MoDevUx and the Latest On My Testing Journey

I attended another amazing event last week organized by MoDevDC, my local meetup group. The event was called MoDevUx – “A user experience, design and development conference discussing all things mobile.”

MoDevUx was packed with interesting content, amazing speakers and the exuberant energy of its participants from various mobile design and development shops in the Washington, DC area, and some from other parts of the country. The speakers shared their experiences on how to understand users (what users think and want), how to handle feedback, learn from it, and improve the user experience in mobile apps. I thought that the presenters talked from their heart, they were entertaining, witty and insightful. I walked away feeling enriched and that my time was well spent.

I went to a few testing events last year which were all very useful and thought-provoking. However, I found some sessions too formal and lacking useful content, and some people too set in their ways and a bit closed-minded. Not surprisingly very little was available on mobile testing.  Mobile development is still in its infancy just like the web was in the 1990s. Compared with testing on a PC, testing on mobile devices requires different skills, mindset, as well as atypical tools and techniques. After all there is no physical mouse, 80% of the screen space from the desktop is gone, and testing has to be done on different networks, handsets, models, and OS versions. Then there is the multitouch on smartphones and tablets, rotations to landscape and portrait modes, battery life, geo location, video and music streaming to mention just a few things.

So how did I end up at this and the MoDevEAST event that happened in December 2011 as tester? How did I hear about MoDevDC in the first place?

Early last year a friend heard a report on FOX about a local mobile developer group called MoDevDC and emailed me. She knew that I recently ditched my full-time job for freelancing work through uTest so I could learn mobile testing, and she thought that this news report could be of interest to me. Curious as I am, I searched for MoDevDC online. I decided to join and then started attending various events. The group meets locally twice a month to discuss news, trends, technologies, creations and challenges in the mobile space as well as to network socially. Most of the members were mobile developers, designers, and managers. I did not run into any QA or testing professionals. During my first few events I kept quiet and observed what was going on. I must admit that being an introvert and working as a lone tester did not help much with the social skills. I find it easier to communicate via email, Skype, IM or SMS texting vs. over the phone or in person. Plus I never met or dealt with mobile developers directly before and initially it felt intimidating. The male to female ratio did not bother me as I have worked in IT for a while and am used to being the only woman on the team.

What appealed to me about the mobile developers was how openly and candidly they talked about their successes and failures, dealings with investors and management, as well as lessons learned from app ratings and user feedback. I felt welcomed and made a few good friends.

As a result of my involvement with the group, a few months ago I was referred to and hired by one of their company sponsors as a mobile tester. A dream comes true. Not only am I now testing their in-house mobile products, but I am also in charge of their uTest relationship and running test cycles on various platforms through uTest.

I recently watched an episode of Monk (Mr. Monk GetsLotto Fever) where Malcolm O’Dwyer, an obsessed lotto fan, talked about his fixation. He said that playing lottery was not just a game but a journey. “It’s how you get there. I’d rather lose my way than win a 20 million dollar jackpot your way.” This quote resonated with how I felt about my own journey. Even though professionally I look up to a few people in our field, I never wanted to follow their path. I learn from them but am eager to find my own way.

Ever since I lived in Siberia I have been impulsively curious about things. I interpret some things as signs and act upon them. I am motivated by learning and exploring and that’s one of the reasons why I appreciate testing so much – you never stop learning! I don’t know what there will be to test after smartphones and tablets, but I hope I will be a part of it. I also hope to hold a session on the importance of software testing for my MoDevDC community – if only could I overcome one challenge… fear of public speaking. 

Blogs I Like and Some Blog Post Musings

I haven’t blogged much lately. However I follow and read plenty of other people’ posts and tweets.  I re-tweet them if I find them useful or interesting, and I ponder various ideas and viewpoints. My favorite blogs are uTest.com, Creative Chaos, The Blog of Tim Ferriss and LukeW Blog Ideation & Design. To me they are good reads that are well-written, entertaining, and full of different themes, color, and vigor. For the testing community I'd like to highlight 3 blog posts in the last week at uTest that caught my attention.

1. Advice from 2011′s Testers of the Year
2. Testing the Limits with Gerald Weinberg
3. Software QA Engineer Tops “Happiest Jobs” List

I Made the 2011 uTester of the Year List!

