Since this story involves a significant testing component, we really don’t need to mention…

The obvious comparisons to Minority Report: True, the FAST technology would probably never have been conceived if not for the sci-fi classic by Phillip K. Dick, who must be rolling in his grave right now. And if not for the absence of those creepy spider-like eye scanners, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise should probably demand a healthy royalty check if this program is ever rolled out for real.

The potential abuse of civil liberties: No, you’re not being paranoid if you see how this technology could somehow, someway compromise our rights to privacy and that whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing. Not to worry though, as the DHS issued the following statement to calm such fears:

“The FAST program is entirely voluntary and does not store any personally-identifiable information (PII) from participants once the experiment is completed. The system is not designed to capture or store PII. Any information that is gathered is stored under an anonymous identifier and is only available to DHS as aggregated performance data. It is only used for laboratory protocol as we are doing research and development. It is gathered when people sign up as volunteers, not by the FAST system. If it were ever to be deployed, there would be no PII captured from people going through the system.”

Feel better now? Good, then we can move on to the testing aspect of this story without discussing…

The lame FAST acronym: Not because it isn’t somewhat clever (for a government program, anyway), but rather because it’s almost anything but fast or efficient. Imagine if the TSA full body scan suddenly included body language, ethnicity, eye scans and vocal cords as criteria. Think that line at the airport is moving any faster?

Okay seriously, on to the testing implications. Here are some questions that I have from a testing point of view:

• What kind of crimes would this technology detect? Are we talking triple homicide? Grand theft auto? Jay-walking? Recording football games without the express written consent of the NFL? There’s a big difference, so it’s important that this technology be able to decipher relative severity.
• Who are these beta testers? All sources say government employees, so their criminal records can’t be that extensive. Why not bring in the worst criminals possible and work your way backwards? If I were in charge, I’d have  brought in Whitey Bulger, Hannibal Lecter, The Joker, Dr. Evil and Lindsay Lohan as my test subjects. Just sayin.
• What does test coverage look like? Obviously, this technology involves both hardware (sensors to scan the testers) and software (to analyze the results), but I wonder which component is more of a testing challenge. I’m guessing the software, which has to factor in all of the criteria mentioned above to produce a plausible verdict.
• What kinds of bugs are being found? Are people being accused of pre-crimes like murder for having too much coffee?

Anyway, with testers playing the role of “professional skeptic” according to James Bach, I’m wondering what you all think of this story. Let us know in the comment section.

Another example: Robert Scoble recently interviewed Trey Ratcliff (one of my favorite photographers) about his new photo editing app for the iPad. Trey remarked that because there is no camera on the iPad 1, they had to “blindly” add the feature for taking pictures using the built-in camera – that is, without testing. That’s because when they wrote the feature, the iPad 2 (which includes a camera) didn’t yet exist. Kind of scary, but understandable. No amount of testing in the world would validate that feature until the iPad 2 went on sale.

The sad reality is that there are times when getting 100% testing coverage is impractical. Fortunately, there are some strategies we can use to mitigate any problems that may come up:

Know where you can’t get coverage. This is the most important advice of all. If you don’t know you aren’t testing something, then you won’t be prepared to deal with it when any bugs come up. On the other hand, if you know you can’t get coverage on a certain area, you’ll be ready to test it the moment the opportunity arises.

Minimize the damage. We all know the negatives of not testing could be infinite – a bug could arise that causes enormous damage. For example, our email feature could accidentally wipe out our database and spam all of our customers. But that’s pretty unlikely, and the reality is that any bugs would most likely prevent our project managers from getting emails from our platform. That could be a problem, but not a big one.

Have a Plan B. If Trey Ratcliff’s camera feature didn’t work, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. He could have simply disabled the feature and sent the app to the app store without it. Yes it would have made his app less enjoyable, but it would still be useful. Meanwhile, his engineers could fix the problem and have it ready for a later release.

Make sure you have a SWAT team on standby when you’re ready to test. In that crucial moment when everything comes together to finally test the feature, you’ll want to have the right people available to help make crucial decisions should any bugs come up.

Know when to move heaven and earth to get it tested. Sometimes you just can’t test something in advance, but you know you really, really should. In those cases, you have no choice but to move heaven and earth to get the feature tested the right way. If the email feature were big enough, then we could spend engineering and sysadmin time to get email working in a sandbox. That might delay other projects, but sometimes that’s the cost of testing the untestable.

