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Articles from Venkat's Blog on Software Testing

My quest towards Code Quality Metrics 2007-10-23 14:10:54   The term quality might mean different things to different people based on their context of operation and it’s tough to have universal definition for the same.My experiments with software development started over a decade ago & exploring the ways the helps to build & deliver good quality code.The quest towards Code Quality Metrics started with the above objectives. The discussion around Useful Code Quality Metrics at Linkedin started two months ago. I am excited over the response around the internet to this thread & there are some excellent articles around subject. Micheal Boltan has brought up interesting view points and also bloged about the same. Nigel Cheshire talks about Static Analysis metrics and expressed views on the right metrics Andrew Glover calls it as Code Quality’s singular metric In the recent past Agitar comes up with CRAP4J as a code quality metric by combining Cyclomatic Complexity and Code Coverage. In the process, we do use Static An ...

CRAP4J for Java Code Quality 2007-10-22 03:31:57 I have been talking about Code Quality through Static Analysis for a while here, here & here. The quality for any application development must begin from it’s gross roots and the Application Code is one of it’s starting point to begin with.Static Analysis techniques help us to identify some metrics over the application code base Cyclomatic Complexity Application Design & Dependency Metrics Exception Handling Infinite Loops Dead Code Performance Issues Programming Language guidelines & best practices in their context The above information will be useful and it’s easy to get the same via Test Framework with a single click. Code Coverage along with a bunch of unit tests is one widely used technique to help regression testing for the dev & test teams. Now it’s good to see that Agitar combines Code Coverage & Cyclomatic Complexity to derive risk metrics for Java Code Base. They call it as a code Change Risk Analyzer and Predictor (i.e. CRAP) fo ...

What Jar - Solution to NoClassDefFoundError 2007-10-22 00:48:12 As a Tester & Developer, it’s pretty common to see NoClassDefFoundError. It’s not that easy always to figureout the required jars for the application. Whatjar comes with a lot of search capabilities to identify and download the required jars. Whatjar is a high-performance, search engine written using Java and MySQL to index and search Java JAR contents. Its primary goal is to provide a tool to help the developer find the JAR file required when faced with a class not found exception. In addtion to act as searchable resource of open source java jars. Whatjar is free, there is no cost to upload a jar or to search our existing database of JARS. Share This ...

Non linear paths from Application Code 2007-10-04 04:49:58 The applications become complex as their code base increases. This has challenges for the testers to determine the nonlinear paths in the application. Most of the Static Analysis tools over the application code helps us to  identify the  cyclomatic complexity (nonlinear paths) at a method level. These might be helpful to validate those methods and to achieve good code coverage over the same. But the Code coverage at a Unit Level may not be a big help since most of the end user scenarios won’t run after unit level paths. These paths is an integration of the above unit level paths. Since the Testers focus on simulating the end user scenarios, it will be good to identify all the possible nonlinear paths around the application code base and capture the code coverage based on these paths. You might want to go through some discussion around this on Linkedin Answers In case you have similar experiences over white box testing drop me a mail at venkatreddyc@gmail.com Happy Test ...

Non linear paths from Application Code 2007-10-04 04:49:58 The applications become complex as their code base increases. This has challenges for the testers to determine the nonlinear paths in the application.Most of the Static Analysis tools over the application code helps us to identify the cyclomatic complexity (nonlinear paths) at a method level. These might be helpful to validate those methods and to achieve good code coverage over the same. But the Code coverage at a Unit Level may not be a big help since most of the end user scenarios won’t run after unit level paths. These paths is an integration of the above unit level paths. Since the Testers focus on simulating the end user scenarios, it will be good to identify all the possible nonlinear paths around the application code base and capture the code coverage based on these paths. You might want to go through some discussion around this on Linkedin Answers In case you have similar experiences over white box testing drop me a mail at venkatreddyc@gmail.com Happy Testing… ...

Software Testing - Is it a cost or an Investment for Stakeholders ? 2007-09-24 03:30:30 Software Testing is considered as a Cost for some Stakeholders & an Investment for others in their context of operation. It’s good to know the status in your context. I had this query in LinkedIn Answers & thought of sharing the good discussion to my blog readers. Do you consider Software Testing as an Investment or a Cost in your Context ? ...

Software Testing - Is it a cost or an Investment for Stakeholders ? 2007-09-24 03:30:30 Software Testing is considered as a Cost for some Stakeholders & an Investment for others in their context of operation. It’s good to know the status in your context. I had this query in LinkedIn Answers & thought of sharing the good discussion to my blog readers. Do you consider Software Testing as an Investment or a Cost in your Context ? Share This ...

Ability to identify the hot spots of release from Bug Database 2007-09-24 03:15:48 Bug Database for the products might have thousands of issues over a period of time against various builds and releases. Though these issues fixed over a period of time, it might be hard to derive meaningful metrics over the release. We need to support these releases over the production systems & it might be helpful to capture the hotspots / risk elements with the release. Most of the issues here to deal with the respective features, compatibility with other features / technologies & performance related issues. The usual metrics of number of issues against a module and their severity levels may not be of help always. How easy is it to derive the following from the Bug Database for a given release Identify the issues have originated from Requirements, Design & Implementation Identify the issues over their category (Functional, Performance, Security, Compatibility, Usability etc) Identify the issues along with their origin & category over the features rather than the mod ...