I found out today that I had been selected as the uTest Top Android Tester for 2011.  I think I skipped a heartbeat when I first heard about it and I could not believe my ears.  I am certain that there are much better testers in the uTest community - I have had the privilege to work with them.  Their bug reports inspired me to be a better tester and to keep honing my craft in the mobile space.  Thanks to everyone at uTest, my mentors at the Miagi-Do School of Software Testing, and my family.  I am beyond happy!

Kindle Fire Tips on Error Logging, Debugging and Snapshots

I have been testing on the Kindle Fire since December 2011 and have picked up a few good tricks. These include collecting error logs, taking snapshots, debugging with DDMS and installing applications that are currently not available in the Amazon Appstore such as Dropbox.  I am sure there is lots of information scattered around the web and posted on various forums but I want to share my tips and the following blog links in one location for your use.  I will try to add new ones to this post as I learn them.  Feel free to leave comments with your tips.

Reflecting on 2011

While shopping at Costco for our New Year celebration yesterday I could not help overhearing people talking about their new year resolutions. How they will stop doing this or start doing that to make things better in the new year. I don't really think resolutions themselves work as you have to better yourself all throughout the year, not just once. At least people are trying. Hearing these people did cause me to reflect on 2011 and further back.

An Explorer Inspired by a Buccaneer - AST Newsletter

The Association of Software Testing has kindly published an article of mine in their latest newsletter today. The link is here. The article is about my journey for professional self-discovery and how I moved into freelance testing. I hope you like it.

Guest Blog at EuroSTAR -- Tips to Prepare for Android and iOS Testing

EuroSTAR is Europe's premier software testing event and they have a virtual conference on September 13. They invited me to write a guest blog, check it out here: 
http://www.eurostarconferences.com/blog/2011/9/7/tips-to-prepare-for-android-and-ios-testing.aspx

New Skill Learned at CAST 2011 - SBTM

One of the new practical skills I picked up at CAST 2011 was Session-Based Test Management (SBTM). During the testing competition the Miagi-Do team applied this practice to manage time due to the short time-constraints of the competition. We decided on 20-minute test sessions and after each one, Markus Gärtner, our ‘test master’, would hold a 5-minute debrief. It was tough to tune into the discussions at times but I thought it was a brilliant technique that really helped us to achieve our testing mission.

Had a Blast at CAST 2011

CAST 2011 is over. I am still digesting the impressions and events of the last 3 days. I feel both intoxicated from all the information and energy I consumed as well as inspired and giddy. This was my first CAST. As a n00b I had the advantage of experiencing and feeling things more acutely than someone who has already attended a similar event or two like this before.

Guest Post at uTest: Early Impressions of a Mobile App Tester

Exciting news! I was featured as a guest blogger at uTest (http://blog.utest.com/guest-post-early-impressions-of-a-mobile-app-tester/2011/05/)

When I was growing up in Siberia I dreamed of becoming either a ballerina or a painter. I have always loved ballet and dancing and I also enjoyed painting Siberian landscapes in watercolors. For the longest time I thought that I was more of an artistic or right-brain type person. I am still not sure how I ended up working in the Information Technology field.  At some point, I found that I loved breaking websites (aka testing) and haven’t stopped since.  I catch myself testing my son’s electronic toys, neighbor’s coffee machine as well as countless smartphones…which brings me to my latest passion: mobile app testing. In fact, I’m writing this post on a break from a very intense work week, during which I tackled 7 uTest projects – with 5 of them being mobile projects!

Questing in Boston

I received a 'QUEST 2011: Thank You Letter' from QAI Global Institute yesterday that was emailed to the participants list. I meant to post a blog about the conference when I came back on April 8 but got carried away with my busy work routine and getting ready for a release. This email brought back good memories and I thought I would share a few sentiments here.

This was my first testing conference and I did not know what to expect. Granted I have been to quite a few international conferences when I worked as an interpreter but those were on oil and gas, US-Russia business relations, auto shows and international law. My responsibility was to help people communicate, negotiate, resolve conflicts and build relationships. 

Certification, Smertification...Look What I Got

It's been a few weeks since I completed the Black Box Software Testing Foundations course and submitted my final exam... I finally feel that I caught my breath after such an intense learning experience. I have never read, reviewed, deciphered through and written so much information in 4-week time period in my life! The course material is amazing with lots of useful information and exercises included.

