Theo Moore

Your post reminds of the many, many, many (did I mention "many"?) situations wherein a tool is purchased to solve process problems. But I digress...

My company uses WSS with Internet as well as intranet access and it works fine. In fact, we're a "virtual" company so we're not really in the office that much. Yeah, we have VPN but not always in a place to get it going. I don't notice any changes at all in performance, functionality, etc.

I can see what you mean about DDN and customization. However, given the situation in your company, it seems like you would want to avoid, rather than embrace, that option.

I don't know what you're looking for in terms of custom functionality. Maybe if you expound on that we can chat some more about how WSS can help. Anyway, my not-so-humble opinion...

Thanks for the input, B. Yeah, DNN is definitely more flexible. I think if I can get SP up and running first, I'll see if we can get buy in something more like DNN afterwards.

You are so right about process tools. It's interesting that everyone loves the new process until it's time to use it....

T.

Automation vs. Manual: Figuring things out
We are currently in the process of moving out of the Dark Ages testing-wise at my company. Up until recently we relied on heavy domain knowledge and Excel spreadsheets to track our testing efforts. We have had TestDirector for some time, but really only used it for defect tracking, and didn't keep our test plans/tests in it. Since I've come aboard and started working on automation, there has been a drive to use TD in the way intended.

There has been some very strong resistance from certain parts of the team. The argument is that our web shop is too dynamic to make it worthwhile. Sort of expecting us to have to update the tests so often that they aren't germane too long. Basically, there is a resistance to placing some of the domain knowledge people have in a central respository.

We also are trying to institute standard procedures for repeatable steps, which suits me fine. I can write automation scripts that are much more reusable that way...not to mention far easier to maintain. What's funny is that the manual team loves the concept of automation...until I told them that they would have to maintain the design steps. Suddenly, no one has any time. :-)

Also, I am trying to setup a site for my World of Warcraft (Brotherhood of the Tree on Dalaran) guild to access and share information. Basically, we need a central repository for storing and updating documents that provide information on our various guild activities, profession lists, etc. I am considering a couple of options, and would appreciate any advice anyone could give:
Option #1: Sharepoint: This by far is simpler than anything else to setup and administer, but it doesn't give a lot of custom functionality as easily as some other options, especially my second one (see below).

Option #2: DNN site. Now, I like this one simply cause I like DNN so much and for its ability to be seriously modded and customized. It's a bit harder to work with and has a longer spin up time, but it has tremendous flexibility.

I'd heard that Sharepoint doesn't really like being used across the internet as much as it does an intranet. Anyone have an opinion on that?

General Testing Concepts


1. Spike Test
Spike testing (also known as bounce testing) simulates system behavior similarity to real production usage where load is irregular. The system is loaded to 50 percent capacity then loaded to maximum and release & repeated. This determines the system ability to recover when placed under sporadically changing loads.

2. What is the difference between functionality testing and system testing?
Functionality testing is part of system testing
System testing can be divided in to four parts
Usability, functional, Security, Performance
OR
functional testing - black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application; this type of testing should be done by testers. This doesn't mean that the programmers shouldn't check that their code works before releasing it (which of course applies to any stage of testing.)

System tests - black-box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications; covers all combined parts of a system.
3.What is a client server technology please explain ?
Client-Server technology means client is some thing the user interacts with the application.
Server means storing the data from application.

4. What is test condition?
It is the functional attribute of the application.


5. What is the difference between Smoke testing and Sanity testing?
Sanity Testing: Test Engineer cover basic functionality of the build to validate " whether the build is stable for complete testing or not".
Smoke Testing: It is an extra shakeup in sanity process.
In this testing, testing team rejects build with specific reasons where that build is not working
OR
Sanity testing is an Initial effort to check whether the application can be tested further without any interruption. Basic GUI functionality, connectivity to database are concentrated here.
Smoke Testing: It covers most crucial functions of the application.
Testing carried out check whether most crucial functions of the application work fine or not? Don’t bother about the in-depth coverage of each test set.



6. How do we test when we click an url the correct page opened or not using WinRunner?
BY USING WEB TETING FUNCTIONS, LIKE:
web_link_clink,
web_url_valid,
web_link_valid


7. What are BVA and ECP?
Equivalence class partion:
Equivalence partion is a black box testing method.
Divides input domain of a program into classes of data from which test cases can be derived.
In Equivalence portioning a test case designed as to uncover group of class of errors.
Here the input domain is divided into classes groups data.
These classes are known as equivalence class, the process of making these equivalence classes is known as equivalence class partion.
Equivalence class partion represents a set of valid and invalid states of every input conditions
Boundary value Analysis: It has been observer that Program that work correctly for a set of values. In Equivalence class fail on some special values these values often lie on boundary of equivalence class.
BVA test cases are extreme test cases.

