I’ve now added a Bugs section to my website – found under the Software Testing menu.
This is where I’ll log bugs found during everyday life – on iPhone, iPad, websites, web applications, software application etc.
This will show the range of bugs encountered in everyday life in all manner of products, and also provide examples of my Bug Reporting.
An amazing story has been developing over the last few days, after some wild share price swings on the NYSE on Wednesday, which in the end were due to problems with a new system being implemented by Knight Capital. The problems are said to have cost Knight Capital $440 million, who blamed it on a ‘technology issue’.
The problem seems to have been in a High Frequency Trading algorithm, which bought and sold shares at high frequency, with the aim of making a profit per trade, but actually made a small loss per trade. In one trade instance that’s not a lot, but at high frequency that can soon develop into a massive loss.
Whatever the exact cause, sounds like they should have done a lot more testing. (The stable door is open and the horse has well and truly bolted)
Since June 2012, I’ve been a member of the uTest.com online software testing community. This is proving to be a very useful way of building a test profile, as I’ve already tested Websites, Applications and Games on PC, Mac platforms and iPad2, iPhone devices. I’ve managed to build a fairly solid profile, through a combination of fully reading and understand the Testing Instructions, performing extensive testing and then providing accurate and comprehensive bug reports.
You are rewarded for your testing activity by payments per Approved bug and also other things such as Reviews and Feedback etc.
The uTest.com platform functions very well and is quite easy to use and get around. Having already had a payout from uTest.com (via PayPal) I can recommend uTest.com if you’d like to get some Software Testing experience. Its also a good way of seeing new and upcoming Web Sites, Apps, Games and Applications.
Update: Friday 13 July – Now received my certificate from ISEB/BCS. Full title is ISTQB – ISEB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL). Well pleased with my score, which was 37 out of 40, 92.5% – so all the study and practice was worthwhile.
The other day – last Friday 6 July – I passed my ISEB/ISTQB certification exam, Foundation Level. The exam was an online one, at a VUE Pearson test centre, near Aldgate East tube. The test lasts for an hour and at the end you get a printout telling you if you passed the exam. I passed it and am now awaiting the full results, which will be sent in the post to me, by ISEB.
The book I’ve mentioned before on DevBlog – ‘Software Testing: An ISTQB-ISEB Foundation Guide’ – was very useful in learning the syllabus and getting through the exam. Also, the example tests available from ISTQB and other places also really helped.
Spelling America as Amercia is a bit of a typo at the best of times, but on the front screen of a new iPhone app for the US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney? That’s some app mishap, on a global level.
Looks like Software Testing must have been <1% on the project plan.
Links: Sky News Yahoo News Washington Post
Now that I’ve gone through the official study guide book ‘Software Testing: An ISTQB-ISEB Foundation Guide’ I need to work out my preparation for the Certification Exam.
The book itself first recommends reading through the ISTQB Syallbus document, as its the basis of the exam itself – questions are raised directly from the syllabus and the wordings are very similar. The ISTQB Syllabus can be found at http://certifications.bcs.org/upload/pdf/swt-foundation-syllabus.pdf
Next, the book recommends going through an ISEB example exam paper, to gain familiarity with the questions and to see how much you have remembered and understood. After some Googling around, I managed to find the following sample exam papers/links:
The best plan seems to be doing an example exam or two then checking which areas you need to revise on most. After that revision then attempt another example exam and see where your understanding is at and what areas you may still need to go over again.
Also useful is the ISTQB Glossary of Testing Terms, available in PDF from http://www.istqb.org/downloads/viewcategory/20.html
Other useful links
http://www.softwaretestingstuff.com/
Chapter 7 is a brief chapter, entitled ‘The Examination’.
It covers the exam structure, the types of question, some example questions in different K1/K2/K3/K4 categories, exam techniques and revision techniques.
In brief, the exam is 1 hour long and contains 40 questions. The pass rate is 26 correct answers, so thats 65%.
The topics covered are:
Have now worked through Chapter 6 of the book, entitled ‘Tool Support for Testing’. This is another very comprehensive chapter, which took around 9 hours of studying, over a few days.
It covers the main topic of testing tools, describing in-depth the range of different types of tools, what they’re used for and the benefits and potential disadvanatages of using them. It covers the actual description/theory of each tool, rather than specific tools/software that may be in use. It finally concludes with a process to introduce testing tools into an organistion.
The topics covered are:
In order to understand just how many test tools there are, I’ve created two lists from the information in this Chapter, to help my learning/revision. The first list below covers all the test tools discussed in the Chapter, arranged by their ‘ISTQB Syllabus Classification. The list after that is these tools but arranged by ‘Most Likely Users’.
List of Tools by ISTQB Syllabus Classification
Classification: Management of Testing and Testing:
Classification: Static Testing:
Classification: Test Specification:
Classification: Test Execution and Logging:
Classification: Performance and Monitoring:
Classification: Data Quality
Classification: Usability
Classification: Other Tools
List of Tools arranged by ‘Most Likely Users’
Users: Business Analyst
Users: Testers
Users: Developers
Users: Testers and Developers
Users: Various
Users: Specialists
Have now worked through Chapter 5 of the book, entitled ‘Test Management’. This is another very comprehensive chapter, which took around 7 1/2 hours of study, over a few days.
It covers many different topics including testing and risk, test planning, test control, roles and tasks, test management, test design/specification, test metrics and test reporting plus many more related topics.
The topics covered are:
Have now worked through Chapter 4 of the book, entitled ‘Test Design Techniques’. This is a very comprehensive chapter and took about 9 hours of study to get through, over a few days.
It begins with coverage of key terms, then covers the basic process of creating a suite of tests, then explores three categories of testing: specification-based testing, structure-based testing and experience-based testing. If finishes off with a section on the selection of test techniques.
The topics covered are:
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