Edition 1 - July 2014

Women Testers

Edition 1 - July 2014

Women Testers

Women Testers July 2014 - 02 -

Topic Author Page #

Editorial Jyothi Rangaiah 3

Welcome Notes from the Testing Community -- 4

Why Testing? Johanna Rothman 7

Stepping Into Your Learning Zone Alessandra Moreira 9

My BBST Experience - A letter from an introvert Bolette Stubbe Teglbjærg 12

Forget Mentors, Find a Sponsor Smita Mishra 15

Foundations of Ticket Writing Sara Tabor 18

26 Ways Testers can work with UX Designers Karen N. Johnson 20

Guest Post: The Mother of All Testers Mike Lyles 23

Editor: Jyothi Rangaiah

Review Panel/Helping Hands:● Carsten Feilberg● Jean Ann Harrison● Michael Larsen● Jayshree Rathod● Mike Lyles● Santhosh Tuppad● Alka Shinde● Alice @snipeyhead● Trisha Agarwal

© Copyright 2014. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.No part of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or inpart without the express written permission of the editor.Women Testers accepts no liability for the content of thispublication, or for the consequences of any actions taken onthe basis of the information provided.

Concept & Tech Partner: TestingCircus.com

Cover Page Design: Ajoy Kumar Singha

Feedback & Editorial Enquiries:jyothi@womentesters.com

What i

s wher

e?

www.WomenTesters.com

Out of the many questions that came our way, this was the commonest 'When there is nodearth of Software Testing related articles on blogs and other e-magazines why a newmagazine with a name like Women Testers is being started?'

To clarify, we are not representing the minority nor the majority. We exist because we believein sharing our learning's via this medium.

To make www.womentesters.com not another link rot, this editorial is also a call out to theGentlemen and Ladies of the Software Testing World who wish to volunteer and are willing tocontribute to the e-magazine in their unique way. One such contribution took it's shape in theform of this guest post “The Mother of All Testers” by Mike Lyles.

Our very first contributor Johanna Rothman has written an introductory article which is titledand asks the primordial question “Why Testing?” Johanna has explored and elaborated thesimilarities and differences in a developer – tester relation. And how to grow from being anormal tester to a magnificent tester.

The launch edition will showcase an article which in actual was a tweet with less than 140characters. We did find the need for that tweet to be expressed in more than 140 charactersand here it took shape as a full-fledged article and is presented to you by Bolette StubbeTeglbjærg “My BBST Experience - A letter from an introvert”.

Alessandra Moreira has shared with us her learning's about creating for ourselves a zone oflearning, every time we are tempted to otherwise fall back into a comfort/panic zone.“Stepping Into Your Learning Zone” delivers the message 'Learn, learn and learn to testbetter' echoing the words of James Marcus Bach.

Karen Johnson shares 26 handy tips on how testers’ can work with the UX designers and treatthis area of Software Testing in par with the other types of testing “From A to Z - 26 WaysTesters Can Work With UX Designers”, a reference manual to enhance and cater to the needsof enriching user experience.

Bug reports are a reflection of a tester. An article by Sara Tabor "Foundations ofTicket/Defect Writing" reflects upon how bug reports can be used as a constructive feedbackmechanism to amplify a project’s quality by naïve Software Testers’ and others who arewilling to take the plunge into the field of Software Testing.

The season of Software Testing conferences, like tennis matches is an all year round event.Bless the sponsor if you found one to help you get to go to that one conference that whichcould help you learn the world view of testing. We spoke to Pradeep Soundararajan about aninfluential software testing conference that which he had attended and this is what he had toconvey. "There are many conferences that helped me change. Toronto workshop andCAST2008 is the highlight". Thank you for sharing this with us Pradeep. An article by SmitaMishra conveys this message and is aptly titled "Forget the Mentor, Find a Sponsor".

Women Testers team welcomes you to read and share the launch edition of this quarterlySoftware Testing e-magazine. Special thanks to Testing Circus team for seeding the conceptand helping us with the first edition.

Thank you.Jyothi Rangaiah & Team.

Women Testers July 2014 - 03 -

From the Editor’s Desk ...

JEANANN HARRISONWelcome Women Testers Magazine to theTesting Community. As a woman, it will benice to be able to share experiencesuniquely to a woman tester with otherwomen testers. I gain inspiration by

learning from others' experiences and this magazine will be awonderful opportunity for me personally. I expect for womentesters to be able to share triumphs, tribulations, lessonslearned and have some fun along the way. This will be anexciting journey.

****************************************SANTHOSH TUPPAD shared this with usduring our early talks about the launch ofthis software testing e-magazine.While many people feel that thiscommunity was not required or they havequestions like "Why", "What", "How" etc. I

am here to welcome Women Testers from around the globe.It surely feels good to have your community without beingagainst anything else. It is like saying, I love snakes; and thatdoesn't mean I dislike spiders. I believe that, you got to dowhat you feel like doing and that's where you activate yourhappy hormones."Do great, write great, and live great". I thank everyone whoare responsible for growing this community and pushing thesoftware testing race forward.

****************************************ANNA ROYZMANIt is my sincere pleasure to welcome you toWomen Testers, the online magazine ofexemplary writing by distinguished womenof the testing world.

Seven years ago, when I got introduced to the community ofskilled testers through the peer workshops like STiFS(Software Testing in Financial Services) and conferences likeCAST, the thought of taking the stage to talk about myexperiences didn't cross my mind. I immersed myself inlearning from the thought leaders in software testing.Few years later, I found that I have something to contribute.That contribution was my own perspective as a tester, awoman, and a leader. We live in the exciting time when thesoftware testing is recognized as a profession and a careerchoice, and therefore the role of software testers and theskills that are needed to succeed in this job are beingredefined. We, the passionate testers, are building ourfuture together: through every voice, every experiencereport, and every opportunity to share our thoughts andideas with the like-minded people from all parts of the world.Software testing, perhaps, is benefiting from women’spresence more than any other professional field. It’s aknown fact, that diversity at the workplace fosters a morecreative and innovative environment: simply, because agroup of people with different qualifications, backgroundsand experiences will institute more effective problem-solving.A magazine, which is a tribute to professional womentesters, is certain to bring the excellence to the softwaretesting field. The accomplishments of the strong womentesters, their wise words, openness and professionalismspotlighted through the articles in this magazine, will inspirenew generations and bring together a community where thenew leaders are being bred.I certainly foresee that the readers of this magazine will feelmore empowered, inspired and determined to take chargeof their lives through learning from and celebratingachievements of women in testing, whose articles we willhave a pleasure to read in Women Testers magazine.

Notes from the Testing Community

Women Testers July 2014 - 04 -

****************************************DOROTHY GRAHAMWelcome to this new "meeting place" forwomen testers. I look forward to readingstories of testing journeys, hearing aboutunique situations or problems, and sharinginsights and ideas about our industry froma female perspective. And there are gender

differences in the workplace, not just in testing of course, andthey do affect our testing careers. I think women oftenstruggle with self-confidence (especially when faced withaggressive male "bluster") - maybe that's not politicallycorrect, but I fear it does happen. Yet women can and dobring qualities and characteristics that are proven to be betterfor business. Thanks and best wishes to those who havestarted this new magazine!

