Testing Circus Vol5 Edition07 July 2014

Your Monthly Magazineon

Software Testing

www.TestingCircus.com

Interview with

Huib Schoots@HuibSchoots

Testing CircusVolume 5 - Edition 7 - July 2014

Hiring Testers/Testing Interview Special Edition

moolya sucks

we test fast and don’t know to makemore money from our customers.

we are like this only

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Volume 5 - Edition 7 - July 2014Testing Circus

www.TestingCircus.com July 2014 - 03 -

Topic Author Page #

Interview with Huib Schoots Jay Philips 6

Hiring Testers- The Hard Way on Purpose Erik Davis 12

Hiring Professional Testers Huib Schoots 14

A Different Look into Hiring Testers Prasad 18

A Needle in a Haystack? Richard Robinson 20

Hiring Testers for Crowdsourced Testing Laura Gaudino 28

Where are the Good Testers? Kapil Saxena 31

Tester Being Tested - Panda Remarks Pradeep Soundararajan 34

Book Worm’s Corner WoBo 35

A Fake Tester’s Diary, Part - 43 Fake Software Tester 37

Testers to Follow Testing Circus Team 39

Tips for Kick-Starting Mobile Security Testing Santhosh Tuppad 41

Launch Of Zephyr Release 4.6 ToolsJournal.com 43

QASymphony's Scalable Software Testing Tools ToolsJournal.com 45

Andreas Kuehlmann on Coverity-Kalistick Solution ToolsJournal.com 46

Testing Events Around the World TestEvents.com 49

Testing Circus TeamFounder & Editor – Ajoy Kumar SinghaTeam -� Srinivas Kadiyala� Dwarika Dhish Mishra� Pankaj Sharma� Bharati Singha� Chanderkant Saini� Jaijeet Pandey

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Edition Number : 46 (since September 2010)

*On the Cover Page - Huib Schoots

What i

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e?

Feedback please! [email protected]


What is the most important factor for a successful project? It is not the code, testtools, infrastructure, budget or execution methodology. It is the team members whobring success to a project. This month we have compiled articles on this veryimportant aspect of testing projects. Hiring and retaining good testers are the areasthat every organization should give importance to.

For testers who are looking for new jobs, it is important that they plan and preparefor the job search and interview process. Job search is not a part time activity. It isa full time job in itself. Knowing hiring processes help job search.

I hope the articles published in this edition will give some insights into hiring andtesting interview. Also don’t miss the interview with Huib Schoots and our otherregular features - Fake Tester’s Diary and Panda Remarks.

Hiring good testers is now easy. You can do it via Testing Circus website. If you arehiring software testers, you can avail this free job posting facility to advertise yourvacancies in our site. I am sure you will hire better testers by hiring testers using oursite.

Enjoy this edition of Testing Circus. Send your articles for our Security Testingspecial edition next month. Happy testing!

- Ajoy Kumar Singha@TestingCircus // @AjoySingha

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Future Edition Themes -● Security Testing/Web Security/Penetration Testing (Last date of

submission - 10th July)● September Annual Edition - (Last date of submission - 10th August)

HUIB SCHOOTS

Huib is a curious and passionate person. He likes to share his passionfor testing by coaching, training and giving presentations on a varietyof test subjects. With eighteen years of experience in IT and softwaretesting, Huib has considerable experience in the field of softwaretesting, both nationally and internationally. He likes to combine agile,context-driven testing and human aspects to improve testing and helppeople to grow. To achieve that, his goal is to make testing better andmore fun. He loves reading and attempts to read everything everpublished on software testing. Huib is member of TestNet, AST andISST, black-belt in the Miagi-Do School of software testing and co-author of a book about the future of software testing. He is working asa senior consultant, trainer and coach for Improve Quality Services, aprovider of consultancy and training in the field of testing. Huib livesin the centre of the Burgundian Den Bosch. With many shops,restaurants and pubs as well as nature reserve “Bossche Broek” withinwalking distance it is a wonderful place to live. When he’s not testinghe enjoys playing trombone in a brass band, photography, golf, games(especially strategic board games), travelling, diving, beer brewing andreading.

Organization: Improve Quality ServicesCurrent Role/Designation: Senior ConsultantLocation: Den Bosch, the Netherlands

Interview with Testers


1. Tell us about your journey to becoming a softwaretester. How did it start and how this has been so far?Was it planned or by accident?

After I finished my study Business Informatics Ijoined a big consultancy company. I did a masterclassto become a developer. I loved doing IT projects andsolving problems, but I didn't really enjoyprogramming in FoxPro. To me it felt like staring ata screen all day. The communication andcollaboration with other people gave me moreenergy. After every release we installed during theweekend, we spend a week fixing the bugs thatpopped up. On another project I distributed thesoftware on floppy discs and every serious bugforced us to distribute a new release. I got sick andtired of copying floppies very soon. So I started tolook for ways to improve the quality of the softwarewe were building. Doing this I ran into testing. Asdevelopers we did testing. But as I look back on whatwe really did, I would rather call that "trying" now.

My first steps in the testing world I took as a testautomation engineer. Later I also did manual testing.Here I found my passion: finding things out, learningabout how people work, helping teams to makebetter software. And back in the nineties, testingwasn't a real job within IT in many projects. So I washappy being part of developing the testingprofession within the Telecom Industry I was mainlyworking in back then.

2. When did you realize your passion was softwaretesting?

Within the company I worked in 2002 it was normalthat people grew into (project) management. I triedthat too. Although I really like to organize and makeprojects work, I missed testing. I was always payingtoo much attention to the testing in my projects. Irealized testing was my passion and I went back totesting and test management. Several years later Ijoined a test consultancy company and became unitmanager. Because this wasn’t a full time job, I also

* Interviewed by Jay Philips


did training and consulting. Here I really found mypassion: training people, helping companies tobecome better in testing and coaching the people inmy unit. In this period I started reading blogs,discovered the book “Lessons Learned in SoftwareTesting” and context-driven testing which gave anew and exciting boost to my testing passion. In 2011I finally did Rapid Software Testing. That gave meanother boost in learning new things I hadn’tconsidered before. Last year I did a project for ahospital where I was test manager, tester and coach.A perfect combination of everything I love in my craft.

3. Do you regret being associated with softwaretesting today? Given a chance would you move fromtesting to any other field in IT?

No, not at all. See my previous answer. I movedaway from project management and went back totesting. I love what I do and even if I win the lotteryI will still be in the testing industry, probably doinga lot more training for free. I think testing is one of themost interesting jobs within IT since it touches on somany interesting topics. And it is still a very youngindustry where we can make a real difference.

4. You have written a book in Dutch "Bepaal je koers!Toekomst en Trends in Testen". What is that bookabout? Do you plan to translate that book intoEnglish?

In English the title would be "Define your course!Future and trends in software testing" and it iswritten on the occasion of the 15th anniversary ofTestNet. The jubilee book was a present to the 1600TestNet members. The book provides an overview oftrends and developments that me and seven othercontributors to the book saw arise around us. Wetried to translate them to the testing profession. Wethink software testing will always be required, butour craft will change. Using personas we describedwhat changes and opportunities will arise for testers.The book makes clear why the demand for certain

roles will disappear and how testers can respond tothe changes that will occur. Our goal was not topredict the future, because nobody can. It was meantas a wake-up call to testers: “The world around youis changing. What are you going to do?”.Unfortunately I think it will never be translated intoEnglish. The book is written for TestNet membersand they all speak Dutch. Translating the book issimply too much work and/or too expensive.

5. You mentioned you attended Rapid SoftwareTesting course. How did that help you in your career?

Rapid Software Testing changed my testingparadigm completely! Back in 2005 I bought the book“Lessons learned in Software Testing” and since thenI have been reading stuff from Cem Kaner, JamesBach, Michael Bolton and others. One of my favoritelessons from the book is Lesson 272: “If you can get ablack belt in only two weeks, avoid fights”. After RSTthe whole puzzle in my head fell into place. Therewas so much more to testing than I had learned forthe traditional classes. A whole new world openedfor me: heuristics, critical thinking, social sciences,problem solving and exploratory testing to name afew.

6. You do free skype coaching for testers. Does thathelp you as a tester? Why don't you charge for yourcoaching?

Yes, it does! I believe in continuous and deliberatelearning and I try to put that into practice. Peoplelearn from feedback and evaluations. Coaching canboost your learning. I learned about coaching testersvia Anne-Marie Charrett. She was very helpfultelling me a lot about it via Skype. Later I attended aworkshop she did at Let’s Test. After that I starteddoing skype coaching with James Bach and later I didsome sessions with Ilari Henrik Aegerter. Iexperienced that this really helped me learn newthings and become better in topics we worked onduring the sessions like exploratory testing,

HUIB SCHOOTS


reporting and observing. After some sessions Idecided I wanted to learn how to do it myself.

When I met Erwin van der Koogh we discussedworking for free. He told me that helping otherpeople is one of the best things you can do for yourown happiness. And I like helping other people.Skype coaching gives me an opportunity to helpothers and make the world a little better. It also helpsme become a better tester and teacher.

7. In 2011 you were one of the founders of DEWT.What made you want to create this group? And whatdoes DEWT do?

James Bach challenged German and Dutch testers inhis blogpost “My Stockholm Syndrome”. As areaction to that some Dutch testers started discussinga peer workshop with codename “NLET” at aTestNet Event. We wanted more than only listen totalks at conferences. We wanted to discuss context-driven testing stuff with like-minded people to learnmore about CDT. The discussion continued ontwitter and in November 2010, seven passionatesoftware testers meet at my kitchen table to start aDutch version of peer workshops on (exploratory)testing. After an exciting evening of discussion weformulated our main goal: “get together with like-minded, explore our profession, get inspired, havegeeky conversations about our craft software testingand learn”. Early 2011 we created a website andstarted blogging. In June 2011 the first DEWT peerworkshop was organized. We have experimentedwith several formats and learned a lot about how todo peer conferences. Currently we are planningDEWT5 with “Test Strategy” as our theme. We aremoving more towards a LAWST style peer workshopwhere we try to dive really deep into the topicdiscussed over two days. Besides a yearly peerworkshop we try to get together 3 or 4 times a year inan evening session. We have discussed topics likecoaching, selling context-driven testing, context-

driven presentation heuristics or testing exercises.Next month we get together to do a workshop “chaintesting” that Joep Schuurkes, one of the DEWTs,teaches. We will do a simulation for a couple ofhours. Sounds like fun and I am really lookingforward to it.

