Wednesday, June 30, 2010

BBST Foundations and BBST Bug Advocacy



Last November, I completed the four week course of BBST Foundations. The course focussed on the different terminology, bug, mission, oracle, heuristic, different types of testing and so on. It was definitely a hectic four week - each week taking as much as 35-45 hours. Remember, this is after the office hours and even more hectic to someone not used to online lecture assisted courses.

The course was interesting: there used to be few exercises, assignments, videos by Dr. Cem Kaner, quizzes and peer reviews. I liked the group assignments the most. Our group had a member each from Dubai, India and London. The different timezones made the assignments even more challenging and interesting.

After few weeks, I received an email confirming that I had successfully completed the course. I was happy on receiving the email. So, the next step was to take up the BBST Bug Advocacy Course. This course was supposed to be tougher than the Foundations.
I had two slots for this course. March and May. I registered for the May 23rd batch.
The course duration was May 23rd - June 21st.

How was the course?


It lived to its expectations. It required more time, effort compared to the Foundations course. The Bug advocacy course focussed more on how to see the bug.

How effective is your bug report? Can you get the right bugs fixed?
Do you understand the objections for fixing a bug? Some more questions were answered.

I should say, I learnt a lot in the Bug Advocacy course when compared to Foundations course. Or I could apply the learning immediately at my workplace seems better.

One of the highlights of the Bug advocacy course was a heuristic for bug investigation.
Replicate
Isolate
Maximize
Generalize
Externalize
And report it in a neutral tone.

This course too had its own share of exercises, peer reviews, quizzes, assignments, group assignments, videos and finally an exam.

In this course, the videos described on how to
  • Investigate an issue
  • Write a bug report
  • Be persuasive in your bug-reporting
  • Increase your credibility
If you have problems in replicating issues you find, your relationships with other stakeholders is weak, you want to improve your bug hunting, bug investigation and bug reporting skills, the BBST Bug Advocacy Course might help you. It is no magic pill to solve your testing problems. It can help you solve the problems quickly.

I completed the course on June 21st and today I received an email with a pdf attachment that read:



I'm taking small steps towards my skill improvement. What are you waiting for?

14 comments:

Nandan said...

Hi Ajay,

Congratulations and well done :)

I'm planning to attend the BBST foundations after September. Busy till then :)

Parimala Shankaraiah said...

Kudos my friend!

Keep Rocking!

Regards,
Parimala Shankaraiah

Unknown said...

Hi Ajay,
Congratulations...:)

Regards,
Narasimha Reddy P.

Vipul Gupta said...

Congratulations Ajay!

Regards
Vips

Anonymous said...

wow! That's great. Kudos
Congratulations
--Dhansekar S

Unknown said...

A million congrats!!

Shaham said...

Congrats dude..

Santhosh Tuppad said...

Go Go Go! You are rocking. Congratulations bro.

Mohit said...

Congratulations dear.

Well done and keep it up...

With Regards
Mohit Verma

Isthiyaq Ahamed said...

Congrats ajay...


Regards,

Ahamed

Ajay Balamurugadas said...

Thanks everyone for your wishes.

Selim Mia said...

Hi Ajay,
Congratulations!!
Well done! keep rocking!!

Regards,
- Selim

Anonymous said...

Congrats! I am currently enrolled in the BBST Foundations course, I look forward to taking the bug advocacy later on, your post has given some great insight.

I hope you are successful in your quest to become a better tester!

Happy Testing,
-Michael A.

B J Osman said...

Great work Ajay! I have completed both courses as well and found them...well, exactly as you've described!

It was full on but well worth it. I've learnt soooo much more in these two courses than from any other course I've taken!

And i definitely like the RIGEMA heuristic!


Brian :)