Software Testing Blog

What is community management without measuring the pulse of your community? Every now and again it is important to take a step back from the frantic happenings of the day-to-day activities of uTesters and look at the bigger picture. All too often, we forget about the profound and incredibly human impact we have on the lives of uTest’s biggest asset, our testers.

At the end of 2011 we did just that and asked our testers to tell us about their uTest experience. Those of us on the community management team were certainly touched by the impact these experiences have had on their lives and we believe that they may be enlightening to other readers as well.

Here is a small sample of the great stories that were shared:

I found uTest on a fluke; I’d heard there was a group online looking for help and I searched for ‘online testing’ and uTest was found. Though I’ve only been with them for a couple of months, it’s been fun. Now let’s get it straight, work is not always fun, but with uTest the diversity of products and engaging clients and testers make it fun. I’ve worked in small startups and large companies; uTest seems to embrace the individual aspect of a small company though the clients may be very, very large. Always approachable and quick to reply, the folks running the group have earned my deep appreciation and respect. Of the dozen or so of projects I’ve worked on, each is unique, and sometimes has follow-up work.

I’m looking forward to 2012 with uTest.

Good going!

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With over 45,000 testers around the world, we’re always looking for fresh and interesting ways for uTesters to network, learn, and have fun.

The uTest nation photo contest was launched as a fun way for testers to show off their creativity and to literally visualize diversity that comprises uTest community. uTesters were challenged to take photos of themselves in interesting places displaying the uTest logo. Creativity was encouraged. The conditions for each entry were that uTesters needed to pose with a provided uTest logo, and must be safe for work. For instance, testers could display the uTest logo while exploring the Parthenon, on holiday at the Eiffel Tower, or even while visiting world’s largest ball of yarn. While some uTesters were able to shoot photos in person on location, others were able to display their Photoshop skills to create some fun photos.

Through the course of the contest we received 21 submissions from all around the world, and the winners were completely chosen by the community through a weighted average voting system. Once votes were tallied, our team evaluated each photo to make sure entry rules were adhered to and then calculated the winners.

Existing forum members can visit the photo contest topic to see all the entries. If you’re a uTester and haven’t registered for a forum account yet, be sure to register today so you can check out all of the photos and stay informed of future contests! Click below to see the winning photos and honorable mentions.
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We’re excited to announce winners for our inaugural Bug of the Month contest! The top prize goes to Gagan Talwar from India, who submitted a bug related to invalid payment deductions from a credit card company. In a nutshell, this credit card company invalidly deducted the minimum amount due on a credit card bill without validating whether or not a previous payment was made – minimum, full or somewhere in between. To end on a positive note, he was able to work things about with the credit card company and received a full refund for the invalid deduction.

What is the Bug of the Month contest? If you did not have a chance to enter last month’s contest, here is more information to prepare you for the next one. The contest will run every two months, and is open to the entire uTest tester community. Testers have the opportunity to submit the most intriguing bug(s) they have come across, and fellow testers then rate the submitted bugs from three categories: Exceptionally Valuable, Very Valuable, and Somewhat Valuable (borrowed directly from uTest’s system of tiered bug approvals). After the voting phase is complete, uTest evaluates the votes across all submissions and awards the top three reports based on highest weighted averages.

How do I win? Based on participation from the first competition and standard uTest projects, there are three major tenets to an exceptionally valuable report:

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We’re excited to share the details of our fourth uMeetup event – held in Shenzhen, China. In case you missed the details of our other 3 uMeetup events, you check them out here. uMeetups are local networking events organized by top testers and sponsored by uTest. Invitations are extended to all software testers in the local vicinity to meet in person, listen to presentations on special software testing topics, and learn more about participating in paid projects with uTest.

Colin Zhang, a silver uTester organized this latest uMeetup where testers gathered from Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. They enjoyed making introductions, exchanging testing experiences, and generally enjoying each other’s company. Meeting at a Starbucks at Zhongxin Square,  lively and caffeinated discussions were surely had.

We’ve received some great feedback from testers who have taken part in uMeetups in the past. Being passionate about testing and about uTest seems to be a common thread that brings these testers together.

Want to have a uMeetup in your area? Check the forums to find the one nearest to you. If you don’t see your country on the list  apply for a sponsorship here.

Take a look at a  few pictures from the event after the jump:
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Caption Contest: A contest that shows an amusing picture and asks viewers to send in what they think the people in the picture are thinking, or simply a funny statement that describes the picture.

I suppose I’ll get things started:

• Meet the world-record holder for most consecutive hours of testing.
• “Technically yes, I did ask for more tester support.”
• Today’s Lesson: User Interface Testing
• PETBT: People for the ethical treatment of beta testers

Now it’s your turn. Give it a go in the comments section.

Oh, and in case you forgot, we’re currently running a more formal contest (for a chance to win an iPad 2) on our Facebook page.

The Uruguay IT Chamber has launched a new university program for software testing.  This is big news for the world of software testing, as it not only legitimizes the professional tester but will help draw attention (and projects) to the importance of testing.

TestingReflections.com has a nice write up on the news release, but it’s particularly interesting to see that there are three tiers of testing, as follows:

Software Tester: The ideal program for entry-level, junior, and career-switching software testers.  Successfully completing this credential will give you the knowledge and experience most employers expect from testers with 1-2 years of on-the-job experience – effectively enabling you to start your career needing only to acclimate to the specific expectations of the employer and demonstrate your skills at work before being acknowledged as a mid-level tester.

