Software Testing Blog

Update: We’re roughly 72 hours into our latest Bug Battle, which is comparing and evaluating the top TV networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX.

With just under four days remaining in the week-long competition, we’ve already had more than 400 testers participate and well over 500 bugs reported. This is shaping up to be the most exciting Bug Battle ever, both in terms of the quantity of bugs submitted and the quality of the reports themselves.

Remember, the Bug Battle ends Friday, February 12th at noon ET, and there is nearly $4,000 in prize money at stake. It’s not too late to win the top prize so get started today (remember, it’s the highest quality bugs that matter, not the quantity)!

To join or catch up on Bug Battle discussions, be sure to check out our testers-only forums.

There’s no shame in being a couch potato (every now and again). After all,the competition between the major TV networks has been extremely entertaining. But now is the time to get up off the couch and onto your desktops, laptops and smartphones – it’s time for the very first Bug Battle of 2010!

That’s right, we’re pitting the four major TV networks against each other in this quarter’s bug-hunting competition. And while there are multiple sources to find out which network has the highest rated shows, we’re going to compare their web and mobile apps to see who distributes that content best.  Here are the networks, in alphabetical order: ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC.

As an added twist, we’re introducing a mobile testing component to the Bug Battle. For more details on this – as well as info on rules and prizes – check out our Battle of the TV Networks page.

It’s now time to pull back the curtain to determine which network sites have the most bugs, the most critical bugs, and the best usability and feature set. And so uTesters, best of luck to you all as you begin another exciting bug hunting mission. May the best network win and may the top testers prevail. Good luck!

Special note: This competition is available only to members of the uTest community.  uTesters can get complete details and discuss the Bug Battle with their peers in the uTest Forums.

Imagine it’s February 2012 and you want to buy movie tickets, research a new restaurant, or check out the weekend weather forecast.  Ignoring that the 2012 version of the iPad will probably be free, able to read your mind and enable you transcend time and space, how will you access the mobile web in this not-too-distant future?

Given the explosive growth of mobile apps for iPhone (100,000+), Android (20,000+) and others, it’s easy to assume that no matter what you want to do in the future, there will indeed be “an app for that”.

Not so fast says Richard MacManus (@rrw) over at ReadWriteWeb.  MacManus references a recent study by mobile search company, Taptu, which predicts that browser-based mobile sites will win out over mobile apps built specifically for mobile platforms like iPhone and Blackberry.  And why does Taptu believe this and what are the implications of this prediction?

Read more…

PHP is one of the web’s most widely used and successful programming languages.  It’s easy to learn, easy to use, and extremely powerful.  Tools like Drupal and Wordpress power millions of sites on Internet, and both were built using PHP.

But mighty Facebook stands above nearly everyone as the king of PHP.  With over 400 billion pageviews per month (yes, that’s billion with a ‘b’), Facebook serves up more webpages with PHP than just about anyone else.  Facebook’s engineers credit PHP with some of their success because PHP’s simplicity makes it easy to recruit new engineers, quickly train them, and get them started with the site’s code.

But PHP’s ease and simplicity comes with a very real downside for Facebook.  Like most scripted languages, PHP is substantially slower than compiled languages like C and C++.  Smaller sites running on fast servers may never notice PHP’s performance inadequacies, but Facebook faced the real possibility of spending millions of dollars for additional servers just to support PHP’s overhead.

Read more…

The major networks have been engaged in a decades-long struggle to win the hearts and minds (and eyes) of viewers. Whether it’s news, sports or sitcoms, these battles are now being fought on multiple fronts – including the distribution of their content through their web and mobile applications.

Which brings me to our latest bug-hunting competition. This quarter’s uTest Bug Battle will challenge testers to find bugs on the web AND mobile apps of the four major TV networks: CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX.

The competition gets started this Friday, February 5 at Noon (ET). At that time, testers from our community will be given one week to search these sites for the most compelling bugs, and to report them through our online platform. We’ll be dishing out nearly $4,000 in prize money for categories like Top Tester, Best Bug and Best Survey Feedback. As an added twist, we’re also including prizes for the Best Mobile Bugs.

More details on this Bug Battle – as well the rules, prizes and deadlines – after this commercial break. Just kidding, you can find them in the “Bug Battle” thread in the uTest Forums and we’ll be sharing more details here in the next few days.

So testers, you’ve got a few days to prepare for our most challenging competition to date. Until then, stay tuned.

