Friday, May 31, 2013

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

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Saturday, April 13, 2013

What is the difference between Smoke test and Sanity test

As testers, we ask a lot of questions. Sometimes, we need to answer a lot of questions too. Few days ago, I was asked the question:
"What is smoke and sanity testing and how is it connected with high level test cases?"
I asked why he wanted to know the answer and pasted the link to blog post by Michael Bolton:
http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/11/smoke-testing-vs-sanity-testing/

I told them that it is much more important to practice testing and improve one's testing skills than know answers to such questions. When I mentioned about BBST, I was asked if BBST meant Behavior Based Software Testing. I was disappointed and emailed the tester my first book - 'What If... A collection of tips on software testing'. To my surprise, the tester had already bought this book. I was even more disappointed.

The next day, I received this email from the tester:

Since I have read this book before and at that time, I have just read it like other testing guides and have joined people just to ask my testing queries those were not for testing but was for interview preparations.

But after your advice , I have started reading this book again. This time I am feeling like I have started learning the basics of testing  very first time, since the time you have just sent the book to read. You would be amazed sir, that since evening to this time I have just read only 6 pages of it and this time I have not skipped any links or any thing.

Now I am feeling like this book is the best gift given by anyone and once more thing initially i was using it like quick recap but today i feel that it is more like an encyclopedia of testing basics.

Sir, I would request you to just help me in getting to draw the Mindmap and also with basics of drawing these mindmaps (But at least this week i wouldn't get time for  this, not because i have a lot of work in office but I have your book to complete it with all its link with better understanding).

I am happy that he has found the book useful. Balaji from ZenQA, Hyderabad also finds the book useful. When I met him last time, he told me that he uses the book as a compulsory reading for the new joinees. 

Let us stop worrying about what Sanity or Smoke tests mean. Let us focus on our skills instead!!!
PS: I have titled this post as "What is the difference between Smoke test and Sanity test" to attract more hits. I hope more and more testers read this post and the post by Michael Bolton.

Leia Mais…