Q: 1 What testing approaches can you tell me about?
A: Each of the followings represents a different testing approach: black box testing, white box testing, unit testing, incremental testing, integration testing, functional testing, system testing, end-to-end testing, sanity testing, regression testing, acceptance testing, load testing, performance testing, usability testing, install/uninstall testing, recovery testing, security testing, compatibility testing, exploratory testing, ad-hoc testing, user acceptance testing, comparison testing, alpha testing, beta testing, and mutation testing.
Q: 2 What is stress testing?
A: Stress testing is testing that investigates the behavior of software (and hardware) under extraordinary operating conditions.
For example, when a web server is stress tested, testing aims to find out how many users can be on-line, at the same time, without crashing the server. Stress testing tests the stability of a given system or entity.
Stress testing tests something beyond its normal operational capacity, in order to observe any negative results. For example, a web server is stress tested, using scripts, bots, and various denial of service tools.
Q: 3 What is load testing?
A: Load testing simulates the expected usage of a software program, by simulating multiple users that access the program's services concurrently. Load testing is most useful and most relevant for multi-user systems, client/server models, including web servers.
For example, the load placed on the system is increased above normal usage patterns, in order to test the system's response at peak loads.
Q: 4 What is the difference between stress testing and load testing?
A: Load testing generally stops short of stress testing.
During stress testing, the load is so great that the expected results are errors, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community.
The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing.
Q: 5 What is the difference between performance testing and load testing?
A: Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community. The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing. Load testing generally stops short of stress testing. During stress testing, the load is so great that errors are the expected results, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Q: 6 What is the difference between reliability testing and load testing?
A: Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community. The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing. Load testing generally stops short of stress testing. During stress testing, the load is so great that errors are the expected results, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Q: 7 What is automated testing?
A: Automated testing is a formally specified and controlled method of formal testing approach.
Q: 8 What is the difference between volume testing and load testing?
A: Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community. The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing. Load testing generally stops short of stress testing. During stress testing, the load is so great that errors are the expected results, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Q: 9 What is incremental testing?
A: Incremental testing is partial testing of an incomplete product. The goal of incremental testing is to provide an early feedback to software developers.
Q: 10 What is software testing?
A: Software testing is a process that identifies the correctness, completeness, and quality of software. Actually, testing cannot establish the correctness of software. It can find defects, but cannot prove there are no defects.
`Q: 1 What is alpha testing?
A: Alpha testing is final testing before the software is released to the general public. First, (and this is called the first phase of alpha testing), the software is tested by in-house developers. They use either debugger software, or hardware-assisted debuggers. The goal is to catch bugs quickly.
Then, (and this is called second stage of alpha testing), the software is handed over to software QA staff for additional testing in an environment that is similar to the intended use.
Q: 2 What is beta testing?
A: Following alpha testing, "beta versions" of the software are released to a group of people, and limited public tests are performed, so that further testing can ensure the product has few bugs.
Other times, beta versions are made available to the general public, in order to receive as much feedback as possible. The goal is to benefit the maximum number of future users.
Q: 3 What is the difference between alpha and beta testing?
A: Alpha testing is performed by in-house developers and software QA personnel. Beta testing is performed by the public, a few select prospective customers, or the general public.
Q: 4 What is gamma testing?
A: Gamma testing is testing of software that has all the required features, but it did not go through all the in-house quality checks. Cynics tend to refer to software releases as "gamma testing".
Q: 5 What is boundary value analysis?
A: Boundary value analysis is a technique for test data selection. A test engineer chooses values that lie along data extremes. Boundary values include maximum, minimum, just inside boundaries, just outside boundaries, typical values, and error values. The expectation is that, if a systems works correctly for these extreme or special values, then it will work correctly for all values in between. An effective way to test code, is to exercise it at its natural boundaries.
Q: 6 What is ad hoc testing?
A: Ad hoc testing is a testing approach; it is the least formal testing approach.
Q: 7 What is clear box testing?
A: Clear box testing is the same as white box testing. It is a testing approach that examines the application's program structure, and derives test cases from the application's program logic.
Q: 8 What is glass box testing?
A: Glass box testing is the same as white box testing. It is a testing approach that examines the application's program structure, and derives test cases from the application's program logic.
Q: What is open box testing?
A: Open box testing is the same as white box testing. It is a testing approach that examines the application's program structure, and derives test cases from the application's program logic.
Q: 9 What is black box testing?
A: Black box testing a type of testing that considers only externally visible behavior. Black box testing considers neither the code itself, nor the "inner workings" of the software.
