Software Testing Blog

You thought IE6 would die after Facebook, Google and hundreds of other companies stopped supporting it. You thought IE6 was dead when they held a mock funeral for it in 2010. You thought it would be even more dead (deader?) when just last week, we learned that Microsoft will be automatically upgrading users to the latest version of the web browser. You were wrong. To quote Richard Pryor: I Ain’t Dead Yet, Mother#*%$@!!

And neither is IE6. In the past, we’ve called IE6 the zombie browser that can’t be killed and it’s certainly lived up to that moniker. However, regarding that last piece of news (Microsoft’s upcoming automatic updates) it looks like IE6 may finally get phased out. For real this time. Or maybe not.

Here’s Webmonkey.com with the details:

The new auto-update feature will only apply to users who’ve opted into the automatic updates through Windows Update. Those that have opted in will be upgraded to the latest version of IE available for their system. If you’re still on Windows XP that means you’ll be updated to IE 8. Vista and Windows 7 users will move to IE 9. The Windows Blog notes that when upgrading, your home page, search provider, and default browser settings will not be affected.

Web developers still supporting IE 6 may not need to do so much longer if Microsoft’s auto-update strategy pays off. Since the new auto-update mechanism will apply to IE 7 as well, it too may not need to be supported much longer. Of course, even in the best case scenario where IE 6 and 7 users drop below 5 percent worldwide, web developers would still need to contend with IE 8. While IE 8 was a huge step up from its predecessors, it still lacks support for most of the HTML5 and CSS 3 features found in modern web browsers.

Somehow, IE6 usage currently stands at 8.4% worldwide. That includes a whopping 27.9% in China. As such, we’re going to hold off on pronouncing IE6 dead for the time being. However, the browser’s days are clearly numbered. Right?

‘Tis the season to prognosticate.

We’re 17 days away from the new year, and far before Auld Lang Syne begins playing and we pretend to know the words (after all the champagne, who can remember the lyrics we optimistically Google’d the day before anyways?), we’re pondering what changes are in store for us the next twelve months.

In a whitepaper released by ABI Research this week, their tech analysts took a collective look into the crystal ball for 2012 and (in their words) “have drawn some bold lines in the sand on a plethora of top-of-mind topics.”

But instead of predicting what WOULD happen in the mobile and telecom space, they took a different spin on the usual list and forecasted what WOULDN’T happen.  Nice twist.  (And a really good read.)

One of their more interesting predictions for those of us in software testing is by Patrick Connolly, Senior Analyst of Telematics and Navigation:  “Indoor location will NOT become commonplace in 2012.” 

It’s easy to see how this could be true…but also surprising.

After all, for as many articles that have been written about the technological challenges in making Indoor Location Based Services (LBS) a reality, there has been an equal amount of big name, big buzz announcements about it over the past few months.  There are dozens of industry-leading companies—including Apple, Navteq, Qualcomm and Nokia—tackling the challenge from every angle.

There are even some major apps launching to give Indoor LBS a jolt from vision to reality.  For instance, Google announced on their Mobile blog in November that the new Google Maps 6.0 gives users (on Android OS 2.1 mobile devices) the ability to Map the Vast Indoors, vis-à-vis:

Read more…

I found myself deliberating on something unexpectedly the other night.  I was thinking about buying the iPad–which I’ve wanted for a long time–and it occurred to me: What’s the future of Apple?

Previously, the issue was whether I should I invest in iOS and start the conversion over from a lifetime on Windows.  After all, my dad was a 30-year IBM vet, which put food on the table and paid my tuition.  I grew up seeing mammoth mainframes, punchcards…glowing green DOS.  No Apples of any color in our Big Blue household.

But on this occasion, it wasn’t a question of brand loyalty. It was the obvious: the loss of Steve Jobs.

I still find myself processing his passing both emotionally and practically. I remember how the AP alert popped up on my phone and it literally felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.  I admired him for living authentically, taking billion dollar gambles on ideas, picking himself up after billion dollar failures, and holding steadfast (stubborn?) to his vision.

I’m convinced his near-religious zeal over every minutiae of product design stemmed from the same social ethic that led to Apple’s creation:  to make computers so easy and user-friendly that everyone could benefit from computing’s powerful potential.  Not just the technical, highly-educated and elite. Computers for Everyman.

Attention to detail.  Risk-taking. Singular focus. These are among the core values of the Apple brand. As I considered buying the iPad, I wondered:  Are these values sufficiently infused in Tim Cook and the company DNA to continue on without Steve?  Or will Apple employees slowly lose direction like followers of the North Star left without guide over too many cloudy nights?
Read more…

I’m talking about the Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) – the fourth major Android OS version – which is growing closer to its release! Google is urging developers and testers alike to get ready for it, so consider yourselves forewarned. For now, what’s most important is to make sure your apps work on large screens AND small screens as this “cool” release is going to run on both tablets and smartphones.

