Software Quality

Why is software quality important? These days, every business in every sector needs software to function. When software quality is sub-par, businesses suffer. According to a study commissioned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in 2002 software errors were estimated to cost 0.6% of gross domestic product in the US, which translated to nearly $60 billion (NIST 2002). Some real-life examples of the cost of quality include:
- The crash of the Ariane 5 launch system, which cost many billions of dollars to develop
- The Toys "R" Us Web site failure in 1999 and 2000, in which poor performance cost the company millions of dollars
- Credit card information theft due to security defects, which cost millions

Top 8 Most Annoying Technologies

Technological developments are usually well received and serve to improve our lives. However, some have caused nothing but annoyance and extreme frustration. The IT Job Board surveyed over 100 IT workers and brings you the Top 8 results starting from the most annoying.

1) Pop Up Ads:

Perhaps the single most annoying online invention and the bane of Internet users. They are even responsible for countless browser crashes and have resulted in unauthorised software installations and ID theft.

2) MAC OS Error Messages:

In the days before Mac OS X, users were regularly left on the brink of a nervous breakdown with '34' and '108' error type messages. System crashes resulted in these obscure messages that only Apple developers understood.

3) Flash Adverts:

You’re going about your normal business when SMACK, a flash movie starts playing, blocking what you’re trying to view. The frustration increases as you scramble to look for the ‘close’ button, which isn’t always in the same place.

4) Windows Vista:

Vista promised to be an all-singing, all-dancing, industry revolutionising phenomenon… in fact, it turned out to be XP in a posh tux! This resource-heavy system caused Microsoft numerous problems, from delayed launches and lawsuits to misleading ‘Vista Capable’ hardware stickers.

5) Microblogging:

‘My hamster had her stitches out’, ‘I just sneezed’… more to the point, who cares! Satisfying people’s cravings to share every itch and scratch, the ‘tweeting’ generation offers little to audiences or ‘followers’ apart from the stream of pointless comments.

6) Social Bookmarking Sites:

What was wrong with a browser’s ‘favourites’ list? Too easy? Well sites like Digg want you to work harder. In essence, you have to bookmark a bookmarking site to access your bookmarked sites… great!

7) Social Networks:

What started as a great way of communicating with distant friends and family has turned into a modern day plague of ‘zombies and werewolves’, ‘be my top friend’ and ‘I’ve nothing better to do so I’ll annoy you’ invites.

8) MS Office Assistant:

Most of us aren’t really keen on someone watching over our shoulder and correcting us as we work. Microsoft thought it would be fun to incorporate this into earlier versions of Office and thus the nuisance that was Clippy the Assistant was born.


Font: IT Job Board

Bug in the MSN (Windows Live Messenger)

I FOUND A BUG IN THE MSN!
The nudge option should happen in each 10 seconds, right? I found a way to display the "nudge" in other users in a period smaller than 10 seconds.
Basically you nudge the person, close the window, open again (do it faster than 10 seconds), and nudge again. You'll see that you will be able to nudge the person several times in a small period.
Application: Version 2008 (Compilation 8.5.1302.1018) - Portuguese (BR)

The financial impact of software defects

According to a study commissioned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in 2002 software errors were estimated to cost 0.6% of gross domestic product in the U.S. In real money, that's $59.6 billion per year lost or spent because of errors. The study also suggests that more than a third of these costs could have been avoided if testing had been properly in place, particularly early in the product development lifecycle (National Institute of Standards and Technology 2002).

Source: Training material - Software Testing module (IBM Certified Specialist - Software Quality certification)

General Attributes of Good Testers

- Are reliable;
- Are thorough;
- Have an inquisitive nature;
- Enjoy breaking things;
- Are ruthless;
- Are creative in terms of identifying likely faults;
- Are persistent;
- Are patient;
- Are detail orientated – analytical thinking;
- Are diplomatic - for example, avoid conflicts with developers;
- Have good communication skills;
- Have good observation skills.

The Value of Certification for Software Test and Quality Professionals

Software Test and quality professionals around the world have been seeking ways to boost their credibility both within their own organizations and in the software community. The most logical choice is certification with one of the national or international certification programs available. However, there have been many questions, even doubts, regarding the value of certification. Hiring managers are getting frustrated when they hire certified testers or certified quality personnel and discover that they are not capable of performing some of the most basic tasks in their job. This has caused some hiring managers and organizations to question the value of certification.
I think we all agree that the value of any certification program lies in its ability to meet individuals' diverse needs and interests for both breadth and depth of content so that it helps them improve the way they perform their job on a day to day basis.
In order to understand why certifications have received mixed reviews, one has to realize that there are essentially two ways to obtain certification: Exam-based and Education-based certification.
(http://www.testinginstitute.com/value.php)

Validation is important, but not exclusive!

When Test Cases are written from Use Cases (and others related) in the Test Plan creation should be considerate that, at least, all the system flow are being covered. These Test Cases are called Validation Tests. Commonly these tests are that kind of flows that the developers leave just “working” but not covering all the possibilities. A programmer is “hating” this kind of comment, but agrees. I am not looking down their profession and I do not have reasons to do that, but in a tight schedule, it is complicated to do a bright code following all those design patters suggested by market.
Seeing this factor, the tester generally appears as a bad guy but we always hear the kind of comment from them: “it was working well until he takes hand of the system”, of course that this is a pessimist view of the situation because all of us know that the tester comes to value the final product of the company, isn’t it?!
You, tester, want some more reasons to be “hated”? Start to “validate” those flows upside down, do exactly the opposite that it was written by the analyst. When the first guy had this idea, the Negative Test was discovered.
"Negative test cases are designed to test the software in ways it was not intended to be used, and should be a part of your testing effort." In other words, the application was not intended to do that but you should do that. For example, a Test Analyst takes 15 minutes to execute every Test Case in each Test Suite, basic way of counting Tester per hour. Some hours should be dedicated to the Negative Tests also.
When the study of Software Testing starts it is natural people gets engaged to the rules, it is an area with a lot of complex methodologies, techniques and methods. Even though, the famous “Error Guessing” technique are welcome, in other words, the system should be surfed trying to get as much defects as possible, based on the professional experience.
Formally, the “test it” is just “apply an error guessing technique”, a lot of techniques are being formalized per necessity. Every task applied to the system intended to find error in the execution phase is necessary and welcome, well, if the execution phase has been finished, “play” with your final system, your client appreciates!