Software Testing

:: Introduction ::

I’ve been involved in Software Testing since 2003 in Malaysia, starting as a software testing engineer and progress on to software test manager; from manual test to automated test; from V-model to agile. I’m very glad to say that software testing is a rather mature domain within the local Malaysia IT industry with good talents, and continue to see abundance demands in this domain for many years.

My approach to Software Testing is very practical and minimal (why should it be complicated?). Hence, I’ve designed a set of training materials, templates and workshops which will easily improve Software Testing practices for an organizational within a month. It is time to take software quality seriously, very seriously for the future of software is not only about features and functionality, but also quality (who wants to pay for junk?!).

If you’re interested:

With my training and workshop, contact me without delay.
With sharing your experiences and knowledge, contact me even sooner!

Disclaimer:
Information contains here are my personal views and experiences. It should be by no means be taken as absolute. You’re most welcome to use materials here at your own discretion. I will not be hold accountable or responsible for any untoward consequences.

:: What is Software Testing? ::

According to wikipedia:

“Software Testing is an empirical investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test, with respect to the context in which it is intended to operate. Software Testing also provides an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks at implementation of the software.“

Therefore, software testing mainly has two objectives:

To provide information about the quality of the piece of software under test
simply means to quantify the number of bugs found given the number of test cases or over a period of testing duration in the environment in which the piece of software is intended to operate
To provide information about the risk of implementation
simply if implementation is to go forward given the knowledge of number of bugs (or defects in manufacturer term), are the risk manageable?

Under this definition, software testing simply means an activity which will let the stakeholders know if the piece of software is good or bad, will it satisfies customers’ needs or otherwise.

Unfortunately, many misunderstood Software Testing as Quality Assurance (QA) or Quality Engineering (QE); as they thought that a piece of software after being tested, its quality will automatically be assured (QA) or increased (QE).

QA is a series of activities which testify that there is no anomalies found. If an anomaly is found, it will not pass QA and need to re-do or fix.

QE is a series of activities which ensure through the process of creation, any activities that can contribute to increase quality are performed correctly, thereby proving that quality products are produced at the end of the creation process.

As software testing is an activity which aim to find bugs and does not create, such understanding of software testing is incorrect. Furthermore, if software testing did not find any bugs, there can only be one reason: testing is not done correctly. As we knew there is no such thing as perfect software and bugs do exist, then testing is not looking at the right places!

Hence,when one claimed his software has been tested, it merely means one know how bad their software is.

:: Verification & Validation ::

Software testing is one of Verification & Validation (V&V) software practice, where we answer these questions:

Verification: Did we “Build the product RIGHT“?
The process of evaluating a system if it satisfies the conditions imposed
Validation: Did we “Build the RIGHT product“?
The process of evaluating a system if it satisfies user requirements and are traceable to user requirements

:: What’s Next? ::

The following are collections of my experience and knowledge with training and setting up software test capabilities in an organization.

Basic Software Testing Topics

Basic concepts of software testing & techniques, as well as setting up and managing software testing, which allows for immediate return to investment in software testing:

Advanced Software Testing Topics

Software Test Risk Analysis
Software Test Automation
Performance/Load Testing

Templates

Templates [1] to [4] are adapted from IEEE standard 829-2008. The others are based on my personal experiences in setting up and organizing test in organizations.