Best Software Testing Books

Here I'm sharing few good software testing books for Software Testers

1. Testing Computer Software by Cem Kaner

2. Lessons Learned in Software Testing by Cem Kaner, James Bach

3. Software Testing Priciples and Practices by Srinivas 

Desigan 

4. Art of Software Testing by Glenford Myers 

5. How Google tests software by James Whitaker 

6. And any Gerald Weinberg books

Temple Run / Candy Crush Cheat

Ever wondered how to quickly grab those gold coins in temple run. here is a easy cheat where it will let you take away all your daily and weekly reward points perpetually all the time in just few minutes.

While playing religiously, I found that reward points timer calculation which runs like a clock did not let you progress fast in the game . So I was thinking whether a hack can be found for this, so that we complete it soon though temple run says you run forever. Eventually I found one way out to solve this.

Here it is. The clock timer used in the game is of native phone's system time. That's it. I moved my time further on phone and temple run timer moved as well. That solved everything. Please see the screen shots attached. Happy playing temple run. You really don't have to play everyday to get those reward points. We can get it anytime.

First screenshot showing remaining time left  for next reward

Current time at 23:46

Increasing time by 12 mins

Change in system time gets reflected in the game

Temple run cheat works

Testing WindowsMediaPlayer

Remembering the quality dimensions, the following test ideas for Windows media player evolved from my friends in 10 minutes of time from my friends. Great ideas.

WindowsMediaPlayer Mindmap

Testing Pressure Cooker

On a weekend recently, I went to purchase a pressure cooker from a near by shop. It had great looks and the brand was known for its quality. I brought that home and unpacked the box. And I was all set to cook rice for that afternoon. Flames were set and I placed the cooker on stove. Alongside I had my music turned on and a book to read till it cooked. Music and reading went on and I took pleasure in what I was doing. After 15 mins, surprisingly I didn’t hear a single whistle from the cooker. I dropped my book aside and went to the stove to observe whats happening.  To my shock all I found was hot steams were escaping through the lid of the cooker. I turned off the stove immediately and brought down the cooker from the stove stand. What a bad day... I opened the cooker and found rice was half cooked. And it was 2pm already and hunger killed. All I remembered then was how I got conned by the shop keeper. Never to blame him, and I know the fault truly lies with the buyer always for not taking the right decision. Only then I came to know looks and brands can be deceving too.

I’m sure you would have experienced similar disappoints post buying a mobile or dress or car and so on. Don’t you? Yes manier times illusion deceives us in all the senses not just visually.  So do you think there is an art of buying soemthing?  

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Khamenan talks on illussion of validity and many other types in one of the chaper. What a great read. If you haven’t, you’ll enjoy the read.

So coming to the testing part, how did I get deceived? Let’s look in the tests I carried out before buying.

If you see the above mind map, I haven’t checked the function of steam escaping through the closing corners of the lid. And my mind said it’s not possible to verify them in the shop. All I thought was I needed to go home to cook and see if it works or not. Do I really have to go home to do this test? You can stop here and think for a while, how would you test in the shop itself. I’m sure you would have got it. How simple it is.. Isn’t it?

Yes, when I got a replacement for the defective cooker. I was aware and knew I could test that in the shop. I ensured the lid of the cooker was closed; I blew through the noozle like how we blow the baloon and looked if there is air leak. Try it for yourself if you haven’t. That simple it is. On driving back home I realised how often simple solutions becomes so extradinary and solves our problems.

Lessons learned:

Brands and looks can be deceiving

Most of the problems are simple to solve and needs no complication

Etymology:

Pressure:

late 14c., "suffering, anguish; act or fact of pressing on the mind or heart," from Old French presseure "oppression; torture; anguish; press" (for wine or cheeses), "instrument of torture" (12c.) and directly from Latin pressura "action of pressing," from pressus, past participle of premere "to press" (see press (v.1)).