****************************************PARIMALA HARIPRASADI hear a lot about how women need to betreated equal to men - both in pay and therespect. Every time someone makes noiseabout women being unequal, I tell myself,“Oh No, Not Again”. Maura Penningtonsums it up well in this Forbes article,

“Women need the support of other women in the way that allhumans need the support of peers. What they do not need iscondescension. Obsessing over inequality eventuallyconvinces both sides that we are somehow unequal. It opensup discussion of all the ways we are different, all the wayswomen cannot be like men and vice versa. The end result ofsuch talk of segregation is that women are made to lookweaker. We are made to seem in need of assistance, that wecannot survive without federal laws or university regulationsmandating our parity with men.” Framing about womenwithout quoting the exact context has played another keyrole in downplaying women’s contributions for ages.Additionally, the humility and shyness of those umpteenwomen who hide their successes behind their familymembers ensure that many successful women don’t see thelight of the day.Wake up, Ladies. Don't wear a special chip on your shoulderfor being a woman and expect brownie points. Take on thechallenge of showing what skills you have got. Ourgrandmothers have done, our moms and sisters have. We toocan so our daughters and granddaughters draw inspirationfrom us.I am hoping that with Women Testers e-magazine, womencan look up to many women who are already tasting successand contentment in technology roles and make a consciousattempt to become better rather than cribbing about how theworld is still a male-dominated society.My Best to Women Testers Team!

****************************************LISA CRISPINThough the number of women in softwarehas declined dramatically since I firstworked as a programmer, I think morewomen gravitate to testing because itprovides opportunities to work withpeople as well as technology. As testers,

we can bring customers, developers and other rolestogether to decide the right things to build for the business,and how to build those things right. This requires courageand tact. I hope this community of women testers will helpus help our development teams and indeed our businessestake responsibility for building quality into softwareproducts and delivering value to customers frequently, in ahumane way and sustainable pace. Together we may findmore joy in our work!From Lisa Crispin - co-author with Janet Gregory, “AgileTesting: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams" &soon to be published: "Learning Journeys for the WholeTeam"

****************************************LALIT BHAMARECongratulations Women Testers for itsfirst issue. This reminds me of 'Women inTesting' special edition of Tea-time withTesters. It was great experience and I amglad to see that such ideas are reaching anew level. A special magazine dedicated to

women in testing sounds awesome idea.

****************************************TERI CHARLESA big welcome to Women TestersMagazine! I can’t wait to see what othertesters are doing, learning, andexperiencing. And getting to learn newthings from everyone is icing on the cake!

****************************************JANE FRASERCongratulations on the start of WomenTesters e-magazine.I'm looking forward to great articles aboutour successes and failures as womentesters. As one of my favorite JohnMaxwell quote goes: "The more you do,

the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. Themore you learn, the better you get." And the more we shareour learnings the better we will all get.

Women Testers July 2014 - 05 -

****************************************ALESSANDRA MOREIRAWith only 27% of all computer science jobsheld by women it is hard not to notice inmeetings, conferences and the workplacein general that we are vastlyunderrepresented. There could bedifferent reasons why the gap is so wide.

Some say it is due to age old bias against women about somejobs are perceived to be more ‘suitable’ for women andothers like IT (Information technology) are not. It could bedue to the lack of role models for young girls in the industry.Whatever the reason, there are initiatives beingspearheaded across our industry focused on breaking downstereotypes and encouraging girls and woman of all ages togive IT a go, if they so wish. Companies such as Google,programs such as Center for STEM Education for Girls andmagazines like Brainy Girls and Woman @ Nasa are allsupporting the cause and helping remove the invisiblebarriers that still exist. I’m excited that Software Testing hasjoined this group of influencers by launching Women inTesting, an e-magazine showcasing influential women in ourindustry and making more role models accessible for thosewomen out there starting out in IT, or thinking about it. I lookforward to see the impact this magazine will most certainlymake!

****************************************MICHAEL LARSENWhen I first started in the software testingworld over twenty years ago, I had some ofthe best mentors I could have asked for.They were patient, informative,adventurous, creative and had a sense of"daring do" that made me believe that

there were no limits. Today, I believe that we have a goldenopportunity to make a world that is rich with diversity,creative ideas and avenues for thinking that will take us toplaces that are unimaginable today. To borrow from JamesBurke, when he was asked who we need more of in the worldtoday, he answered with an emphatic "everyone!", and I for

one, agree wholeheartedly. The problems that we are seeingtoday will not be solved by the same modes of thinking thatcreated them (yes, I'm paraphrasing Einstein), and therefore,we need to "think differently", and thinking differentlymeans bringing varied thought, experiences, and histories tothe problems we face. To this end, I am proud to see WomenTesters take flight. To my mentors of two decades past;Marcia, Shannah, Monica and Beverly, I think this capturesthe spirit of what you did for me over two decades agobeautifully. Thank you for teaching me, and here's lookingforward to the next generation and what they will bring.

****************************************CARSTEN FEILBERGAnother testing magazine sees the light ofthe day, but not just yet-anothermagazine! This one is targeted towards allthe awesome female testers’ out-there, ofwhich I know I have been fortunate enoughto actually work with some already. In fact,

the best tester I ever had on a team was a woman - with somuch passion and mind-blowing skills I was left breathlessevery day. Well, almost every day. She could still need moreinspiration (never stop learning!) and that is what I hope thismagazine could help with.Also I welcome a new magazine for the opportunity for somany testers to share their story. Exercising telling your storyis especially important for testers, and this platform isbrilliant for that purpose.And I am going to look away from the fact that this is targetedtowards women and peek into it - I am certain there is goodstuff in it. And I trust that if you read this - so will you.Welcome!

****************************************Thank you all for this welcome and extending your supportvia your involvement in the form of volunteering to read andreview the articles, questions and suggestions shared withthe team of Women Testers.

Women Testers July 2014 - 06 -

When I meet testers, I often hear a specific word, “Why?” Ithought that might be a great word to use in this article.

Testers often ask, “Why does this feature work that way?” Or“Is this feature supposed to work that way?” I certainly askedthat question often when I was a tester. There were plenty oftimes when it was clear that no, the feature was notsupposed to work that way. If I couldn’t log in, if the systemcrashed, if the hash table was corrupted, I knew the featurewas broken. I didn’t have to ask.

But sometimes, I wasn’t sure if the feature was supposed towork that way, and I did ask. That’s what testers do. We askabout the system under test. We provide information aboutthat system, sometimes from our questions, and sometimesfrom our data.

We are curious souls. We are critical thinkers. We have toworry—are we being too critical of the people and not of theproduct?

I bet all of you have a story like mine. I was testing, findingproblems in a product, reporting them. The developer finallyburst into my office, yelling, “If you don’t like me, just say so!”

“Dave, I like you a lot. What’s the problem?”

“You keep reporting bugs against my code! You don’t like meanymore.”

Ah, I saw the problem. “Dave, it’s not you. It’s your code.”

“Well, of course it’s me. I wrote that code.”

“Maybe you were having a bad code-day?” I paused. “Youknow, normally you have people review your code. I neverasked. I just kept filing bug reports. Sorry. Did anyone everreview your code?”

Dave shook his head. “No. No one could make any time forme. They were all ‘too busy.’ And now you hate me.”

“Okay, hold on. I don’t hate you. Maybe instead of testingwith tests, I should do a code review with you. Would that bebetter?”

Dave thought for a few seconds, and said, “Well, you knowme. If I’ve got problems in one area, I probably have more.When I’m smart, I’m really smart. When I’m dumb, I’m a realdodo.”

“Dave, this is not about smart or dumb. This is really intricatecode. I had to think really hard to write the tests. I’m not surethe tests are right.”

“No, the tests are right.” He used his Eeyore voice.

Dave and I code-reviewed his code. We found a few moreproblems in the code, and we found a number of places hewas able to improve his code and fix some technical debtbefore it came back to bite him.

“Normal” testers don’t do this—or do they?

What do normal testers do?

I was a developer before I was a tester, so that colors myapproach to testing. It never occurred to me to do manualtesting first. I automated testing because I was a developer.Why do something manual when a machine could do it forme?

I used version control because machines did that for me.

And, yes, I used exploratory testing in an automated way—okay, a brute force, automated way—because the machinescould do it faster than I could. Was that smart? Maybe,maybe not. It was a reasonable use of my limited time.

I have found that there are as many reasonable approachesto testing as there are testers.