8. What is the regular expression in WinRunner?
Regular Expression is used to map the pattern for dynamically changing windows or objects.
Example:
While you are executing the script which contains date field it will show mismatch. Because recorded script contains different date. By using reg exp we can come across this

9. What is a Test Responsibility Matrix and can you specify a template for it?
It is a matrix drawn between the functions to be tested and the type of tests or between test factor and type of test

10. What is the difference between ISO, CMM and CMMI?
ISO
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer of standards. Although ISO's principal activity is the development of technical standards, ISO standards also have important economic and social repercussions. ISO standards make a positive difference, not just to engineers and manufacturers for whom they solve basic problems in production and distribution, but to society as a whole.
The International Standards which ISO develops are very useful. They are useful to industrial and business organizations of all types, to governments and other regulatory bodies, to trade officials, to conformity assessment professionals, to suppliers and customers of products and services in both public and private sectors, and, ultimately, to people in general in their roles as consumers and end users.
CMM
The Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM) is a framework that describes the key elements of an effective software process. There are CMMs for non software processes as well, such as Business Process Management (BPM)
The CMM describes an evolutionary improvement path from an ad hoc, immature process to a mature, disciplined process. The CMM covers practices for planning, engineering, and managing software development and maintenance. When followed, these key practices improve the ability of organizations to meet goals for cost, schedule, functionality, and product quality. The CMM establishes a yardstick against which it is possible to judge, in a repeatable way, the maturity of an organization's software process and compare it to the state of the practice of the industry. The CMM can also be used by an organization to plan improvements to its software process. It also reflects the needs of individuals performing software process, improvement, software process assessments, or software capability evaluations; is documented; and is publicly available.
CMMI
Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes.
11. What is the difference between client server (2 tier) testing and web testing (3 tier)
Client server:
2 tiers and a single user
Web server:
Multi tier and multi users
OR

C/S is a two tier architecture it means we'd to check the 2 tier arch. of system where as web based is a multi tier arch there we'd to check the multiple systems like load performance, stress on different machines impact

OR

Client Server Transactions are Limited, where Web Transaction are unpredictable and unlimited. Client Server User behavior is predictable and controllable, where in Web Testing User behavior is unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Client Server variable are LAN, centralized H/W, and S/W, where as Web Testing variables are Firewalls, Routers, Housing Company, Caching System.
Client Server failure is notice internally, where in Web Testing it is known externally.


12. How we can check HTML pages in any website and every links have different links?
To check the pages r working with resp to links we'd to check when the link is clicked it correct page is opened r not if opened we go for stress,performance,load ...


13. What is the exact difference between breakpoint and toggle breakpoint in WinRunner?
Through breakpoint we can stop at specific location
Using toggle button we can remove break point
14. What is version control?

Version Control-Whenever any application came for modification we consider that as a new version of that application. We kept our old version and this new version of application in our database. We use VSS (Version source System) to manage the verions of application.


15. What is bidirectional Traceability matrix briefly..........


It is basically a table which establishes connectivity between the Requirements to testcases.

OR
It is a traceability matrix which links the required testcases with their respective requirements as well as functional specs, design spec. It is bidirectional because mostly it happens that instead of writing the actual requirements and functional specifications in the table we write the corresponding column no. and hyperlink it so you click on that and it will take you to the respective page and also that if any change has to be done in any document, no need to change in the RTM.
16. What is the basic difference between Product testing and Application Testing?
Product testing is just like black box testing in this u no need to test the coding just u wants to see whether the product meets expected with actual but application testing u need some knowledge of software language
OR
Clear definition of product is ex: software released to the market
Whereas application is also software developed to particular client for his requirements. Whereas a product is in market for all the people needed.
OR
Yes application is software developed to particular client for his requirements. Whereas a product is for all the people needed.
But In practice application Testing and Product Testing are same.
1] If someone asks about your project which you have tested that time our reply is our project name--- means our product -- Right?
2] now if someone ask on which application do you have experience regarding Testing--- our reply is Application by which our product or project has made example JAVA,ASP..... Right?
These two sentence shows that our answer is different but meaning is same because we have tested the same Project which is our product and is developed in JAVA or ASP or any other application. So Application testing and Product Testing are same thing
17. .What is Database Testing? 2. What is Web Server? 3. What is SDLC in Product based company?
1) Data base testing is also called as back end testing. We conduct this testing based on data validation and data integrity. Data validation means that whether front end values are correctly storing into back tables content or not. Data integrity means that whether impact of front end operations is working on back end tables content or not.
2) 2.its a server ,what ever the web request user send it receives them and give response to that requests.
3) 3. Sdlc means soft ware development life cycle. it contains all the stages in development such as information gathering,analysis,design,coding,testing ,maintenance.