Q: 10 What is functional testing?
A: Functional testing is the same as black box testing. Black box testing a type of testing that considers only externally visible behavior. Black box testing considers neither the code itself, nor the "inner workings" of the software.
Q: 11 What is closed box testing?
A: Closed box testing is the same as black box testing. Black box testing a type of testing that considers only externally visible behavior. Black box testing considers neither the code itself, nor the "inner workings" of the software.
Q: 12 What is bottom-up testing?
A: Bottom-up testing is a technique for integration testing. A test engineer creates and uses test drivers for components that have not yet been developed, because, with bottom-up testing, low-level components are tested first. The objective of bottom-up testing is to call low-level components, for testing purposes.
Q: 13 What is software quality?
A: The quality of the software does vary widely from system to system. Some common quality attributes are stability, usability, reliability, portability, and maintainability. See quality standard ISO 9126 for more information on this subject.
Q: 14 What is software fault?
A: A software fault is a hidden programming error. A software fault fault is an error in the correctness of the semantics of a computer program.
Q: 15 What is software failure?
A: Software failure occurs when the software does not do what the user expects to see.
Q: 16 What is the difference between a software fault and software failure?
A: A software failure occurs when the software does not do what the user expects to see. Software faults, on the other hand, are hidden programming errors. Software faults become software failures only when the exact computation conditions are met, and the faulty portion of the code is executed on the CPU. This can occur during normal usage. Other times it occurs when the software is ported to a different hardware platform, or, when the software is ported to a different complier, or, when the software gets extended.
Q: 17 What is a test engineer?
A: We, test engineers, are engineers who specialize in testing. We create test cases, procedures, scripts and generate data. We execute test procedures and scripts, analyze standards of measurements, evaluate results of system/integration/regression testing.
Q: 18 What is a QA engineer?
A: QA engineers are test engineer, but they do more than just testing. Good QA engineers understand the entire software development process and how it fits into the business approach and the goals of the organization.
Communication skills and the ability to understand various sides of issues are important. A QA engineer is successful if people listen to him, if people use his tests, if people think that he's useful, and if he's happy doing his work.
I would love to see QA departments staffed with experienced software developers who coach development teams to write better code. But I've never seen it. Instead of coaching, QA engineers tend to be process people.
Q: 19 How do test case templates look like?
A: Software test cases are documents that describe inputs, actions, or events and their expected results, in order to determine if all features of an application are working correctly.
A software test case template is, for example, a 6-column table, where column 1 is the "Test case ID number", column 2 is the "Test case name", column 3 is the "Test objective", column 4 is the "Test conditions/setup", column 5 is the "Input data requirements/steps", and column 6 is the "Expected results".
All documents should be written to a certain standard and template. Standards and templates maintain document uniformity. It also helps in learning where information is located, making it easier for a user to find what they want. Lastly, with standards and templates, information will not be accidentally omitted from a document.
Once Rob Davis has learned and reviewed your standards and templates, he will use them. He will also recommend improvements and/or additions.
Q: 1 What is the role of the test engineer?
A: We, test engineers, speed up the work of the development staff, and reduce the risk of your company's legal liability.
We also give your company the evidence that the software is correct and operates properly.
We, test engineers, improve problem tracking and reporting, maximize the value of the software, and the value of the devices that use it.
We, test engineers, assure the successful launch of the product by discovering bugs and design flaws, before users get discouraged, before shareholders loose their cool and before employees get bogged down.
We, test engineers, help the work of the software development staff, so the development team can devote its time to build up the product.
We, test engineers, promote continual improvement.
We provide documentation required by FDA, FAA, other regulatory agencies, and your customers.
We, test engineers, save your company money by discovering defects EARLY in the design process, before failures occur in production, or in the field. We save the reputation of your company by discovering bugs and design flaws, before bugs and design flaws damage the reputation of your company.
Q: 2 What are the QA engineer's responsibilities?
A: Let's say, an engineer is hired for a small software company's QA role, and there is no QA team. Should he take responsibility to set up a QA infrastructure/process, testing and quality of the entire product? No, because taking this responsibility is a classic trap that QA people get caught in. Why? Because we QA engineers cannot assure quality. And because QA departments cannot create quality.
What we CAN do is to detect lack of quality, and prevent low-quality products from going out the door. What is the solution? We need to drop the QA label, and tell the developers that they are responsible for the quality of their own work. The problem is, sometimes, as soon as the developers learn that there is a test department, they will slack off on their testing. We need to offer to help with quality assessment, only.