8. You recently changed jobs and now you work forImprove Quality Services? It is founded by one of thewriters of TMap, right? Are you moving away fromcontext-driven testing?

Not at all. Since February I work for Improve QualityServices. Erik van Veenendaal, one of the writers ofTMap, founded the company in 1998. He left thecompany a couple of years ago and I actually neverworked with him. ImproveQS realizes that the worldis changing and the testing craft is changing too. Iwork for ImproveQS because it is a company thatspecializes in testing and quality management. Atthis company I can do what I love: be a trainer,consultant and coach for context-driven testing andagile. This year we focus on telling the Dutch testingcommunity ImproveQS has added context-driventesting to their portfolio. Next year the focus will beon working with James Bach and Michael Bolton onRapid Software Testing.

9. According to you, what is lacking in today’scommercialized training industry, especially intesting?

There is a lot wrong with the way people think aboutlearning. Many companies send their people to aclass and expect their people to come back and startdoing the stuff they have learned in class. I think itdoesn’t work that way. I believe that people onlyreally learn how to do test techniques for instance byapplying them in practice and getting seriousfeedback from more senior people who mastered thetest techniques. The most courses I have seen are longlectures with over simplified exercises on paper.There is no actual software tested in those classes. I

HUIB SCHOOTS

http://erronis.nl/2012/01/11/i-will-work-for-free/

http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/527

http://dewt.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/dewt-is-born/

http://dewt.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/announcement-dewt1/

http://dewt.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/announcement-dewt1/


enjoy watching videos on education and learning. Ifyou want to learn more on how people learn andwhat is wrong with the training industry, watch“Ken Robinson: How to escape education's deathvalley” or “Sugata Mitra: Build a School in theCloud”.

10. Last year you organized a conference calledTasting Let's Test in the Netherlands. Was that thefirst year of the conference? Why should people cometo that conference?

I attended several Let’s Test Conferences in Swedenas a speaker. It is a fabulous conference, the best Ihave ever been to. It is special since everybody staysin the same venue and people keep running into eachother. The atmosphere is great and you get to learnloads. That is why I was honoured when Henrik andJohan asked me to join forces and bring Let’s Test tothe Netherlands in 2014.

Tasting Let's Test is a unique context-drivenconference, for testers, by testers. Our main goal is tomake a valuable experience for all participants, not tomaximize profit. It is there for you if you’reinterested not only in listening to great talks, but alsowant to actually test. We had a talk on exploratorytesting by Carsten Feilberg, followed by a practicalexploratory testing session with all participants inthe test lab. We also created the opportunity to pickthe brains of the speakers and testing peers. TastingLet’s Test is an excellent opportunity to get a bite-sized taste of the full Let’s Test experience. And it isa really affordable event.

11. You also blogged about popular books and blogsfor testers. Do you read a lot? What would yourecommend other testers to read?

Yes, I love reading! I keep buying books that peoplerecommend to me. Unfortunately I have a hugebacklog of books to read. But having them in mylibrary gives me the opportunity to read them when

I need the information and knowledge. I also readmany blogs, mostly when they advertise a new postvia Twitter. Last year TestNet organized a one-dayconference with context-driven testing as the theme.I wanted to help the Dutch community evolve tolearn, think and do more skilled testing. That is whyI asked many tester friends from the context-drivencommunity to send me their most popular blogs andbooks. I wrote two blog post with the results of thoselittle surveys. One tester replied that he could notsend a list. “What you should be reading depends onwhat you are ready to learn about next, and thatvaries from person to person”. And I fully agree withthis statement. Use the lists of popular books andblogs as a source for inspiration.

Some tips: Read “Lessons Learned in SoftwareTesting” by Kaner, Bach and Pettichord if you wantto learn more about context-driven testing. Read“Perfect Software and other Illusions about SoftwareTesting” by Jerry Weinberg if you want to learnabout myths in our craft. Give it to people you workwith if you think they need to learn about testing andyou suffer from common misunderstandings. Read“Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman or“You're not so smart” by David McRaney or“Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely if you want tolearn more about how we think and our biases. Inthis category I also highly recommend the “Think101, The Science of Everyday Thinking” onlinecourse or the videos on Youtube.

12. What qualities will you look for in a candidatewhen you want to recruit someone for softwaretesting job?

Have a look at the article I wrote on “Hiringprofessional testers” somewhere else in thismagazine.

HUIB SCHOOTS

http://www.testingcircus.com/build-a-school-in-the-cloud/

http://www.testingcircus.com/build-a-school-in-the-cloud/


13. What will you suggest to people who want to joinIT industry as software testers?

Software testing is not an easy job. If you are curious,passionate about learning and like to find out howstuff works, testing might be the right job for you.Young testers should realize that testing is not aboutprocess and artifacts only as some in our industry tryto make them believe. There are many skills you needto train to become a great tester. Asking questions isone of the most important for testers and especiallyjunior testers. In the current market I see a highdemand for software testers with solid technicalskills. Make sure you learn how software is createdand how it works, collaborate with developers anddon’t be afraid to learn about scripting, coding andhow to use tools.

14. What is your next big idea?

Only one? I have many ideas. I am not sure if otherswould call them big, but they are a big deal to me.Recently I discussed an idea for a “peer workshop”in France with several people. We hire a huge villa ina nice region in the summer and get together with 20testers to spend a long weekend or a week togetherwithout any official program. During the weekparticipants can work together, discuss new ideasand meet other testers in a relaxing environment. Myidea is that many regular conference speakers like theinteraction with each other and the best ideas emergefrom conversations with each other. But when theconference is over everybody leaves and there is notime to work on the ideas. Maybe to cover for thecosts we could test some company’s software for aday per person. I guess there must be companies whoare willing to pay to have their software tested by agroup of excellent testers.

15. Name few people you would like to thank, peoplewho helped you directly or indirectly in your careeras a software testing professional.

There are many people who I need to thank and I amafraid I will forget several people. In my early careerJeroen Smoorenburg, Kimo Wesseling, OnnoVerdonk and Ed van Rijckevorsel were very helpfuland influential. They had the patience and theperseverance to work with me and coach me. Ilearned a lot from them. I also learned a lot frompeople like Ruud Teunissen, Martin Pol and FritsBezemer in my time at Polteq. At Rabobank Jean-Paul Varwijk, Rien Krol and everybody involved inthe lateral meetings helped me to become a bettertester. Currently everybody involved in DEWT isvery influential. Of course I need to thank MichaelBolton and James Bach for teaching me an awful lotover the last years. Indirectly I want to thank manypeople in the context-driven community for sharingtheir wisdom and ideas with me. Currently I amworking with some great testers at Improve QualityServices. I especially want to name Ruud Cox sincewe have been working closely together for the last 5months.

16. One last question – Do you read Testing CircusMagazine? If yes, what is your feedback to improvethis magazine?

Yes, I do. But I have to confess that I do not have timeto read all the articles every month. The stuff I read isgood and I like it. It is hard to keep all your readershappy with all content. I think the crowd is simplytoo diverse to do that. If I have to mention something:I would like to see more in depth articles andexperience reports with examples of how people dotheir actual work. Anyway, keep up the good workand don’t worry if some people do not like all yourcontent.

________

Blog - http://www.huibschoots.nl/blog/

Twitter ID - @huibschoots

HUIB SCHOOTS

http://www.testmile.com

From the first time I spoke about hiring testers to anaudience outside of my company, I found some portionof the people surprised by some of the things I said mycompany does, or ways we approach this importanttask. One of my key beliefs in hiring testers, one that Ilearned and developed at the company I work for now,is that there is no one, single mold that makes an idealtester. I continue to be amazed at the backgrounds thatbeget testers. The fact that after hiring testers for morethan seven years I still find it hard to predict someone'ssuccess simply based on the school they went to, or thedegree they have (or don't) shows just how difficult theprocess can be.

If you want to make hiring testers simple, then you canlimit yourself to resumes/CVs that contain certainkeywords, or to candidates that list only certain degrees.

This way, you canassign a low levelHR generalist the jobof screening out allof the "bad"applications andonly give you the"good" ones. Thismight also be aviable option if youare regularlyflooded with farmore applicantsthan you havepositions to fill.

If you happen to be hiring in Ohio, I will enjoybenefiting from your folly.The way I do hiring; the way I prefer to do it, is difficult.It's…

We hire what I see as a lot of testers every year. Ourbudget over the past few years has been at least 20 headsper year. Pair that with the fact that we "lose" (anothertopic for another time) a good number of people everyyear to other departments and a few to other companiesand we end up needing to bring on around 40 people ayear. And that does not include interns. To accomplishthis, we have had to branch out from "bachelors degreein Computer Science required" to removing nearly allHR pre-screening of applications.

The reason for this is simple in my eyes; we need moreapplications. This should come as no surprise to mosthiring managers, but few schools produce anymeaningful quantity of students in any degree programthat know what testing is, let alone that choose to enterthe testing profession. This means we have to try tomake testers out of people who don't know they want tobe testers. Through the wording used in our ads, to thetypes of backgrounds we are willing to look at, we needto get more people in the door. Our region, and as I haveheard from numerous other people many otherregions/countries, does not have enough experiencedtesters around to fill all of the open positions.

If we only needed candidates with a lot of codingexperience, or knowledge of a specific tool, I think thisapproach would not be as effective as it is for us. We geta large number of people who are, generally speaking,


Hiring Testers- The Hard Way on

Purpose- Erik Davis

interested in technology and can function on a computer.Since we are willing to train new hires on the job, wehave been able to cast a much wider net to bring inpeople that we can make into the kind of tester we wantthem to be.

