The Collage of Devankur Thakur

Size and effort is all what matters eventually :-). Estimation of work is really a tricky job. Here are a few resources I think a good start point to gather estimation techniques:

Books and papers

o Brooks, F., The Mythical Man Month, Addison-Wesley
o COCOMO II Model Definition Manual, University of Southern California, 1991 (for more information visit \\.sunset.usc.edu/cse/)
o Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Inc., Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology, IEEE Std 610.12-1990, The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Inc.
o International Function Point Users Group: Function Point Counting Practices Manual, Release 4.1, Jan 1999
o Jones, C., A Short History of Function Points and Feature Points, Software Productivity Research Inc., Mimeo Version, 2.0, Feb 20, 1988
o Jones, C., Applied Software Measurement - Assuring Productivity and Quality, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1991
o Jones, C., What are function points, Software Productivity Research Inc. (for more information visit \\.spr.com)
o MK II Function Point Analysis Counting Practices Manual, Version 1.3.1, United Kingdom Software Metrics Association, September 1998
o Pressman, R.S., Software Engineering – A Practitioner’s Approach, Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 2001

Web sites

 
o A list of resources for software process metrics, including function points, is available at \\.rspa.com/spi/metrics-process.html.
o A resource for software engineering is the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, \\.sei.cmu.edu.
o A variety of lists with software engineering resources is available at \\.rspa.com/spi.
o Information on COCOMO and COCOMO II is available at \\.sunset.usc.edu/cse/.
o Information on function points is available at \\.ifpug.org.
o The information on international standards and guidelines related to software from IEEE is available at \\.ieee.org.
o The guide to the Software Body of Knowledge is available at \\.swebok.org.

Michael Hunter's this compilation of checkpoints is an absolute read for anyone into testing:
http://www.ddj.com/blog/debugblog/archives/2007/05/you_are_not_don_31.html

Good readings:

Introduction to Great Design:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/printerFriendly/design/1stDraft/00.html 
What is Design?
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/printerFriendly/design/1stDraft/01.html

Ten rules of 'Zero-Defect Software Development' by Steve Pavlina, CEO, Dexterity Software: http://www.dexterity.com/articles/zero-defect-software-development.htm

1. Test your product every day as you develop it, and fix defects as soon as you find them.
2. Review your code regularly.
3. Rewrite poor-quality modules.
4. Assume full responsibility for every bug.
5. Handle change effectively.
6. Rewrite all prototyping code from scratch.
7. Set QA objectives at the beginning of every project.
8. Don't rush debugging work.
9. Treat the quality of your code at the same level of importance as the quality of your product.
10. Learn from every bug; each one represents a mistake that you made.

Check out this Six Rules of Unit Testing by Charles :

1. Write the test first
2. Never write a test that succeeds the first time
3. Start with the null case, or something that doesn't work
4. Don't be afraid of doing something trivial to make the test work
5. Loose coupling and testability go hand in hand
6. Use mock objects

http://radio.weblogs.com/0100190/stories/2002/07/25/sixRules
OfUnitTesting.html

I have been quite off of the blog scene here for a while. The product I was working on has been released, a time for a breather now and so, starting on a lighter vein, here are some interesting trivia about names : -):

ADOBE> This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

APPLE COMPUTERS> It was the favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 O'clock.

Compaq This name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.

COREL The name was derived from the founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland Research Laboratory.

GOOGLE The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor; they received a cheque made out to 'Google'

HOTMAIL Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective uppercasing.

Hewlett Packard >Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Intel Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated Electronics.

Attended a seminar on "IBM Rational Testing Solution - The Next Generation" today where IBM has unveiled their new set of test tools on Eclipse and Hyades framework:

Brief overview of the products they have showcased today:

1.      IBM Rational Manual tester:

IBM Rational Manual Tester is designed to support the diverse skill sets of the people often tasked with manual testing – business analysts, subject-matter experts, and testers. More on:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/manual/features/

2.      IBM Rational Functional tester:

IBM Rational Functional Tester is an automated regression testing tool that lets users test Java and HTML applications running on Windows and Linux platforms and .Net applications running on Windows. More on:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/functional/features/

3.      IBM Rational Performance Tester:

The IBM Rational Performance Tester  introduces easy-to-use capabilities for conducting load/stress/capacity tests. Features include Visual Text Editor, built-in datapool editor, automatic handling of variable data and low memory and processor footprint. More on:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/performance/features/

(Collected from Internet)

• Question: How many testers does it take to change a light bulb?                                                          Answer: None. Testers just noticed that the room was dark. Testers don't fix the problems, they just find them.