Q: 3 What metrics can be used in for software development?
A: Metrics refer to statistical process control. The idea of statistical process control is a great one, but it has only a limited use in software development.
On the negative side, statistical process control works only with processes that are sufficiently well defined AND unvaried, so that they can be analyzed in terms of statistics. The problem is, most software development projects are NOT sufficiently well defined and NOT sufficiently unvaried.
On the positive side, one CAN use statistics. Statistics are excellent tools that project managers can use. Statistics can be used, for example, to determine when to stop testing, i.e. test cases completed with certain percentage passed, or when bug rate falls below a certain level. But, if these are project management tools, why should we label them quality assurance tools?
Q: 4 What is role of the QA engineer?
A: The QA Engineer's function is to use the system much like real users would, find all the bugs, find ways to replicate the bugs, submit bug reports to the developers, and to provide feedback to the developers, i.e. tell them if they've achieved the desired level of quality.
Q: 5 What metrics can be used for bug tracking?
A: Metrics that can be used for bug tracking include the total number of bugs, total number of bugs that have been fixed, number of new bugs per week, and number of fixes per week.
Other metrics in quality assurance include...
McCabe metrics: cyclomatic complexity metric (v(G)), actual complexity metric (AC), module design complexity metric (iv(G)), essential complexity metric (ev(G)), pathological complexity metric (pv(G)), design complexity metric (S0), integration complexity metric (S1), object integration complexity metric (OS1), global data complexity metric (gdv(G)), data complexity metric (DV), tested data complexity metric (TDV), data reference metric (DR), tested data reference metric (TDR), maintenance severity metric (maint_severity), data reference severity metric (DR_severity), data complexity severity metric (DV_severity), global data severity metric (gdv_severity).
Q: 6 What metrics can be used for bug tracking? (Cont'd...)
McCabe object-oriented software metrics: encapsulation percent public data (PCTPUB), access to public data (PUBDATA), polymorphism percent of unoverloaded calls (PCTCALL), number of roots (ROOTCNT), fan-in (FANIN), quality maximum v(G) (MAXV), maximum ev(G) (MAXEV), and hierarchy quality (QUAL).
Other object-oriented software metrics: depth (DEPTH), lack of cohesion of methods (LOCM), number of children (NOC), response for a class (RFC), weighted methods per class (WMC), Halstead software metrics program length, program volume, program level and program difficulty, intelligent content, programming effort, error estimate, and programming time.
Line count software metrics: lines of code, lines of comment, lines of mixed code and comments, and lines left blank.
Q: 7 How do you perform integration testing?
A: First, unit testing has to be completed. Upon completion of unit testing, integration testing begins. Integration testing is black box testing. The purpose of integration testing is to ensure distinct components of the application still work in accordance to customer requirements.
Test cases are developed with the express purpose of exercising the interfaces between the components. This activity is carried out by the test team.
Integration testing is considered complete, when actual results and expected results are either in line or differences are explainable/acceptable based on client input.
Q: 8 What metrics are used for test report generation?
A: Metrics that can be used for test report generation include...
McCabe metrics: Cyclomatic complexity metric (v(G)), Actual complexity metric (AC), Module design complexity metric (iv(G)), Essential complexity metric (ev(G)), Pathological complexity metric (pv(G)), design complexity metric (S0), Integration complexity metric (S1), Object integration complexity metric (OS1), Global data complexity metric (gdv(G)), Data complexity metric (DV), Tested data complexity metric (TDV), Data reference metric (DR), Tested data reference metric (TDR), Maintenance severity metric (maint_severity), Data reference severity metric (DR_severity), Data complexity severity metric (DV_severity), Global data severity metric (gdv_severity).
McCabe object oriented software metrics: Encapsulation percent public data (PCTPUB), and Access to public data (PUBDATA), Polymorphism percent of unoverloaded calls (PCTCALL), Number of roots (ROOTCNT), Fan-in (FANIN), quality maximum v(G) (MAXV), Maximum ev(G) (MAXEV), and Hierarchy quality(QUAL).
Other object oriented software metrics: Depth (DEPTH), Lack of cohesion of methods (LOCM), Number of children (NOC), Response for a class (RFC), Weighted methods per class (WMC), Halstead software metrics program length, Program volume, Program level and program difficulty, Intelligent content, Programming effort, Error estimate, and Programming time.
Line count software metrics: Lines of code, Lines of comment, Lines of mixed code and comments, and Lines left blank.
Q: 9 What is the "bug life cycle"?
