Above and Beyond the Call of Duty - Dries Baert

8/6/2019 Above and Beyond the Call of Duty - Dries Baert

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Belgium Testing Days

Above and beyond the call of duty


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Intro Goals of this presentation

Toolbox of a tester Concept

Tools

Using the Toolbox in challenging conditions Development delayed, deadline wasnt

Blocking issues

Absence of Project Manager, Project Leader


Conclusion

Questions


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As a tester you always have a good job definition:

Well described features

Perfectly written documentation

More than sufficient budget

Good test environment delivered on schedule

How familiar does this sound to you?


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Not very familiar to the most of us!

When encountering problems we see 3 levels of integrity:

Fulfill your expected duty: stay within the borders of your tasks

Act proactively, search solutions for the problems or other test workwithin the project

Above and beyond the call of duty: take your full responsability inthe project.


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Tools


Blocking issues



Conclusion

Questions


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Overview of the testers tools

How to use tools in situations, taking ownership of

problems

Do more than expected.

Help your career forward!


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Tools


Blocking issues



Conclusion

Questions


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Concept

Methaphore: all skills, data, tools and methods a tester

Help to make clear what to use when.


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The plans

Base plans

Most recent versions of:

Functional Analysis

Use Case

Technical Analysis

Etc (the more information, the better)


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The plans

Blue prints

Master Test Plan, contains:

Test priorities

People and functions within the project

Bug severities and bug flow

Links to all the relevant docs

Test requirement Hierarchy, contains:

Requirements and their priorities

Test progress report


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Lunchbox

Social skills are important! (communication, communication,

communication)

Face to face

Try to blend in with the team (same work space, lunch break)

Same goal: deliver a good software package to the customer.

But stay independent


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Mobile phone

Correct means of communication

Speed dial: All responsibles within the project

Contact data:

Helpdesk or responsible for network access and infrastructure

Sales responsible

Make a list of back-up in case of holidays/illness


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Screw driver

The different types:

Whitebox testing (if done by development, check if this is done!)

Blackbox testing

Non functional testing (ISO 9126)


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Intro

Goals of this presentation


Tools


Blocking issues



Conclusion

Questions


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Development delayed, deadline wasnt


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Blue prints: Adapt priorities and risks for deadline and clarify risks:

Low priorities tested quickly or not

Less detailed documentation (Bug reporting NOT included)

Mobile phone: Communicate delays, priorities and risks asap

Too late => no time for discusion/adaptation

Screw driver: Cancel some tests (e.g. load testing)


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Blocking issues


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Blocking issue: Documentation is incomplete, notprovided

Lunch box: Face to face: determine documentation deadline!

Mobile phone Confirm deadline by e-mail

Documentation deadline not met: 1. Contact the responsible to get an explanation

2. Communicate consequences clearly with all contacts


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Blocking issue: Module is not testable

Blue prints: Adjust test schedule and risks

2nd project (last resort) Mobile phone:

Inform your contacts

Screw driver:

No other modules: Alternative tests Lunch box:

Risk areas: Dev can indicate them if asked.


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Blocking issue: Test environment NOK

Mobile phone:

Clearly communicate problems (as if it was a bug) and

consequenses

Lunch box:

Other environments you can use

Test analysis

Other tasks (assist dev)


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Blocking issue: Absence of the PM, PL

Lunch box: Together withTechnical Project Leader take the lead

Shepard not a dictator!

Mobile phone: Communication, communication, communication, certainly with

Technical Project Leader.

Blue prints: Guideline for deadlines, priorities and risks.


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Lunchbox and mobile phone:

Development and (future) helpdesk:

Share your experience

Listen and avoid unnecessary obstacles.

Project Manager/Project Leader (and Sales):

Agreements with customer BEFORE test analysis

Including testing, saves money!!!


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Blue prints:

Presentations: demo and courses Knowledge to make (and give) presentations

Manuals

A good test plan is a solid base

Flows

Define a flow for incident management for all roles

Define a production problem flow


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Blue prints:

How to spread the effort of the QA team:

Start small with test analysis

Closer to the deadline, more testers (execution)

Avoids a whole team is blocked from the start


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Ruler Mesuring quality of development?!

Calculate a Key Performance Indicator:

1) Determine bug severities:

Severity Description Points

Critical Crash, data loss, serious memory leak 4

Major Functionality doesnt work, no workaround 1,5

Minor Functionality doesnt work, workaround for customer 0,5

Trivial Cosmetic (e.g. typo) 0,25


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Ruler

2) Establish project complexity:

1 = Hard , 2 = Normal, 3 = Easy

3) Objective calculation for development quality:

KPI = ( Total bug points X Complexity )Number of development days

4) Grading system:

KPI Result

0 < KPI


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Intro



Tools


Blocking issues



Conclusion

Questions


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Improve professional skills

Self confidence, ownership of problems

Be assertive, bear in mind the users point of view, but

never undermine your co-workers!

Yes, we can!!!


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Intro



Tools


Blocking issues



Conclusion

Questions


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Above and Beyond the Call of Duty - Dries Baert

Documents

Transcript of Above and Beyond the Call of Duty - Dries Baert