Software Testing Professional: For testers with several years of testing experience on-the-job who are looking to make the jump from mid- to senior-level, this program is designed to teach high-quality individual contributors how to be effective technical leaders within their testing organization.  Effectively giving the tester the new skills they need, in addition to their existing hands-on testing knowledge, to prepare them for the additional responsibilities of a technical testing manager or of a manager of small to mid-sized testing projects.

Software Testing Leader: This final step in the program has been designed for senior-level testers who desire to be successful managers or directors of corporate testing programs.  Frequently the most challenging step for career software testers is to transition from being a technical leader to a management role focused on the interface between quality testing and executive-level business value.  Successful completion of this stage of the program will give the student the tools they need to make the jump from technical leader to manager – opening the door to further advancement to positions like “Director of Testing Services” or “VP of Software Product Quality”.

Full article after the break.

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While the economy still has quite a ways to go, there have been some interesting and very real signs that things are looking up! According to payroll processor ADP, payrolls among private employers in the US rose by 187,000 in January 2011; and analysts polled by Briefing.com are predicting 145,000 jobs added for the month.

In line with the recent turn, a new poll among professional testers in the uTest forums indicated that:

• 22% are actively looking for a different job
• 10% are passively looking for a different job
• 10% are not seeking to change jobs and
• 44% plan on doing more freelancing

Since this was a uTest poll, it lends itself to those who freelance (in addition to their full-time testing gigs) which may account for the 44% above, but what’s even more interesting to us are the non-freelancing trends.

When 32% of respondents are either actively or passively looking for a different job, it’s a sign of a better, recovering economy, which yields an unavoidable and perfectly healthy amount of turnover. And it’s those CTOs, Directors of Engineering and QA Managers out there that can identify and keep their ROCK STAR engineers and testers — the very building blocks of their QA organizations — whose organizations will win the day.

VP of Product Craig Daniel said it best in our recent interview – “As hard as it is to find a great developer, it’s 10 times harder to find a great QA engineer.” The lesson here is if you’ve been lucky enough to have found great people — testers who are passionate about their craft — pay close attention to the market’s road to recovery and do everything you can to keep them in your lane.

[WARNING: Slight self promotion today, but we couldn't help but share the exciting news with you!]

Today, we are thrilled to announce a 300 percent increase in year-over-year revenues in the recently-ended Q3. During this time, uTest closed a $13 million C Round of financing (led by Scale Venture Partners) – one of the largest investments ever made in a crowdsourcing company. We also launched cool new features and functionality, such as social sign-in, dynamic reporting and integrations with more bug tracking systems.

In Q3 2010, uTest also:

• Signed 120+ new customers, including innovative category leaders The Associated Press, The BBC, The Container Store, Urbanspoon, Box.net
• Acquired 2,500 new software testers, growing the community to 30,000+ professional testers from 168 countries
• Added Scale Venture Partners Managing Director Sharon Wienbar to the Board Of Directors
• Conducted the “Clash of the Career Sites” – more than 500 testers from 22 countries discovered nearly 700 bugs in the web and mobile apps of Monster, CareerBuilder, SimplyHired and Indeed; see articles in TheNextWeb and TechTarget for details

And there’s so much more to come! I just want to take a quick moment to thank our fantastic global community of testers who exceed expectations and go above and beyond to meet the testing needs of hundreds of companies each day. Our third quarter results are a testament to the tester community’s commitment to excellence.

Among the most common of hypotheticals you’ll find this: If you could have lunch with any celebrity – dead or alive – who would it be?

Curious, we posed this question to our tester community as part of our weekly What Do uThink series. However, since Elvis and LeBron James are booked solid for the foreseeable future, we limited our celebrity pool to legends from the world of technology. No offense to The Kings.

With that criteria, we weren’t totally shocked to see this become another close contest between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Here were the results:

• Steve Jobs (Apple)- 27%
• Bill Gates (Microsoft) – 24%
• Alan Turing (pioneer of modern computer) – 16%
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google Founders) – 11%
• Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the worldwide web, HTML, HTTP) – 5%
• Hopper (uTest mascot) – 5%
• Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) – 3%

Sandwiches with Steve Jobs, burritos with Bill Gates – you really can’t go wrong. Not only could these guys carry a great conversation and provide you with a first hand account of tech history, but they’d almost certainly pick up the tab as well.

It was a little surprising to see Hopper get more votes than Mark Zuckerberg, especially considering his many annoying food allergies and poor table manners (Hopper that is). Also, if you’re quick with the math, you’ll know that 8% chose “other.” This distinguished group included testing experts James Bach and Michael Bolton, as well as Al Gore, George Lucas and Michael Dell.

A strong case can be made for every member of this list – so go ahead and make one. Who among these tech legends would you want to have lunch with and why?

I recently came across this article, Personality Traits in Software Engineering, which conducted a research survey assessing the major personality traits of software testers and developers. Turns out — and I’m not at all surprised having met so many testers in our community — software testers rock! Here’s how the scores break down:

According to Anne-Marie Charrett in her blog, Maverick Tester, “On average we [testers] are an agreeable bunch of people, open to experience (see below) with a high cognitive capability. A hearty clap on the back fellow testers, we all knew we were pretty special.”

I couldn’t agree more! So, yes, this is simply a feel-good blog for all those testers out there with a case of the Mondays. Give yourselves a hand. And Happy Monday!