According to CNET:

“Developers who created their apps specifically to run on Honeycomb-based tablets will need to tweak their APKs (Android packages) to either prevent or support their installation on smaller-screen devices.

The [Google Android developers] blog also offered some recommendations for tablet app developers on how to ensure that their design of the Action Bar widget works on smaller handsets.”

Read more…

As you may have read on Monday’s blog post, uTest launched a new informational campaign to promote http://www.inthewildtesting.com.   The web site – and associated social media channels, including a Twitter profile – are intended to educate forward-thinking technology leaders about the necessity, benefits and real use cases of in-the-wild testing. 

We decided to launch it at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco because the very concept of in-the-wild software testing (versus traditional methodologies) is, well…disruptive. 

Sure enough, TechCrunch Disrupt turned out to be the perfect event!  There were more than 2,600 innovative, entrepreneurial-minded techies, investors and exhibitors (35% more attendees than expected) filling the halls of the Design Concourse Center from Monday to Wednesday.  In its usual fashion, the conference itself attracted top industry-leaders such as Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Marissa Mayer of Google, Vinod Khosla, and even Ashton Kutcher.

uTest hosted a ton of terrific activities over the course of the event:

Read more…

American band Ok Go is well known for their sensational and imaginative music videos that combine simplicity with raw imagination. Their latest video is no exception, but for this one they took it one step further. After partnering with Google, they have created an HTML5 video/multimedia/app thing that takes full advantage of the capabilities of Google Chrome.

Being big fans of HTML5 and music videos (we were part of the MTV generation, after all), we couldn’t pass up sharing this. We’ve also included a little message in the video for all you software testers out there. Fire up Chrome and watch the whole thing here.

Over the past week, there’s been some hub bub over comments made by Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha.  According to IDG News Service, Jha “blamed the open Android app store for performance issues on some phones,” based on his statement: “Of all the Motorola Android devices that are returned, 70 percent come back because applications affect performance.”

Even though Motorola formally stated today (see MoCoNews article) that Jha’s comments were essentially misconstrued and didn’t accurately reflect his intentions, the issue has remained a lightning rod for debate.

But for those of us in the software testing community, there’s a truly, positive message embedded in this issue:  Motorola was validating the critical importance of QA testing in the app development process.  

After all, consider Jha’s statement that, “one of the good and problematic things about Android is that it’s very very open. So anyone can put applications, third-party apps, on the market without any testing process….For power consumption, CPU utilization, some of those things, those applications are not tested. We’re beginning to understand the impact that has.”

For professional software testers, that confirms how important our work is, and actually suggests that the scope of mobile testing should be expanded.

Essentially, Jha wasn’t really referring to functional testing.  Or testing exclusively in the “clean and ideal” conditions of a lab environment.  Instead, he was describing the need for usability testing in the real-world to subjectively examine how apps and devices perform in live conditions and affect the user experience.  For instance, did the app run sluggishly?   Did it seriously tax the battery life?  These are vital questions, particularly for apps heavy on audio and video. 

At the end of the day, consumers are unlikely to differentiate whether their frustration over poor performance is caused by the smartphone or the app…or the interaction of both.  They just want to have a great experience with their new mobile “toy” or get their work done. 

Because if there isn’t enough testing on every device that the app is developed for, then (as Jha said) the smartphone gets returned and everyone– including the app publisher–loses out.

The leaders of the G8 countries along with some of the leaders of the world’s largest technology companies met this week at the eG8 Forums in Paris, France. The forum was organized by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also delivered the opening keynote, and was designed to be an open discussion about the future of technology. Some notable speakers included: Google chairman Eric Shmidt, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos, Groupon CEO Andrew Masson, and News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch among countless others.

The two-day conference, which precedes the annual G8 economic forum, had many noteworthy moments all tracked to the max via twitter (see the infographic here courtesy of Mashable and Synthesio). Many of the 25,000 tweets were in response to comments from Sarkozy who called for tighter regulation of the internet. Speakers such as Eric Schmidt cautioned against regulating things before fully understanding them, saying that “we’ll move faster than any government.”

Most notable was the release of research done by the McKinsey Global Institute (highlights of the 50+ page report were published by Business Insider here), which shows the internet as being responsible for 20 percent of the economic growth for the 13 countries included in the study and for an estimated 2.9 percent of total worldwide GDP. These numbers put the internet at a more powerful driver of economic growth than agriculture or utilities.

All in all the eG8 was a great way to try and bridge the gap between the technology industry and policymakers, who often have a very hard time understanding each other. Only time will tell whether this open forum was a lot of gum flapping, or a positive sign that government wants advice from the world’s tech leaders on internet policy.

In the second and final installment of our Testing the Limits interview with James Whittaker, we get his thoughts on some recent changes to Google’s test philosophy; why certain principles cannot span all types of testing teams; mobile testing challenges; the value of software testing; subject matter for his upcoming book, How Google Tests Software; and much more.