• To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the good tester, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

• There was an software tester who had an exceptional gift for finding all bugs. After serving his company for many years, he happily retired. Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million-dollar application. They had tried everything and everyone else to find the bug but the failure happened again and again. In desperation, they called on the retired software tester who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The software tester reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the application. At the end of the day, he wrote exact steps how to reproduce the problem and stated, "This is where your problem is." The bug was fixed . The company received a bill for $50,000 from the software tester for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The software tester responded briefly: One bug report $1. Knowing what to put in, $49,999.

• When you have an "I hate my job" day try this: On your way home from work, stop at your pharmacy and go to the thermometer section. You will need to purchase a rectal thermometer made by Johnson and Johnson. Be very sure you get this brand. When you get home, lock your doors, draw the drapes, and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed during your therapy. Change to very comfortable clothing, such as a sweat suit and lie down on your bed. Open the package and remove the thermometer. Carefully place it on the bedside table so that it will not become chipped or broken. Take out the material that comes with the thermometer and read it. You will notice that in small print there is a statement: "Every rectal thermometer made by Johnson and Johnson is personally tested. " Now close your eyes and repeat out loud five times: "I am so glad I do not work for quality control at the Johnson and Johnson Company."

• A group of managers were given the assignment to measure the height of a flagpole. So they go out to the flagpole with ladders and tape measures, and they're falling off the ladders, dropping the tape measures - the whole thing is just a mess. A tester comes along and sees what they're trying to do, walks over, pulls the flagpole out of the ground, lays it flat, measures it from end to end, gives the measurement to one of the managers and walks away. After the tester has gone, one manager turns to another and laughs. "Isn't that just like a tester, we're looking for the height and he gives us the length."

• A man piloting a hot air balloon discovers he has wandered off course and is hopelessly lost. He descends to a lower altitude and locates a man down on the ground. He lowers the balloon further and shouts "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?" The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, about 30 feet above this field." "You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist. "Yes I do," replies the man. "And how did you know that?" "Well," says the balloonist, "what you told me is technically correct, but of no use to anyone." The man below says, "You must work in management." "I do," replies the balloonist, "how did you know?" "Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect my immediate help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault!"

• Two testers went into a diner and ordered two drinks. Then they produced sandwiches from their briefcases and started to eat. The owner became quite concerned and marched over and told them, "You can't eat your own sandwiches in here!" The testers looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and then exchanged sandwiches.

• Two geeks are talking over lunch. The first guy says "You wouldn't believe what happened this morning. A girl rode up to me on her bike, took off all her clothes, and said 'Take whatever you want!' ... So I took the bike" The second guy says "Good choice, her clothes probably wouldn't have fit you."

• Why programmers often mix up Halloween and Christmas? Because OCT 31 = DEC 25

• Software Development Cycle
  
  Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
  Product is tested. 20 bugs are found.
  Programmer fixes 10 of the bugs and explains to the testing department that the other 10 aren't really bugs.
  Testing department finds that five of the fixes didn't work and discovers 15 new bugs.
  Repeat three times steps 3 and 4.
  Due to marketing pressure and an extremely premature product announcement based on overly-optimistic programming schedule, the product is released.
  Users find 137 new bugs.
  Original programmer, having cashed his royalty check, is nowhere to be found.
  Newly-assembled programming team fixes almost all of the 137 bugs, but introduce 456 new ones.
  Original programmer sends underpaid testing department a postcard from Fiji. Entire testing department quits.
  Company is bought in a hostile takeover by competitor using profits from their latest release, which had 783 bugs.
  New CEO is brought in by board of directors. He hires a programmer to redo program from scratch.
  Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.................

Few links to User Interface Engineering:
http://www.uie.com
http://www.hcibib.org
http://www.guuui.com/
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/
http://www.jnd.org

Steve Miller (President of Pragmatic Software) has defined Gold Plating the following way:
Gold Plating - Similar to scope and feature creep, programmers can also incur risk by making the feature more robust than is necessary.  For example, the specification for the Logon page contained a screen shot that showed very few graphics, it was just a simple logon process.  However, the programmer decides that it would be really cool to add a FLASH based movie on the page that fades in the names of all the programmers and a documentary on security.  This new movie (while cool in the programmer's eyes), takes 4 hours of additional work, put their follow-on tasks are n jeopardy because they are now behind schedule. http://www.softwareplanner.com/Newsletters/newsletter_2004_07_SP.htm

Another Definition:
Adding more to the system than specified in the requirements. Gold plating is not a bargain. It can increase operation and maintenance costs and reduce quality. Gold plating indicates project processes are out of control. Gold plating can also be accomplished by adding unnecessary requirements. Risk adjusted cost-benefit analyses can help avoid this form of gold plating. \\.jiludwig.com/Definitions.html  

