SEMINAR ON “TRENDS & TRANSFORMATIONS IN QUALITY ASSURANCE”
Yesterday (August 7, 2014), I attended a seminar on “Trends and Transformations in Quality Assurance”, which was held at Travancore Hall inside Techno park campus. I would like to share some information about the event that might be of possible interest to those in the software testing field.
About the Event
The seminar was organized by GTech Technology Focus Group (GTech TFG), who is known for creating awareness of various new technologies among the members of the software community, in association with Se-Mentor and Testhouse – the two pioneers in the Software Testing field.
The four speakers of the event and the topics handled by them:-
- Mr. Sarath Varma (Se-Mentor Solutions): QA Trends – Transformation Testing
- Mr. Oscar Niglin (Se-Mentor Solutions): Bug Advocacy
- Ms. Malini Valsala (Testhouse): ALM using Visual Studio 2013 – From Testing Perspective
- Mr. Shivaram Patil (Testhouse): Performance Testing
The event was kick-started by Mr. Ranjith Ramanujam (CEO of GTech TFG), with his welcome speech. Then, followed the presentations. It was a half day program and the duration was 3 hours, with a 10 minute recess.
Few pointers picked up from the event
Smart Testing: Moving from the conventional approach, we can try different methods in transforming our testing activities. One such transformation that we can bring about in testing, is the optimization of test case designing. Rather than trying out numerous input combinations and finally ending up in creating duplications and less test coverage, it is wise if we could start thinking about applying this transformation approach in our testing. There are tools available in the market that can be used for generating effective combinations of inputs. Auto generation of different combinations of inputs can avoid duplication. These inputs can be used for designing effective test cases, which can ensure increased test coverage. Some of the tools available are:
- Paid Tools : Hexawise, AETG, Pro-Test, Test Cover
- Open Source : Test Case generator, All Pairs, CombTestWeb, Spec Explorer
Bug Advocacy
This is a pointer that budding testers and even experienced ones should consider. Though we agree that testers are not gate keepers of quality (ensuring quality is the responsibility of all the teams involved), we cannot hide away from the responsibilities that are expected from us – one such is preparing an effective bug report. As a tester, it is our responsibility to make a developer want to fix the bug, to get past his excuses and reasons for not fixing a bug. In short, we should develop our analyzing and bug reporting skills in order to sell our bugs 🙂
Performance Testing
“Xiaomi Mi3 sale brings down FlipKart”,
“Five minutes early on Saturday morning, the Internet stood still as all Google services including Gmail, Drive, Maps and Chat suffered an outage and didn’t function”
These news snippets are enough to answer the question: “Why we should do performance testing?” Through performance testing, we can identify the bottlenecks in a system, establish a baseline for future testing, support a performance tuning effort, and collect performance related metrics, to help stakeholders make informed decisions related to the overall quality of the application being tested. There are plenty of tools available for the purpose – Load Runner, JMeter, Neo Load, Web Load, Rational Performance Tester, etc. I am sure, most of you are aware of all these tools, but might not had a chance to work on them. For those who haven’t done performance testing at all, there are open source tools like JMeter you can try out, to get an idea on the same.
About the Speakers
All the speakers – Mr. Sarath Varma, Mr. Oscar Niglin, Ms. Malini Valsala, and Mr. Shivaram Patil have rich experience in the field of software testing. The demo presentations of Mr. Sarath Varma and Mr. Shivaram Patil made the topics they handled, more interesting. Ms. Malini Valsala, (Test Manager, Testhouse) gave a brief overview on ALM using Visual Studio 2013, Microsoft Test Manager, Team Web Access, etc. from a tester’s perspective. After each presentation, the speakers allowed a Q&A session, which gave everyone in the audience an opportunity to interact with them and clarify their queries.
My Comments
We all know that within a short span of 3 hours, it is not possible for an in-depth coverage of these topics, but I feel that I was able to bring back some pointers from this seminar which I surely can share with my team. Attending seminars by taking time out of our hectic work schedule might not interest many of us. But, if you think you can manage and make it to one such event, I feel you should not miss out on that opportunity. I got one such opportunity yesterday and I am happy that I didn’t let it go. Being in the Software Testing field, getting an opportunity to update ourselves with the latest trends and advancements happening in this field, is something we should always look forward to. Also, the networking opportunity to connect with other professionals in the same field should also become a motivating factor.
This seminar featured four speakers, each one providing a different set of information. So, I think all those who have attended this seminar, were able to take back with them at least one new information. I know I did. Through this blog, I am thanking GTech TFG, Se-Mentor and Testhouse for facilitating such an event. Looking forward to more such events.