Ability to identify the hot spots of release from Bug Database 2007-09-24 03:15:48 Bug Database for the products might have thousands of issues over a period of time against various builds and releases. Though these issues fixed over a period of time, it might be hard to derive meaningful metrics over the release. We need to support these releases over the production systems & it might be helpful to capture the hot spots / risk elements with the release. Most of the issues here to deal with the respective features, compatibility with other features / technologies & performance related issues. The usual metrics of number of issues against a module and their severity levels may not be of help always. How easy is it to derive the following from the Bug Database for a given release Identify the issues have originated from Requirements, Design & Implementation Identify the issues over their category (Functional, Performance, Security, Compatibility, Usability etc) Identify the issues along with their origin & category over the features rather than the mod ...

The Life Cycle of a Bug - Different Stages in it. 2007-09-09 15:23:24 In this post, i will explore  different stages of the Bug from it’s inception to closer. The Bug has been found and logged into the Bug Tracking System. It’s my fourth post in the Bug Life Cycle series. The Bug has been found and logged into the Bug Tracking System. It will be treated as New Bug in the System. The Bug will be assigned to the concerned Developer for a Resolution. The developer looks in to the possibilities of the resoultion & takes a call on Resolution by fixing it or differing over the information provided. Tester validates the resolved issue in the build & checks for the regression scenarios over the fix. If the issue found fixed, then he choose to Close the issue else he / she will Re-open the same. The Cycle follows again for the re-opened issue till it get’s closed. It worth doing the following activities Capturing the required and re-usable info to the Bug Report at it’s each stage. Check for all the closed bugs ...

The Life Cycle of a Bug - Different Stages in it. 2007-09-09 15:23:24 In this post, i will explore different stages of the Bug from it’s inception to closer. The Bug has been found and logged into the Bug Tracking System. It’s my fourth post in the Bug Life Cycle series. The Bug has been found and logged into the Bug Tracking System. It will be treated as New Bug in the System. The Bug will be assigned to the concerned Developer for a Resolution. The developer looks in to the possibilities of the resolution & takes a call on Resolution by fixing it or differing over the information provided. Tester validates the resolved issue in the build & checks for the regression scenarios over the fix. If the issue found fixed, then he choose to Close the issue else he / she will Re-open the same. The Cycle follows again for the re-opened issue till it gets closed. It worth doing the following activities Capturing the required and re-usable info to the Bug Report at it’s each stage. Check for all the closed bugs of Severity 1 & 2 ...

Whitebox Testing - Is it really white ? 2007-09-06 16:04:57 The popular myths around Blackbox & Whitebox Testing are by it’s name. It’s black since we can’t see it (don’t have access to the code) & it’s white since you have access to all the code. But then, With in the code there are many black boxes inside and it’s tough to have access to that code base. We don’t have access to code of a language API. Most of the applications have been built on top of a API & assume that the API works fine Most of the application do integrate some third party tools over it’s API. We don’t have access to that code base. We don’t have access to the code of Compiler We don’t have access to code of rum time engine that executes our application code We don’t have access to the code of Operating System Services on top of which the application runs The list goes on and there are many black boxes in side our code too. We are just testing the code written for the application and it&rs ...

Whitebox Testing - Is it really white ? 2007-09-06 16:04:57 The popular myths around Blackbox & Whitebox Testing are by it’s name. It’s black since we can’t see it (don’t have access to the code) & it’s white since you have access to all the code. But then, With in the code there are many black boxes inside and it’s tough to have access to that code base. We don’t have access to code of a language API. Most of the applications have been built on top of a API & assume that the API works fine Most of the application do integrate some third party tools over it’s API. We don’t have access to that code base. We don’t have access to the code of Compiler We don’t have access to code of rum time engine that executes our application code We don’t have access to the code of Operating System Services on top of which the application runs The list goes on and there are many black boxes in side our code too. We are just testing the code written for the application and it&rs ...

Bug in the BSNL Portal 2007-08-10 07:36:27 Today, i have come across an interesting issue with BSNL Portal. I have been using this site for online billing and payments for about an year. Followed the usual steps and my objective is too see the bill and pay it online. To my surprise, the system says This error message ” Invalid object name ‘RECEIPT_MASTER’ “ is strange and there is no information for me on how do i proceed further. The application might be unable to get the specified object from the Database. In case if this happens on the last day of the payment, on line users are liable for late payment charges due to this issue. Users are familiar with the messages like, Unable to process the information as of now & please check back after some time. The error messages must be meaningful to the business users and we need to make sure that the technology related terms / phrases are not part of the same. Happy Testing… Powered by ScribeFire. ...

Bug in the BSNL Portal 2007-08-10 07:36:27 Today, i have come across an interesting issue with BSNL Portal. I have been using this site for online billing and payments for about an year. Followed the usual steps and my objective is too see the bill and pay it online. To my surprise, the system says This error message ” Invalid object name ‘RECEIPT_MASTER’ “ is strange and there is no information for me on how do i proceed further. The application might be unable to get the specified object from the Database. In case if this happens on the last day of the payment, on line users are liable for late payment charges due to this issue. Users are familiar with the messages like, Unable to process the information as of now & please check back after some time. The error messages must be meaningful to the business users and we need to make sure that the technology related terms / phrases are not part of the same. Happy Testing… Share This ...