Did I miss any other advice? Share it in the comments.

There was a time when customized video was reserved for the big players with big marketing budgets. Today, that’s not the case. VisibleGains helps companies of all sizes, from all over the globe, produce/track custom videos with a unique online platform.

But before this web app could be released into public beta, it needed testing across all major browsers and OSs. For too long Co-founder/VP of Product Craig Daniel was the lone tester and knew a more scalable solution was in order. “I thought this would be difficult considering it involved a lot of moving parts, but uTest handled it perfectly,” said Craig.

Less than 24 hours after opening the test project, Craig was able to review bugs and feedback from 35+ professional testers, who had submitted nearly 120 unique bugs! Find out more in the 2-minute clip below about Craig’s overall experience; how uTest gave him access to rockstar testers; and a showstopper uTest found!

VisibleGains Customer Testimonial

Well we’ve heard their pleas, and we’re happy to announce something that should help: the uTest iOS app. With a native interface for both the iPhone and the iPad, it’s now possible for testers and customers to test on the couch and on the go.

If that’s enough to make you want to download the app right now, then don’t let me stand in your way. Just click (or tap) on that image to the left and go get it. It’s free, you know.

If you’re still wondering what makes our app special, let me tell you about some of the awesome new things that both testers and customers can do.

For Testers

Customers and testers can start testing with the uTest iPhone app.

iPad users have a native interface that makes full use of the iPad layout.

It goes without saying that the uTest iOS app lets you participate in test cycles and that our app makes it easy to submit bugs right from your iPhone or iPad. But what’s really cool is that if you’re testing another iOS app, you can submit screenshots and videos of your bugs directly from the uTest app. You can even use your camera to take pictures for upload – handy if you need a screenshot of a bug on another mobile device.

In addition to all that, you can do all the other things you would expect while testing, like view the bugs submitted by other testers, reply to tester messenger conversations, and even check out your uTest earnings.

Of course, all this assumes you’re already a uTester. Because if you’re not, you can actually signup for a tester account right there in the app. It will even help you setup your iPhone or iPad as your first testing device on the uTest platform.

For Customers
If you’re a uTest customer, you’re going to love the uTest app. Why approve and reject bugs from a boring old computer when you can do it from the beach? And if you don’t have a beach nearby, how about the comfort of your couch? In fact, you can now review your test cycles from anywhere you like (assuming there’s a phone or wireless signal, of course).

With the uTest app, you’ll also be able to review attachments and even ask testers questions with tester messenger. Everything you need to keep an eye on a test cycle is available at your fingertips.

Wrapup
Of course, our community rigorously tested our iOS app and they discovered over 60 bugs before launch. Their diligence made this app super solid, and that helped us to get approved by Apple for the App Store in record time without having to resubmit.

Now that we’ve launched our first iOS app, we’re hardly finished. We want your feedback and ideas about how we can make it even better. uTest community members can join our tester forums and check out our Platform Feedback section. Customers can contact their project manager directly or drop us a line.

Our guest blogger this month is Atul Angra. A resident of India, Atul is one of our more accomplished testers (a Gold Tester in fact), with over six years of professional experience. He’s a photographer at heart, but a tester by trade, with domain expertise in healthcare and finance.

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Let’s take a scenario where a tester follows the rules and reports 100 bugs. Some of these bugs were traced to non-documented requirements that are implicit in nature, such as a drop-down list not populating alphabetically and things of that nature. These bugs are quite common and usually end up in conflict, as development teams reject them based on the argument that it’s not a defined requirement.

Here, both the developer and tester are not ready to close this issue – and they are both correct. The traditional way these issues are resolved is by involving someone from management to intervene and make a decision. The time spent in escalation and argument is much greater than what it would have taken to actually fix the issue.

At a high level, we could blame the team which collected requirement, but this may not be the case when it comes to implicit requirements. Many of these situations could be resolved if the tester demonstrates interpersonal skills.

Testers play a challenging and critical role in the organization. They dare their developer counterparts and are constantly challenged by release managers, as they pose significant risk in delaying the release. This may even stop the organization from achieving a financial target on time. In other words, testers play the role of Devil’s advocate when it comes to improving quality of a deliverable.

