How do you create / generate Test Data?

Testing (manual or automation) depends upon data being present in the product.

How do you create Test Data for your testing?

• Manually create it using the product itself?
• Directly use SQL statements to create the data in the DB (required knowledge of the schema)?
• Use product apis / developer help to seed data directly? (using product factory objects)?
• Use production snapshot / production-like data?
• Any other way?

How do you store this test data?

• Along with the test (in code)?
• In separate test data files - eg: XML, yml, other types of files?
• In some specific tools like Excel?
• In a separate test database?
• Any other way?

Do you use the same test data that is also being used by the developers for their tests?

What are the advantages / disadvantages you have observed in the approach you use (or any other methods)?

Looking forward to knowing your strategy on test data creation and management!

Lessons from a 1-day training engagement - a Trainer perspective

I was a Trainer for bunch of smart QAs recently. The training was about "Agile QA". This term is very vague, and if you think about it more deeply, it is also a very vast topic.

The additional complexity was that this training was to be done in 1 day.

So we broke it down to what was really essential to be covered in this duration, and what could be covered in this duration.

We came down to 2 fundamental things:

1. How can the QA / Test team be agile and contribute effectively to Agile projects?
2. How can you be more effective in Test Automation - and that too start this activity in parallel with Story development?

So we structured our thoughts, discussions and presentations around this.

At the end of the exhausting day (both, for the Trainers as well as the Trainees), a couple of things stood out (not in any particular order):

• What is the "right" Agile QA process?
• Roles and responsibilities of a QA on an Agile team
• Sharing case studies and the good & not-so-good experiences around them
• Effectiveness of process and practices
• Value of asking difficult questions at the right time
• Taboo game - playing it, and reflecting on its learnings
• What to automate and what NOT to automate?
• Discussion around - How do you create / generate Test Data?

WAAT-Ruby - available on RubyGems and opensourcetesting

I am very happy to announce that WAAT is now available on RubyGems.org and is also linked from Open source functional testing tools.

Here are the links for the same:

 

https://rubygems.org/gems/WAAT

http://www.opensourcetesting.org/functional.php#WAAT-Ruby

http://www.opensourcetesting.org/functional.php#WAAT-Java

WAAT-Ruby - ready for use

WAAT-Ruby is now ready for use. 

Project hosted on github - http://github.com/anandbagmar/WAAT-Ruby

WAAT-Ruby gem available for download from here.

Documentation is available (on WAAt-Ruby wiki pages) here.

Since WAAT-Ruby uses WAAT-Java under the covers, I have kept the same version numbers for both platforms. The latest version is 1.4.

I have not yet pushed it out on rubygems.org. Will update once that is done.

So far I have tested this on the following environments:

• Windows 7 - 64-bit with Ruby 1.8.6
• RHEL 6 - 64-bit with Ruby 1.8.6 (I had difficulty in getting jpcap deployed on this environment). But once that was done, WAAT worked smoothly out of the box.
• Ubuntu 10.x - 32-bit with Ruby 1.8.7
• Ubuntu 10.x - 32-bit with Ruby 1.9.1

One important note:

If you are using WAAT (Java or Ruby) on any Linux-based environment, please note the Jpcap requirement for execution.

WAAT uses Jpcap for capturing network packets. Jpcap needs administrative privileges to do this work. See the Jpcap FAQs for more information about the same.


For all WAAT related blog posts, click here.

WAAT - Ruby .... are we there yet?

The WAAT ruby gem is almost ready. My colleagues are helping testing it out in different environments and am updating the documentation accordingly.

Once done, this will be available as a Ruby gem from WAAT-Ruby github project, and also from rubygems.org.

Contact me if you are interested in trying this out before release.

What is your expiry date?

Recently when doing some online transaction using my credit card, something struck me ... I realized that the form asking for my credit card information was quite weird, and probably incorrect.

Here is a sample layout of what I am talking about:

Here, I am asked to enter the details in this order:

• Credit card number 
• Card holder's name
• Expiry date 
• And so on ...

As I was entering the information, I ended up questioning myself ... whose Expiry Date??? The card's or mine??? 

Simply based on the flow of information asked for, it is quite easy to associate the Expiry Date with the earlier field - the Card holder's name. Right?

Wouldn't the layout be better this way instead:

• Card Holder name
• Card number
• Expiry date
• CVV number

Or, another way can be:

• Card number
• Expiry date
• CVV number
• Card Holder name

I checked all my 10-15 (credit / debit / membership) cards that I have. All of them have the issue date / expiry date / validity period associated with the card number, and not the card holder's name.

This leads me to believe that no one did a usability check, or, in this context, shall we call it a reality check when designing the credit card form like the one shown above. 

I would have not let this design / layout get through. What would you do?

Ruby Test Automation Framework Technology Stack Survey

WAAT  - Web Analytics Automation Testing Framework is currently available for java based Test Automation Frameworks. (http://essenceoftesting.blogspot.com/search/label/waat)

I am now working on making this available as a Ruby gem.

In order to support WAAT for a good-mix of test environments, I would like to understand the different environments and technology stacks that are typically used by teams in their Test Automation Framework.

Thank you for your time and help in providing this information.

RubyMine (and Cucumber) caching issue

I use RubyMine to write and implement my Cucumber features on Linux.

I have noticed one weird behavior at times.

Though my step definition is correct, and the test also runs fine, RubyMine flags the step as not implemented. For some reason, it is not able to find the corresponding implementation in the .rb step definition file.

On a haunch, I selected the "Invalidate Cache" in RubyMine's File menu, and selected the "Invalidate and Restart" option. Presto .... things started working properly again. 

Now I am wondering why did the RubyMine cache get messed up in the first place .....

WAAT for Ruby on its way

I have started work on creating a Ruby gem for WAAT. This is going to sit on top of the version created for Java. Hopefully will be able to get it out soon.

Watch this space for more information.

Test Trend Analyzer (TTA)

There are many tools and utilities that provide ways to do test result reporting and analysis of those results. However, I have not found a good, generic way of doing some Trend Analysis of those results. 

Why do I need to Trend Analysis of the test results?

Long(er) duration projects / enterprise products need to know the state of the quality of the product over time. One also may need to know various other metrics around the testing - like number of tests, pass %, failure %, etc. over time.

The reports I have seen are very good about analyzing the current test results. However, I have not really come across a good generic tool that can be used in most environments for the Test Trend Analysis over a period of time.

I am thinking about developing a tool which can address this space. I call this - the Test Trend Analyzer (TTA).

Here is what I think TTA should do:

Supports:

• Work with reports generated by common unit-test frameworks (jUnit, nUnit, TestNG, TestUnit, style of reports)
• Provides Web Service interface to upload results to TTA
• Test Results uploaded will be stored in db
• Will work on Windows and Linux

Dashboard:

• Creates default TTA dashboard
• Customizable TTA dashboard
• Dashboard will be accessible via the browser

My questions to you:

• Do you think this will help? 
• What other features would you like to see in TTA?
• What other type of support would you like to have in TTA?