I worked very hard during the course, probably harder than a native English-speaking student. There were days when I felt drained, brain-dead and frustrated. I contemplated quitting a couple of times as I was fatigued. I was learning so much, however, which kept me motivated.

I think this course is a must for any testing professional who feels passionate about our craft. It does help to have some experience under your belt. Otherwise it could be hard to comprehend and hard for a student to relate to real life situations based on the reading material and lectures. My major obstacle was understanding Code Coverage, what it measures or highlights, and associated risks and benefits of using Code Coverage. I had heard the term used before and knew that programmers at work employed it to measure the amount of code that some test has executed. But that was about the extent of my knowledge.

I hit Gold!

I have been very busy with a Black Box Software Testing Foundations course that I am taking though the Association for Software Testing so I have not done much 'uTesting' in the last two weeks.

The course work is very demanding. It requires hours and hours of working either with your group and/or individually on lesson assignments, quizzes, and exercises. It has literally turned my life and view on testing approaches upside down. I was still able to take a break from it and find time for the mobile app testing which I am currently addicted to.

A Birthday and a Gift

My son's birthday is in a few weeks and I have been thinking about a gift for him. I have also been reminiscing about our journey together.

It's been seven years since he came to live with us. Back then my mother was in charge of a baby home, an orphanage for babies and toddlers, in my hometown in Siberia. She and I usually catch up over a weekend and back then she would update me on what's going on with the babies, who started talking and walking and who found new families and share the stories of the newcomers. Some of those stories were heartbreaking. One of them was the story of my son.

How I Got into Mobile Testing and My Adventure with Buying a Droid Incredible on eBay

I got into mobile testing by chance during the uTest 4th Quarter bug battle. Granted I have owned a few Nokia phones that I inadvertently tested for durability...I left one on the car roof and drove away, drowned another one in the river while fishing, dropped a 3rd one from a deck onto a concrete floor in a backyard. I was very nervous when I got my first smart phone, a Palm Pre. I liked it because it was small (I was hoping I would not drop it as much), had a sliding keyboard, a multi-tasking feature where you can have a bunch of apps open at one time and just push them out of the way like cards and then bring them back up via the touch screen gestures. Figuring it out was intuitive but there are not many fun apps for it. OK there is Angry Birds, Evernote, and a few others..but nothing like what my husband's Droid Incredible (DINC) phone had at the time. He would tell me of another new app every week.

Then came the uTest Bug Battle when I had to beg my husband to let me use his phone since neither eBay nor Overstock had an app for the Pre. As we both used eBay and Overstock apps he kept complaining about things not being user-friendly or a resource hog. I was ecstatic however as I was able to log these bugs. By the end of the Bug Battle I knew I had to get my own Droid phone.

Geekette's Shopping List

Christmas and New Year Holidays are over. I celebrate both holidays but don't like shopping for gifts. In the last two years I have done most of my shopping online. Not only is it convenient, easy and fun but it also presents an opportunity for me to learn about new web and mobile apps and features.

I like shopping on Amazon.com the most. It seems that each time I visit the site there is something new to play with - a new button, search options, promotions and specials. I love the 'Add to Wish List' button feature that can be used with any browser and allows to add items from any website to Amazon Wish List. Most of my US relatives and friends have wish lists so all I had to do was to check what's already been purchased --another great feature under 'Wish list' =>Show:Purchased--and add items to cart. 

Good Monday

I am not big fan of Mondays even though it is my telecommute day. You never know what kind of a roller coaster ride it may involve. Plus different people transition differently from the weekend relaxed mode to the daily grind craze. Yesterday was truly special for me.

We had a VPN outage at work so I could not log into the network and had to wait. Needless to say that I logged into uTest.com and saw that 2010 Q4 Bug Battle Competition results were posted. Mind you it was one of the most memorable testing experiences in my professional adventure as I finally got to test Ebay.com and ventured into the mobile testing side. I glanced at the winners list and saw my name - 5th place for best bug! Way cool!

