part interview, we get Jon’s thoughts on sibling rivalry; the blame spiral of software development; the emergence of “agile-fall”;  testing at a startup vs. testing in the enterprise; John Schneider as Jon Bach and more. Check back tomorrow for part II.

uTest: A few months back, we asked your buddy Andy Muns who’d win a fight between you and your brother (this was a big debate in the uTest office). He said you would win hands down. Would he be right? And since you and your brother seem to share the same testing philosophy, what would do you think the fight would be about?

JB: It’s hard to fight with someone who stayed in their room for most of our childhood.  He was either reading or doing science experiments with a microscope or the chemistry set.  It got worse when we got the TRS-80 in 1980.  In fact, that’s probably the last time we fought — over who got computer time next.  My memory may be fuzzy, but just when it came to blows, he programmed a user name and password dialog? Something clever like that. Now it’s better just to learn from him and do my best to keep up — but that’s true for all younger brothers, I think.

As for modern-day fighting, sponsor me for a testing certification and let’s see what he’d do.

uTest: Say you’re named grand poobah of the QA universe… what’s your first decree?

JB: Effective today, “Quality Assurance” is now “Quality Assistance”.

(Try it.  Watch what happens when you start using it.)

uTest: When there are delays in development process, why does testing always seem to take the blame? Is their role just misunderstood? Or is it really the testing team’s fault?  How can companies avoid this seemingly never-ending spiral?

JB: Often, we’re saved until last.  It’s like the novel is written, the movie is produced, but the reviews aren’t in yet, leaving the creators in a heightened state of worry and concern. It’s a lot of stress to be in that position. As testers shine the light on the product, looking for risks and vulnerabilities, the light is really shining on *us*.  We’re being tested just as much as that software, so we tend to be sensitive and aware of being in a critical position as others wait for our findings.

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Last week, gaming enthusiasts of all varieties (fans, testers, developers, warlords, etc.) gathered in San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference. Among the attendees was uTest Project Manager Justin Forte – our very own man on the street. Though he failed to get the exclusive Mario Brothers interview he promised us, he was able to capture some great pictures of the festivities. We hope you like them.

The images speak for themselves, with one notable exception. You’ll notice one picture showing a booth where guests can meet Steve Wiebe, the long-time owner of the world’s top score in Donkey Kong. You may recall this author’s fascination with the never-ending battle for this top score, as chronicled in King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Well, as luck would have it, just days before the conference kicked off, Wiebe was de-throned by a plastic surgeon from New York. The bar has been raised, and the barrels don’t lie, so get back to work Steve!

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How should testers respond when their bugs are rejected by clients?

Here to address this topic is Bill Ricardi of Northern Ireland, this month’s guest blogger. An active member of the uTest community (especially in the uTest forums), Bill describes himself as a “huge nature fiend, with professional ties to advertising, real estate, gambling, and writing.” For more on Bill – including the upcoming publication of his first book – check out his Google Knol page.

In the field of contract software testing, you won’t always see eye to eye with the client. What you consider a critical bug, they might see as a non-issue (or worse, a ‘feature’). What you call a major security flaw, they might consider such a remote possibility that it doesn’t even deserve a mention.

You might ask how you bridge such a gap between your level of testing and the client’s level of acceptance and understanding of product integrity and the testing process in general. The answer is simple:

You don’t.

It isn’t your job to convert the client to your way of thinking. Yes, you can contest a bug that they reject out of hand if you were technically correct to report it. Sometimes they’ll accept it as valuable feedback, but most of the time they’ll just ignore any contested bugs. This is something that you have to live with.

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In my recent post with my thoughts on the iPad, I noted that while the iPad will run iPhone apps, they won’t look that great.  Instead, developers will need to create new iPad apps.

“That’s fine!” you exclaim, thinking that you’ll just uprez your widgets and artwork from your iPhone app to the new iPad screen size.  Problem solved, right?  Apparently Apple thought so too and tried creating iPad sized versions of their default iPhone apps.  And apparently that idea sucked.  From Daring Fireball:

It’s not that Apple couldn’t just create bigger versions of these apps and have them run on the iPad. It wasn’t a technical problem, it was a design problem. There were, internally to Apple (of course), versions of these apps (or at least some of them) with upscaled iPad-sized graphics, but otherwise the same UI and layout as the iPhone versions. Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated. So they were scrapped by you-know-who.

Think this is just an Apple problem?  No, it’s a mobile device problem!

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Before I get into the story of this fascinating bug, I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to T.W.I.T. We liked the “bug-iversary” concept so much here at uTest that we decided to make it a recurring column, called T.W.I.T. or This Week In Testing (also noting the happy coincidence that the word “twit” is synonymous with “fool” and “dope,” words that characterize many of these bug follies ).

But I digress! So, this week in testing brings us an interesting heart device bug discovered March 12, 2008.