The biggest benefit of this approach is the diversity of thebackgrounds people bring with them. Once they learnhow to test (we teach them basic skills, knowledge ofheuristics and our internal tools) they are able to usetheir prior experiences (most of which are outside oftesting) to help them come up with creative ways toattack the product we set before them. We have hadEnglish majors, physicists, math majors, accountants,nurses, masseuses (that word doesn’t look right), collegedrop outs, commercial floor care professionals, musicmajors and instructors; you name it, we probably have it.Sure, we also have some testers that came in withprogramming knowledge. A few even have ComputerScience degrees. Most though came in with some form oftwo year degree in programming, or a major (likeMIS/CIS) that gave them some time writing code, but notat the level you would get in a four year degree. These

candidates wouldn't be considered if they came in off thestreet for our Development department (they require afour year degree) but we are more than happy to givethem a shot in Test.

Yes, this method means much more work for our hiringmanagers. It means having do run a lot of interviews,and look over piles of applications. But it gets us the kindof people we are looking for.

Sure, bringing this many people in that don't know thatthey want to be testers for the long haul has its issues. Wedo lose some people that eventually figure out theirpassion lies outside of testing. This hiring style alsomeans we have to put in a lot of time and effort to trainand provide opportunities for our people to hopefullyshow them how great and important we feel testing is asa profession.

At the end of the day for the company I work for, in thearea of the US I live in, and for the kinds of testers wehave historically needed to hire, doing things the hardway has worked for us.

Erik has taken on many roles in his 16 years in testing. The majority of his time at Hyland creator ofOnBase, has been in a variety of leadership positions from team lead to senior manager. In his currentrole as Manager of Testing, Erik is responsible for the team that educates over 180 testers. He is alsoconstantly looking for ways to engage and retain the testers already at Hyland and find ways to bring innew talent. One of his current projects is looking for patterns in the issues being found across thedepartment to help create targeted training to improve the testing being done. Erik considers himself amember of the Context-Driven Testing community and is a member of AST, the AST Leadership SIG aswell as ISST. He spoke at the CAST conference last year and the QA or the Highway conference thisspring. He will be presenting material at CAST again in August as well as at the Targeting Qualityconference in October. Erik is the programs lead for NOSQAA (Northern Ohio Software Quality Assur-ance Association) and runs the tester meet up NOTiCE (http://meetup.com/NOTiCE). Erik tweets at@erikld.


Hiring the right people for a job is hard and often lot of work. When I look at the job offers for testers I see a lot ofrubbish and that makes me nervous. I think those job ads show that there is still a lot of misunderstanding abouttesting and what testers do. That makes it harder to find the right people for the job. In this article I share myexperience and will highlight what I think is important when companies try to hire testers.

Hiring geeks that fitThe process of hiringtesters isn’t very differentfrom hiring any otherpeople for IT jobs, onlythe skills, knowledge andexperience you arelooking for are testerspecific. I recommend theexcellent book “Hiring

Geeks That Fit” by Johanna Rothman [ref 1] to learn more about how recruitment of people in IT works.I have been in the testing business for quite some time and I have a lot of experience with hiring testers fromdifferent perspectives. Whilst as a test manager for projects and as a line manager for a bank I conducted many jobinterviews to hire testers. We hired experienced testers as well as people directly from school. I have been in thesecondment business for over 10 years and have done many job interviews to get hired for projects and consultancyassignments.

What are professional testers?I often talk about testers and testing skills. I like to make a distinction between “professional testers” and “testersby profession”. The last category are people who have the job mainly because it is a way to make a living and theydo not act like a real professional should do. They know little about what they do and they do not study their craft.They never read professional literature and they only want to do courses if the boss is paying. They just do their job9 to 5 and go home and want to forget about their work because they do not really enjoy it. Testers by professionjust do something that seems to be working and can’t explain effectively what value their testing is adding to thecompany.Companies always want to hire the best tester possible. And I believe professional testers are a minority. Testing isa difficult, complex and demanding profession. That is why companies should be careful when hiring people to dotesting. Professional testers have the right characteristics: knowledge, skills, experience, attitude, ethics and values.The trick in hiring professional testers is to recognize a professional and match the right mix of characteristics to the


HiringProfessional

Testers- Huib Schoots

characteristics of the job. Sounds simple right? I learned over the years that this is not as simple as it sounds. Laterin this article I will present my heuristics to recognize a professional tester.

Problem solvingI like to approach recruitment as problem solving. Think of it like this: when you want to hire a tester, you have aproblem. You are understaffed, you need different skills or maybe you need better people? It can be anything. Thefirst step is to take some time to define what the problem is that you need to solve.Recruitment takes a lot of time and could be expensive. You want to make sure you are solving the right problemby hiring the right tester. Do you really need new people? And if you think you do, who do you need to solve thatproblem? What are the characteristics you are looking for?

Vague job characteristics don’t helpMany job ads are very vague and badly written. There are no clear characteristics mentioned of the person they arelooking for and the attitude they expect from the person they are trying to hire. To me that is often a sign how thecompany advertising thinks about testing. If you have a weak job description, don’t be surprised if weak applicantsrespond and try to get the job you are advertising. Be very specific in what you are looking for, don’t be afraid thatonly a few people will react. Being very specific helps candidates determine if they fit and you will see that peoplewho take the time to react, mostly are a better fit for your company.

Bad examples“Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work experience” tells the candidate thatalmost anything is okay. I suggest to tell why this is important.“Ensure that project deliverables are defect free”tells the candidate that the company doesn’t really understand what testing is about.“Education: ISTQB / TMAP” tells me nothing. What do you want? Experience with it? Or only the foundationcertificate? It might tell the candidate that certification is valued over testing skills or that the recruiter isn’t able todescribe which testing skills are important for the job.“Developing, implementing and executing test plans” tells the candidate that it is actually a testing job as the jobtitle was already saying.

Be clear in what you expectFinding the right candidates takes a clear expectation of what you are looking for. All aspects of the person youare looking for should be in there: knowledge, skills, experience, attitude, ethics and values. Also add somethingin your job description on why the tester wants to work for you. It can be an awesome product, the companyculture or great benefits.

Good examplesBrightpearl advertises this:“Exploratory testing - and we mean serious, structured exploratory testing, not just a buzzword. You’ll have heard of andread Cem Kaner’s work and others.”This clearly states what knowledge they expect from you.NewVoiceMedia has job descriptions where they describe clear values of the company: “We value ownership andcuriosity”, what they expect from you: “Share your passion for your work internally and externally” and they tell youhow those attitudes and values are translate in expected behaviour: “Care about the company, the quality of theproduct and the user experience.” and “Take on epic challenges that push you out of your comfort zone.” RES Softwareclearly state what they expect from a tester and what a tester can expect from their colleagues: “You know how toconvince a rock-star developer about a possible improvement in the software and have him buy you a drink afterwards.” and“You test everything in your life, your new telephone, your new car, a piece of code and the quickest route to your new job.”


Selection: add an extra thresholdAfter you have defined the problem and thecharacteristics to solve the problem, the fun really starts.I would recommend adding an extra threshold forpeople who want to react. Let them write a cover letterin which they have to describe why they think they fitthe description. This also gives them the chance toexplain if they do not have the required experience orknowledge, but they still think why they could fit.Another way of doing that is to add a challenge to theprocess. Candidates who want to apply for the job needto test something and send their report to you or theyhave to answer some questions like “Describe testingand quality in your own words” or “How would youtest website X if you have one day to test it” and havethem send their answer together with their resume.Putting up an extra threshold helps in two ways: it willdiscourage people who aren’t really serious or lazy andit will give you some idea of the skill level of thecandidates reacting.

The interview: “practice what you preach”I have a lot of experience as interviewee in jobinterviews. The thing that strikes me the most, is thatonly very rarely I have been asked to actually testsomething. And I think that is a very risky way of hiringpeople. How can you be sure that they can test and notonly are good in talking about it? Have the candidatesshown that they actually can do what they claim in theirresumes. Let a candidate test manager create, presentand defend a test strategy and have a tester test a pieceof software during the interview. Don’t step in the trapof thinking that it will take too long to work with them.Take time to let them test! Let them explain how theywork and how they think. It is the thought process thatinterests me. In my recent webinar [ref 2] I havepresented some ideas to test the candidate during aninterview.Also ask questions that search for evidence of what theyclaim: ask questions like: “Can you give me an exampleof how you applied test technique X or method Y?”. Themost important question I always ask is how thecandidate learns. A very important aspect of testing islearning about the product and learning is essential forprofessional testers. After the official interviews, I try tosetup something for the team to meet the candidate andspend time together so they get to know each other andgive the candidate a chance to get know the organisationbetter. Cultural fit in the organisation and the team is

one of the most important things you want to assure. Ifthe person doesn’t fit the culture, no matter howqualified you will have a serious problem in the end.Remember that recruitment comes from two sides: youhave to make sure the candidate matches the profile andthe candidate has to determine if they want to work foryour company.Rushing job interviews will get the wrong problemsolved as the wrong person gets hired. Spending moretime on defining the problem and selecting the rightcandidate will pay back in the long term by having aperfect fit for your organisation.