But here’s what I don’t find reasonable:

· People who claim they have the one right way to test

· People who claim they never ask why

· People who never vary their test approach

· People who never automate their testing

· …

Women Testers July 2014 - 07 -

Why Testing?

- Johanna Rothman

I could continue, but I bet you see the pattern. I don’t believein absolutes.

What is a tester’s role?

For many years, my mission as a tester was this:

Provide information about the system under testand report on it.

Anything that allowed me to do that was fine with me. Thatmission is broad, and allows for a wide variety of activities.

Does a developer need code review? I can do that. Do I thinkthat’s wise on a regular basis? Maybe not. Will it move thefeatures across the board, especially for an agile project? Yes.During a retrospective will I suggest that maybe I am not theright person to be providing code review? Yes. Not because Ibecome too close to the code, but because I need the time todevelop tests. Do you see the difference?

Now, do you think you should provide code review? That’s aquestion only you can answer. If you think the answer is yes,but you don’t have the technical skills, that’s something youcan fix. If you think the answer is no, why not?

Maybe you’re not interested in developing more technicalskills. That’s fair. I know some terrific testers who would notbe caught dead reading code.

However, I know many manual black box testers who don’tknow how to read code. They don’t know any scriptinglanguages. All they know how to do is execute test planssomeone else has written. They don’t have great criticalthinking skills. They don’t vary their test approach. They don’tautomate their testing.

Those people have a very limited career path. Why wouldthey want to be testers? I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me.

Why Women?

This edition highlights the contributions of many womentesters and managers. I have the honor of being one of thecontributors for this edition.

I just saw a statistic that says the number of female softwaredevelopers is up 87% since 2001(http://www.evansdata.com/press/viewRelease.php?pressID=209) to almost 20% of all US software developers. That’s arelief. Why?

Because when you have diverse teams, you can create greatproducts. Women and men, together, can create greatproducts. Even better, when you have diverse backgrounds,both of experience and culture, you can create great teams todo wonderful things. People on teams solve problemstogether. We can’t only have the women on teams be thetesters.

You might be a different kind of a tester than I was. You mightbe a different kind of a manager than I was. But, I bet you area curious, open-minded, critical thinker, who enjoysexploring the product under test in various ways.

I invite you to read the rest of this edition and consider,ponder, and explore. See what our colleagues, thesewonderful women have to say. I know that I will.

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” provides frank advice to your tough problems.She helps organizational leaders recognize potential risks, seize opportunities, and remove impediments.Johanna is the author of seven books and more than 300 articles. She writes two blogs on her web site,jrothman.com, as well as a blog on createadaptablelife.com. Please do read more of her writing includingher newsletter there.

Women Testers July 2014 - 08 -

The comfort zone is a mental place, or behavioural state ofsafety, within which there's little anxiety or stress. In thisanxiety-free zone there are few challenges. As a result,staying there for too long could lead to feelings of boredomand stagnation, both in one’s personal and professional lives.Stepping out of this zone provides an opportunity to learnand experience new things.

Comfort zones come in different sizes and shapes. Someprefer stepping out a little at a time, whereas others arehappy to plunge into the unknown with their eyes closed.Wherever you are on that scale; one thing is certain, sooneror later every one of us will need to step out - either bychoice or otherwise. Life has a way of throwing curveballswhen it’s least expected; we may be dragged out of ourcomfort zones kicking and screaming. Think about how manypeople lost their jobs during the last Global Financial Crisisand were sent flying out of their comfort zones.

In 1908 an experiment conducted with mice, psychologistsRobert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson found that stimulationup to a certain level increased performance, but anystimulation above that level causes performance todeteriorate. Based on that research the Yerkes-Dodson Lawemerged. This law depicts three major states a person can bein: disengagement, flow and frazzle. Those mental statesrelate directly to the comfort zone and to two additionalzones situated outside it:

- Comfort zone: a place, situation or mental statewhere one feels safe or at ease (and oftendisengaged).

- Learning (or courage) zone: area outside the comfortzone where there’s just enough stimulus and anxietyto drive productivity and flow.

- Panic (or terror) zone: area furthest away from thecomfort zone, after the learning zone, where there’stoo much stimulus and/or anxiety. In this zoneproductivity tends to decline.

As Daniel H. Pink, author of “Drive: The Surprising TruthAbout What Motivates Us” puts it: "If you’re toocomfortable, you’re not productive. And if you’re toouncomfortable, you’re not productive. Like Goldilocks, wecan’t be too hot or too cold." So it's important to learn andbe aware of that little zone between our comfort and paniczones.

I was happy to find out that there was another zone outsideof my comfort zone that wasn’t the panic zone! I used toresist getting out of my comfort zone because withoutknowing how to step into the learning zone and stayingthere, I quickly took on too much, and ended up crossing theline to the panic zone.

The size of each person’s learning zone depends on theindividual’s personality and comfort with change and theunknown. The good news is that the learning zone needsnot stay the same. It can expand the longer we stay there.With practice, it can become a sweet spot where magichappens!

For example, I remember when I first gave a lightning talk ata meet up (I am an introvert - being in the spotlight does notcome naturally to me). Agreeing to do the lightning talk tookme into my learning zone, almost all the way to the edge ofmy panic zone. Even agreeing to do it (weeks before theevent) felt uncomfortable to me. Then came time to preparefor the presentation. Every time I thought about starting Ihad butterflies in my stomach. Each of those times I wasstepping into my courage zone, and every time I decided towork and hang in there a little more, I felt it became (slightly)easier. That is the great thing about staying in the learningzone: it is just uncomfortable enough to push us to a placewhere we don't want to go, but not too much that we maybe overwhelmed.

Learning is at the core of a tester’s role and learning is aprocess that involves venturing out into the unknown,processing existing knowledge, asking (sometimesuncomfortable) questions. Accordingly, being comfortable

Women Testers July 2014 - 09 -

Stepping IntoYour Learning

Zone - Alessandra Moreira

with stepping out of our comfort zone can prove to be acrucial skill for testers who take their career seriously.

"In order to do your job you have to learn,learn, learn. Testing is learning. Testing is allabout learning. Testing is made of learning.It's just like being a snowman where snow islearning! That is what testing is all about.You can’t go wrong as a tester if you learn,learn, learn, learn."

James Bach - Testing in an AgileSoftware Development Team

To me, personally, this topic is current and relevant as I havehad to step into my own learning zone often in the past fewmonths. When the time came for me to present my firstlightning talk, I walked right into my panic zone, mostlybecause I was not prepared for that step, and didn’t have anypractice spending time in my learning zone. Last year I gaveanother lightning talk, this time at CAST 2013, which wasagain a panic moment. But with each one of thoseexperiences I learned something new, and a few weeks ago Istepped out of my comfort zone once more. I gave my firstfull track presentation at the Let’s Test conference. Thelessons I learned from previous experiences, as well as thetime I spent in my learning and panic zones helped me to bebetter prepared this time. Here are some things I learnedfrom these experiences that I hope can help you too, if youwant to spend more time in your learning zone:

1- Identify your motivation

As Leah Stockley mentioned in her candid blog post, we areall capable of changing, even our deeper traits. All we need isthe right motivation. Once you identify why you want to dosomething, it makes it easier to follow through, especiallywhen you have to step out into the unknown. Channel thatmotivation, remember it every time you are about to crossthe line into the panic zone. That should help you to staywithin the bounds of the learning zone a little longer.

2- Change the way you see anxiety

It is true that you can still learn without leaving your comfortzone, but the pace is often slower. I can quickly step into thepanic zone once I step out of my comfort zone, so I don't lookforward to that feeling of unease. But I have discovered thatif I want to learn fast, experience new things and expand mylearning zone, I shouldn’t see fear and anxiety as enemies. Insome circumstances these feelings can be a sign thatlearning, growth and excitement is ahead, if only we learnand practice to keep it to an optimum level.