A: Bug life cycles are similar to software development life cycles. At any time during the software development life cycle errors can be made during the gathering of requirements, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, document preparation, coding, unit testing, test planning, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, re-testing and phase-out.
Bug life cycle begins when a programmer, software developer, or architect makes a mistake, creates an unintentional software defect, i.e. a bug, and ends when the bug is fixed, and the bug is no longer in existence.
What should be done after a bug is found? When a bug is found, it needs to be communicated and assigned to developers that can fix it. After the problem is resolved, fixes should be re-tested.
Additionally, determinations should be made regarding requirements, software, hardware, safety impact, etc., for regression testing to check the fixes didn't create other problems elsewhere. If a problem-tracking system is in place, it should encapsulate these determinations.
A variety of commercial, problem-tracking/management software tools are available. These tools, with the detailed input of software test engineers, will give the team complete information so developers can understand the bug, get an idea of its severity, reproduce it and fix it.
Q: 10 What is integration testing?
A: Integration testing is black box testing. The purpose of integration testing is to ensure distinct components of the application still work in accordance to customer requirements. Test cases are developed with the express purpose of exercising the interfaces between the components. This activity is carried out by the test team.
Integration testing is considered complete, when actual results and expected results are either in line or differences are explainable / acceptable, based on client input.
Q: 11 How do test plan templates look like?
A: The test plan document template describes the objectives, scope, approach and focus of a software testing effort.
Test document templates are often in the form of documents that are divided into sections and subsections. One example of this template is a 4-section document, where section 1 is the "Test Objective", section 2 is the "Scope of Testing", section 3 is the "Test Approach", and section 4 is the "Focus of the Testing Effort".
All documents should be written to a certain standard and template. Standards and templates maintain document uniformity. It also helps in learning where information is located, making it easier for a user to find what they want. With standards and templates, information will not be accidentally omitted from a document.
Once Rob Davis has learned and reviewed your standards and templates, he will use them. He will also recommend improvements and/or additions
Q: 12 What is a software project test plan?
A: 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 be able to read it.
Q: 13 When do you choose automated testing?
A: For larger projects, or ongoing long-term projects, automated testing can be valuable. But for small projects, the time needed to learn and implement the automated testing tools is usually not worthwhile.
Automated testing tools sometimes do not make testing easier. One problem with automated testing tools is that if there are continual changes to the product being tested, the recordings have to be changed so often, that it becomes a very time-consuming task to continuously update the scripts.
Another problem with such tools is the interpretation of the results (screens, data, logs, etc.) that can be a time-consuming task.
Q: 14 What's the ratio between developers and testers?
A: This ratio is not a fixed one, but depends on what phase of the software development life cycle the project is in. When a product is first conceived, organized, and developed, this ratio tends to be 10:1, 5:1, or 3:1, i.e. heavily in favor of developers. In sharp contrast, when the software is near the end of alpha testing, this ratio tends to be 1:1 or 1:2, in favor of testers.
Q: 15 What is your role in your current organization?
A: I'm a QA Engineer. The QA Engineer's function is to use the system much like real users would, find all the bugs, find ways to replicate the bugs, submit bug reports to the developers, and to provide feedback to the developers, i.e. tell them if they've achieved the desired level of quality.
Q: 16 How can I learn to use WinRunner, without any outside help?
A: I suggest you read all you can, and that includes reading product description pamphlets, manuals, books, information on the Internet, and whatever information you can lay your hands on. Then the next step is actual practice, the gathering of hands-on experience on how to use WinRunner.
If there is a will, there is a way. You CAN do it, if you put your mind to it. You CAN learn to use WinRunner, with little or no outside help.
Q: 17 Should I take a course in manual testing?
A: Yes, you want to consider taking a course in manual testing. Why? Because learning how to perform manual testing is an important part of one's education. Unless you have a significant personal reason for not taking a course, you do not want to skip an important part of an academic program.
Q: 18 To learn to use WinRunner, should I sign up for a course at a nearby educational institution?
A: Free, or inexpensive, education is often provided on the job, by an employer, while one is getting paid to do a job that requires the use of WinRunner and many other software testing tools.
In lieu of a job, it is often a good idea to sign up for courses at nearby educational institutes. Classes, especially non-degree courses in community colleges, tend to be inexpensive.
Q: 19 How can I become a good tester? I have little or no money.
A: The cheapest i.e. "free education" is often provided on the job, by an employer, while one is getting paid to do a testing job, where one is able to use many different software testing tools.
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