If you missed part I of the interview, you can find it here. Also, be sure to scroll down to the end of the interview for links to more material from James Whittaker. Enjoy!

***********

uTest: You’ve been at Google now for over two years. Looking back, what’s been the biggest hurdle you’ve had to overcome during this time? And how much have the company’s testing procedures changed over this period?

James: My boss Pat Copeland took me aside a few weeks into my starting at Google and said something like “I know you’ve accomplished a bunch of things outside Google, but that’s all in the past. You’ve got to accomplish something inside Google. If you don’t no one will listen to you.” It was good advice. The message was that my past got me into Google but would get me no further. I took leadership and responsibility for testing of Chrome and Chrome OS, hard problems, important problems that required things I am good at and things I am not good at. That was the hardest part, being pushed outside my comfort zone. I never liked the execution part before, schedules and plans and meetings and disasters. It’s a lot easier as a consultant where you can happily imagine those things without experiencing them firsthand. I can’t believe that I used to advise people on these sorts of things before. I was surprised at how much I was learning and how much I was able to contribute. Now I take every opportunity to work outside my comfort zone. That’s where growth occurs.

As to the second part of this question, Google’s testing procedures have changed a lot. I think the Test Engineer role has been completely reinvented in the past two years.

uTest: We would imagine that a lot of testers and managers at smaller companies that will view your book as interesting, but not necessarily relevant to their daily testing lives. Explain why this is not the case and talk a little about the challenges of writing for an audience that includes teams of all sizes.

James: But it is the case! You can say the same things about my other books too. My books are meant to make you think differently about testing. It’s up to the reader to make it relevant by putting it into practice. There is no way I can write a book relevant to any specific style of testing or the practices of any specific company (except Google of course). All I can do is offer information and ideas and deliver them in, hopefully, an entertaining way. The problem is that too many people work for companies who just want them to keep doing the same old stuff. Change is too hard for them. Even if they wanted to test the way my books suggest, they can’t. I feel sorry for those people. In a better economy I would tell them to get a new employer. In this economy, well, it’s tougher. But there are also a lot of people who do own their destiny and can make changes in the way their company does testing and treats testers.

Read more…

Two years ago, we got this crazy idea to start interviewing the giants of software testing, for a series now known as Testing the Limits. To kick things off, we shot some questions back and forth with the distinguished testing author/teacher/speaker/consultant…(deep breath)…. James Whittaker!

A frequent guest of the uTest blog – as well as the author and host of several eBooks and webinars – James is known throughout the industry as the Test Director for a little company called Google. If you’ve stopped by the Google Testing Blog at all in the last year or two, chances are you’ve read his posts.

Anyway, we’re extremely excited to have James back for his third exclusive interview – and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. In the first part of our Q&A, we discuss some recent changes at Google; a possible book deal; the future of cloud computing; testing Chrome OS; the problem with test automation; the upcoming GTAC event and why testing is (believe it or not) getting easier. For the second half of the interview, be sure to check back tomorrow.

**********

uTest: Good to have you back, James. Tell us what you’ve been up to? Anything different in your life at Google?

James: Funny you should lead with that! Yes, my role at Google is changing. I’ve passed the leadership of Chrome and Chrome OS testing to a colleague and taken over Cloud Computing. Lots of amazingly complicated back end/data center testing issues which are new and exciting. Google keeps pushing me outside my comfort zone in the most endearing way. Retirement in place hasn’t really been an option. But hey, one can dream.

uTest: We’ve noticed you’re blogging a lot more of late and you’ve started a Twitter account! How do you manage to find time for these things with the new challenges you’re faced with?

James: Believe it or not, the Cloud stuff is actually smaller than the Chrome/Chrome OS work in terms of the amount of time out of my day. The level of automation is very high and there is a lot we’ve been able to do put some very hard sub-problems on autopilot. My team here is seriously Jedi quality folk. Definitely good fodder for some future talk. But the Google-wide testing efforts in terms of security testing, testing tools, development tools and general evangelism is also officially part of my day job. I own the Google Testing blog and am also running GTAC this year. And yes, I finally succumbed to Twitter. It’s actually a lot of fun so far, 140 characters is so do-able.

uTest: Speaking of the blog, I noticed Pat Copeland mentioned the popularity of the current “How Google Tests Software” series. Any plans on turning that into a book?

James: More than plans, I am under contract with Addison Wesley and am working diligently on it. I am finding that as I dig deeper into Google internal testing processes I have to be more careful about what I publish. I have to avoid talking about confidential technology and innovations created by other Googlers who aren’t ready to discuss their work externally. So there is a backlog of stuff that requires review and once approval occurs, it makes sense to publish it all at once. The book format is ideal for that as opposed to trickling it out in blog form. Besides I love books, they are so cuddly and blogs are so not cuddly. And I also have two co-authors Jeff Carollo and Jason Arbon who I am mentoring through the writing process and that is bringing me a lot of satisfaction.

Read more…