3- Become more comfortable with failure

Let’s be honest, no one wants or likes to fail, but the harshreality is we all fail - at something, sometime. There is nopoint to avoid doing something based on the fear of failing.

That’s not to say that we shouldn't plan and prepare forsuccess, but being paralyzed by the fear of failure doesn’tmake sense. We can learn just as much from failure as fromsuccess - sometimes more. Sharing our failures and whatwe've learned from them, can be a powerful tool to help usovercome fear, with the added benefit that others can learnfrom us and not make the same mistakes.

4- Identify your learning style

It can be easier to venture out into the learning zone if youknow your learning style and use that knowledge to adaptyour experiences to it. There are several learning stylemodels. Find one you most identify with and next time youstep out, try to incorporate your learning style. Here are twopopular learning models:

- David Kolb's Experimental Learning theory outlinestwo related approaches to grasp experience:Concrete and Abstract Experience and twoapproaches to transform experiences: ReflectiveObservation and Active Experimentation.

- Neil Flamming's VAK Model categorizes learningstyles as: visual, auditory, reading-writing andkinesthetic learners.

5- Be proactive about learning

Having to step out of your comfort zone under pressure isnot an ideal situation. Take control of your learning. Picksomething you have a passion for, the right motivation to do,and are just uncomfortable enough to want to do somethingto learn more about it.

6- Don't do it alone

I have a tendency to try new things on my own. It is not onlysafer that way, but if I fail, no one will see it or know about it.The problem is doing things solo can make it more difficult tofollow through. When push comes to shove, if we don’t haveanyone to be accountable to (or cheer us on), it is easier togive up. In my experience, having a coach is a great way tohave someone support and guide you as you travel throughunchartered waters. Coaches can give you the rightcombination of encouragement, challenge andaccountability to help you make the best of your time in thelearning zone.

Getting used to the feeling of productive discomfort is anacquired taste. It will take practice and perseverance to getthere. If you want to accelerate your learning, be productive,and live outside of the coziness of your comfort zone youmay need to make a conscious decision to spend more timein your learning zone. If you do so, it’s possible the next timelife throws you a curveball, you may be better prepared tocope with it as your learning zone gets broader. And you maybecome more comfortable outside your comfort zone byspending more time in your learning zone.

Women Testers July 2014 - 10 -

Alessandra Moreira is a student and an advocate for the context-driven(CD) school of testing. Alestarted testing in 2000 in Sydney, Australia and since has worked in diverse industries and a variety ofroles. Ale’s experience working as a CD tester in highly scripted environments has given her a passionto awaken the potential in testers. Ale works on projects such as Weekend Testing ANZ where, as theorganizer and facilitator, she has the opportunity to help and empower other testers in their ownjourney. Ale currently lives and works in Miami FL, blogs at http://roadlesstested.com/and is @testchickon Twitter.

Women Testers July 2014 - 11 -

Dear Ellen, (fictional character who has signed up for theBBST Foundations Course)

I am writing to you in order to share my experiences with theBBST Foundations course. There are quite a few other blogposts and recent articles on this topic, but I'd like tocontribute with another dimension to what has already beensaid.

This other dimension – or other story, you might say – is oneabout how this course was an immensely tough learningprocess for me personally. At times, I felt despair, alone andinsecure. Thankfully, a small group of other testers helpedme to get through, and just as they helped me, I hope thisletter will help you.

The BBST Foundations is a great course. It's a living hell aswell. This dualism seems to permeate the narratives aboutthis course; mine as well as others. I find it quite interestingthat people tell me “it’s the best course I ever took” and inthe same sentence “it’s four weeks in hell”. Can it be both?What is going on here?

There are several reasons why I personally found the coursevaluable and a real eye-opener. Firstly, it has helped me toget rid of a general test-lingo such as “I’ll test this withexploratory testing to find all bugs in the software” which Iwas accustomed to use. Now I am more attentive towardswhy “I am searching for this information so I’ll evaluate thispiece of the software in this particular way”. A sharpenedconsciousness I might call it. Immediately after completingthe course I began asking more questions: Why are wetesting this? How do you want to test this? What is mostimportant here? What information are we looking for? Timespent on this assignment has to be taken from another –which one should not be done then?

I find myself having a better focus, as well as a more criticalview on how and why I test and a different way of talkingabout testing. Yet, in some ways the learning process hasbeen a real tough one.

I had help from people and other testers in my network andmy hope is that by exposing myself a bit here and sharing myBBST course experience with you I might be able to help youget through as well.

Warnings and expectations

The course had been recommended to me by experiencedand renowned testers, so prior to the course start, I hadpretty high expectations. I had been warned about howtough and difficult it was too, and how people had fallen illby taking the course! This combination of extremistinformation had me puzzled; how can a course that makesyou ill be the best in the world? I think I had an unconscious,hidden agenda about finding out what was going on here -this was going to be interesting for sure! It was more thaninteresting, and I really was taken by surprise at how thecourse turned out to be such a challenge for me.

Sharing everything

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock for the past 35 years butI’ve only recently discovered the archetypes introvert andextrovert. Reading about the introvert personality was arevelation to me. It was overwhelming, as I found it analmost exact description of my typical interaction with theouter world. I like to think before I speak, to buildrelationships one-on-one, I recharge by being alone, I do notlike to take risks – and I truly prefer to complete my workbefore I present it to others. So you might guess - this iswhere the problems started for me in the BBST Course.

Everything you do on the course site (Moodle) is availableand “public” to all the other participants and courseinstructors. Everybody could read and comment on all of mywork. My online status, my answers in the Exam Cram forum,my participation in the group work and comments wereavailable to everyone. I could almost physically feel how thischallenging process started with a large jerk - similar to thatjolt you have as the rollercoaster in a Tivoli starts.

Women Testers July 2014 - 12 -

My BBSTExperience

- A letter from an introvert- Bolette Stubbe Teglbjærg

I knew that what I put on the course site was neithercomplete nor necessarily “correct”, but it was the only wayto get feedback and guidance. This was the only way to findout if I was on the right track. That in itself was pretty hugefor me to take in. Of course, I wasn’t always on track. Ofcourse, I didn’t always pay attention to the call of thequestion. And of course, my work was criticized because ofthis. This was hard for me to accept especially in the first halfof the course. It got better, still not entirely easy, but I hadbecome hardier and positively tuned to receiving criticism formy work when we reached the final exam (where your workis graded by two other students and you then grade yourown work).

A few notes of frustration

The course site, based on Moodle, which you have tonavigate in during the entire course, is neither intuitive noreasy to gain an overview. I overlooked relevant informationand almost missed an assignment. I subscribed to the emailnotifications for the relevant forums and threads andreceived 450 mails during the 4 week course. Thesubscription service did not always work, so I didn’t even getall the updates. Obviously, this added to existing workloadsand created an element of confusion.

Could I have some more hours in my day, please?

I never had the feeling during this course that I had enoughtime to do a proper piece of work. The recommended hoursto spend on the course are 12-14 hours a week, but I wasspending 3 times as much and I felt horrible about it. I wasbeating myself up thinking I must be stupid or lazy, as I wasspending all my time and energy on this course, but it leadme to question my abilities.

Even though I was under such pressure, I still found thecourse materials and subjects extremely interesting. I wasalso impressed by the quality, composition and variation. Itmight not be completely up to date, but it’s still a solid mix ofindividual assignments, video lectures, quizzes, required andrecommended readings, group work, orientation exercisesand exam questions. That packs a punch! Each had a variantwhich challenged me in thinking and writing on differentlevels and in a multitude of ways. This was great. Whatwasn’t so great was that I felt as though I never had enoughtime in general, so I ran from one task to another constantly.There were always additional tasks coming up, and I mustadmit I was getting more and more exhausted as the courseprogressed.