Thanksgiving Through my Eyes

Thanksgiving has a special meaning for me. It is an acquired holiday that I have been celebrating since I came to the US - at first not comprehending what it really meant for many of my local friends even though I studied American history and Thanksgiving. As years have gone by I could not help but feel sentiment and gratitude on that wonderful holiday. I celebrate a 'harvest' of opportunities, dreams that came true, friends that I made in a foreign country that became my homeland. It has not been an easy path but I was well trained to endure the hardships in my native Siberia where I began testing my strengths and weaknesses, where I first realized that thinking outside the box and trying new things and dreaming may open new doors and present opportunities. You may be smacked around for being different at first but if you persevere and follow your dreams they do come true.

Stress, Test, Trance.

I feel really stressed over the upcoming release...tomorrow night.. I am freaking out to be exact. So many new features have been added in the last two weeks..and days. Needless to say not all of them have been fully tested. While running profiling and memory optimization tests we discovered memory leaks and flaws in the the Java VM garbage collection process so our application performance leaves much to be desired. Oh well... last minute tweaks and checks tomorrow and then we "ship it: or rather deploy it for the customers.

uTest.com and My Experience with It So Far.

When I first launched this personal blog I set up a goal to post at least once a week. Some weeks are a challenge when I can barely catch my breath. Plus I discovered uTest.com!

I don't know why it took me so long. After all the company was launched in 2008. I have been a fan on Facebook and read the blog from time to time but I did not make an attempt to register and give it a try until this October.

I received my first test cycle invite about 2 weeks after the registration and decided to try it. Before I knew it I was hooked! I have always been a little test-obsessed but joining the uTest community unleashed hell. In the last two weeks I participated in the crowd load test, functionality, exploratory and usability test efforts for various sites. I ran my first Android mobile test on the HTC Incredible. I participated in the 4th quarter Bug Battle and competed with over 1000 testers worldwide in web and mobile testing of e-commerce marketplaces such as eBay, Zappos and Overstock. What an amazing experience!

Trust, But Verify - Доверяй, но проверяй

 - doveryai, no proveryai (an old Russian proverb). I like Russian proverbs and this one is one of my favorites. It is an overused cliché but to me it has so much power. I say it a lot whether it applies to my testing and validating programs or my team reviewing my bug and test reports. It is a two way street. Not sure what prompted me to google for this phrase. Here is what Wikipedia had to say-

"Trust, but verify" was a signature phrase of Ronald Reagan. He used it in public, although he was not the first person known to use it. When Reagan used this phrase, he was usually discussing relations with the Soviet Union and he almost always presented it as a translation of the Russian proverb "doveryai, no proveryai" (Russian: Доверяй, но проверяй) - Trust, but verify. At the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty he used it again and his counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev responded: "You repeat that at every meeting," to which Reagan answered "I like it."

How ironic I thought. It made me think back of my 'previous' life in the former Soviet Union. I learned this and other proverbs at school. Doveryai, no proveryai got me in trouble the most.

Amateur Designer's Block... Can we borrow ideas from competitors?

Last week I got into a debate with the programmers whether it is ethical to view and analyze competitor's public web applications and 'borrow' web design and graphics ideas. I was not talking about stealing ideas the way Microsoft has done it when they ripped off the tabbed browsing feature from Mozilla. I merely suggested that we could look at the example and come up with our own design based on what we have analyzed.

Puzzles & Teasers #1

I attended a Learning Tree course on 'Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving: Making Better Decisions' this week which was an eye opening experience and fun. I will try and blog about it later. In the meantime I would like to post a few brain teasers that the Course Instructor challenged us with every morning - some are easy and some were tough. Needless to say that many can be found if you Google them. Try them on your own first. 

Twitter is Over Capacity?

I am new to Twitter and don't get it yet. I created an account 3 weeks ago and logged in a few times to see what's going on. When I tried to get in today I received a 'Twitter is Over Capacity' screen with a whale graphic.

Selenium RC Experience

So I have decided to give Selenium RC a shot and try to automate some of our web app GUI tests. I worked with WinRunner in the past on a waterfall government project and was familiar with ‘record and playback’ features and editing TSL scripts. On that project we abandoned automated tools as scripts updating became too time-consuming and labor-intensive due to the fact that our test environment was never stable enough for automated regression testing. We successfully ran a few automated tests to validate URL links that we had a ton of and for navigation mapping. I both loved and hated using automated tools at the time. Execution time was fast when scripts worked. Debugging and re-writing scripts was not fun however.
In the case with Selenium RC I ran into a 1) lack of programming experience in Java and 2) lack of knowledge of the current application code issues.

