Software testing does not equal random thoughts

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Question: If you would have only 3 questions to ask in order to find more information that will help you find the locker combination what would they be?

Demonstrating that software testing isn’t as random as it seems

This exercise is inspired from @jbtestpilot‘s(Jon Bach – Software Tester, Consultant – http://jonbox.wordpress.com) passion for playing with lockers to find their combinations and a locker I’ve found at my office, which by the way was use by someone to make a practical joke on one of our colleagues.

The exercise:

The story starts with my brother who had a not so pretty surprise at the end of a practice game with the town’s handball team in which he was playing when he was in high school. His teammates thought that it would be a lot of fun to tie his bicycle to a fence with a locker taken from another teammate who volunteered to give up his locker for the fun of story. Now image the expression of my brother’s face when he saw his bicycle tied to a fence with an unfamiliar/unknown locker!  :-)

The locker you have in your hands is the locker I am talking about and as you can see my brother didn’t managed to find the right combination and so he chose the easy way to unlock it.

Now your goal is to have fun while trying to figure out the combination lock.

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Testing Camp in Bucharest

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What is this all about?

TestingCamp is a project that I want to start here in Bucharest with the scope of bringing together passionate software testers and create an open environment in which to share experiences, ideas and thoughts with other people.

How will it be structured?

I see this project as a group of people getting together once a month (time period might vary), in different locations, to share their ideas and experiences about software testing or practice / learn new skills. The sharing will be done thru presentations, talks or exercises.

I the future I also see this as a good opportunity to bring special guests, people will a lot of experience and knowledge in software testing, or people that can easily serve as role models.

Who can participate?

There aren’t any requirements or special needs to participate in this meetings. Everyone with an open mind and desire to share, learn or practice new experiences can join.

How can you help? I have some ideas!

If you have any ideas or suggestions regarding this project don’t hesitate to contact me. If you want to take part in this project again you can contact me or leave a comment on this page.

Good, i like it! When and where do we meet?

Right now I’m working at organizing and defining the first steps of this project (gathering people, finding discussion topics, convince tester to share their experiences with others, etc). If you want to participate in this (either as a presenter or as a participant) please leave a comment or contact me.

Software Testing Brainiacs

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Do you know the famous british television show called Braniac? The one in which Richard Hammond and Jon Tickle verify whether common conceptions are true (such as whether it is possible to run over a pool of custard)?

I personally find it to be interesting and amusing in the same time because it is a show that gives you the possibility to learn some crazy new things while being entertained.

Now imagine something similar to this done for software testing! Ever thought about how to destroy software testing myths? At a simple search on Google you can find dozens of software testing myths that could be destroyed (or investigated) in a “show” very similar to this one.

In the same “show” we could test myths about certain products or features from different software products. Or we could just use it to as an opportunity to get together with our friends and people and have fun while learning (or destroying :) ) something new.

Have an idea on how to transform this in reality, or just want to be part of the team? then just leave me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

“I know it’s late but please help me out guys!” – #EWT17

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WeekendTesting“I know it’s late but please help me out guys!” – this is how it all starts:

Today I’ve attended for the first time an Europe WeekendTesting session. For EWT #17 we had to test a software compressor plugin that our “manager” asked us to throw an eye at for 1 hour and see if he and his band can use it in tonight’s concert.


If you’re wondering why did he waited for the last minute? Beats me, he only told us that his hardware compressor was broken and that he was in an urgent need of such a tool for his concert and this software compressor appeared to be a good choice given the circumstances.

To get things started:

I’ve installed the software given to us by our manager, loaded an *.wav file and   pressed the play button. Right after the song started playing I realized that I have no clue on how this software works and what does it suppose to do.

So I begin to search the Internet about the rocket and minihost software in order to learn more about them and noted down their websites. Then I wanted to learn more on software compressors and ended up on Wikipedia where I’ve found something about audio compressors, what they are and how they work. All this had taken me 15-20 min.

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