The product Version I have been working is nearing release and the work has been going at break neck speed, especially with bug fixing and its validation schedule taking a real upward curve. Getting builds thrice a week and for quite a few builds, we have primarily been doing fix validations. Already through 3 regression cycles (cycles are generally pretty long), and am amazed to find how bugs creep in some areas even when so unattached to the areas of fix. Regression makes sense really, it’s not always easy to ascertain the areas affected by a particular fix and a full regression can act as a cure for that. A small test team, thrice a weekly build, a build having 7/8 fixes, what’s the best way to deal with a situation like that, when if you have to do regression on a particular build say on bld05 and then the next build you pick up is bld09(due to elapse of time for the whole duration of regression) with all practicality taken into consideration!!

Reverse Engineering:
A method of recreating software system components for which the source code is missing, out of date, or is otherwise not in agreement with existing components. Disassemblers and decompilers are examples of Reverse Engineering Tools.www.users.qwest.net/~dssecor/y2k_glos.html

The process of analyzing an existing system to identify its components and their interrelationships, and to create representations of the system in another form or at a higher level of abstraction (Dictionary.com).
\\.rigi.csc.uvic.ca/Pages/description/glossary.html

Re-Engineering:
Reanalysis and radical redesign that is not bound by previous obsolete solutions. (Contrast TQM - incremental improvement) info.louisiana.edu/dept/glosr.html

Coined by management guru Michael Hammer, it's a quality improvement tool: start from scratch, question assumptions, and radically redesign what people do and how they work.www.trillium.org/glos_med.html

Another good work done by Vamseedhar . He has moved Interview Questions to a new dedicated site with comments option and no registration required and the url is http://www.geekinterview.com/.

Check this out.

Here are a few links to tutorials, help, tips or notes available on different testing tools on the net:  

Mercury:

1. WinRunner User Guide:

http://www.wilsonmar.com/docs/wr70/wr_ug.pdf

2.      Abridged WinRunner User Guide is available at:

http://www.qualtech-int.com.au/filedb/uploads/WRUG.pdf

3.      A WinRunner Tutorial is available at:

http://www.csee.usf.edu/~njayacha/web/edu/automation/wr_tut.pdf

4. WinRunner Tutorial:

http://www.wilsonmar.com/docs/wr70/wr_tut.pdf

5. TSL (Test Script Language) Reference Guide:

http://www.wilsonmar.com/docs/wr70/tsl.pdf

6.   Another Winrunner site is:

http://www.wilsonmar.com/1winrun.htm

7. WinRunner Sample Code:

http://www.wilsonmar.com/docs/wr70/samples.hlp

8.  Winrunner Tips:

http://www.geocities.com/jmcgowanjr/Tips/winrunner.html

Check this write up by Mike Kelly (Mike@MichaelDKelly.com) on choosing a test automation framework, with explanations on:

Test Script Modularity Framework,
Test Library Architecture Framework,
Keyword-Driven or Table-Driven Testing Framework,
Data-Driven Testing Framework,
Hybrid Test Automation Framework.

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/591.html#N10223 
 

Check this out, 'The Seven Basic Principles of the Context-Driven School ':
http://www.context-driven-testing.com/ 

Check this out -> TechTarget's 'Paul Gillin' offers top 10 trends to watch in 2005:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1042466,00.html

Check out Joel Spolsky’s (Fog Creek Software, Inc) advice for Computer Science Students: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CollegeAdvice.html

Here are Joel's Seven Pieces of Advice for Computer Science College Students:

1. Learn how to write before graduating.
2. Learn C before graduating.
3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.
4. Don't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.
5. Take programming-intensive courses.
6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.
7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

Check out this free OpenSource Test Management Tool-"QA traq":
http://www.testmanagement.com/

QA-Traq can manage test plans, test cases and recording of test results and also, provides revision control for all test documentation.

Check out this write up by 'Leslie Segal', President, Testware Associates, Inc.,on 'Key Considerations in Performance Testing': http://www.testwareinc.com/resources/articles/
Key_Considerations_in_Performance_Testing.pdf

• Determine the performance testing objectives
• Set pass/fail criteria
• Establish profiles of expected real users
• Determine the proper ratio of real to virtual users
• Create test scripts and executed
• Gather and correlate the data from the test tool and Web/application/other servers.

By Trina Mukherjee in \\.rediff.com

Illustrations By Dominic Xavier

I appeared for CSTE on September 18^th and after a wait of 10 weeks, finally got the snail mail from QAI with the CSTE Result. Cleared the exam with 83%, was somewhat little disappointed with the scores in Objective parts. Anyway, it’s a good feeling to be certified ;-)