As such, good testing skills and good interpersonal skills make the KILLER COMBO that suits this role. Critics are rarely appreciated for their work, but coaches are. Yet coaches and critics do the same thing: they point out your mistakes and give you a chance to perform better the next time around.

The difference is in their approach. An ideal tester should become a coach instead of a critic. Developers turn defensive when testers approach them with a statement such as “This is not working as intended.”

With good interpersonal skills, these discussions can become more effective. A good tester will put forth a scenario that makes the developer consider the impact if the bug is not fixed.

A tester who reports the maximum number of critical bugs with a low rejection ratio is considered efficient. Other expectations from testers are to meet deadlines, ensure process compliance, and practice good documentation with complete functional testing. They ignore a very important attribute here:  interpersonal skills.

Conclusion:

A tester might have all the required technical skills, but may still fail because of his/her interpersonal skills. A bug that could have been amicably solved turns into a management issue with leads to a lot of wasted time.

Testers should spend time in enhancing their interpersonal skills. People always like to have colleagues who are a good listeners and who love to share knowledge. One who shares information and resources, and is helpful by bringing conflicts to the surface and getting them resolved in an ethical and professional manner.

Editor’s note: If you would like to write for our Guest Blogger series, send your posts and ideas to me at mikeb@utest.com

According to The American Bankers Association, all of $763.9 billion — more than six times the total assets of First Chicago NBD Corp. — was the largest error in US banking history.

And the reason given? Inadequate testing of course! The bank updated its ATM transaction software with new message codes. The message codes were unfortunately not tested on all ATM protocols, which resulted in some ATMs interpreting the codes as huge increases to customer balances.

This isn’t the first time we bring up banking bugs. You might remember Software Bugs: You Win Sum, You Lose Sum, the post about a man in Orlando who while making a routine bank transfer was shocked to see his balance at $88,888,888,888.88.

What other bugs have you recently heard or read about with such huge financial implications? Any mobile banking bugs?

Since we clearly have nothing left to prove in the software testing game, we’ve set our sights on other testing markets that are in desperate need of our special brand of crowd-driven innovation.  And after months of market research (mostly just watching movies), focus groups (a collection of bobblehead dolls we bought on eBay), and with the help of the brilliant consultants at Prestige Worldwide (NSFW), we’re pleased to announce our revolutionary new testing services in the following categories:

Driving tests:  Can’t keep it between the lines?  Don’t know how to parallel park?  Not even sure what “10 & 2″ means?  No problem.  With a community of 24,000+ testers from 162 countries around the world, we have people who know how to drive on the left- or right-hand side of the road.  We can help with the written exam and the road test (Please note: this would be considered 2 separate test projects).

Food tests:  Afraid someone’s trying to poison you?  Think someone may have slipped something into your drink?  Or maybe you’re just concerned that your soup is too hot?  Taking unnecessary risks with your food is now a thing of the past.  Just ping uTest and we’ll have a tester on-site in minutes, ready to sample your food or beverage and deal with the consequences.

Paternity tests:  Not sure what your responsibilities are?  Scared to learn the results?  With this latest service, you don’t have to be.  We’ve got testers everywhere and we’re happy to help you pass the test of a lifetime.  A member of our community can either take the test for you or help you study for it yourself.

Breathalyzer tests:  Say you find yourself on the wrong end of a breathalyzer test… what are you gonna do?  Run for it?  Risk it?  Well now you don’t have to make that difficult choice. In our community of 24,000+, we have literally dozens of testers who are sober at any given time.   Just access the uTest platform from your mobile device and we’ll have a tester by your side in minutes who’s ready to help you out of a potential jam.

Chemical tests:  Worried about the paint in the old house you just bought?  Not sure where your kids’ toys were made or what’s in them?  Concerned about what will happen if your pet ingests a cocktail of household cleaners?  We’ve got you covered.  Our testers will lick toys, eat paint chips or gargle with Windex to make sure you’re safe.  Please note: hazard pay is required for class 5 carcinogenic chemicals.

Sanity tests: Scared that you may be one outburst away from your boss, relatives or the courts sending you away “to a really nice place”?  Don’t get locked up against your will (again).  Let a member of our community tell the doctor what those ink blots look like.  And if you awake to find that they’ve already committed you, uTest can still help.  Just find a way to contact us and we’ll send a tester to sign you out posing as a distant cousin.