How to recognize professional testers?In March this year I wrote a blog post called “Heuristicsfor recognizing professional testers” [ref 3] in which Ipresented 18 heuristics to recognize a professionaltester. Use these heuristics in your recruitment process.1. Have a paradigm of testing & can explain approach2. Love what they do & are passionate about the

testing craft3. Consider context first and continuously4. Consider testing a human activity to solve complex

problems5. Know that software development and testing is a

team sport6. Know that things can be different7. Ask questions before doing anything8. Use diversified approaches9. Know that estimation is more like negotiation10. Use test cases and test documentation wisely11. Continuously study their craft12. Have courage and refuse to do bad work13. Are curious and like to learn new things14. Have important interpersonal skills (like writing &

communication skills, social and emotional skills,problem solving, decision making, coaching,teaching, being proactive and assertive)

15. Have excellent testing skills (like thinking,analytical skills, modelling, risk analysis, planningand estimation, applying many different testtechniques, exploring, designing experiments andobservation)

16. Have sufficient technical skills (like coding orscripting skills, being able use tooling, SQL skills,being able to configure and install software,knowledge and skills to work on differentplatforms)


17. Do not fear learning & are not afraid to makemistakes

18. Happy and willing to share their knowledge

This long list of heuristics might give the impressionthat we are looking for a super tester who has all thesecharacteristics. That is why I call them heuristics, somemay help you, and others may not apply in yoursituation. Not every job requires every heuristicmentioned. Since people work in teams, other teammembers will have some of the skills. Also, knowing thecandidate lacks certain skills doesn’t have to be aproblem as such. If the candidate is willing to learn andyour company is willing to invest in the candidate, theproblem can be solved after hiring the candidate.To be able to use these heuristics effectively demandsthat you know what you are looking for. It alsodemands that you are able to distinguish skilled testersfrom non-skilled testers.

ConclusionHiring the right tester is hard and often a lot of work. Toattract the right people make sure the problem thatneeds to be solved is clearly defined and an explicit jobdescription that matches the problem is written.Seriously testing the candidates will help you hire onlythe very best: the one that really wants to work for youand who is a perfect match for the job opening you have.Remember that professional tester will grow and getbetter once you have hired them while testers byprofession will not grow too much.

Rob Lambert (@rob_lambert) is currently writing aseries of blog post on the same topic. If you want to learnmore about hiring professional testers, I recommendyou read his blog. The series can be found here:http://thesocialtester.co.uk/category/hiring-testers/

References:[1] Hiring Geeks That Fit – Johanna Rothman –Leanpub - ISBN 978-0-9854820-0-8[2] Webinar EuroStar “Hiring Professional Testers”http://www.eurostarconferences.com/community/member/webinar-archive/webinar-99-hiring-professional-testers[3] Heuristics for recognizing professional testershttp://www.huibschoots.nl/wordpress/?p=1666

More information:· Discussion “Hiring Professional Testers’ on

Testhuddle.comhttp://testhuddle.com/forums/topic/hiring-professional-testers/

· Recruiting Software Testers by Cem Kanerhttp://www.testingeducation.org/BBST/foundations/Kaner_JobsRev6.pdf

· TestBash 99 second talks: Don’t be so bloody vague- Anna Baik (Starting at 25:55)http://www.ministryoftesting.com/2014/04/testbash-3-video-99-second-talks/

· Blog post Thomas Ponnet: writing job descriptionfor testers (part I and II)http://observanttester.blogspot.nl/2011/02/writing-job-description-for-tester-part.html

· Blog post Ralph van Roosmalen – TechnicalRecruiting at RES Softwarehttp://blog.ressoftware.com/index.php/2014/04/25/technical-recruiting-res-software/

· Rex Black & Michael Bolton: irrelevant interviewquestions?https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151920630645073&id=111442000072

· A tester’s syllabus by James Bachhttp://www.satisfice.com/images/testsyllabus.pdf

Huib Schoots is a tester, consultant and people lover. He shares his passion for testing through coaching,training, and giving presentations on a variety of test subjects. With more than eighteen years ofexperience in IT and software testing, Huib is experienced in different testing roles. Curious andpassionate, he is an agile, exploratory and context-driven tester who attempts to read everything everpublished on software testing. A member of TestNet, AST and ISST, black-belt in the Miagi-Do School ofsoftware testing and co-author of a book about the future of software testing. Huib maintains a blog onmagnifiant.com and tweets as @huibschoots. He works for Improve Quality Services, a provider ofconsultancy and training in the field of testing.


“There are testers and then there are more testers, butthere are only a few good testers” - Anonymous

Hiring good testers can be a daunting task fororganizations. Unfortunately, many organizationsconfuse Software Testing as a Computer skill, while thereality is it is more of a social skill. However, the task ofhiring a tester can be simplified by asking yourself thefollowing question:

· What are the communication skills that thecandidate possesses? (Writing skills, Listening skills,Verbal skills)à Most important· What are the technical skills that the candidatepossesses (depending on her experience)? (This couldinclude a specific technology or knowledge of acompeting product which could help the currentorganization)· What critical thinking skills does the candidatepossess?· What are the networking skills of the candidate?(This means if she is active on social networks, does shemine them for information?)In this article we shall discuss about assessing acandidate based on different skills, and what theemployer could do about it. Communication skills aremistaken by many employers to just be a test of spokenEnglish, while this is partly true there are other ways toassess the candidate such as:

· A webcam interview· Writing skills test· Listening skills test· Speaking skills test

Communication skills:

Earlier we had telephonic rounds of interview whichexist even now, but a webcam interview could help theemployer with the candidate’s non-verbalcommunication too. This could help in eliminatingunnecessary candidates, as there have been cases withhundreds of people turning up for an interview. Ininterviews that are held in office premises, the candidatecould be asked to write a small paragraph on herself orabout things she enjoys doing (other than softwaretesting). Using a handwriting analyst to analyze thecandidate’s handwriting could provide clues to herpersonality. This is primarily due to the fact thatdifferent personality types may be needed for testing,people who are easily diverted and defocused couldalso add a lot of value in testing. An interesting articleon this by Anuj Magazine can be read here.

For more experienced candidates, they could be askedto write emails for certain situations they might face inreal life or ask them to write a bug report for a specificbug. This could not only tell you about the candidate’swriting skills but also about her bug writing skills. Forspeaking skills, do role plays of certain unpleasantsituations. Later on the candidates could get categorizedinto “good”, “could do better” and “rejected”candidates. The “could do better” candidates could becoached if they are were brought on board.

Technical skills:

In testing technical skills, a lot depends on the situationthat the person being hired for. Some companies havestandard rules such as certification in UNIX, Oracle,SQL, and some testing certifications. Then comes thewww.TestingCircus.com July 2014 - 18 -

A DifferentLook into

Hiring Testers- Prasad

http://thehandwritinganalyst.blogspot.in/

technologies that they have actually use. Questionsasked, range from the simplest to a little bit of probing.According to me this may not really be the answer.Many a time people who conduct an interview wouldselect a candidate A, after asking him a few simplequestions due to lack of time, but once the candidate ison board he is exposed to some other manager whoseexpectations of technical knowledge are much higher,thereby making the process of selecting a candidate,flawed. What is important here is managingexpectations. When I say managing expectations, wecould simply ask the candidate about typical scenariosthat the project encounters on a day to day basis, and ifthey have any idea how they could handle it. Are theycomfortable to the demands of the project (a keydifferentiator)? Are they willing to scale their technicalskills up to a certain level? This is very important tojudge.

It is very important to ensure we could start of bysimply asking “What is software testing?” You may besurprised but many people only have memorized theanswer and upon probing them a little deeper theywould appear to be confused. Asking the candidateabout the different types of testing, and what the levelsof testing are and why should they be executed could bethe way you could start off. The way they answer, whenthey are probed a little deeper could expose thecandidate on how much knowledge they actually have.

Critical Thinking skills:

An important differentiator between a good tester and abad one could be based on the questions that he/sheasks. As James Bach puts it “Testing is questioning aproduct in order to evaluate it”. Unfortunately,important ways in which software is used is neverquestioned, and requirements are never clear, accurateor updated. In such scenarios it is very important thatthe candidate is tested on questions that are ambiguous

in nature. A classic question in this case is “How wouldyou test a calculator that just fell on the floor?” most ofthem would reply I would pick it up switch it on and seeif it’s still working. The next question the interviewerwould ask what be, “how do you know there is a switchto turn it on?” The candidate would say “because allcalculators have switches”. The interviewer would say,“Do all calculators have switches?” The candidate (alittle irritated) “Don’t all calculators have switches?” Atthis point the interviewer would give a hint and say“Some calculators don’t, I was referring to ABACUS, theanalog calculator not the digital one. ABACUS does nothave a switch”.

All this conversation could have been avoided if thecandidate (a good tester) would have asked, “What kindof calculator?” (While keeping the question open ended,he could have got more options, which could helphim/her to test).

Networking Skills:

Networking skills of a tester can add major value to thetesting effort as well as the testing organization. Thenetworking skills of a tester could probably get him intouch with people to get answers for certain issues thatthe project or product may be facing. As the testergrows, he could get a lot of valuable testers into theorganization, saving it a lot of money in human resourceeffort.

In such cases, a web-cam interview for a few minutescould probably eliminate unnecessary candidates. Aswe should be able to tell, all the above mentioned wayscannot be implemented, but some of them can.Different ways can be used to hire testers, to actuallymake a difference.


Prasad is a Software tester with close to 11 years of experience. He has worked with major MNCs, andhas mentored testers and has an interest in teaching testing also. Prasad blogs at @ezeetester

Who is hiding all the good testers out there? Mostagencies send me terrible “factory testers” that haveCV's splashed with lists and logos! Is there really ashortage of good testers? Have all the jobs gone offshoreand testers are now trying themselves out as plumbersand circus entertainers?

Over recent years I have developed a series oftechniques and procedures that have helped me find thegood testers. This article will share my knowledge andrecent experience with hiring a full test team. This is nota best practice, but a bunch of great ideas that haveworked for me in my situation.

I need good testers: my requirementsIn a recent role as Test Manager, I had to hire a team oftesters. The testers had to be good for the productquality to improve, and for me to succeed. They neededthese qualities:

· to put up with a lot of pressure from anenvironment that was traditionally not tester-friendly

· to learn fast, and learn a lot of domain criticalinformation

· to adopt to an agile-like culture, at least it lookedlike one

· to work in a deliverables-focussed, timemanaged environment

· to adopt a context-driven philosophy and putthat into action

· to speak out when there were issues, but not tooloudly

· to be able to analyse a function with regard tothe wider context of people, project and company

· to operate as lone tester, or pair up in their agileteam

· to be an advocate for product quality in aprocess quality obsessed environment

I needed an intermediate or senior level tester. Here ishow I thought about the distinction. Clearly, I was notafter a junior tester.