Literal meaning "act or fact of pressing" in a physical sense is attested from early 15c. Meaning "moral or mental coercing force" is from 1620s; meaning "urgency" is from 1812. Scientific sense in physics is from 1650s. Pressure cooker is attested from 1915; figurative sense is from 1958. Pressure point is attested from 1876. Pressure-treated, of woods, is from 1911.
 

Testing ATM

As we are very aware that how the software works is very tough to understand for a user/software tester since everything turns out to be a black box. And how do we fully understand any systems completely by just using them. In search of answer, rightly I came across thinking about information visualization and its help in software programs.  After experimenting visualization and creating a mental picture it is found that it helps greatly to understand any system being in place. Edward Tufte who is called as the Galileo of information and data presentation has helped in many ways on how to visualize information. Books like Visual Display of Quantitative Information to Beutiful Evidence are good reads.

                Now, I found if information not well presented can create a visual noise. Manier times presenting test ideas not in a visual span creates such noise and discomfort. Now in this post, I'm presenting test ideas for ATM, one of the most asked testing questions. Ideas are presented using Mindmap a humble yet powerful mental visualization tool.



James Whittaker’s talk at GTAC 2008 Keynote Address: The Future of Testing - YouTube sheds light on visualization as well. Enjoy watching. Special thanks to Manju on helping with paired testing.Requesting you to add your thoughts and ideas in comments. Thanks!

Testing Elevator

The invention of Elevator is credited to Elisha Otis. What a thought on 1852. Never knew they had a necessity in centuries back. Rest is history, the well known OTIS Elevators Company started by the inventor remains to this day. Today elevators are ubiquitous. Currently this age with obesity common among people, I know climbing stairs is one of the best excersie to burn calories after a meal, but how can we ignore not using such an invention. Please prepare a 10 min test report of yours before reading further. And I’m sure you’ll enjoy the test.

 1.      Tests to verify interesting functions:

1.1 Verify Open / Close functionality works fine with motion sensor in place. Make sure the motion sensor is present in door from the bottom to the top of the door. This helps when a short kid steps in on close of the door; it keeps the door away from closing.  Remember to test with a non living thing.

1.2 Control program in the elevators should consider i) where people want to go ii) where each floor is and iii) where the elevator car is

Considering the above for two elevators E1&E2, if suppose E1 is in ground floor, the E2 in fifteenth floor and you are in fifth floor waiting to go to floor 2, then E2 in ground floor should get a trigger and reach you first. Please see the matrix below. 

1.3    Not Transparent:

1.3.1          The above matrix gets tougher to figure out when there are more than 2 Elevators. Prediction are quite ambiguous since control program takes more conditions based on various states.  Haven’t achieved intelligibility in this.

1.3.2          If not being used check which floor does it hang about? Will it remain in the last stopped floor? Will the doors be opened? I observed that they remain in the last stopped floor and the doors were opened. Few companies prefer it on the ground floor.

2. Tests to verify emergency functions:

2.1  Emergency light in the elevator in case of power failure

2.2   Buzzer to raise an alarm to the security

2.3   Phone being functional

2.4   Exhauster fan to avoid suffocation

2.5   Stop button taking you to the immediate level and bring to an end

2.6  Not Transparent:

How they freeze the operation when there is a fire mishap is still a question? I believe there is greater controller which controls when to start operation and stop operation. Not much clarity on this since I couldn’t figure out where this is in my office. Please add your comments if you have any thoughts on this.

3.  Tests to verify load:

3.1   The elevator should halt before taking off if the weight limit is surpassed

3.2   A buzzer should ring to raise the alarm that weight limit has been breached

3.3   Not Transparent :

I came across interesting news when I was reading about elevators. Have you noticed almost in all the lifts there will be a warning information that the capacity of persons (for example 15 Persons). Why is that? Any guess? Is it because of space issue? No.           
Did manufacturer guess the average weight of the person based on that the cumulative weight and person’s capacity? Well, no. Because the moment it crosses the weight limit, the elevator won’t move. So you need not do any mental calculation by counting men, that’s erroneous. Do they test with some load inside or is there a simulation for these control programs? Not sure.

