Release of two more books

We have a competition at office - a quarterly one. You are free to work on any idea for 24 hours. No meetings, no work, no deadlines. At the end of the day (which is usually a Friday), you get ready to present your idea and its implementation before the judges.

Book 1: Mobile Testing: Ready Reckoner
So, in the event held few days ago, I and my friend Sundaresan Krishnaswami wrote a book on Mobile Testing. We admire Jonathan Kohl's book 'Tap into Mobile Applications' a lot and have learnt a lot from the book. We needed a ready reckoner - a very short book and we created it based on our readings, testing experiences, competition experiences and feedback from other testers.

Each page is designed in such a way that an idea is explained with the help of a screenshot. We have also added the learning and resources link if necessary. As a tester or a mobile enthusiast, you can open any page and apply the idea immediately.
You can print the entire book and have it as a pocket calendar. The book size fits the pocket.

Book 2: UI and UX Testing: Ready Reckoner

This book is also in the ready reckoner format. A screenshot followed by explanation of the idea. Fits into pocket, go-to book before any testing competition or a quick reference when you run out of ideas.

Download from bit.ly/booksaj

Leia Mais…

Tap Into Mobile Application Testing by Jonathan Kohl

One of the good things about working in a cool company like www.maas360.com is that the management cares about learning opportunity for its employees. It understands that if the company has to be at the top, the employees have to work on their skills. One of the easy ways is to provide access to resources which will help the employees - books, conferences, contests, tutorials, memberships and so on. This is very easy to do but very few companies encourage such learning opportunity.

As soon as I got to know about the book https://leanpub.com/testmobileapps by Jonathan Kohl, I wanted to read it. The request was approved and I got a chance to read the book on the same day.

As seen on the site, the book covers a wide range of topics necessary to know about mobile app testing.

What did I learn from this book:
Reading the book was a very good experience. Every page had something new. I liked the initial chapters a lot compared to the strategy, planning chapters. I wanted to read this book on my mobile phone - landscape mode using QuickOffice Reader. This experience helped me find some bugs in QuickOffice Reader application and I could also experience using a mobile app.

Examples of different types of bugs
I like the books where the authors don't just mention what to do but also highlight their experience when they followed their own advice. Jonathan Kohl does a great job in highlighting his experiences in testing different types of mobile apps and what kid of bugs he found. Some of his bug stories are like the detective puzzles and teach you a lot.

What's inside a mobile and how it can affect tests
To be honest, I knew very little about the mobile hardware before starting this book compared to now when I am writing this blog post. You regularly move your mobile but are you aware of which sensors are affected? Do you have any idea of how your test results are indirectly and to some extent, directly affected by the mobile hardware? This book has a dedicated chapter and is a good starter for someone like me.

Different Tours
Though there are many tours mentioned in this book, I like the Gesture tour. Pinch/Tap/Flick/Swipe/Press - Which gesture do you like? I tried few of the gestures and found bugs specific to them. There are many different types of tours mentioned in this book. Ok, he not only mentions them but also explains as to how to conduct each tour.

Testing Mnemonics for Mobiles
Jonathan Kohl - creator of I SLICED UP FUN mnemonic also explains about few other mnemonics in this book. As a tester, its good to know such mnemonics so that you can apply them as and when required instead of thinking of new tests every time.

Dealing with Intermittent bugs
This topic is not new to many testers. James Bach talks about such bugs here - www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/34 BBST course - Bug Advocacy section too highlights tips to tackle such bugs. www.testingeducation.org/BBST Jonathan Kohl talks about intermittent bugs found during testing mobile apps. Small distractions, movements, network changes, orientation differences - how can they affect the bugs - the topic covers them all.

The book is worth the cost. Hope Jonathan writes more such books and continue to help the testing community. Thanks Jonathan Kohl.

Leia Mais…

Release of my 3rd ebook: "50+ tips to boost your productivity"

Thank you for all the birthday wishes. My third ebook is finally released.
It is titled - '50+ tips to boost your productivity'

I want to keep this post short and sweet.
My special thanks to Jon Bach for inspiring me to write the blog post on tips/tools/tricks which later gave me an idea to expand it to this ebook. He also agreed to write Foreword to this book.
I am honored. Thanks Jon.

What is this book about?