Limited Thinking “Junior” Tester· Sells themselves primarily as being certified (e.g.

ISTQB)· Procedurally driven· Requires requirements specification to test· Requires a test script to test· Carries out basic UI instructions· Can take screen shots· Can enter information into a defect report

template· Can produce a quality centre report· Writes their CV predominantly as a "list of stuff"

rather than competency statements of what skillsthey can perform.

· Says things likeo You cannot do exhaustive testingo Testing must be independent to

developmento Metrics must be used to show quality

and progresso Requirements specification must be used

for coverageo Its my job to break the software


A Needle in aHaystack ?

- Richard Robinson

Attracting, screening and hiring testers you want on your team

But rather, I needed more advanced tester.

Intermediate “Growing” Tester· May use test scripts but adds in other useful tests from time to time that seem relevant for some reason· Still includes certification, but knows the limit of its value· Often finds bugs not associated with test scripts· Appreciates there are driving factors behind the approach for testing, methodology· Can use tools to support testing· Enjoys finding problems with a product· Enjoys investigating functions and to find bugs· Understands mission of testing, information outcomes, assumptions· Has an instinct for when things are not quite right, and raises questions to more senior testers to confirm

that· Says things like:

o We are doing risk-based testingo We are doing time-boxed testingo Test scripts limit the value of testingo Exploratory testing is important to find important bugs

Experienced Testing Operatives “The Needles”· Does NOT sell themselves as being certified, instead lets experience and involvement in blogging, forums,

conferences and events speak for them.· Discourages test scripts as being wasteful and not a complete testing method or approach· Uses tools to support exploratory testing, and ad hoc automation to uncover necessary ramp-up of input

coverage to identify any patterns· Experiential learner; not a factory mindset· Has a favourite list of tools to aide test execution· May do testing in sessions, threads and use test ideas rather than test scripts· Passionate experimenter and discoverer of the product· Explorer of uncertainty to uncover risk· Understanding of wider context of people, project, company, product· Uses keyword heuristics such as SFDIPOT, FEWHICCUPS· Uses RIMGEA when writing up a bug report· Says things like:

o I am missing something here, what information is missing?o Given my oracle, this is a bugo Lets not do that test, its too expensive compared to the valueo Due to the risk of this function, we need to gather a greater depth of test evidence

To achieve my outcome, I could not rely on the ‘recruiting partners’ to supply good candidates. I needed an edge,a method, a way of finding good testers without too much effort.

This is how I did it. I will let you know the outcome at the end of this article.


Attracting candidates and filtering therubbishTo attract the right type of tester, and scareaway the wrong type, I put up an ad ofsorts explaining the types of skills I wanted.They went beyond what was written onmost CVs I saw, and hopefully intriguedthe right people. Unfortunately, it alsoattracted a lot of recruiters who offeredtheir candidates anyway, bypassing suchscreening initiatives. But not to worry, I hadmore cards up my sleeve to fend off suchlazy behaviour.

Here is my job ad. I promoted it throughLinkedIn, and Twitter too. It attracted a lotof positive publicity amongst the testingcommunity, which meant I was definitelyon the right track with this.

Screening for actual skills and filteringout the unmotivatedTo prevent you from reading all those CVs,you could trust your HR function to screenthem for you. Alternatively, you can do ityourself with some challenge questions. Iprefer screening the responses myself,because it shows me if the tester can carryout their skills and impress. I also do not

believe that HR know much about testing that is useful to me.

My questions meant several things to me:· The candidate is motivated enough to answer the questions. My belief is that passionate testers enjoy such

questions, and will be happy to spend time on showing their skills to me.· I can judge their written English prowess through their responses. Communication is important and needs

to be clear, concise and meaningful.· The answers uncover different competencies to me:

o Boundary-value analysis skills, a staple skill of testerso Questioning the functional specification informationo An understanding of how to test with no specification and use the context to drive decisionso An identification with testing and personal attachment indicating potential passion and driveo Comfort and confidence when given an abstract or chaotic situation


The questions I used are these:Performing under pressure andfiltering out the unconfidentI now had some shortlistedtesters who were turning up forinterviews. Great! But what ifthey lied on their pre-screening.Next up is a pre-interviewexercise. The candidate showsup for a 1-hour interview. Halfof that is doing an exercise; theother half is the interview.

For 20-minutes, I request thecandidate complete thefollowing exercise. It is aboutcreativity, and idea generation.I really want someone on myteam that can think. Thinklaterally, think deeply, andthink broadly. Every idea is abunch of tests. The currency oftesting for me is ideas. It’simportant.


Here is the exercise:The best candidates generate a good long listof appropriate granularity. They need torespect the time limit, and cannot go crazywith boundary value analysis on the onefield, but instead need to show a generalsystems level of thinking and uncover muchmore product tests in line with SFDIPOT.

Bonus points are granted for anyone with thewisdom to outline any contextual factors, orattempt to summarise the question in anyway. Anyone who stated assumptions,asked questions, or listed driving factorswould score highly in this exercise.

One little added value for me is at the sametime as the exercise, I give the candidate aone-pager on the organisation, project,product and role. This helps get them up tospeed with the role and elicit questions. Italso means I don't need to say the same 5minute intro which is tiresome.

Let the candidate shine face to faceIn my context, the candidate needed to be somewhat "measured" by a panel of interviewers. We had to show a fairand auditable process.

There were six questions in total. Each question was rated across the three categories of teamwork, technical, andcritical analysis skills. Examples of what could be included in those areas were listed on the interviewers forms tohelp give context to a good answer.

In addition, a 4th category can be added to any question, as the interviewer panel member saw fit. Each part wasscored 0-3, with bonus points for anything relevant and interesting. It is theoretically possible to get a maximumscore of 16 for each question. We found that exceptional candidates scored above 30 from a maximum of 96.

The scoring system passed the audit test. It was seen as transparent and fair to the random interviewers whocontributed, and to HR (but that's not a difficult achievement).

Here is the background to the questions. You will need to come up with your own to fit your industry, company,project, role, and the drivers and risks across these facets.

· The opener - Why are you good for this role? This is a chance for the candidate to talk about themselves andrelax in to the interview. To recap, all good answers should aim to touch across soft-skills, technical andcritical thinking skills.

· The company context - The Company is very focussed on 'this particular historical issue'. How would youadapt your testing to this? Could be a recent security scare, bad audit result, poor milestone achievement,and reduced budget...


· The project context - On this project, we have toobey 'such and such initiative'. How will thishave an effect on your testing? This could be adelivery framework, audit-driven milestones,agile sprints done 'our way'...

· The role context - On this project, we have 'thisparticular challenge' for a tester, how would youdeal with that? This question gives a chance forthe tester to apply themselves, and get insightinto the project and role. The challenge could beworking on an agile team, tight deadlines, poorrequirements specifications...

· Direct technical ability - What technical skills doyou bring to the team? It's always nice to hear atester talk about what they know about what testtool, programming language or the like ANDhow they might be used.

· Ambiguous question - the question is designed toconfuse through ambiguity or omission, and tolet the candidate apply critical thinking skills,negotiation and to construct structure to answerthe question. Here, I am looking for how thecandidate owns a tricky situation. An impressiveanswer would state assumptions, or askquestions, and identify drivers to frame theiranswer.

At the end of the questions, we always gave thecandidate the opportunity to ask questions themselves.We drop a lot of context in the interview questions. Thestrongest candidates asked plenty of questions, bothprepared and thought of during the interview.

Level-up, bonus round!If you have time, and you suspect the candidate is verystrong for the role, then there is a bonus round for theinterview. I always have up my sleeve some object totest. In this case, I had a pen that lit up like a torch every2nd click. Its purpose was to be used as a torch late atnight to get the key in the door, but the candidate is todiscover this, and explain how to test it with this in mind.

Similar tests include standard pens, bricks, and I havetried a chair on the table before too (I didn't have adecent object on the day). These tests are particularlygood for structured thinkers who have a bit of troublebreaking out of a one-size-fits-all process for testing.

Putting it all togetherA candidate with an interview has alreadydemonstrated key skills in the pre-interview prep. Thepanel then evaluates the exercise, together with theinterview score and notes. If no one scores well, then noone is hired. That is very important. We don't hire thebest, if the best is still not a good fit or not someone wewant.

Lessons learnedThere are many quick tips I have learned from doingthis approach.

· Do not trust HR to screen your candidates. Orhave a strong relationship with HR throughtrust and from experience.

· Do not trust CVs. They very often do notexplain the skill level through enough detail.Instead, they list out a bunch of high-levelconcepts, tools and names of things. e.g. SQL.

· Listen for sales answers. If you get that, then askfor details and examples, and examples of whenthings went wrong. No one wants a salesmanon their team who cannot test.

· Save time by pre-screening. Do not have anyunnecessary interviews, they take up a lot oftime and resources.

· Save time by doing the pre-interview exercise.You now only need to interview for 20-30mins,and can stagger your interviewees 30minsapart. You will need a coordinator to make thiswork well.

· Remember your candidates are usually pre-programmed to follow a script and rules in aninterview. Some find it difficult to ask questionsabout the interview questions. For them, bepatient, and encourage questioning if you cansense they are confused about something.

· Use a one-pager to describe the product,company, project, and role. This will save a lotof time in the interview, and your voice.

· Coach your panel about the type of tester whowill succeed in the team. If they know thisupfront, they are likely to score the rightattributes more highly and you should getconsistent scores.

· Use a coordinator to help meet and greetinterviewees, and to usher them betweenrooms. When you have back-to-back,


overlapped exercise/interviews, they can becomea nightmare. Try not to leave anyone in a roomjust waiting around (very easy to do).

OutcomeSo did it work? Did the testers match the interviewobservations? Did they stick around for long?

I can tell you that the team I hired was the single mosteffective test team I have ever worked with. Each testerwas a powerful combination of testing experience,questioning ability, a quality advocate (product qualityprimarily), and discipline that I have ever seen.

No one left the team. All were there because of theirpassion. They were set up to succeed and then left aloneto do their thing, to test. With the right amount ofprogress reporting, and issue raising, and one-on-ones

meant they were all dedicated, motivated and overallwere happy to be part of such a high performing team.

