Whenever we think about a successful testing we think a lot, and work out lot more to compute the Test Coverage.
Yah!! There are numerous age-old conventions going on all over in the testing world to measure the test coverage based on the Requirements [In most of the cases Standard Documents signed off by the client itself, sounds NICE!! Isn’t it?]
But let’s give a thought to the depth of this and find out whether our present practice is capable enough to say “My testing is Going to cover everything required……”
Let’s Discuss…
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6 comments:
Deb,
Some questions
Are you trying to measure what you have tested?
Are you trying to measure what you have not tested?
Are you trying to measure how much of x program/product is tested?
Are you trying to measure whether the tested is enough?
looking forward to your answers to the above questions so we can continue the discussion
Sharath,
Definitely these are the questions we should ask ourselves to feel the coverage.
But I believe as testers our absolute target is to see smile on the face of the user when using product 'X', and therefore all other questions actually can finally be derived to the last one of yours [i.e."whether the testing is enough?"
Deb,
I personally believe, this is where we are going wrong But I believe as testers our absolute target is to see smile on the face of the user when using product 'X',
Who is the user. If I take an example of Windows OS XPwho are the users? House wives, children, Software proffessionals, multimedia proffessionals, stock market brokers, hackers, ....
Don't you feel it's time we testers concentrate on providing quality information to the objective we are assigned by the stake holder.
Who I feel is a stake holder: One who has vested interest in the success of the product.
What do I mean by objective:
Objective eg 1: Evaluate the product against the competitor product in market
Object eg 2: Find important bugs
and so on
Now if we are able to answer the objective, will it not answer "whether the testing is enough?" aswell
my thoughts... what do you feel??
Sarath,
With respect to your opinion, I don't think there is anything wrong as tester in looking toward the user satisfaction rather should give the highest priority toward it.
By the term "User" I meant only the intended set of people whom our product is targeting to be used. There is no confusion that the information should complete enough, If not given by the stake holders, then it’s the tester’s responsibility to get it completely before going for other testing activities. And if we are not doing this properly then we can’t claim ourselves as Tester.
My intention toward this topic was to explore whether we can enhance the Testing by adding some additional thoughts over the practice of doing testing just based on the Requirements mentioned in some documents. What else is missing..????
OK, let me give my thoughts toward the objectives you mentioned above:
Objective eg 1: Evaluate the product against the competitor product in market:
We don’t always get a significant existing competitor for most of the product being developed. Even if you get a competitor either there will be some behavioral differences which can’t be compared against each other. Addition to that comparison with competitor’s product incurs some additional cost which is not feasible in most of the cases.
I feel in spite of competitors, it’s more effective to analyze and compare it with the existing manual/automated systems that are going to be replaced by our product. May be this is not going to be mentioned explicitly Even in a so called Complete Documents.
A Bad Replacement of existing practice is never treated as “bug” but it will push the Users to some Uncomfortable Zone with the new system. Do you believe that absence of Important Bug definitely attracts success stories for the product? I don’t feel it in the same way.
I just tried to mean that Good Testing can’t be measured always, it should be felt also. And that’s why I believe that the production world requires us, Testers
By the term "User" I meant only the intended set of people whom our product is targeting to be used.
This is exactly what I meant “Don't you feel it's time we testers concentrate on providing quality information to the objective we are assigned by the stake holder.”
I just tried to mean that Good Testing can’t be measured always, it should be felt also. And that’s why I believe that the production world requires us, Testers
you hit the bulls eye, this is exactly what I belive in and so my first reply tried to convey that testing can never be measured. A must read paper "Software Engineering Metrics: What Do They
Measure and How Do We Know?" by Cem Kaner http://www.kaner.com/pdfs/metrics2004.pdf
Sarath,
I am still not getting your question about the point of "user". As a tester, my intention was rather to dig it out than stuck to anything in the superficial level.
My plan here was to identify those area of concerns to see the "smile on the face of the Users"
I think that the thread hasn't hit the bull's eye yet. I believe still the bull's eye is to be discovered to target it....so what do you think that we should start feeling in this context?
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