Aug-Oct: Bugathon, Bug-A-Sur, Workshops, Courses and Conferences

This post is an update of what kept me busy for the last two months. More for me as a log file :) Do read on if it interests you.

It started with BugATAhon contest conducted by Agile Testing Alliance at Compassites Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd at Bangalore on August 6th, 2016.

BugATAhon Winners (Bangalore)

Previous experience with Zappers contests and Weekend Testing time boxed sessions seems to have helped me win the contest :) This was the first time I and Sundar were in different teams since we got to know each other in 2012.

After BugATAhon, it was time for Mobile Testing and Mobile Security Testing workshop at ET Marlabs, Bangalore. I loved the energy of the group and how quickly Surbhi organized the whole workshop. Everything about the workshop right from the first email to final payment was finalized in a week's time. 

The Team at ET Marlabs, Bangalore

It was time for Mobile Testing workshop at Test Maniac on Aug 13.

Mobile Testing - Test Maniac (Bangalore)

Then Sep, I went to Noida to conduct Android Security Testing and API Testing workshop for Times Internet. This was the first time I conducted workshop on Android Security Testing. The practice with Test Manic testers helped to a great extent. I also thank my new friend who taught me the basics of Android Security Testing. 

Times Internet Team, Noida

This was followed by Exploratory Testing workshop at OpenText in Sep.

The Team at OpenText, Bangalore 

Then, I presented in Agile Testing and Test Automation Summit on the topic - "Automation in Testing". How could we incorporate automation in testing is the main theme of the talk.  

This was on Oct 21 and Oct 22, I and Sundar formed a team to participate in Bug-a-sur conducted by Venturesity.

And we won again. Santhosh Tuppad and Pranav K S also won some cool prizes. What made me even more happy was that the same team from ET Marlabs also won a prize in the contest.

Bug-A-Sur - Venturesity (Bangalore)

Each event can be a blog post on its own but due to the time constraints and other priorities, I am stopping here. I have not mentioned about the STWC judging (completed), Machine Learning course (in progress), Sahi Pro Meetup (completed) and LinkedIn Learning course which I plan to enroll before Oct 30th to take advantage of the free courses they are offering.

Till next time, happy testing. 

Leia Mais…

Release of my 4th book on software testing

I have released a book each on my mother's birthday followed by my sister's birthday and my birthday. Obviously, my father was feeling left out and I am releasing a book on his birthday. This is my fourth book on software testing.

Book 1: What If... A question every software tester must ask.

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.

Book 2: What If... 50+ tips to win testing contests. 

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.

Book 3: What If... 50+ tips to boost your productivity.

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?

Book 4: What If... 50+ tips to improve tester-programmer relationship

This book brings into picture a very important person - the programmer & the programming team. Each one of us might have the experience of working with at least one tough programmer. Some programmers are very friendly and help us with finding bugs. Some of them are very strict with their deliverables and do not respond to any queries outside office hours. Some hardly talk to you unless you ask them a question. There are different types of programmers and bring in variety to our testing challenges. As I write this book, I have completed over six years of software testing and interacting with multiple programmers across different projects within and outside the company. With a rich experience of working with tough programmers, I write this book to help you.

My special thanks to my family members (for having a gap between the birthdays), my friends for accepting me as I am, my friends on twitter, facebook who keep encouraging my work, the programmers who keep challenging me, those who bought my first three books, those who provided me feedback and those who continue to believe in me :)
And of course, my love and thanks to my father who continues to encourage me in everything I do.

How to buy the books:
Download from bit.ly/booksaj

Leia Mais…

Less time? Map the bugs.

Last night when I came back from office, I saw the email from www.99tests.com about a one day contest on Android mobile. I joined the contest and observed that the max limit of bugs per tester was 15 instead of 25 (for 3 day contests). For every duplicate bug one logs, there is a -1 point. So, one has to be careful before logging bugs. And when I joined the contest, there were already 50+ bugs logged. I like to spend the initial few minutes of any contest, trying to understand the purpose of the application, the focus areas by the other testers and the validation strategy by the contest owner.

I wanted to go through every bug logged and at the same time understand the application quickly. I started with few bugs and then an idea struck me. Why not map the bugs and categorize the features too as parent nodes?

This is what I got after 25 mins:

Mindmap of Bugs

This way, I went through every bug and still made a high level model of the entire application.

I liked it and after three hours of testing, I got the 7th position with 100% valid bugs. I logged 6 bugs.

Maybe, there is a better approach but I liked the approach of mapping out the bugs before testing. What do you think? Do you have a better way?

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…