We led the way on using Agile to our advantage,promoting better Agile practices from tester to the restof each agile team. The testers were the glue thatempowered the developers to step up to a higherquality of code. It was 'game on' as far as not droppingthe quality baton.

Each agile test team saw the tester-developerrelationship strengthen through respect for each othersroles. We delivered quality outcomes to the projectmanagers and found an astounding number of bugs.

And now, it is your turn to draw on this success tocreate the very best test team. Good luck!

Richard is a thought-leader in testing strategies, and an inspiring test manager. His philosophy is "better,faster, cheaper" testing that pushes the maximum business value and product quality out of a product.This approach not only satisfies the end user, but also brings a high return on testing investment to thecustomer.Richard is the President of the Sydney Testers Meetup group, and holds a black belt in the Miagi-doschool of software testing. He also contributes to the testing community through blogs, forums, onlinetesting events, facilitating international peer workshops and conferences. Richard blogs athttp://www.hellotestworld.com and tweets at @richrichnz.


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As the software testing industry evolves, new ways ofworking emerge. In the last few years, crowdsourcedtesting communities have generated thousands ofhome-based work opportunities for testers.

Crowdsourced Testing is one such organization.

Given our worldwide presence and unique way ofworking, Crowdsourced Testing is not your typicalworkplace. Our approach to hiring testers is not quitewhat you’d expect from an employer. So one questionwe always get is: how do I get started?

Here’s an inside look at how we hire and buildrelationships with our testers.

A mutual interview process

Crowdsourced Testing does not require a grueling andcomplicated traditional recruitment process to join.

However, when you register to be a tester with us, youare effectively taking part in an ongoing mutualinterview process.

Of course we can’t have everyone come to our office foran in-personinterview. So whenyou sign up, yousimply provide uswith your professionalinformation and youcan immediately beginparticipating in yourfirst training sessions.

Although therecruitment processdiffers from thetraditional interviewmodel, the objective ofthese training sessionsremains the same. Youhave to demonstrate

your skills and to show your determination to workwith the company. We also consider yourcommunication skills, and how your performancecompares to that of other testers in the group.

The objective is to get to know you and your work, andin return, you get to know us and how we work.

If it’s a good fit, you start participating in testingprojects. Each time you work on a project, yourperformance is evaluated based on your efficiency,linguistic skills, contribution and rapidity during thetesting session. These are qualities that we feel are keyto building a successful community.


A DifferentApproach to

Hiring Testers - Laura Gaudino

Crowdsourced Testing

As a new tester in our community, it’s important thatyou make sure to demonstrate these qualities in all theprojects you work on with us.

It’s also critical that you make sure you can handle afreelance testing position.

The unique benefits and challenges of CrowdsourcedTesting

Indeed, although working as a freelance software testerwith Crowdsourced Testing offers many advantages, italso generates a certain number of challenges.

For instance, you can work from home, depending onyour availability and financial needs, participate in awide variety of testing projects and get paid for everyvalid issue you report.

The risk with this arrangement is that it’s sometimestricky to work from home - there are lots of distractions,and it can be difficult to focus! Make sure that you havea good dedicated space where you won’t be interruptedfor a few hours at a time. Time to lock the door!

The more productive your participation is, the more youget paid, and the more you are invited to bigger andbetter opportunities.

The other aspect that is both beneficial and challengingis the fact that groups are testing together. It’s a greatway to foster collaboration and improve your skills, butit’s also a constant race to find the best bugs, so don’t

wait until the last few hours before a deadline to getstarted. You can begin testing the moment you accept aproject.

How to get started as a crowd tester in 3 steps

1. Create your profile at

https://crowdsourcedtesting.com/en/freelance-software-testing-jobs Make sure that you include all ofthe devices at your disposal, because you are matchedto projects based on the platforms on which you can test.

2. Wait for an invitation to your first training project.Project invitations are sent by email based on yourdevices, the languages that you speak and yourexperience with us. Invitations can be sent at any timeduring the day. When you receive one, act quickly!Projects sometimes fill up in as little as a few minutes.

3. Make sure to go the extra mile in your first project.Your first project with us sets the tone for yourparticipation in future projects. What’s important toknow at this stage is that participation and quality arewhat’s rewarded. What you want to do at this stage isstand out of the crowd as the best tester of the project.

If your participation is extremely valuable becauseyou’ve reported more bugs than the other testers, or youcontribute extensively to the other testers’ bugs, thesystem will identify you as a high-potential tester andinvite you to more projects in the future.


Laura Gaudino is currently Communications Manager at Crowdsourced Testing. Part of her workconsists of managing the official blog of the company, conducting interviews and writing articles relatedto software testing. Laura is passionate about mobile technology and cloud computing. She stronglybelieves in the power of crowdsourcing to solve business problems.


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I work in a profile where I am responsible for hiringtesters at all levels. During this process, many times Itake interviews and at other times, I supervise theinterview process. But most of the time, I hear“interviewers” complaining that none of the candidateswere good testers and hence too many rejections. Is itreally true? Do we really have less number of goodtesters?I feel that this is partially true. There are two types oftesters in the industry: one who claims to know testing,other who actually know testing. Honestly speaking theresponsibility lies with all interviewers to make surethat “latter” should not be lost in the crowd of “former”.Recently, I got a chance to speak to few interviewers,who are able test managers, test architects, leads andfew project management staff, including HR teammembers. I asked them about the interview process theyfollow to hire for various positions. To my surprise, themajority of rejections happen at first level, where theinterviewers are either “less experienced” or“untrained”. For example, an HR with many years ofexperience hiring all sorts of techies except testing issuddenly moved to hire testing professionals. She/hemay carry thousands doubts in mind but still discard

aspirants based on their reflective thinking. Anotherexample are project management professionals (notreferring to PMP certified), like PMOs, LOB Managers,Resourcing Managers, etc., who rarely test, but veryactively participate in testing interviews. They all wouldbe blank if you throw them questions like: “When wasthe last time you tested an application? When was thelast time you found a bug?” Interviewing, I must say, ismost of the time regarded as a non-serious affair fromthe people like us who sit on the other side of the table.It’s time to start taking it seriously.Now the question that arises is “do organizations makesure that any person, who is part of the interview panel,carries enough qualifications?” By qualifications, I donot mean academic degrees or certificates, but actualknowledge about the subject and the actual requirementfor the position. So the million dollar question is “Doorganizations ever interviews the interviewers?” Istrongly feel that there must be qualifying criteria forinterviewers as well; (like we have something forscreening candidates) and those not meeting the criteriamust be kept away from interview process. The time hascome when we should start thinking about doing justiceto good talents.


Whereare theGood

Testers?

- Kapil Saxena

Another importantobservation aboutinterview process isthat while thecandidate aka“interviewee”,prepares for it, most ofthe time interviewersdon’t. There are nospecific reasons as towhy the interviewersdon’t prepare. Theseare the following topresponses when Isurveyed few

interviewers in industry:• Interview preparation? Dude, I am on the otherside of table. Do you know I’ve 12+ years of richexperience of managing teams?• Who has got time to prepare? Oh! I am so busynow-a-days because of delivery pressure.• You know I used to be a great tester few yearsback and I am still confident about it.The fact that most interviewers do not prepare forinterviews, results in inappropriate questions beingasked to candidates, thus leading to rejections.Inappropriate questions here refer to either out-of-context questions or irrelevant questions like askingqueries about a skill which is not specific to the jobdescription. If you’re an interviewer or if you supervisethe process, ask yourself how many times you read thejob description or are made aware of it?We all must understand that the interview process is nota game. It’s an art. It doesn’t matter who is at fault, theloss is for both parties involved. The company requiresa tester of certain capability and it is the duty ofinterviewers to first understand the need, clarify any

doubts that may exist and then only go for it. Thecandidate, on the other hand, needs a job. He/she iswilling to demonstrate abilities to showcase their talentand it is up to the interviewers who must give themenough chance to prove themselves.It’s really tough to comment what it will take for all ofus to realize the fact that interview process is importantfor both parties, i.e., candidate and company a.k.a.interviewee and interviewer. It is time for theorganizations to realize that loosing good candidates,just because you don’t have good interviewers, is notgood for growth. The need of the hour is to havestringent protocols for the art of Interviewing. It issomething to be first learned and then practiced, againand again. The process, the workflow, the goals must beclearly defined. Someone wise has very well said “Firstjudge yourself, then others”. So, next time when you gofor taking an interview, ask yourself:• Am I aware of the job description?• Have I read the resume of the candidateproperly?• Do I know the minimum qualifying criteria forthe position I’m interviewing for?• Do I know the required skills that are needed forthe position?• Is there a need of additional subject matterexpert or any other person to better judge?Interviewing must be carried out with positive attitude.The tone and way of asking questions must encouragecandidates. You must remember that both partiesinvolved expect it to end at a positive note and it is yourduty, as an interviewer, to do give your best to identifythe best possible fitment for the position. It’s going tobenefit you as well.So, next time, when we hear people complaining “whereare the good testers”, ask yourself a question “where thegood interviewers.”