To navigate in predictability and chaos

But it clearly did strike the right note. From the get-go Ifound the curriculum and associated deadlines clearlydefined. The program is well-defined and you are givenadequate information regarding which groups you have beenassigned to and which assignments and other challenges arecoming up. To that point, it was good. Just as I was settling

into the well-defined course, I fell into confusion as I tried tofathom the instructors’ feedback on our answers. It seemedto have little structure in regards to who gave feedback,which answers received feedback at all, and of whichreasoning was given. Was it given to poor answers, those ofhigh quality or the ones the instructors found interesting?

I found it chaotic not knowing if any feedback would be givento my answers of the assignments, and not knowing if it hadbeen found of acceptable quality. Was I on the right track orhad I missed some important aspects?

I guess I was a bit insecure about my answers, and it wasn’tuntil the end of the course that I could truly appreciate andvalue fellow students’ feedback. All students are expected toprovide peer reviews of the others student’s answers, but Isimply didn’t feel I knew them well enough to trust theiropinions on my work. When reading other students’ answersor peer reviews, I sometimes agreed with his or her criticismof it, only to read an instructor’s comment later on statingthe direct opposite.

One of the learning points for me in this process, were firstlythat: yes, things are sometimes chaotic and uncertain andthere is always value in feedback, because it will challengeyour thinking no matter what.

Group work and road rage

A significant part of the course is group work where youdepend on others to do a decent piece of work and takeresponsibility for meeting the deadlines. I came to think of itas similar to driving to work where I appreciate and hope thetraffic conditions are good and other road users behavereasonably. It’s just not always like that, and neither was itdoing group work in the BBST course.

Some people don’t conform to the rules, don’t understand orparticipate in the problem solving and don’t bring anythingconstructive to the table. Just like everyone else on thecourse I depended on the group work to be at least decentand that the deadlines were met.

So I was stressed out by the fact that some other participantsdidn’t do their part of the work and didn’t respond toquestions or requests. I was uncertain of what to do here (inthe traffic I might use the horn or gesticulate), was it alrightto ignore them and continue solo? Or should I have writtento the instructors and ask them how I should address theproblem? Or even hold a plenary discussion?

One of the arguments for accepting the time pressure andthe challenging group work is that “it reflects real life”. I justdon’t feel that way. If people are horrible drivers - or if mycolleagues don’t respond to emails, phone calls or don’tshow up at work - I consider this and I will let them know howthey are perceived. I prefer to conduct this face-to-face, or atleast one-to-one, but I didn’t find this possible on the course.I guess that’s why I ended up accepting crappy group work.

Women Testers July 2014 - 13 -

Back to the start and all the way through

So here I guess I should address the questions as to why oneshould even complete this course with all this complainingand symptoms of stress. The BBST course is not “just” anonline course, at least not to me. It has gradually achieved areputation and status as a test of manhood, a possibleentrance to a special club of testers and a community.

I realize now that from the very beginning, and all the waythrough the course, I had two coping strategies. These I’d liketo pass on to you.

1. Be open, honest and use your network

I was lucky to have been “warned” about the course fromseveral renowned testers so it was relatively easy for me toreach out to them and be open about how the workload andtime pressure was getting to me. And the support I receivedwas unbelievable, I am really grateful. They themselves hadbeen there, so they recognized and acknowledged the stresslevel I was at. This was both a relief and an encouragement (Iwas not alone!) and furthermore it led me to the secondcoping strategy:

2. Make fun of it all (use your sense of humor)

Humor as a coping mechanism shouldn’t be underestimated.When sharing an extreme pressure sometimes you just haveto look at each other - and laugh. There have been manyjokes about the damn “call of the question” and instructorshave been portrayed as cartoon characters (sorry, Markus).It was a way for me to distance myself from it all, take a deepbreath and go for another assignment or answer in the ExamCram forum.

One last piece of advice

One night I could not sleep as I was worked up over anassignment. I couldn’t find peace of mind, and my onlythought was that I wanted out of the course, I simply wantedto quit. Immediately. Right Now. My husband talked me intopersevering, and at the same time I couldn’t come to termswith going “public” by saying that I didn’t have it in me tocomplete the course. So I stayed, I ‘hung in there’.

A learning point from this is that next time I will be moreopen about the reflections on leaving the course if thepressure becomes too much for me. Self-flagellation maybe,but I will have that chance in the Bug Advocacy Course I’vesigned up for this coming winter.

So, dear Ellen, I hope I haven’t frightened you or discouragedyou in any way by telling you my story. At least I didn’t intendto. On the contrary I wanted to tell you that you will learn agreat deal from taking the course and not only things relatedto testing. For me it was a learning experience on reachingout, being open, it was also about accepting insecurity, fearand uncertainty.

I know more now about Information Objectives andMissions, floating-point numbers and Oracles, but thelearning process was tough and I don’t think I was capable ofdoing my best. That’s not always possible, maybe there’s notenough time to be thoughtful and creative in all instances.But isn’t that also a valuable learning experience.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Bolette

PS. I’m @teglbjaerg on Twitter if you need support andencouragement from a likeminded searcher

Bolette Stubbe Teglbjærg is a tester from Copenhagen, Denmark. Combining her passion for peopleand software (she did two degrees: Master in Computer Science and Master in Educational Theory), theworld of Testing beckoned.Bolette has been working in software development since 2001 and testing since 2007. Having recentlydiscovered Context-Driven Testing, Bolette is interested in promoting testing as an independent profes-sion and discipline. She has recently signed a contract with “House of Test” and will start as a TestConsultant from September 2014. She blogs about testing (in Danish) with Carsten Feilberg athttp://testrefleksion.blogspot.dk/

Women Testers July 2014 - 14 -

I know this heading sounds familiar. Sylvia Ann Hewlettwrote a book with this name – Forget a Mentor, Find asponsor. I really liked the idea and title and since I wasplanning to write on fast tracking our testing careers, I toldmyself – I could just get more efficient by reusing what’salready created to highlight my message instead ofreinventing the wheel again. (That’s the easiest way to feelguilty free of choosing a catchy phrase created by other)

A widely travelled lady in my network bought this to mynotice that any conference she went to, she would alwayssee a huge line in front of men’s room but there was never aline before the women’s room. And that thought sparked meto notice a series of observations – why just attendees, therewere so few women speakers. At our own work place we hadso few women managers even when we had a goodpercentage of women in the fresher’s batch. And this isdisturbing.

It’s depressing to see how steep the decline in the number ofwomen is as we go up the ladder. Every year we see moredrop outs. If we could find what all is causing women to giveup on their career at any stage –we could probably worktowards supporting women on these issues and trying to fixthem collaboratively. Being a taboo topic, it is difficult tomake women come out and talk about it. Since it is easy tothink that if a woman is talking about being a woman at work– it means – they are either asking for favors or arecomplaining. When neither is the basic idea. The focal pointis having more women at work. And not talking about it is nothelping anyone. The idea is not to portray women as needinghelp more than men. The idea is however, to want to providewomen with whatever support and safety net andencouragement they need, to face the challenges. Can wehelp them to learn- to stick it out when the going gets harderand not just walk away.

NOTE : We can’t mistake this phenomenon to be local andassume that it’s something to do with the Asian culture that

I see so less women at work. Mind you - I work with globalwork force scattered all over the globe.

On getting deeper into, I could see few glaring issues, whichcould be really managed well with some help. One of themwas mentorship and then mentorship versus sponsorship.First challenge is to make women understand they needhelp and they can get it. And they deserve help. Initially, Ididn’t see much happening in the area but now I see lot ofcollaboration from both men and women on giving andreceiving ends of mentorship, as individuals and communityforums too. This is a very refreshing change but it has its ownlimitations too.