SAT tests: Trying to make the grade?  Have an unnatural fear of #2 pencils?  Does the phrase “D) All of the Above” make you break out in a cold sweat?  Breathe easy, uTest is here.  While some would say that having us take your SAT is “cheating”, we’d like to think of it as a (really dark) gray area.  Regardless, once you get into the college of your choice, you can thank us by referring your classmates during mid-term week.

Structural integrity tests: Does your roof look like it’s sagging?  Does that deck feel wobbly?  Debating whether you should replace the missing leg on that kitchen table?  Don’t guess, let us test it for you.  Using what we call “live stress testing”, we’ll send a tester (or a team of testers) to your house and jump up and down on whatever you tell us to.  And with our detailed tester profiles, you know for sure if a tester is afraid of heights.  No roof is too high; no bruise is too big… that’s our motto.

Gullibility tests: In this day & age, how do you know who or what to trust?  Is something real or a complete joke?  Well, you can stop doubting and start doing, because uTest will now help you pass any gullibility test.  Our community is full of skeptics… jaded, cynical people who don’t believe anything that can’t be proven.  And they’re happy to share their opinions with you!

We thought about adding security testing services, or testing TV set top boxes, but that sounded pretty far-fetched.  Our CEO, Doron, said it best when we were finalizing these plans at a high-level, super-secret strategy session (read as: pizza & beer in the conference room):

It’s all testing, right?  I mean, will our community actually do this stuff?  They will?  Yeah, then let’s do it.

Inspirational to the point of being chilling…  Anyway, these services are all available beginning today.  If you have ideas for other stuff we could test, or if you’d like a brochure on any of our new testing services, please send us a note.

According to Flurry Analytics, nearly half of the apps being tested on the iPad fall into the games category — a  whopping 44% of Apple test time.

On the other end of the iPad app testing spectrum (only 3% of app testing falls into the ‘books’ category) but highly anticipated, E-reader companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble are eagerly preparing their iPad apps (see iPad Kindle reader sneak here), gearing up to go head-to-head with Apple’s bookstore.

With the race on to build the first iPad apps, what are the risks of not being able to yet own or hold one? The New York Times reports:

“neither company [Amazon or Barnes & Noble] was given an iPad for testing” and “there are real-world factors that may go undetected with a simulator, like the weight of the device and how people hold it.”

As we all know here around uTest, there’s a world of difference between on-device testing and testing in a simulated environment. And with mobile app testing still maturing as a discipline, what challenges (or opportunities) will iPad, WePad and Slate apps bring to the world of testing?

In addition to inviting Doron to be a keynote presenter, QUEST features a week-long agenda packed with more than 100 opportunities for attendees to build new skills and prepare for the testing professions of the future.

From exploratory testing to test automation to security audits to crowdsourced testing,  QUEST will cover a wide range of testing topics that give attendees insight into the latest best practices and innovative approaches to testing today. To learn more, here’s a sneak peek at the QUEST Magazine.

Special Note: Members of the uTest community interested in registering for QUEST are eligible for

a 10% discount, so please shoot us a note if you’re interested in attending.

Doron will be speaking on Crowdsourced Testing for Mobile Apps. In his keynote, he’ll be speaking about adoption of mobile apps in enterprises and the implications for QA leaders.  This includes addressing how testing methods fall short of meeting mobile’s ‘in-the-wild’ testing requirements and how crowdsourcing is a fresh approach to help meet the mobile app testing challenge.

On February 11, 2007, during its very first overseas deployment to Okinawa, Japan, six F-22 Raptors flying from Hawaii experienced multiple computer crashes, including navigation, communication and fuel system crashes, when crossing the International Date Line.

The problem arose not from the time change, but from the change in longitude from W179.99 degrees to E180 which occurs on the International Date Line.

The bug could have been potentially fatal, but fortunately, the fighters were able to return to Hawaii using visual contact with their tankers, the aircrafts used for aerial refueling.

If the weather would have taken a turn for the worse causing visibility to be compromised, this would have had a much bleaker ending.

Serious bugs have been on my mind as of late. Among others, Toyota’s experimentation with embedded software isn’t going too well these days. So is any software or testing full-proof? Are we capable of ensuring safety as we increasingly rely on software in our day-to-day lives?