Wednesday, September 1, 2010

So, This is called testing...?

When a baby is born,everyone surrounding him/her tries to help him to learn what he/she must learn to carry on his/her activities.Sometimes he/she stumbles or sometimes falls down from the bed. I am thinking myself as a baby in this QA field as i've started my career as QA engineer few days back.So,please help me to understand what QA is and help me to carry on my QA activities.

Testing!!!!

When i first heard about testing, i was wondering what it would be and how this would be done.I made some general explanation in my mind.I thought it is a diagnostic approach to find bugs in a software project. I thought there would be some specifications and i've to go through those to cross-check the projects.But,as days are continuing i am realizing that i was somewhat wrong and there is something which is beyond this diagnostic approach.I am learning that it is not cross-checking rather it is questioning. It is questioning about the products,it is questioning about the users and most important thing is it is questioning about yourself as a tester.Because as far as i know if there is a question,then there will be an answer, otherwise what is the necessity of an answer. And in our case,the product is the answer. So,the best quality of it will be ensured if there are lot of questions about it.So, i've been continuously training my mind for questioning to become a good tester and consequently to become a good SQA engineer.I'm not sure is this a right approach or not but i guess if i ask about a problem from different point of views then definitely i'll reach quite close to a solution.

So,this is the definition of testing to me.I am requesting all of you to suggest me if i am wrong in my approach on testing.All yours advices will be taken cordially and i'm waiting for your comments.

5 comments:

  1. Ah, a new sapient tester. Welcome!

    You seem like someone who wants to learn more about testing. Your post looks original. This is the kind of blog I like to subscribe to.

    When you say quality is ensured when you question, what do you mean?

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  2. Thanks very much bhaia for your kind cooperation and support.I really want to explore the QA arena with the help of all QA gurus like you and others.

    I think quality is relative in nature.We can not limit the quality of something.because every product in this world is improving day by day.So,after finishing the product,if we do not question about its quality in the next day then we can not upgrade it to a better one.That is why i think asking about quality is the best way to ensure it.

    Thank you again.

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  3. Great topic to start! You have used your own terms to describe your thinking and that is inspiring.

    Regarding questioning the product:
    1. How you start questioning the product? because most of the time it seems not easy to even build a question at the earlier stage
    2.Do you share the questions with anyone else?
    3.How you relate questions with the product demands?
    4.Can you control/guide your questions?
    5.How you get the answers of the questions and how you react or what actions you take after getting the answers?

    It would be even more enjoyable if you give us an example and your view that may describe how the product quality is ensured when you ask the question.

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  4. Really a good topic to start.

    Questioning about testing application is a great way of testing. You got the right point. But too much of questions in your mind may some time misguide you. That is way along with James bhai I would also like to know whether you can control or guide your questions or not? Besides questioning mind you will have to find answers of questions in your own way.

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  5. Thank you James bhai and Shishir bhai for your interest in the topic.
    Here are the answers which will give my explanation a clear view of questioning any software products.
    1.Questioning the product:Its the most difficult and important part in testing as far as i understand.Its true that sometimes the clue for questioning is bit difficult to get.But again,all the products have some general aspects of quality.So,assumption is most important part here.and a tester who can assume well is the trump card here.
    2.Controlled questioning & product demand:There should be some controlling mechanisms for questioning.Because,we have time limits.So,there should be some questions to control questioning again.(:P) Actually,we have to prioritize among our questions.Because,some answers of questions will have higher priority over others.We have to select the questions according to product demands and maintaining the time constraint.

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