This book is a small collection of tips, tricks and list of tools to help boost your productivity. This is entirely based on my experiences in software testing as well as using computer. Internet is so powerful. A simple Google search will yield you so many search results. Google for “Screen Capture Tools” and you will find a minimum of ten tools in the first page itself. Which one do you choose? Do you have the time to try each one of them? What about Windows command prompts? There seems to be more than fifty commands. Which one is useful for us, especially for a software tester?

I feel that one learns the best based on personal experience. Remember the time when you lost all your data and the lesson along with it - “Save your data frequently” Or the trick to use notepad as a diary. Some of the tips might be known to you but I hope that some of them are unknown to you as well. I have not written this book keeping a specific audience in mind. Anyone who uses computer should be able to benefit from this book. At the same time, I have tried my best to bring my experience as a software tester to the forefront.

How do you learn new tools and tips? Do you follow any specific websites? Do let me know. After my first e-book - “What If…” and the second e-book - “What If… 50+ tips to win testing contests” which can be bought from http://bit.ly/HKvTn0, I hope that you enjoy this book too. Hope you enjoy the snippets while I wait for your comments…

This book is an extension of the blog post: http://enjoytesting.blogspot.in/2012/04/toolscommandstips-i-use-part-1.html If you liked the post, you will like the book too.

Without any delay, here are the details to buy the books:

Download all the books from bit.ly/booksaj

Details about the previous two books is here:
http://enjoytesting.blogspot.in/2011/11/release-of-my-ebook-what-if-50-tips-to.html

Leia Mais…

Release of my ebook: "What If... : 50+ tips to win testing contests"

October 16th, I released my first ebook titled - 'What If...'. It is a collection of tips on software testing. Thanks to everyone for your wishes, more than fifty copies were sold.

This sunday - Nov 20th, I am releasing my second ebook titled -

"What If... : 50+ tips to win testing contests"

Contents page

What is this book about?
This book is a collection of tips which might help any tester competing in a testing contest. Testers are under tremendous time pressure and the competition is tough. Skilled testers have a better chance of winning the contests. After participating in a number of testing contests, I realized that it is easy to win any contest if you dedicate some time and demonstrate the right skills. In this book, I have tried to highlight few points which will improve your chances of winning the testing contest.

As seen in the image above, initial chapters focus on test environment, test planning. Then the focus shifts to bugs - finding important bugs, bug reporting and finally learning from the testing contests.

Just like my first book - "What If...", the tips are short and to the point. Focus is on ready-to-use tips. Hope you enjoy reading the book and win many more contests.

Download from bit.ly/booksaj

Special Thanks to
Praveen Singh - Director of www.99tests.com for founding 99tests. It is an excellent platform to participate in testing contests and learn from other testers. I learn from every contest at 99tests.

Friends who helped me review the book:
It is a tough task to review any book. Alek, Bernice and Elena helped me by reviewing the entire book. Thanks to them, I am able to release the book on time.

Hope this book helps you win at 99tests and many other testing contests.

Leia Mais…

Release of my ebook: "What If..."

Today is a special day. It is my mother's birthday.
To celebrate the birthday, I released an ebook :)
  

About the book:

This ebook is a small collection of my experiences in software testing. In 2006, I started my career as an Associate QA Engineer. Straight after my college, I dived into this job with a lot of energy. The entire corporate world was new to me. I was not aware of the term ‘Software Testing’. After three weeks of training sessions, my first task was to execute the test cases. As you read these words, I have completed five official years of testing software. When I logged my first bug, I thought – ‘What if’ this bug was found after release? Years passed, many products were released, and I gained a lot of varied experiences.  

I made a few embarrassing mistakes too. There were few instances where I wished that someone had warned me beforehand. So, I started preparing a book of tips targeted at software testers. Special care has been taken to keep each of the 22 chapters short and to the point. Emphasis is on ready-to-use tips which would give you instant results. I do believe that there is no single best practice which would suit every context. Being a student of context driven testing community, I agree that there are good practices in context, but there are no best practices. This book is heavily influenced by my experiences with industry experts, reading books, testing software, talking to customers, end-users, support team, testers, programmers and their managers. Do let me know if you have a topic in mind which I have not covered. 