About the AuthorKapil Saxena is best described as a passionate tester who believes that “everybody tests”. He is cur-rently associated with Magic Software Pvt Ltd. as Test Manager and enjoys working with testers onWEB and MOBILE automated test framework solutions.Kapil has honed his testing skills and knowledge base while working with organizations like GlobalLogic, HCL, BEL and NTPC. He shares this rich experience of over 10 years in domains like healthcare,government, e-commerce, mobiles, and eLearning, at weekend testing community sessions where he isan active participant and at conferences where he is often called as a speaker. Kapil relies on cricketand spending time with family and friends, to unwind. Kapil tweets at @kapilsaxena

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Tester Being Tested

@booksrg8: Do testers need to know how to code?@testertested: Here is my answer:- Do all testers need to know how to code?- Do some testers need to know how to code?- Do those testers who do not need to code to test needto know how to code?- Do those testers who need to code to test need to knowhow to code?- Do those testers who work with others who code to testneed to know how to code?- Do those who have invested their time learning things(other than coding) that are of great value need to knowhow to code?- Do all testers need to know how to code irrespective ofwhether their job demands of that or not?- Do all testers need to know how to code but it is okayfor them to not want to do it?- Do all testers need to know how to code because wewant them to write product code and not test?- Do all testers need to know how to code becausesomeone thinks how would they test code withoutknowing how to write it?- Do all testers need to know how to code to get respectfrom those who know how to code?- Do all testers need to know how to code so that theycan code and code and can someday be calledprogrammers?- Do all testers need to know how to code but is okay forthem to not know what to code?- Do all testers need to know how to code irrespective ofhow crappy their code is?- Do all testers need to know how to code althoughknowing how does not mean it is a skill?- Do all testers need to know how to code so that theycan watch a programmer do it and find bugs as andwhen it is coded?

- Do all testers need to know how to code to fulfill theidea of some people who think "we all are same"?- Do all testers need to know how to code to get rid ofthemselves from work they do which could have beenavoided if they knew how to code?- DO all testers who do not have a background incomputer programming need to know how to code?- Do all testers at some point need to know how to code?- Do all testers who have to work individually need toknow how to code?- Do all testers who have no work to do but have plentyof time to learn something need to learn how to code?- Do all testers who claim to know how to code need toknow how to code?

@dwarika_mishra: Is it right to push all manualtesters to learn automation and to work on codingskill?@testertested: Push? By force? I am no judge of theworld to decide if it is right or wrong. However, I am afellow human being. Nobody can be forced to becomesomething and force fitting into a job does not work. Ihave tried that with me and others. It did not. Sure, thatis how many companies seem to function but I am surethe force fit is creating them many problems.Instead, I wish businessmen spoke something like -"Our needs have changed. We have data points tobelieve that. If you still like to work here - you need adifferent skillset. We are going to support you to getthere, only if you are interested. If you are not and youthink you can bring in a different value, we would liketo know about it. We shall apply our brains to what yousay and if what you say makes sense to us, we shallagree to let you be who you are. However, if theoutcome is not as you intended, we would encourageyou to look out for a company that suits and needs yourskill set."

#PandaRemarks by Pradeep Soundararajan


Pradeep Soundararajan is the CEO of @moolyatesting, KungFu Panda, Entrepreneur, Blogger, Speaker,Exploratory Tester, Traveller and Wannabe Stand-up Comedian. Pradeep tweets at @TesterTested.

Read other Panda Remarks at - http://www.testingcircus.com/category/tester-being-tested/

Tweet your questions to @TestingCircus and @TesterTested using #PandaRemarks hash tag.

BOOKWORM’SCORNER

The topic of this month is interviews/hiring testers. And sadly, I don’t have any book to rave about since I cannothonestly tell or brag that a book helped me (or anybody else) to get a job. So, no book reviews this time around. Yes,there are at least 50 books written in the market on “How to get a job in Google or Microsoft or Amazon”. If there istruth to the content, and the book sold at least 500,000 copies, then there should have been 500,000 employees at theabove mentioned companies. And we all know that it is not the case. So, no book review on interviewing books.What gets you a job? Skill, skill and skill. In some cases, favoritism and networking work too. It is almost unpredictableto predict the mind of the interviewer and so, no book can teach you what to expect. And I can tell you to expect the“unexpected” in any interview.The intent of all interviewing books is to create a sense of false indication to the user as to how they can get a job onreading the book. The truth is that there’s no interviewing book printed ever that can guarantee to get you a job in anycompany. There are books that develop your skill. How you showcase your skill in these interviews is what would helpyou get a job. So, if you want a job, don’t waste time reading “Interview Books”. Please go out there and develop yourskill and work with peers to get a job that you want.In case you are looking forward to read this section to get smart by understanding what book you need to read to clearinterviews, consider yourself “smarter” since no such book exists. Those books only represent the view point of theauthor and their interview and give a broad sense of what to look for. It is almost impossible to predict what questionsyou would get in an interview. On the bright side, I know that you are trying to understand what books you need toread to get a job; and my recommendation is “None”. No books to chew on means I am starving. Hope I get more tochew on before next month’s edition. Until then, adios!!!

Love,WoBo


Book Reviews

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Part 43A Fake Tester’s Diary


http://www.testingcircus.com/category/a-fake-testers-diary/

Liar LiarWhenever there’s an interview, there are two peoplesitting out there. In my opinion, the one who’s askingquestions is a liar; and the one who’s answering thosequestions is another liar. Before you get pissed off atme for using such strong terms, I plead you to hear outmy case as to why I am indulging in this kind of name-calling.

What do you think is an interview? The most fakepractice ever invented. Two people trying to sit on twosides of the table and spend 30 minutes discussingvarious things while their mind is made up within thefirst five minutes. How someone is able to judge anoth-er person in such a short time is something I’ve neverunderstood ever.

The funniest thing about interviews is that there’s nodata that exists which states how many good candi-dates your company rejected and how many bad can-didates they picked up. In spite of such faultymethodologies, interviews flourish across the worldand have become the full topic of this entire edition.

Any employer offering you a job tends to indicate thathe’s trying to “change the world” and how he wantsyour support; any employee applying for a positiontends to indicate how he’s created “new galaxies” inhis past job and how he promises to work hard tocreate new universes. It’s actually very funny to watchtwo people sitting on opposite sides and telling lies toeach other, knowing fully well that they are lying toeach other. Sadly, the only truth that you can tell aboutinterviews is that it is a place where two people lie toeach other.

What kinds of lies to people tell each other in inter-views?

The candidate· I am the greatest superstar in my job & I helped to

turn the world around· I was the go-to person in that company who knew

every piece of code “inside out”· I am an expert on smoking testing (smoke tests),

sanity testing, functional testing, non-functionaltesting, pre-installation testing, post installationtesting, pre-build verification testing, post buildverification testing, pre build acceptance testingprior to post build verification, pre post buildverification testing prior to validation testing….and so on………

· My “middle name” is automation.· Selenium is in my blood· I am the greatest tester who tests at 540 test cases

per minute, eclipsing the previous testing recordheld by Mr. Super-tester who could test only 492test cases per minute.

· I am changing teams because I want to work on anew domain…

And the interviewer?· We work in edge of the world technology, with

usage of “cutting edge technology” in between· We offer a great package including…. Yada yada

yada… (you know the drill)· Why our project is the most important project in

the world and that’s going to save the world fromdoomsday

· Why employees don’t leave our company at all forthe past 244 years

Lies lies and all lies. What they don’t tell each other isthat the interviewer needs to onboard new people toexecute projects while the interviewee wants moremoney. That’s the truth in most cases which theydon’t talk about at all.

What do I have to say about interviews?· Don’t worry if you did not get the job; someone else

deserved it and you did not deserve it. If not “infor-mation systems corp”, you always have “middle-ware technologies, inc.”

· Don’t worry about getting the answer right; checkout if the candidate and the interviewer is good foryou and if you will be happy in working with theteam.

· Push each other out of your comfort zone andobserve reactions; people who do not get unfazedin life will never get unfazed if pushed out of theircomfort zone.

· You are not the best employee or employer in theworld; don’t claim to be the best.

· Be honest with each other; if you hated your boss,say it; if you need 14 hour workdays and 100 hourwork weeks to ship a product, be upfront about it.It is better to know this on the day-1 instead of theday-100 and crib about it.

· Negotiate, negotiate and re-negotiate; every em-ployer would continue negotiations till you join; do

not expect a 100% pay hike and a Ferrari as part ofa pay hike in the 1st year after you join.

· And check if you like what you see; if you don’tlike the interviewer or vice-versa, it’s probably notworth it.

· If you are the interviewer, don’t make a decisionabout the candidate based on what you know andwhat you don’t know; ask him if he knows whathe’s talking about.

· Making mistakes is human; it is almost impossibleto be judgmental of a person in 30 minutes to 1hour of conversation time. Understand the limita-tions of making such decisions in a short time andwork around it.

· And last but not least, if you really want the job,don’t listen to all of the above; search in Googleabout what the company looks for, do your re-search, learn those answers by heart and get thejob.

And that’s all folks from me……. Did you read thisand get a job? Let me know…. Happy job hunting…and happier “job getting”.



Bernd BeersmaSenior Software Test Specialist, specialized in Test Automationand Performance Testing.

https://twitter.com/bbeersma

Eran KinsbrunerI have more than 10 years of experience in the mobile land such asJ2ME, Symbian, iOS, Android, BBX/QNX (RIM), Windows Phone.

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Ulrika ParkWith @SoapUI & @LoadUI team, method activist, learning cham-pion, manager @SmartBear

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Raj SubramanianI am a software testing fanatic, crazy about outdoor sports , lovetravelling, meeting people.

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Part 19

- Santhosh Tuppad


Security Testing Tips

It may look like mountain (However, when you areclimbing Himalayas it is not about *difficult*, it isabout *challenges*. There is difference betweendifficult and challenge meaning in my opinion) whenyou start approaching mobile security testing, if youhave been web security tester; this activity of starting-up mobile security testing may become easy comparedto if you have not been web security tester. Eitherways, you can look into these tips.

#1 Reverse engineering: Start using the tools and thenyou will understand what it can do and also you mayunderstand the underlying architecture of the android/ iOS device.

#2 There� are lots of tools, do not get into automatedones till you get the mind-set of mobile security. I amtelling this because, your learning may stop becauseyou may feel that, "Wow, I am a mobile security testernow" and if you take it head; then THE END!

#3 Mobile security looks like infant area as of today,there is so much to do in it. You may want to becomeresearcher if this area interests you. Be it mobileautomation using JUnit or uiautomator for android orany other thing which can help you add value to yourmobile app testing.

#4 I love using developer websites of Android andiOS, it helps me to learn "How to test better?" or"How to add value to my testing activity?" instead ofjust doing some functional testing. There is so muchof information on the developer site, you will justlove it if you are core technical person who crave fortechnical things which I think software tester need tobe unless you are a scripted checker.

