Daily Experiences & Learning

Feels good to be back to my blog - Enjoy Testing

This post is about two experiences I had today - one in the cab on way to office and another in office.

Experience No. 1
Friday morning - I got into the cab, started messaging my friend about the GLAM NIGHT event later in the evening. Then, it was time for cab testing. Both of us like discussing about testing and travel time is the only time we get to talk. So, we started cab testing. 5 minutes of testing and 15 minutes of discussion. Everything happens via sms.

Today's question was:
How will you investigate if  for every sms you send, I receive it thrice in my mobile inbox. 
Time limit 5 minutes.

As usual, both of us had contrasting approaches.
Discussion was interesting as we got to know new ideas.

Two of my friend's ideas I found quite interesting.
1. Check if the sender is getting multiple delivery reports.
2. Check if the sender is charged for multiple sms or single sms.

I asked why she thought these two ideas were important.
She answered that she will NOT be aware of this issue - sms sent multiple times unless
a. she gets multiple notifications or
b. she gets charged multiple times or
c. she has a look at my (receiver's) mobile.

That moment I was very happy. I never thought about it. How will you know that there is a problem?

How many times management lives with false hope that product is doing well in market just because there is no customer complaint? Are you aware of the mechanisms through which you will be notified of issues?
That was an eye-opener for me.

Can I find out if there is a problem before I think of solving that problem? Error mechanism, Logs?

Why am I feeling that it is part of TESTABILITY.

Experience No.2
I am very talkative and love to have most of my friends on my chat list. A new colleague (now a friend) Shreya Prasad joined my team and sits right opposite to me. Yesterday she was joking that we would never need the office intercom to talk to each other. Yes, she is right.

But sometimes chat works on best for short messages and we can use Google Talk in our office. So, I asked her is she uses GTalk. She replied that she would always be in invisible mode. It meant that I can type her a message even if I don't see her online. I sent her a request and she told she has not received the request. I checked in my contacts list. (Invited) was displayed against her name. I went to her cube and browsed for my name - No request. She was right - there was no request visible.

Huh, why does the status matter for a request - I thought. There is no harm in trying and I asked her to go online. She selected 'online' and bang, the request appeared. I repeated my favorite line:

"You never know unless you try"

and she completed my sentence with : "That is testing". A smile flashed across my face and I said to myself - She is right.

These two experiences made my day. Any similar experiences to share, please feel free.