A team of computer security researchers were able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker. According to the New York Times,

[The researchers] were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal. The researchers said they had also been able to glean personal patient data by eavesdropping on signals from the tiny wireless radio embedded in the implant as a way to let doctors monitor and adjust it without surgery.

Full report and more after the bump!

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For most who read a software testing blog, web access is a given — it’s always on, always up, usually fast, and even available on-the-go (as long as you remember to bring your Nexus One, Curve, iPhone, etc).

But not too long ago, the web was still in early adopter mode.  It was available (maybe) after you fired up that block you called a desktop computer; and after you endured the sound of your dial-up connection; and only if you exhibited zen-like patience with pop-ups and page load times.

Why am I taking this trip down memory lane?  Well, it could be because I saw the extended trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine (destined to be a classic, but NSFW).  More likely, however, is the fact that yesterday I read a couple of interesting pieces from Mashable & the BBC — about the global adoption of the Internet in the past decade, and the provocative question of whether or not web access is an inalienable human right in this day and age.  Both are worth checking out, if for no other reason than to make us appreciate what we have.

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Well, today he’s sticking close to home in Boston. Tomorrow he’ll land in London… and before the week is out, he’ll hit Tel Aviv.

Doron starts Wednesday morning off (after his usual 10-mile run, of course!) in London with some tea and networking with friend and colleague, James Whittaker and UK partner, TCL.

Then he’s off to QCon London, an excellent conference for the enterprise software community. On Friday, 3/12 @ 2pm, he’ll be presenting at QCon re: The Mobile App Quality Challenge & How Crowdsourcing Can Help.

Doron is one of five software testing leaders chosen to present in the “How Do You Test That?” track. This track explores unique solutions created to address situations in which automated testing does not suffice.

And on the last leg of his marathon journey, Doron will present at Garage Geeks in Israel on Monday, 3/15 @ 8pm. There, Doron will be taking a deep dive into the topic of Crowdsourcing, and how smart recruiting, training and incentives can turn an unstructured, loosely assembled mob into a unified, professional community.

So, where in the world is Doron this week?  Catch him if you can!

Developers have long awaited the death of Internet Explorer 6; web heavyweight like Google, Facebook, Reddit, Justin.tv and Digg have all announced the expiration date for their support of IE6; Microsoft has been steering users away from IE6 for more than a year.  And last week, a funeral was held for the outdated browser which was two parts wake and one part wish.  Even Microsoft joined in the fun, sending a card to the festivities services.

So what will it take to kill the undead browser once and for all?  Well, it’s worth noting — and shocking — that IE6 still drives nearly 20 percent of all web access from beyond the grave.

How is this possible?  What outdated luddite segment of web users is still stuck in 2001?  Well, the prime culprit is large enterprises like Intel who bemoan the cost and complexity of upgrading thousands of employees and legacy apps that were built specifically for IE6.  So while the web citizenry has moved on and is ready to pull the plug, developers (and testers), IE6 will continue to be part of the web app testing matrix for much longer than any of us would like to believe.

Just to further illustrate the insanity of IE6’s continued survival, here are a few other things that were going on in 2001:

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When it comes to software development and programming, few people have been read, linked to, tweeted, quoted or plagiarized more than Joel Spolsky (@spolsky). But despite his adoring fans, the widely known blogger and entrepreneur has decided to give up the former (his wildly popular blog) to focus on the latter (his growing business).

Joel’s final farewell – Let’s Take This Offline – appeared on Inc.com a few days ago, where he discussed the fallacy of blogging as business strategy, time commitment and the common mistakes of most company blogs. Of course, he also addressed his reasons for “retiring”:

So, having become an Internet celebrity in the narrow, niche world of programming, I’ve decided that it’s time to retire from blogging. March 17, the 10th anniversary of Joel on Software, will mark my last major post. This also will be my last column for Inc. For the most part, I will also quit podcasting and public speaking. Twitter? “Awful, evil, must die, CB radio, sorry with only 140 chars I can’t tell you why.”

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Self improvement is a lousy business model. Mobile app developers understand this better than most. For every app to help you lose weight or improve your IQ, there are basically 10x as many to help you drink more, find your nearest trans-fat vendor or change the channel without standing up to get the remote. What a world we live in!

But if sloth and gluttony aren’t your thing, you can rest easy knowing that your vices have also been covered. And so to illustrate, I’ve posted an app for each of the seven sins.

Gluttony: “Happy Hours, is a free application for the  iPhone,  Android, and the mobile web. With it, you get access to some 15,000 happy hours in 30 different cities around the country. You simply load the app up, tell it where you are (which it can know automatically on the iPhone and Android phones), and let it show you happy hours close by.” (from the washingtonpost.com)

Lust: Girl Zoomer – “This application turns your iPhone camera into a pair of binoculars with 4x zoom, so you can see “the details that other people can only furtively glance at.” (from reuters.com)

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