Reverse Engineering Way of Learning via Tools

Xcode - To view logs, debug application and getapplication data.Burp suite - To monitor HTTP/HTTPS networktraffic.Snoop-it - For dynamic analysis of iOS Apps, totrace method calls analyze application flow.iNalyzer - iOS Penetration testing framework(contains multiple utilities).iFunBox - File system access of iOS device (jailbreaknot required).USBMux Proxy - Command line tool to connect localTCP ports to ports on an iPhone or iPod Touch deviceover USB.Keychain dumper - To dump keychain entries on iOSdevices.Sqlite3 - To view contents of db files.iRET - iOS Reverse Engineering Toolkit.INTROSPY - Black box assessment of iOS apps.Cycript - Runtime Analysis of iOS apps.APK Extractor - The name says it all.dex2jar - It is a conversion utility to convert dexformat to jar format.MobiSec - Live Environment Mobile TestingFramework project is a live environment for testingmobile environments.

You may also want to look intohttps://www.isecpartners.com/tools/mobile-security.aspx, I must tell this; I am in so much lovewith these tools and then applying my test ideas to testmobile security. Happy Reverse Engineering LearningFor Mobile Security Testing!

Tips for Kick-Starting Mobile Security Testing

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Zephyr which offers free community edition for up to 10 users is now releasing major release with lots of newfeatures. Let us dive into few of the new features and enhancement to existing features.Zephyr is Test management software that manages every aspect of the testing cycle to ensure what was deliveredagainst what was specified. This includes managing teams and resources, designing test strategies andimplementing their execution, organizing and reusing testing assets and environments, defining quality standardsand processes, collaborating with the entire team and communicating with internal and external stakeholders.

New Features in release 4.6:Time TrackingEstimated execution time and Actual execution time can be tracked on a per testcase basis. This data is one ofthe important metric during planning process. This data can also be exported in custom reports.Project teams that need to keep track of how long a particular test execution cycle will take can do so from aplanning perspective. The product features capturing of actual test execution time retrospectively to improvetest execution.

Release CloningAn entire release of any project can be cloned into any other project, including all its requirements, testcases,mappings, execution cycles, assignments, defect mappings, attachments with further provision to customize thecloned project.


Launch Of ZephyrRelease 4.6

This feature helps reducing duplicate effort of creatingtest suite from scratch and encourages consistency inorganization, planning and assignments from onerelease to another.

Advanced Search and ZQLEnhanced search results with a new query language(Zephyr Query Language) to make advanced searchingmore powerful and flexible. Auto-completion in querycreation.The new version also allows user to create customFields and further allows to search based on customfields created.

Importing testcases from local machinesLegacy test cases being maintained in excel files cannow be imported by users from their local machineswithout having to upload them to the Zephyr server.This gives flexibility of working offline on testcases inexcel files and import them into system whenconnected to Zephyr.

Linux installerBoth a GUI-based and command-line based Linuxinstaller is now available. Command-line installer helpsin installing Zephyr in silent mode and roll out ofproduct to different clients in the network.

Feature Enhancements in release 4.6JIRA Integration enhancementsZephyr for JIRA is an add-on application that augmentsJIRA 5/6, providing cost-effective, highly sophisticatedtest management capabilities right inside your JIRA 5or 6 instance. Zephyr for JIRA completes end-to-end

issue tracking and test management inside JIRA byadding testing to the overall planning, development,bug tracking and reporting process.

· Mapping at the release level, mapping aZephyr release to a JIRA project

· Auto-discovery of custom fields· Filtered list of resources shown

More granular control on defect tracking and metricsat the release level, easier the discovery and use of JIRAcustom fields and faster the selection of JIRA user whenfiling a defect.

REST APIs (Beta)New REST APIs that include PUT and GETs for Project,Release, User, Testcase, Execution, Search, Attachment,and Cycle. This helps in easy integration with othertools being used in the organization. Since the APIs arein Beta phase, they may change in future based onfeedback from community.

Other features include:· Rich Interactive Testing Desktop and

Dashboards and Native JIRA UI· Manage Testing Releases and Sprints· Add and Track Requirements· Organize Test Repositories· Create and reuse Manual Test cases· Integrate Automation scripts· Plan and Execute Test Cycles· Integrate with JIRA 4, 5, 6 and Bugzilla 4· Track Real-Time Metrics via Free Dashboards· Real-time Collaboration· Unlimited API access

It is available both in cloud edition as well as on premise.


QASymphony recently announced major update of itsagile test management platform qTest. This release notonly provides integration with tools like Jira but alsoprovides API support to integrate with Selenium.Latest release of qTest is available in three editionsrather four editions including hybrid edition which isqTest Pro with qTest eXplorer. qTest eXplorer is oneof the powerful add on to qTest used for exploratorytesting.

Different editions of qTest available are:· qTest Project is geared for small teams of less

than 10 users working on single projects.· qTest Pro is for small to mid-size teams looking

to upscale and improve test management.· qTest Pro with eXplorer as the name indicates,

has all features of qTest Pro along with qTesteXplorer

· qTest Enterprise is designed to support manyusers on multiple projects and integrate withother enterprise-level apps.

qTest is available in the cloud or on premise. Cloudversion starts from as low as $1 per user per month.qTest comes with powerful features required fortoday’s agile teams catering from small to enterpriselevel software development. Along with its features tomanage requirements, design test cases, test planning,test execution, track defects, generate status andgenerate metric reports, it also integrates with otherwell-known tools like JIRA and with help of APIsexposed, qTest can integrate with other tools.

Using different features of qTest test teams could· Plan and organize testing activities based on

project schedule

· Store and manage all your testingdocumentation in one common repository

· Easily view and report linkage betweenrequirements, test cases, test results and defects

· Collaborate with other team members throughinstant notifications and shared comments

· View project progress and status throughdashboards, reports and custom queries

· Perform exploratory testing based on scenario.· Integrate with other tools like JIRA and

Selenium

“We’ve learned a few things from listening to our8,000+ users, and the one clear message that stands outis that testers in various size teams want a testing tooltailor-made to fit the way they work. The ‘one-size fitsall’ approach doesn’t work,” says Vu Lam,QASymphony co-founder. “In short, the qTest platformwith various options to choose from, enable teams tocommunicate better and test faster in agileenvironments.”

Pricing and SupportPricing of SaaS version of qTest Project ($1/mo.)includes 24x7 email tech support. qTest Pro ($29 peruser per month, billed annually) and qTest Enterprise($49/mo.) additionally include 8x5 online and 8x5telephone tech support services. Enterprise optionincludes automation support via TestNG and SeleniumservicesqTest eXplorer, an add-on to qTest that automaticallycaptures a tester’s actions in both text steps and screencaptures, is offered at $38/mo. Pay-as-you-go optionsare available as well.


QASymphony LaunchesScalable Software TestingTools For Different Teams

Coverity, Inc.,provider ofs o f t w a r equality andsecurity testings o l u t i o n sr e c e n t l ya c q u i r e dK a l i s t i c k ,

cloud-based software solutions provider that booststesting efficiency. The Coverity Test Advisor clubbedwith Kalistick solution will help build tightercollaboration between Development and QA teams,enabling faster time-to-market, reduced softwaredevelopment costs and higher end-product quality.More on combined Coverity & Kalistck solution, thebenefits it provides to the customers, from AndreasKuehlmann, VP of R&D, Coverity.

ToolsJournal: Coverity makes use of ‘Source Code’Analysis; Kalistick analyses the ‘Test Footprint’ of theexecuted automatic and manual tests to come up withsolutions to boost overall test efficiency. How do youthink the two approaches complement each other?Andreas Kuehlmann: Both the Coverity and Kalisticktools analyze the ‘test footprint’ of automated andmanual tests in order to determine the impact of achange of the software. For the impact computation,

the Coverity platform analyzes source code, while theKalistick solution analyzes byte code.With the Coverity Test Advisor solution, we enableDevelopment teams to easily identify and prioritizewhat tests to write, based on the impact of codechanges. The Kalistick solution provides a similar levelof support for test engineers (for example in QA); byhelping prioritize which tests to run.Combined, these tools offer a more complete testingsolution - providing QA teams with insight into whattesting has been done in Development, and offeringDevelopment teams the opportunity to provide inputinto QA testing processes.

ToolsJournal: What benefits does the combinedsolution provide to the customers, which each one ofthem lacked individually?Andreas Kuehlmann: The combined solution willenable software organizations to focus on testdevelopment and test execution on the most criticalcode, regardless of whether the testing is done inDevelopment or QA.

ToolsJournal: Why is it important in today’s scenariothat testing, particularly efficient and intelligent testing,should start from the development cycle and continuetill QA cycles?


Coverity-KalistickSolution Breaks

Development AndQuality Assurance

Barriers

Andreas Kuehlmann: By moving testing earlier in thesoftware development lifecycle, developers are able tofind and fix key defects and ensure critical code iscovered by an automated test as the code is written,while allowing all affected teams – Development, QA,security and others – to do their jobs more effectivelyand efficiently.

ToolsJournal: How will the combined solution beoffered to the customers, will it be only cloud-based orwill an on-premise version also be available?

Andreas Kuehlmann: Coverity Test Advisor is anon-premise solution, while the Kalistick solution is ahybrid: on-premise and cloud-based.

ToolsJournal: When will the solution be available tothe end users?Andreas Kuehlmann: The solutions are availabletoday.


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50mmX 50mm.● You can send your article any time. Since we publish every month, your article can be included in any

month. There is no such thing called as a dead line.● Send in your article to [email protected] with a subject line “Article for Testing Circus –

Author Name – Title of the article”● If you think you can write a column in Testing Circus for at least 6 months, please submit 3 articles in

advance. We are open to any idea that may improve the user experience of Testing Circus.● We will publish the articles in our website a week after the pdf magazine is published.

ArticleSubmissionGuidelines

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heard to testers.

http://www.testingcircus.com/article-submission-guidelines


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Testing Circus Vol5 Edition07 July 2014