It’s no surprise to our community that social networks have the potential to pose big security threats this year. During the “Battle of the Social Networks,” uTesters found a combined 718 bugs in Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn; and an additional 300+ bugs were discovered in the top five Twitter desktop apps during the Q2 bug battle.

To add more fuel to the fire, today the company Sophos, which surveyed 500+ organizations, came out with a new report stating that in the past year:

• 57% of users report they have been spammed via social networking sites
• 36% of users claim they’ve been sent malware via social networking sites
• 72% of survey respondents think social networks are a danger for their companies (see Mashable article)

What’s the solution? Tina Fey, in her show “30 Rock,” recently spoofed social networks with her creation of “YouFace” (combo of Facebook & MySpace). Terms such as “finger-tagged,” “weirdsie,” and “pho-lo” (for photo and hello) had many ROFL. See video clip after the bump!

Read more…

You’ve got the next big idea for a killer web, desktop or mobile app.  It’s gonna change the world.

So what’s on your to-do list?  Well, you need a slick GUI designer to make it look hot, and top-shelf product team to get the features & UX right.  Oh, and you need some ace developers to make your app come to life.  Good, now you’re done, right?  I mean, yeah, you need to test it, but you can do that yourself… or have your developers do it… or maybe the intern… or your beta users.

Think again, says Rex Black over at eWeek.  Despite what you might think, there IS a right way (and a wrong way) to build the testing team you’ll need to launch a high-quality app:

Read more…

Joel Spolsky (@spolsky) – known widely as Joel On Software – recently penned a great article on the role of software testers. I’m sure you’re aware that most people tend to regard testers as the bearers of bad news. But as Joel correctly points out, “one of the most valuable features of a tester is providing positive reinforcement.” Many testers understand this, but few are given credit for it.

Anyway, he also provides an excellent summary of the traits that make testers successful. He says they need to be scientific, methodical thinkers who enjoy working with software. Above all, they need to be smart. But do they need to have a background in programming?

A particularly terrible idea is to offer testing jobs to the programmers who apply for jobs at your company and aren’t good enough to be programmers. Testers don’t have to be programmers, but if you spend long enough acting like a tester is just an incompetent programmer, eventually you’re building a team of incompetent programmers, not a team of competent testers. Since testing can be taught on the job, but general intelligence can’t, you really need very smart people as testers, even if they don’t have relevant experience. (Editor’s note: emphasis is mine).

That was Joel’s view. What’s yours?

Today Apple announced their much anticipated tablet computer – the iPad.  With a 9.7 inch screen, the iPad is a supersized iPhone; and it’s already inspiring both love and hate from Apple fans worldwide.  Comments so far have ranged from “I want it now” to “I was expecting a lot more than an XL version of the iPhone with no phone capabilities.”

So what does the iPad mean for developers, testers, and Apple users?  Here are a few thoughts:

Layout now matters for iPhone developers.
Up until now, an iPhone app was one size fits all.  Every iPhone has the same resolution, meaning apps didn’t have to worry about scaling up or down.  Not anymore!  The iPad is a larger device, but it runs the same iPhone apps.  While it can automatically scale up an app designed for the iPhone, the results are kind of ugly.  The bigger screen real estate opens a lot of interesting possibilities, but for iPhone developers now is the time you need to start worrying about how your app will look on a larger screen that isn’t 480×320.

New interface means new challenges.
If it’s not enough that the iPad comes in a different size, now developers will also have a slew of new interface widgets to work with.  Whether or not those widgets will be available on the iPhone remains to be seen, but whatever the case developers will have their hands full making sure their apps look correct on each platform.

Testers needed!
Read more…

I think I read somewhere that Apple may be announcing something on Wednesday. </sarcasm>

If you’ve been near any media source in the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen the build-up of Apple’s upcoming announcement, which is widely expected to be the launch of their new tablet device.  To watch the drama unfold, check out Wired.com’s complete coverage.

Does anyone have predictions about size, feature set, price point, et al?  Share your thoughts.  Being a software testing shop, we’re particularly interested in what types of apps that will be built for this new category-defining device.  Will there be an entirely new class of apps (and thus, more Apple-related testing)?  Will it work with iPhone apps?  Is it purely a web device?

UPDATE:  Ok, so now that we know more about the iPad (check out Mashable’s iPad coverage… or TechCrunch’s… or AlleyInsider’s), I’m curious to hear what you think — Worth the wait?  Overhyped?  Revolutionary?  Meh?  Weigh in and tell us your take.