Let me stop here for a moment. Women need mentoring -mentorship does help women a lot in ways one can’t imagine– simplest one being – knowing you are a part of acommunity who wants to grow together and in turn justbeing a role model for another woman can be a veryencouraging and satisfying feeling. But I notice that womenseek lots of mentors but don’t focus as much on sponsors.This needs to go hand in hand. They should seek mentorshipand learn from the mentors but they need to step up andlook for those powerful decision makers whose support canactually get them more help and support, in order toachieve their goals. Sometimes mentoring is not enough;getting access to all the right resources in time becomes thekey to success.

One needs to engage with the key people at work.Depending on the kind of sponsorship you may be lookingfor, these could be - People who matter in board rooms,People whose decisions are honored in the company orPeople who are visionary or subject matter expert or somepeer working at another location. Sponsorship doesn’t meanmoney. It means opportunities. It could be opportunity forone to showcase their abilities. Opportunity to get that onechance that could tell the world how special you are. Itcould come in any form – a key assignment , a key posting, aconference, a training, a promotion, an appreciation, a public

Women Testers July 2014 - 15 -

ForgetMentors,

Find a Sponsor - Smita Mishra

acknowledgement of abilities – could be anything includingmoney.

And key people have so much to do all the time. One can’texpect them to be interested in your career growthexclusively at any point. Even getting noticed seems luxurysometimes. So, what can you do? Unlike, the relationshipbetween you and your mentor – which is uni-directional takeonly relationship, the relationship between you and yoursponsor has to be bi-directional give and take one. Find outwhat all really matters to the sponsor because unless itmatters to her/him, it’s difficult to get their attention. Thenfind out where all you can help and then engage with thesponsor on those areas. You should consider to first takingthe sponsor’s interest in account and that should help youwin what you need.

Another aspect I noticed is women don’t invest in their skillup-gradations through trainings. My personal observation (Imean no bias or offence) for population at large is that- Mentreat their career differently and with more respect. Most ofthe women look at their work as something they do to justearn money and are so caught up in the daily fight to managetheir work and home they forget to plan for their future atwork. Men are meanwhile focused on learning andeventually get ahead. No one interviews a candidate to hirethem for their gender. People want talent – most of thetimes, it’s not a bias against women that’s stopping themfrom being in the board of director of organizations but a lackof talent and attitude. How many times would you hear awoman talk about becoming a CEO eventually? Or workingtowards a new role and going through trainings, conferencesand networking sessions to learn more.

This aspect should not be taken lightly. This is one of thosekey areas where we could improve on our own and getprepared for a better work life. This alone can preparewomen to stand up against biases. One can’t expect to getpromoted to a higher position for which multiple folks arecontesting – men or women unless they are the best suitedin all required ways.

It is apparent that - Talent can be enhanced/improved andshined by appropriate planning.

However, there are many other such areas, which can’t bechanged as quickly. Aspects which are inherited throughone’s culture, aspects which could be non-progressive innature but could give a sense of belongingness.

“Attitude” is one such area that we could do better.Different cultures teach women to behave differently, thinkdifferently. More cultures are patriarch on the planet thanneutral. This gives women a feeling of being less since thevery beginning and directs them to think in ways which aredetrimental in the long run. Independent thinking and abilityto decide for one’s own self is very important. It is importantto be able to say one is proud and happy of their own

achievements. One should be able to freely expressthemselves.

Lean In is an organization for women, that asks women –what would you do if you had nothing to fear. Variousaspects of attitude need scraping to bring out your true self.Could we unapologetically accept our abilities, takecompliments and be assertive in our style of working? We aretrained to be self-limiting and that gets in our way to achievemore (fighting patriarch society thoughts and principles).Can we accept ourselves as we are and face the world withno guilt and feeling of being less? Enjoy with the team, be apart of the team. Learn with them. And grow with them.

There is a certain part that other men, women, families andsociety in general can play in supporting growth of women.Those can be listed and assisted with. We need to learn onhow we can work around to get that support and how asupportive family does make an impact on ones growth inlife. A family is one’s biggest and most demanding andunreasonable client. At the same time it’s the one you thriveon for bigger successes and happiness in life. So you needthem but you need them to be supportive. Learn to supporteach one in the family in what they are doing. Apply thescience we learnt while building sponsorship for ourselves.We can win their confidence by showing our passion andabilities and sharing responsibilities too. The more werespect each other, the more we get back.

With all these taken care of we sure can see more upcomingwomen stars in every field. The process has begun, resultscan be shortly seen but scale can be improved drastically.

My message to the readers - With all this said here, at theend of the day – one will still face challenges and will havelow times. Sometimes things won’t work. And won’t workout for a longer duration than one can really handle. But oneneeds to just hang on. Time takes care of many problemsthat we can’t solve. The key is to ‘KEEP HANGING IN THERE”.Look for any and all support you can get from any direction.Stop fearing. Just go out and find your solution. TAKECHARGE - simply, because it’s YOUR problem. DO NOT GIVEUP OR GIVE IN – EVER.

If this article motivates you to invest in yourself – pleaseattend conferences happening near you.

Women Testers July 2014 - 16 -

Smita Mishra is the founder and chief consultant at QAzone Infosystems, which is a pure-play softwaretesting organization. She is a first generation Entrepreneur and is a Test professional who has spent over12 years practicing testing and leading test efforts of varying sizes, cutting across all key domains andtechnologies. In her current role, she is involved in creating test teams, managing testing for softwarecompanies, leading the overall test strategy for them. She supports her customers in identifying the riskstheir applications are carrying and / or passing on further to their end customers, through carefullycrafted skills of software testing. She is also engaging constantly with different forums to assist growthfor women in her field and otherwise too.She can be found on Twitter at @smita_qazone. She is beginning to write blogs (not always testing onesthough) that can be read at (http://wordpress.smitamishrablog.com)LinkedIn Profile : http://www.linkedin.com/in/smitapmishra

Women Testers July 2014 - 17 -

For web development test engineers, one of the mostcommon tasks is lowly defect ticket creation. Each ticket is avaluable nugget of feedback provided to the developmentteam, but the caveat is that it is provided at the end of aproject. Nerves become frazzled while timelines get tighter.

Key Ticket Concepts

A vital requirement for each ticket is that it is clear, concise,and distilled as much as possible. I try my best to use anediting eye with my ticket, knowing that the developer maylook at hundreds of tickets. I highly recommend using a toollike Hemingway for a few tickets, which dissects the textreadability levels. When I write a ticket, I try to keep thenon-technical language at an 8th grade reading level - thisdistils the information to the developer diagnosing the issue.

While working on each ticket, I do my best to give feedbackin a neutral manner. It may seem obvious to not includenegative commentary in each ticket, but I also try my best tonot include positive commentary (smiley faces and similar).Both can cause strife and imbalance on the developmentteam - a developer dealing with a difficult ticket may feelslighted when another developer receives a positivecomment. Using neutral language helps a developer simplydiagnose an issue without emotion.

Additionally, being careful of language that presumes is onelesson I learned as well. It was pointed out to me that thesmall word “should” added to a behavior expectation I neverthought would irk a developer. For example, “ExpectedBehavior: The site should include a favicon.” addspresumption with the word ‘should’. It never occurred to me,this simple word, would rankle a developer. Instead, it’sbetter to simply provide straightforward language:“Expected Behavior: the style guide shows a favicon is addedto the site.”. It also references a precise location in thedocumentation that defines a defect.

Constructing a Ticket

One thing that I believe helps the developer quickly diagnosea defect is a very clear title: “Global - Favicon Missing fromSite”. The location ‘Global’ helps define its greater location(or, for example, “Careers”). For the title of the headlineitself, I try use MLA(Modern Language Association) Styleheadline casing, and try my best to keep it as short aspossible. I’m dorkily pleased if I can get it under 60characters. If the defect only occurs in one environment, Idisplay an abbreviated version before the location: “[IE7]Global - Favicon Missing from Site”. More information isprovided in the ticket of the specific detail, but theabbreviated environment also helps the developer eliminatepossible issues.

