Saturday 24 February 2018

The Lazy tester in me


The topic might not be new, I already heard, read and found a lot of information on google. But yesterday when I went to one of the team members running tests that were failing for our BA I realized that finding test data and information and using it while doing the tests is one of the key reasons why bugs are missed out in test cycles. Keeping all the boundary test data always handy is not something that you would see often and in other words is not even easy.

So when we were to test Cyrillic characters and accented text into our input fields, the process would begin with sending chat messages and emails to everyone asking where the data is stored, then open the appropriate file from a network drive, keep it open all the time while you are doing tests, copy paste in each field every time before you have to run some random [In plain word exploratory test].
I tried and I was tired filling it on 4 different screens at different times. Not to mention returning from every break, system restart or new day reminding yourself that the boundary test file has to be opened is such a pain.

Resolving this issue was not as difficult as I would have thought. I stumbled upon a Chrome extension [has a FF one too]. BugMagnet, I see it as a great help for any kind of boundary tests your product or web app demands. The extension comes with default configuration including texts, numbers, emails, web sites everything one would need to test the App against. BugMagnet kind of makes screen life so easier and I would just say very handy for Dev when doing integration tests even before they put the code in.

Not just that I managed to create a configuration file for the frequently used values that are needed to feed into our product when uploading new documents etc. A simple Json file with several texts and combinations, sometimes even frequently used logins and passwords. You can also have a configuration file customized for your product like All Document References should be tested against the following elements “Number”, “Text” , “4K plus text” etc etc. All titles should be tested with “Numbers , Email Addresses” so on and so.

Here are the steps in installing the Chrome Extension:
Add the Chrome / FF Extension Once install read the guide
You are now ready to right click on any field and test….

And yes when you use it, dont forget to use the Elisabeth Hendrickson Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet   and also Thank Gojko Adzic

What I would like to do next is take the BugMagnet Config File , use the Cheat sheet above and compile it with all the boundary tests needed on each of our products. Then get the extension a part of a simple SMS roll out so every tester just gets it by default instead of having to install each time.

Now you can call me Lazy ;)