4. Out of box ideas (improvement we can look for)

 4.1 Mobile reach-ability inside elevator. Mobile phones hardly work when you are inside the elevator due to poor network coverage. Should this be considered?

 4.2 Braille on buttons can be included to help the blind

  
True, we have missed the obvious ones like verifying display of floor number on LED lights and so on. Since they are obvious and no one will miss them, we have ignored them. Share your thoughts or test report in the comments section. I’m sure your thought will be helpful to many to think better.

Happy testing!!!

5. Resources

How Elevator Works is an excellent article to read.

Etymology: Elevator   late 15c., from Latin elevatus, pp. of elevare "lift up, raise," figuratively, "to lighten, alleviate," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + levare "lighten, raise," from levis "light" in weight (see lever). Related: Elevated; elevating.

Words with same root: lever, levitate. They all mean “to raise”

Testing Pencil

Having come across this question in interviews, I would like to share my test thoughts and thoughts across the world ie. curated from the web for humble Pencil. Before reading further, consider this as an exercise and see how will you test a pencil. Think for 10 mins and move to read further.

Pencil is to write and it is known as everyones tool. Considering this as objective, please see the tests below.

Functional:

Write on paper (different types of paper, paper colour and thickness), notebook labels (I remember barely any pencil or ball pen can write on labels), cloth (tailors), wood (carpenter), and wall (remembering peope write important telephone nos on wall in early days).  It is indeed debatable for saying a mere pencil to achieve all this but we can say it has achieved combatibility by struggle.

No difficulty to erase whats written on paper.

Easy to sharpen using sharpner, razor blades in need.

Graphite grading scales can tested- softest BB, BBB, medium F, hardest - HH, HHH

Check if the graphite is complete till the end – one use said break the pencil at the end and see if it complete. What if you are not allowed to break the pencil to test? Another user named Sameer came up with an excellent thought saying “ have electricity pass through the pencil lead , if  the bulb at the other end glows , your pencil is ready to launch !!!” This also tests that the lead is not broken inside.

Non Functional:

How many words etc can I write with the pencil? Once an interviewer has asked if the pencil company says this pencil can write 10000 meters. Will you test it?

Yes we can defintely test by taking samples by breaking down the pencil and then writing.

What if we write so fast / slow / push hard?  Is it fragile / easy to break?

Usability:

Who is going to use? Children or grown-ups.

 Write for few mins continously and see if you are comfortable to use. I remember few pencils aren’t comfortable especially the box type pencils.

Ease to use, grip, handle can be questioned. Check on the weight and length of the pencil, this can lead to advising type of pencils for children and grown-ups.

Safety:

Check if the pencil is toxic, kids always take the pencil to mouth either while thinking or dreaming in classrooms. It is found that lead poisoning from pencil in early 20th century have taken place. It later moved to paint for outer coating. Put the pencil for laboratory test to check on the materials which are unsafe and harmful.

There  will be many more interesting tests you can have and I could have missed. If so please add them in the comment section. You are most welcome! This can help us understand how powerful test ideas can be.  

Being a avid quizzer and novice etymologist; presenting few interesting facts below.

Hymen Lipman  is credited with registering the first patent for a pencil with an attached eraser.

Etymology:

pencil (n.)

early 14c., "an artist's fine brush of camel hair," from Old French pincel "artist's paintbrush" (13c., Modern French pinceau), from Latin penicillus "painter's brush, hair-pencil," literally "little tail," diminutive of peniculus "brush," itself a diminutive of penis "tail". Small brushes formerly were used for writing before modern lead or chalk pencils; meaning "graphite writing implement" apparently evolved late 16c.

P.S  I should thank Pradeep for showing blogging on testing is exciting.