First WT Experience-WT 01

I had my first Weekend Testing Session today. For those of you who don't know what Weekend Testing is, go to http://weekendtesting.com.

I've always wanted to participate and when I did get an opportunity I didn't let go of it. When WT69 was announced, I mailed for the participation right away. There were still 2 days left for the session and I was so much excited that I even set a reminder on my mobile phone. Sounds crazy, but didn't want to miss out on it.


At 15:45, Skype informed me that Weekend Testing has added me as a contact. :) Ajay briefed all of the testers with the mission.

Mission

Today's session is about Time Zone Conversion

http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/gmt-converter/index.htm

Compare and contrast these two time zone converters.

1. How useful is each link to the user, tester?

2. What are the advantages/disadvantages in each of the converters?

3. If you had to design only ten tests for each of the converters, what would they be?

Experience

This was first my weekend testing session and it was a great experience. Even though the constant pinging on Skype didn’t help, I managed to keep my focus on the testing and not get disturbed. When I first analysed the mission I thought that one hour will not enough for this mission, that’s why I wasn’t able to complete the mission, not because the time wasn’t enough but because I had made my brain convinced that time wasn't enough. 

After analysing the mission I thought of deciding on a approach which actually helped me in time management.  

Approach

• Divided the time for each converter
• 15 mins for Time Zone
• 15 mins for GMT
• 10 mins to compare & contrast
• 15 mins to design tests

Throughout the session, there was some sort of a 'rush' that was going through me, as if I had something to complete or to achieve. Not able to figure out what & why. 

Learning

• Wasted the initial 15 mins by getting excited and not focusing on the mission.
• Didn’t analyse the mission properly because once the session was about to complete I couldn’t answer the first question. Should have analysed and asked questions at the beginning of the session itself.
• Didn't have a proper format to write the report, so just wrote in any format , not tidy. 

The one thing which I believed that I did right was keep the mission in mind. I didn't go out and play with the testable.

I am definitely going to be looking forward for the upcoming sessions.

Tester Vs Developer – Is this the worst it could get?

We all know the kind of relationship the tester and the developer share. It’s not good, there is bitterness involved from both sides.

Take a look at the below conversation which happened between the developer and a tester after the tester raised an invalid defect in the developer's module.

<Start>

Developer: You raised a defect?

Tester: Which one are you talking about?

Dev: The one you found in my module. Defect ID: xxxxxxx

Tester: Oh yeahh...What about it??

Dev: Can you repro this on your kit once again and show me where the error is coming??

The tester, with a big smile on his face, shows the developer the error.

Dev: This is an invalid defect. You are missing out on some pre-requisites.

Tester: Well, there is no Help Me or Readme file here, which suggests any kind of pre-requisites or is there?

Dev:  No , there isn't but the users are aware. Go and read the release notes.

Tester: The release notes are not for me to read, it's for the customer, isn't it?? If you have any problems with this defect, then please mention it in the defect management tool.

Dev: Why would I, it's not assigned to me !!!

Tester: OK, no probs.

Dev: And please get a understanding of this functionality and processes. You don't know how to test !!

The last statement really got me boiled. I really wanted to kick him !!!!

Tester: If you have so much problems with my understanding, then give me a KT regarding this, I'll ask your manager to arrange it.

Dev: Who am I to give you a KT !!!

<End>

Now, when this conversation was happening , the Dev Manager was there and listening to each and every thing but he didn't bother to stop the developer and instead told me that he is kinda moody. Apart from the Developer questioning my integrity, this was another sad moment of that day. I don't know if this is the worst that I have faced head on with the developer or is there more to come but I really hope no other tester faces such kind of situations.

There is a very thin line between the tester and the developer which should never be crossed.  A good tester should never think that a bug is a developer’s lack of skill or lack of “anything”.  A good developer should never think that the tester is raising defects on purpose(well, that’s only an assumption :P).

It only means that the tester and developer have different understanding. A valid defect means the developer had a different understanding while coding it and an invalid defect means the same for the tester while testing.

The “fight” starts when people start taking these things personally. Why do they take it personally??? It's not your pet project, you're just working for a company which pays you a 0.'x' % of their revenue. 

Now let me ask you one question. If you are married and have a kid, if somebody points out a mistake in your kid, that his forehead is too big, then you'd obviously want to rip that person's head off. The same is the case with the developers. Developers think of their written code as their baby, well some of them do.

Lessons Learnt that day:

1. Test twice and discuss with the peer tester before raising defects i.e if you are not sure about it.
2. Don't get too much involved with the developer.