Posted by John Concrane on March 25, 2020 in Education
Software test planning eBook? Encourage clarity in bug reporting. “Reporting bugs and requesting more information can create unnecessary overhead. A good bug report can save time by avoiding miscommunication or the need for additional communication. Similarly, a bad bug report can lead to a quick dismissal by a developer. Both of these can create problems. “Anyone reporting bugs should always strive to create informative bug reports, but it’s just as important that developers go out of their way to communicate effectively as well. For instance, if a developer needs more information, it’s best if they take the time to write a detailed request. Teach people to write good reports, but hold your developers to high standards as well. If everyone is going above and beyond to communicate effectively, everyone’s productivity benefits.
There is nothing worse than a report that has too many words and not enough pictures! Make your reports clear, concise and as up-to-date as they can be. By providing clear and up-to-date information your own team, as well as your management team, will be much more aware of the status of your testing and any issues you face. Any key issues can then be tackled as and when they occur, or red flags be raised earlier rather than weeks down the track.
The ultimate ebook for more than software testing basics: How would you like to have all the software testing knowledge you need in one comprehensive book? Whether you want to level up in the software test management field, or gain useful knowledge of the sector as a whole, A Test Manager’s Guide is the resource for you. As a young graduate I started looking for potential career opportunities and this eBook has shown me the beauty and complexity of the Test Manager profession from a theoretical standpoint. Read extra info on Cania.
Report findings in the context of business value. Focus on the data that is being communicated back to stakeholders, from your findings as part of testing – the data should be in context of ‘how’ the behavior observed is detrimental to the objective of the feature or application being developed. Engage the end user. Probably the most important person in the whole process, yet many times we may be tempted to keep them at arm’s length; you should involve the customer actively. Have them give frequent feedback on the product for future improvement and development; software developers who respond quickly to customer feedback are generally more successful. Always keep learning. [The] IT field changes; way [faster] than some of us would like. If you are not constantly updating your skills, you could get irrelevant, obsolete and outdated. In a world of lay-off paranoia, it is a good idea to rise above it all, gain immunity and feel secure. The best way to do so is to make learning a habit.
Quarantine software testing recommendation of the day : Regardless of how you do the meetings, make sure you are tracking any dependencies and people feel free to use the chat threads to reply to someone’s standup message with suggestions or offers to resolve a roadblock or dependency… We have a weekly product meeting which is longer than our standup meetings. We discuss how the current sprints are going, are we on track to deliver the next release on schedule, and are there any impediments or issues that we need to discuss. During this meeting we review the planning board for the current release and current sprints. Traditionally we’d do this in our conference room using our projector and take notes live in Google docs and/or use the whiteboards for any discussion topics. Read a few extra info at cania-consulting.com.