Today's Tester Menu: Fresh Mental Borsch

I don't know what's going on in my head anymore. I have been reading, learning about context-driven and Agile testing, reviewing automated tools, playing with Selenium and trying to create at least simple regression tests in the process while waiting for my developers to finalize their research and design ideas.

It seems the more I play with automated tools the more discouraged I feel...and the less I know...

It feels like Ukrainian Борщ (borsch ) – everything is mixed up - beets, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, salt and spices.

 At least while cooking I have a clear mission and objective. I know what to do and I have an idea what the outcome will be. I have been cooking since I was eight. I learned to cook borsch by watching my grandmother. Most of the recipes and images of the final dishes are in my head. I can cook from scratch by making real stock or if I feel lazy I will make it with bouillon cubes. I improvise with different ingredients and spices. I can add cumin and clove if I want to or use a spice packet picked up from a local Russian store. 

I have upgraded to a really nice Scanpan cooking pot from some el cheapo one. Not sure it makes my soup taste any different but I enjoy the process a lot more.

I am a Tester...Why are you calling me QA?

I actually ask this question in a calm voice with a smile on my face. I make an effort to explain the difference between Testing and QA if the offender is open and willing to receive my message.

What I feel and what I hide from the offender is different from what I hope shows on my face and in my voice. It feels like my hair is standing up on the back of my neck. I feel that my evil tester twin wakes up and starts spewing fire at the offender. I feel like I am bubbling with indignation inside and will explode any second. I want to scream  "How dare you call me a QA? I am a friggin tester! I 'break' software. I don't monitor processes and methods to ensure its quality".

Paraprosdokian sentences

A co-worker sent the following email today --

A paraprosdokian (from Greek "παρα-", meaning "beyond" and "προσδοκία", meaning "expectation") is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect..

On A Good Day

I want to share this music video by Above & Beyond (pres. OceanLab "On A Good Day").

Happy Monday on Wednesday

I have been 'allocated' to test fixes for upcoming patch releases for 2 different projects.
I haven't touched Project A since last August and felt rusty. Project B was just released a week ago and the customer reported a bug that must have been introduced shortly before the release. The team missed it as we were too focused on the last minute fixes and, in my case, exploratory and functionality testing. We ran out of time for regression testing.

Big Book of Pictures and Puzzles

My son brought home a Big Book of Pictures and Puzzles that some fellow testers may find interesting. On the cover it says “With Over 4,000 Things To Spot”. The book contains pictures about different people and places from history such as early cities in Mesopotamia, Egyptian Pyramids, European castles in the Middle Ages and many others. It also has sections on the World, Castle and Dinosaur search.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Buddhist Proverb

And he did. I met James Bach, a teacher, consultant and guru in the software testing field this week.

Here is how it happened. I am a recent involuntary Agile convert after 5-6 years of a solid waterfall testing career. In the course of the last Sprint, while continuously running exploratory tests to no end, I realized that crucial changes need to be made to my testing approaches or I would go crazy. I felt that I could not keep up with the pace of the project cycle. I tried to follow the old patterns of designing elaborate test cases based on high level user stories specs, but I was unable to as the requirements kept changing. My test cases kept getting obsolete, updating the cases slowed down my testing, and I was losing track of time and direction. Plus the whole team was under a lot of pressure. We needed to deliver a product every 3 weeks and we were at the end of the release. I felt anxious and frustrated. I blamed it on the Agile Scrum that I was forced to embrace a few months ago and on the overwhelming number of epic user stories that frequently made no sense. All of this helped move me out of my introverted comfort zone – I now had to talk to developers daily and IN PERSON.

I blamed myself most of all for not being to cope with all this better. I looked through my testing textbooks, I Googled for information on rapid and Agile testing and I read other people’s testing blogs and forums. Soon the realization hit me that what I am going through – growing pains – is not an uncommon phenomenon. Many colleagues of mine also started their quests for answers on how to better themselves and there is a growing ‘army’ of non-conformist testing professionals that consider agile, rapid testing and context-driven testing as a golden opportunity to learn, test effectively and make clients happy.

Somehow I landed on James Bach’s blog site – http://www.satisfice.com/blog/. It felt as if someone directed me right to the site. I noticed that he would be in Virginia within a week to teach his seminars on Rapid Software Testing. Wow! The timing could not have been better for me.