How to buy the book:

1. Browse to http://www.jumadi.in/book/ajay-balamurugadas-9080000000000.html

2. Buy the book. You may need to create an account [Less than a minute!]

3. Take a screenshot from the payment history page and email to ajay184f@gmail.com. I will immediately email you the book.

NOTE: Anyone with a valid credit card can buy this book even if you live outside India.

Jumadi.in accepts credit cards, debit cards, net banking.

How can I buy your books?
1. Please transfer INR 125 to the following bank account.

Account Details:

AJAY BALAMURUGADAS

Account No: 00531610015960

Bank: HDFC Bank 

IFSC Code: HDFC0000053

If you are using Paypal, please transfer USD 2.5 to ajay184f@gmail.com

2. Once I receive the money, I will email you the book.
Any questions, feel free to email me at ajay184f@gmail.com

Do I get any discount?
Buy both books at INR 285 or USD 6.0

Second book: http://enjoytesting.blogspot.com/2011/11/release-of-my-ebook-what-if-50-tips-to.html

What this book is NOT:

This book is not THE book on software testing. If you want to know in detail about any topic, this is not the right book. In fact, I have recommended other books in my book. 

What do other testers say about this book?

Bernice

I recommend Ajay’s e-book “What If’” for anyone who is new to software testing as it provides many valuable tips in how to approach testing situations from a tester’s real-life experience.  This e-book is also valuable to more experience testers who may learn about new tools and techniques such as mind-maps and alternative ways of sharpening testing skills such as competitions and weekend testing.  This e-book is not only packed with tips but also many useful links for further learning opportunities such as books, training                                                         courses, articles, and much more!

Bernice Niel Ruhland

Software Testing Manager for a privately owned software development company

Alek

Ajay writes I wished that someone had warned me beforehand. I can't agree more I wish someone gave me the book of tips about software testing on the beginning of my career or at least taught me to use "what if" question more often. If you aim at skills improvement in software testing and you want to find out the ways you can do this, I strongly recommend this book.

Aleksander Lipski

http://aleetesting.blogspot.com/

Huib

With this ebook Ajay helps the testing community with some great checklists in a FAQ-style. "What if" helps junior testers to get up to speed in testing more easy but it is also quite useful for experienced testers. In this short and to-the-point ebook, he covers some important topics for software testers who want to learn! A quick win is in there for everyone!

Huib Schoots

http://www.huibschoots.nl/wordpress/

Elena

I wish I had this quick reference book when I first started testing. It would have saved me from a lot of growing pains. It is an easy read and a tremendous resource of useful information and tips that any testing professional can benefit from.

Elena Houser

http://trancecyberiantester.blogspot.com/

At this moment, I need to thank a few people.
My special thanks to 

My parents, my sisters and my grandparents.
They make sure there is no disturbance to me. They take care of my needs, stay awake even when I return home late and save money for me to spend on improving my skills.

My friends.
I have learnt so much from each of the interactions with testers online. Thanks to each of my friends who have constantly exchanged ideas and helped me learn new things. Thanks to Eveline for patiently listening to me every time I talk. Special thanks to three friends - Narendra, Vinay and Praveen for being the '3 Idiots' in my life.

My office colleagues.
They have always helped me whenever I wanted to test a different software. It is a cool experience to test different software and thanks to my colleagues and managers who have always helped me.

My friends who reviewed my book.
From the moment I started writing the first chapter till the last moment, Shruti always encouraged me, constantly reviewed the book and provided the comments. She is a good friend of mine who does not hesitate to critique and help me.

Thanks to Miagi-Do school members who have spent their valuable time to review my book. Special thanks to Alek, Huib, Elena and Jeroen.

My sincere thanks to Satish from Jumadi.in for listing my book and helping me launch in time for my mother's birthday.

Hope you like the book :)

Leia Mais…

Please help. God bless you.

It is time to help.

Our friend Chandrasekhar B N is in need of some money for the 'chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant' More details is here. Donations made to CPAA are exempt from Income Tax under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act (50% exemption).
Please feel free to donate here.

Next, Software Testing Club has come up with a beautiful idea for charity. It needs your ideas/donation/both.

Please read the details here. Feel free to fill this form and be part of a wonderful gesture by donating here.

Thanks for your time. God bless you and your loved ones.

Leia Mais…