Site Under Construction!

In the current climate of the credit crunch and with so much positive press around the buoyancy of the internet, more organizations are looking to the World Wide Web to maintain or increase sales. What many are doing is realizing that their sites are perhaps not as good as they could be and are investing in updating or de-developing them. For others, the process of site maintenance is an ongoing activity with a dedicated team.

So with all of this development going on, it would be fair to assume that there must be a lot of testing as well? I would suggest that the answer is no. For some reason, when people are requesting development of web sites, it is believed that they are best placed to ensure that it is fit for purpose.

This is a bad assumption for several reasons:
1. Finding the time to thoroughly test the website is difficult to achieve. The people responsible for the new website are normally being asked to do this as one of many tasks.
2. The attention to detail required to check the entire site, is high and demands a certain type of individual. The tester has this mindset and is used to applying methodical and meticulous tests, whereas the business person may not be.
3. This may be the first time that the business person has been asked to test anything. Testers are used to testing websites, this is something that they do on a regular basis and this enables them to make better use of their time, homing in on problem areas.
4. Business resources normally check things positively, making sure that situations that are expected are dealt with. The tester introduces negative testing. Checking to understand that the site can handle abnormal activity, that which deviates from the norm.

So what is happening? Companies are employing development agencies and placing themselves in their care. They are relying on the development agency to ensure the quality of the site. The business are doing their best to make sure that the site is okay and are paying for development when they think it is finished.

In a normal IT project, the business relies on the testers to ensure that the application is to a certain standard before it comes anywhere near to them and this step is not being performed. Three problems result from a lack of in-built quality: The first is that the development agency is paid for the delivery, even though problems may not manifest until later. The second is that the development agency is held in low esteem once they have been found to have under-delivered. The third is that the organization requesting the website, find that they have a tool which does not meet their needs and therefore requires further investment to put the problems right.

The involvement of testing as part of the process ensures that the site is performing as was requested. It can be used as a means of safeguarding the payment, ensuring that the development agency have fully delivered prior to releasing funds. It also protects the development agency from losing their customer due to poor satisfaction.

The design is truly the prerogative of the business and only they can say if the look of the site is what they wanted to achieve. Other than this it should be placed in the hands of the experts. Remember that better quality, means customers are happier to use the site, more likely to find what you have to offer and therefore an increase in sales should result. I have said in many places that a poor web experience results in lost sales and that users are highly likely to leave your site for one offering a better experience or easier to find items.

Software Testing Interview Questions

I am not suggesting that these are the only questions that would be asked, but are some samples for consideration. These are questions that I have used when interviewing others:

1. How many test scripts can you write in a day?
I am looking here for the ability to estimate. Whilst in reality the question is impractical, because it depends on so many different factors, I want to see the interviewee come up with some kind of answer. When estimating, there is a need to make assumptions and having a ball park figure enables someone to provide rough estimates more quickly.

2. How many test scripts can you execute in a day?
This is a repetition of the first question. I normally ask one directly after the other. The more junior resources tend to struggle with the first question and then the second also. The better resources learn from the experience of the first question and respond in a more positive manner to the second. Now I am not only looking at the ability to estimate, but also the ability to learn and an indication of the resources chances of seniority going forward.

3. Do you see testing as a service or a discipline?
Personally I am quite passionate about this one. I very much see testing as a discipline and a part of the software life-cycle that is as important as analysis, design and development. What I am trying to understand is the background that the individual someone has come from. Consultancy can demand one or other mindset and someone coming from either background can adapt, but I would suggest it is easier to revert from discipline to service than vice versa.

4. What is the most interesting defect you have found?
This is a passion question. I am looking to see if the individual can recount a particular incident and in what degree of detail. This begins to tell me whether they are a career tester or someone who is doing a job.

5. What are the key components of a test script?
Someone who is raising scripts every day should be able to define what information is required to be recorded. Different organisations have different standards, but there are key aspects to the answer. The requirement should be referenced or potentially included showing understanding that scripts should always be traceable to their point of origin. The script should have steps through, each of which defines the action to be taken, the data to be used and whether the step has passed or failed. This is the most basic of information and fundamental to all testers so an inability to provide this information is probably going to fail the candidate.

6. Can you define Black, White and Glass box testing?
This question is used to understand whether people have a basic understanding of testing jargon, as well as having attended the ISEB Foundation in Software Testing, where Black and White are covered. The inclusion of Glass box testing throws some people completely, others will think about it and try to define the answer; some will immediately define Glass box as being the same as White box.

Scenario Based Questions

You are the test manager on a project. The code is going to be delivered late and you now need to complete four weeks testing in two. How are you going to cope with this?

I am looking for managerial level thinking and understanding. There are numerous ways of dealing with this, more staff, overtime, weekend working, shift working, risk based testing, reduction in deliverables. The question is how many can they come up with and do they understand how to achieve them and the associated problems.

Risk Based Testing – How are they going to achieve this? Are the tests already grouped by risk? Are the requirements already grouped by risk or have the risk identified against each.

More test effort – Whilst increasing test effort is a simple means of achieving more in the same time frame, there needs to be a realisation that other departments will also need to apply similar Resourcing, to cover out of hours working, to handle increased volumes of defect fixing.

Cost Implication – Does the person discuss the increase in cost that can be associated with their suggested course of action? Are they thinking at project level or something lower?

WebCheck - More Information

We thought we would give some more information on the Web Check process as an addendum to the previous Introduction posting.

http://tcl-india.blogspot.com/2008/05/tcl-india-introduce-web-check.html

Websites are critical to all of us and with 15% of all retail trade in the UK conducted on line and whilst the credit crunch is hitting retail elsewhere, the effectiveness of the web ensures that it remains buoyant.

Some organizations are happy to rely on automated tools to assess their website/s, but can they really experience the web site as their designers intended? Programs are as intelligent as the programmer and whilst they may be very good, recognising that the layout of a page is jarring on the eye is going to be hard to achieve to say the least. Using the web is to some extent an emotional experience and this needs people to experience it. Most of us use the internet to shop to some extent, be that a book from Amazon or shopping from Sainsbury or Tesco. As a high street shopper, the ability to move from one store to another takes time and effort. The ability to ask a shop assistant for help is simple. On the internet it is not so easy. We hit problems and change site at the click of a button - opportunity missed! Zero time and effort and zero tolerance for problems or challenges that make shopping harder to achieve.

WebCheck is performed by professional testers, familiar with web testing, experienced in understanding the needs of the user and most of all…human. We don’t ignore the capabilities of web crawlers as this would be foolhardy: They do have a place and we augment our manual process with them.

As an output from each of our WebChecks we provide a certificate showing the quality percentage achieved. Further, a detailed report of our findings, including defects, observations and recommendations is provided. We also look at aspects such as Google and Alexa rankings, understanding the importance of your site to the internet community and the likelihood that people will come to your site. If desired, we can provide comparisons between your site and others, from a ranking perspective or user experience. We are not looking to develop, host or design your site. We are testers and want to help clients understand their sites problems and capabilities.

If you would like a quotation for the Webcheck service on your website, please e-mail us using the contact details on the left of the page.