Within the body of the ticket, I provide an Issue Description,an Expected Behavior description, affected URL(s), anEnvironment reference, and a screenshot or short video. Ifthe defect is triggered by a process more than two steps(generally a UI issue not related to CSS), I will also provideSteps to Reproduce.

The Issue Description is a short sentence or two describing anissue, and its converse, the Expected Behavior, notates whatis defined as being necessary to the project. These seemobvious, but it is imperative to be clear for the developer’ssake. If a developer sends back the ticket for clarification,they have taken the time to open it, read it, attempt tounderstand it, potentially switch their train of thought, butthen send it back for clarification. Which means thedeveloper has wasted time simply comprehending theproblem - which I will have to clarify anyway. For me, mypersonal acceptable rate of clarification is 1-3% of ticketswritten may need further information.

Environment references are essential for the developer.Providing a simple ‘Google Chrome’ isn’t enough - I also amsure to provide the operating system, as well as the versionnumber. For example, today I’m using the Chrome version“Mac OSX 10.8.5, Chrome 35.0.1916.114”. It’s essential for

Women Testers July 2014 - 18 -

Foundationsof TicketWriting - Sara Tabor

the developer (and is one of the first reasons the developerrequests information from the tester), but there are manytimes defects that only occur in specific environments.

The screenshot (or video, if appropriate) gives a developer avisual cue of the defect. There are many tools that can gatherscreenshots, but I use the simplest method ofCommand+Shift+4 on my Mac computer. Research methodsthat work best, and the developer will be appreciative andwill be able to comprehend the ticket even faster.

I personally do not include Steps to Reproduce if it is a simpleCSS issue, or one that can be quickly understood whenlanding on the page - if there is a button that has an incorrectcolor, or if a login form is not present on the page. Otherwise,the Steps to Reproduce are the final chance for thedeveloper to understand the problem. I try to make themdetailed and almost nauseatingly step-by-step, so thatnothing is missed.

But You Test, And You Might Know Some/Most/All of ThisTopic

Well, I’m really pleased. This makes development easier foreveryone, and you’re able to give iterative feedback in amore constructive manner. Perhaps you’ve taken thistemplate and tweak it to your own for your group’s projects- this is definitely just the basics of a ticket.

When I first started with testing, I learned a bit of this from afantastic tester, and the rest was picked up along the way.I’m hoping this goes out to someone just starting out, ormaking the leap to Quality Assurance from another careerpath. I also find it helpful for trusted folks who aren’t testersthat contribute to a project provide feedback to thedevelopment team. I think that providing clear feedbackthroughout any project will amplify your project’s quality,and the basics gets your team started on the right track.

Women Testers July 2014 - 19 -

Sara Tabor is a NYC-based Director of Quality Assurance for Noise, a marketing and analytics agencyfocused on the millennial market. She has been testing for 6+ years, having prior worked in qualityassurance at The Nerdery and Magenic. Her focus is manual testing, with additional background inauditing, accessibility testing, and localization testing, and works to foster quality assurance standardsthroughout the agency development experience. When not breaking code, she can be found playinghockey, waterskiing, knitting, or unhooking her cat's claws from her clothing.

The team needs to build a product. The team readilyrecognizes that testers need to work with the developers butthe same team often doesn’t consider that the testers needto work with the UX staff. Often the UX staff is tucked awayin a different part of the office, working with multiple teamsand yet, rarely working directly with the testers. Why? Howcan testers review a product without a good understandingof the design? Testers need closer access to UX designers. UXdesigners would benefit from working directly with thetesters. Following are 26 ways a tester can work more closelywith UX designers – from A to Z.

Accessibility TestingAccessibility testing is a growing need as more websites andapps are becoming ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act)compliant. While ADA compliance can be included on thedesign, it is only through testing that compliance can bechecked. In addition to “checklist” testing, the W3C(WorldWide Web Consortium) has an accessibility guide whichmentions the concept of using a persona with disabilitieswhich inspires a more holistic way to test for accessibilitythan testing solely with a checklist. Offer to work with yourUX designer on the persona and execute testing through adifferent perspective.

BrowsersAs designers layout web pages, they might not be aware ofthe nuances of page rendering from browser to browser andthis is an opportunity for testers to share their experience atthe concept phase to ward off issues, as well as to offeraccess to testing during development.

Be fluent in browser settings and coach your UX designerswhen they introduce ideas that require specific browsersettings or when they make browser assumptions. Browserassumptions - meaning the designer is assuming users areusing Chrome with cookies enabled but you know from

watching browser stats that your user audience is different –and may prefer Firefox with privacy settings turned on. Infact, you could be reviewing browser stats on an intermittentbasis with your designer to make sure you are both aware ofthe production reality of your site usage.

ContentThe expression “content is king” may bring to mind the starkreality that many websites and mobile apps are free but themoney is made in charging customers for access to content.While website and app designers are focused on the end userexperience, it is in the testing of permission and user rolesthat we can ensure who can access what (and for that matter– when).

A second well used expression: “content is everywhere”refers to the separation of content and the form being usedto display content. Think mobile device versus tablet versuswebsite; think about your site’s content and whether thatcontent is ready to render as it should based on the viewingdevice and layout. Designers and writers can “tag” contentbut ultimately, it is in the testing to see how a site or appcomes together (or not.)

DataMy data, your data, whose data? What data can you see?What can you access? Like content, data is what makes awebsite or app really matter to the user. Screen mockupsoften show personal information but without test data oroccasional production spot checks, how do you know whatdata is visible and to whom?Testers can check how a designlooks when there is more data for a user than small sampledata.

Error HandlingWhile “works as designed” scenarios may be more fun todesign, UX designers (like developers) need to think about

Women Testers July 2014 - 20 -

26 WaysTesters can

- Karen N. Johnson

From A to Z

work with UX Designers

error handling situations that may arise and how thoseconditions will be handled and with what messages. Haveyou ever used a graceful application only to face a crypticerror message? Testers can offer to preview error messagesand to test software such that error conditions are evokedand messages are checked.

FormsSo many forms! From e-commerce shopping carts and m-commerce payments, the most essential transaction onmany websites and apps revolve around forms and finance.The experience might be well designed but someone has tomake sure the financial aspects and the forms of the site orapp work and work well.

GesturesWebsites and apps need to function well in addition to thelook and feel. Learn what gestures are available and offer totest gestures in collaborations with the team’s designer.There may be new gestures or device specific gestures tolearn and test with.

HackerWith security problems being displayed on the front of thenews, everyone on a software development team needs tothink like a hacker. Be aware of security flaws and help guideyour UX designers to be mindful of potential security issues.It might not be possible (or necessary) to become a securityexpert but you can learn some security risks and test andadvise your designer (and the team).

InstallationInstallation testing is back in the forefront of concerns withmobile and tablet apps. Upgrading one app or many apps atthe same time, as well as testing an upgrade to the operatingsystem is needed. Work with UX designers to identifymoments during installation for messages to users and likeerror messages, offer to preview the conditions andmessages.

Jail Broken DevicesClean and pristine devices might be the ideal used duringdesign but most users cell phones are jail broken or rootedand contain a multitude of apps. Testing on a more realisticdevice is helpful. Perhaps BYOD can help you achieve realistictesting? Help your UX designer by offering BYOD sessions fortesting. (BYOD is acronym for Bring Your Own Device.)

KeyboardIf you can navigate your site with just a keyboard – and notthe use of a mouse, your site is ADA compliant (that is onlyone checkpoint). Offer to test for ADA compliance together.