18. What is the difference between severity and priority? Which one is used by a tester?

Severity means Technical (i.e. if the application is shuts down, when we perform one function in the Application, the severity level is high)
Priority means Business (If we are going to deliver a build, in that build defect may be low severity, but the Priority is high.)
Severity only decided by the tester. Priority will be decided by the PM.
OR

Severity: This is assigned by the tester. Severity of a defect is set based on the issue's seriousness.
Ii can be stated as mentioned
Show stopper: 4, Major defect: 3, Minor defect: 2, Cosmetic: 1
Setting values for these four categories can be again defined by the organization based on their views.
Showstopper: this have a higher severity as u cannot proceed further testing with the application testing.
Major: If there are any main defect based on the functionality.
Minor: If there is any error in the functionality of one object under one functionality
Cosmetic: any error based on the look and feel of the system, or improper location of the object (something based on the design of the web page)
Priority: this will be set by the team lead or the project lead.
Based on the severity and the time constraint that the module has the priority will be set
19. What Is The Difference Between Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Testing?

Quality Assurance: A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.
Quality Control: A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product. Testing: The process of executing a system with the intent of finding defects. (Note that the "process of executing a system" includes test planning prior to the execution of the test cases.)
Quality Assurance Quality Control
A planned and systematic set of activities necessary to provide adequate confidence that requirements are properly established and products or services conform to specified requirements. The process by which product quality is compared with applicable standards; and the action taken when nonconformance is detected.
An activity that establishes and evaluates the processes to produce the products. An activity which verifies if the product meets pre-defined standards.
Helps establish processes. Implements the process.
Sets up measurements programs to evaluate processes. Verifies if specific attribute(s) are in a specific product or service
Identifies weaknesses in processes and improves them. Identifies defects for the primary purpose of correcting defects.
QA is the responsibility of the entire team. QC is the responsibility of the tester.
Prevents the introduction of issues or defects Detects, reports and corrects defects
QA evaluates whether or not quality control is working for the primary purpose of determining whether or not there is a weakness in the process. QC evaluates if the application is working for the primary purpose of determining if there is a flaw / defect in the functionalities.
QA improves the process that is applied to multiple products that will ever be produced by a process. QC improves the development of a specific product or service.
QA personnel should not perform quality control unless doing it to validate quality control is working. QC personnel may perform quality assurance tasks if and when required