LocalizationIs your site or app suitable for international use? Do you testwith international keyboards? Does content need to be

adapted for global usage? Co-ordinate with your designer toaddress multi-lingual checks and other localizationcheckpoints.

Multi-Device ExperienceThe multi-device experience promised by Apple computer ‘sTV ads shows a person moving from home to office, to thelocal coffee shop and back again but data synchronization,Wi-Fi access and retrieving information from the cloud is justa promise without testing. A UX designer can dream anddesign but testers can road test concepts such as datasynchronization across multiple devices.

NavigationIn design, the flow through a shopping e-commerceexperience, an e-learning system or even the login process isoften designed with the “happy path” in mind and while it isimportant to think of the “typical” path, it is the tester on theteam that can highlight an alternate path or problem workflow that also needs to be designed.

Open Lab TimeAs the team’s tester you might have access to multiplecomputers and devices, you can offer to your UX designeropen lab times for them to come and use software forthemselves.

PersonalizationIt is easy to think about personalization through the mentallens of a single user but what happens to web pages like MyAccount and My Order History when the user is a longtimecustomer with pages and pages of history? A tester withaccess to the database can build account history and reviewweb pages with a designer to do a sanity check of howpersonalization looks with a variety of interesting past ordersand deep order history.

Quirky scenariosUX designers may focus on more typical user scenarios but asthe team’s tester, you may be able to envision more gnarlyor quirky scenarios. Sharing your ideas early on about twistsin typical usage paths helps designers plan for the lessexpected scenarios.

Responsive Web DesignRWD – responsive web design – designing and building in theability to resize, pan, and scroll all while auto-detecting theway a device is being held or rotated and having that instantfluid presentation takes planning and testing. Work with yourUX designer to test on an array of devices to ensure a smoothuser experience.

SEOSearch engine optimization and the continual change insearch order ranking is an ongoing “art” in the quest forcompanies and their websites and apps to be “findable.”

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From glass box testing of the HTML to black box testing ofsearch results, testers can help UX designers with SEOtesting. (And while testers might not be the people to set theterms or plan the marketing strategies, testers can help testwith canonical URLs and search testing.

Target UsersMarketing efforts often rely on A/B testing – providing twodifferent looks of a website to see which is more successful.UX designers design those different layouts and while testingthe success of the marketing efforts is a different form oftesting, checkpoints to make sure workflows functionsmoothly regardless of which entry point (or decision point)is used, is something testers can coordinate with UXdesigners.

UsabilityOffer to help host and attend UAT sessions your UX designermay host. Once you have a chance to see the softwarethrough the user’s perspective, your own testing approachmay change. Additionally you can offer to help host any useracceptance testing in the lab and if you are able to host suchan event, make a point to observe how users interact withthe software.

VersionsVersion control and compatibility especially when webservices and APIs are in the background and being updatedat a variety of times and not always updated and released at

the same time. Coordinate with your UX designer to ensurecompatibility.

Web ServicesTesting what cannot be seen such as web services and APIs isa challenge for people who don’t know how to test what theycannot immediately and directly “see.” Testers can workmore closely with developers to provoke or stimulateservices that are disrupted or down to test challengescenarios that designs are dependent on.

XMLExtensible Markup Language defines precise formatting forinformation and while designers plan for data andinformation to be available, testers can test dependencies ondata. Testers can also help scan for broken tags and markupissues.

Y2K and other datesY is a reminder to test with sensitive dates and dateformatting that may otherwise “quietly” appear on webpages and confirmation emails.

Zip FilesBrowse to file, upload file, drag and drop file and other waysto navigate to files to include, attach and upload files is notthe most exciting part of a website but the end result isimportant to users. Zip files are not the only file types to testwith but compressed hefty zip files do provide a reminder toconsider boundary conditions.

Karen N. Johnson is a software test consultant. She is frequent speaker at conferences. Karen is acontributing author to the book, Beautiful Testing by O’Reilly publishers. She has published numerousarticles and blogs about her experiences with software testing. She is the co-founder of the WRESTworkshop, more information on WREST can be found at: http://www.wrestworkshop.com/Home.htmlVisit her website at: http://www.karennjohnson.com

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We live in a world where things that are precious to us arelabeled with a feminine title. Mother Earth. Mother Nature.People refer to their cars as "she". Why do we do this?Because there is something genuine, tender, caring, andspecial about the female aspect when it comes to our lives.

We are witnessing a change in the world we live in. Womenare taking more leadership positions in government,corporations, and within various other communities. Theright person is being selected for the positions, regardless ofwhether they are male or female.

Women have paved the way through the years for others tofollow and build upon. Imagine what life would be likewithout these influential females:

o Mother Teresa - she led a cause to theorphaned, sick, and dying among the poorestworldwide and became an inspiration to somany who followed in her servant leadership

o Diana, Princess of Wales - she chose not to justlive in royalty, but to lead many causes (such asacceptance of AIDS victims, and a campaignagainst land mines). She inspired the world withher life.

o Marie Curie - first woman to win a Nobel Prize intwo areas. She coined the term "radioactivity"and was one of the first to suggest radiation totreat cancer.

o Mary Kay Ash - she founded Mary KayCosmetics, and gave jobs to thousands ofwomen, along with the chance for each to earna "pink Cadillac" car to drive.

o Maya Angelou - during the writing of this article,Maya passed away. Of all the many great thingsshe did, one of her quotes that stood with me forso many years has been "People will forget whatyou said, people will forget what you did, butpeople will never forget how you made themfeel". Never forget this quote. Make itsomething you live by.

o Grace Hopper - how could we have a softwaretesting discussion related to women in testingwithout talking about this lady? This Navyadmiral was also a math genius and foundingmother of computer languages, which led to thedevelopment of COBOL. She is credited with theterm "debugging" One notable quote fromGrace was "The most important thing that I'veaccomplished, other than building the compiler,is training young people. They come to me, youknow, and say 'Do you think we can do this?' andI say 'Try it'. And I back them up. They need that.I keep track of them as they get older and I stirthem up at intervals so they don't forget to takechances." What an inspirational quote to live by.

In the testing profession today, being a test practitioner isnothing like years ago. The dynamic nature of the industry,combined with the exponential growth of new technologiesgives so many great, new, and interesting areas for thethinking tester. We are seeing the ratio of male to female inthe practice changing. And with this change comes a newgroup of women testers that are providing new insights andinputs to the testing community. I am encouraged by thearticles, presentations, and teachings of many of the womenin testing.

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The Mother ofAll Testers

- Mike Lyles

Guest Post

 My challenge to the community is this: let's bring on testerswho want to change the world. Let's encourage them toexpand and help others grow along the way. Let's get morewomen testers in our communities, and let's encouragethem to be seen and heard and to lead major changes as weface the future. We have no idea what the next 10 years willbring us. In the 1980's, we had not even heard about theinternet or mobile phones in everyone's pocket. Now these

two things are responsible for so many testing effortsconducted today.

Congratulations to Women Testers magazine and TestingCircus on this effort. I look forward to the many articles thatwill rise up from writers around the globe. You have mysupport and following!

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Mike Lyles is a Sr. QA Architect with over 21 years of IT experience. He has led various aspects oftesting: functional testing, Test Environments, SCM, Test Data Management, Performance Testing, TestAutomation, and Service Virtualization. In his current role, he is responsible for defining and imple-menting tools, processes, and methodologies to support the QA teams. Mike is an international/keynotespeaker at multiple conferences, and is regularly published in testing publications. Mike’s passion tohelp others improve and grow in the field of testing, leadership, and management is his key motivation.He is available for mentoring and coaching on testing via Skype (mikewlyles). You can learn more aboutMike at http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewlyles, www.MikeWLyles.com or http://about.me/mikelyles

Calling for articlesOn

"Problem Solving" and "Cognitive Skills"for our next edition.

Hello Women Testers,

Send your articles tojyothi@womentesters.com

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