20. What’s a 'test plan'?
A software project test plan is a document that describes the objectives, scope, approach, and focus of a software testing effort. The process of preparing a test plan is a useful way to think through the efforts needed to validate the acceptability of a software product. The completed document will help people outside the test group understand the 'why' and 'how' of product validation. It should be thorough enough to be useful but not so thorough that no one outside the test group will read it. The following are some of the items that might be included in a test plan, depending on the particular project:
• Title
• Identification of software including version/release numbers
• Revision history of document including authors, dates, approvals
• Table of Contents
• Purpose of document, intended audience
• Objective of testing effort
• Software product overview
• Relevant related document list, such as requirements, design documents, other test plans, etc.
• Relevant standards or legal requirements
• Traceability requirements
• Relevant naming conventions and identifier conventions
• Overall software project organization and personnel/contact-info/responsibilities
• Test organization and personnel/contact-info/responsibilities
• Assumptions and dependencies
• Project risk analysis
• Testing priorities and focus
• Scope and limitations of testing
• Test outline - a decomposition of the test approach by test type, feature, functionality, process, system, module, etc. as applicable
• Outline of data input equivalence classes, boundary value analysis, error classes
• Test environment - hardware, operating systems, other required software, data configurations, interfaces to other systems
• Test environment validity analysis - differences between the test and production systems and their impact on test validity
• Test environment setup and configuration issues
• Software migration processes
• Software CM processes
• Test data setup requirements
• Database setup requirements
• Outline of system-logging/error-logging/other capabilities, and tools such as screen capture software, that will be used to help describe and report bugs
• Discussion of any specialized software or hardware tools that will be used by testers to help track the cause or source of bugs
• Test automation - justification and overview
• Test tools to be used, including versions, patches, etc.
• Test script/test code maintenance processes and version control
• Problem tracking and resolution - tools and processes
• Project test metrics to be used
• Reporting requirements and testing deliverables
• Software entrance and exit criteria
• Initial sanity testing period and criteria
• Test suspension and restart criteria
• Personnel allocation
• Personnel pre-training needs
• Test site/location
• Outside test organizations to be utilized and their purpose, responsibilities, deliverables, contact persons, and coordination issues
• Relevant proprietary, classified, security and licensing issues.
• Open issues
• Appendix - glossary, acronyms, etc.
21. How can World Wide Web sites be tested?
Web sites are essentially client/server applications - with web servers and 'browser' clients. Consideration should be given to the interactions between html pages, TCP/IP communications, Internet connections, firewalls, applications that run in web pages (such as applets, JavaScript, plug-in applications), and applications that run on the server side (such as cgi scripts, database interfaces, logging applications, dynamic page generators, asp, etc.). Additionally, there are a wide variety of servers and browsers, various versions of each, small but sometimes significant differences between them, variations in connection speeds, rapidly changing technologies, and multiple standards and protocols. The end result is that testing for web sites can become a major ongoing effort. Other considerations might include:
What are the expected loads on the server (e.g., number of hits per unit time?), and what kind of performance is required under such loads (such as web server response time, database query response times). What kinds of tools will be needed for performance testing (such as web load testing tools, other tools already in house that can be adapted, web robot downloading tools, etc.) ?
• Who is the target audience? What kind of browsers will they be using? What kind of connection speeds will they by using? Are they intra- organization (thus with likely high connection speeds and similar browsers) or Internet-wide (thus with a wide variety of connection speeds and browser types)?
• What kind of performance is expected on the client side (e.g., how fast should pages appear, how fast should animations, applets, etc. load and run)?
• Will down time for server and content maintenance/upgrades be allowed? How much?
• What kinds of security (firewalls, encryptions, passwords, etc.) will be required and what is it expected to do? How can it be tested?
• How reliable are the site's Internet connections required to be? And how does that affect backup system or redundant connection requirements and testing?
• What processes will be required to manage updates to the web site's content, and what are the requirements for maintaining, tracking, and controlling page content, graphics, links, etc.?
• Which HTML specification will be adhered to? How strictly? What variations will be allowed for targeted browsers?
• Will there be any standards or requirements for page appearance and/or graphics throughout a site or parts of a site??
• How will internal and external links be validated and updated? how often?
• Can testing be done on the production system, or will a separate test system be required? How are browser caching, variations in browser option settings, dial-up connection variabilities, and real-world internet 'traffic congestion' problems to be accounted for in testing?
• How extensive or customized are the server logging and reporting requirements; are they considered an integral part of the system and do they require testing?
• How are cgi programs, applets, javascripts, ActiveX components, etc. to be maintained, tracked, controlled, and tested?
22. SMOKE Vs SANITY

Smoke Test:
When a build is received, a smoke test is run to ascertain if the build is stable and it can be considered for further testing.
Smoke testing can be done for testing the stability of any interim build.
Smoke testing can be executed for platform qualification tests.
Sanity testing:
Once a new build is obtained with minor revisions, instead of doing a through regression, sanity is performed so as to ascertain the build has indeed rectified the issues and no further issue has been introduced by the fixes. It’s generally a subset of regression testing and a group of test cases are executed that are related with the changes made to the app.

Generally, when multiple cycles of testing are executed, sanity testing may be done during the later cycles after through regression cycles.


1 Smoke testing originated in the hardware testing practice of turning on a new piece of hardware for the first time and considering it a success if it does not catch fire and smoke. In software industry, smoke testing is a shallow and wide approach whereby all areas of the application without getting into too deep, is tested. A sanity test is a narrow regression test that focuses on one or a few areas of functionality. Sanity testing is usually narrow and deep.
2 A smoke test is scripted--either using a written set of tests or an automated test. A sanity test is usually unscripted.
3 A Smoke test is designed to touch every part of the application in a cursory way. It's is shallow and wide. A Sanity test is used to determine a small section of the application is still working after a minor change.
4 Smoke testing will be conducted to ensure whether the most crucial functions of a program work, but not bothering with finer details. (Such as build verification). Sanity testing is a cursory testing; it is performed whenever a cursory testing is sufficient to prove the application is functioning according to specifications. This level of testing is a subset of regression testing.
5 Smoke testing is normal health check up to a build of an application before taking it to testing in depth.
sanity testing is to verify whether requirements are met or not,
Checking all features breadth-first.






23. C/S application Vs Web application

Applications are connected by network such as LAN, WAN, and MAN


C/S application.

Web Application.


1 2 tier application. N-tier application.

2 Application resides on the client workstation.
Browser resides on the client workstation.

3 User behavior is predictable and controllable.
User behavior is unpredictable and uncontrollable
4 Internal errors are easily predictable.
External errors are unpredictable and uncontrollable.

5


6 Application process is done by application server.

Client server variables are environment, operating system and so on.
Application process is done by web server.


Web variables are Firewalls, routers and so on.

1:What is major differencebetween ECP and BVA?

2:How is it known that where in testing we are using these two ?

3:If example sorted ,where in blackbox testing particular cases it is used it would be better?