Jason Darling

If you are in Austin tonight....

jdarling — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:41:39 GMT

Come out and see Bret, myself and some other local test experts as we discuss testing in Agile environments from 6-8:30pm this evening. http://agileaustin.org/

Drop Your Ego, Lose Your Pride and Open Your Arms

jdarling — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:11:00 GMT

John speaks of about collegiality. James gives a specific example. I really am happy to read/hear this. All to often ego and pride come into play which does not edify our profession. Working with Scott, I have seen this happen in the .Net community.

So, how do we demand/command respect from our peers, management, developers, BAs, etc. and grow this field? We gain this by acting in a professional manner as well as giving testers respect even if it's unearned, regardless if they are a high profile name or newbie interested in breaking into the field.

And, like John, I'll put action to my words- if anyone has a questions on where to start or anything testing related, you can reach me- geogratis at gmail dot com.

Live Writer: out of Beta and still not baked...

jdarling — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:47:58 GMT

I previoulsy posted about spelling issues with Live Writer back when it was in Beta. Now that it's out of Beta, it still has issues that my colleague Kevin has pointed out.

Phone call with Jeff Patton on Story Estimation and Granularity.

jdarling — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:51:25 GMT

The team was having some questions regarding the granularity and estimation of stories, so Bret set up a phone call with Jeff Patton a last week. Here are two takeaways from that call which have already proved invaluable.

First, after each iteration, do the 3 P's- 1) what is the quality of the Product, 2) Progress- are we moving forward?, and 3) Continually to evaluate the Process that you're using; if it is not efficient, what would change to make it so?

And secondly, when deciding on what level of quality to implement a story, use the report card metaphor using the A-F grading scale. For example, if the story were to be done in consecutive iterations, the first release would be a C, second iteration would be a B, and third iteration an A. Slowly turn up the quality of the story based on your customer feedback. And, when deciding if a story should be a D or B, find a slightly higher stopping point so that refactoring is minimized.

Apple Humor for Mac Users

jdarling — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:09:38 GMT

Regardless of political affiliation, this video is pretty funny.

MACro Thinking

jdarling — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:51:42 GMT

As I previously mentioned, my next computer was going to be a Mac. So, lat night, I went out and bought myself a MacBook Pro. Never had an Apple before, but I really liked what I read and had heard about them.

My old laptop, which my wife primarily uses, was an HP and, well, let's just say it has some issues due to bad engineering. So, I was in dire need of a new one. I'm anxious to install Ruby, Watir and SafariWatir.

I am not the first at Dovetail to convert to Mac though- one of our sales reps bought a Macbook Pro last month, and Scott beat me by 2 weeks.

Oh, and because I don't like doing things halfa**, I bought my wife a Macbook too.

Live Writer speling kneads impruvment

jdarling — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:07:32 GMT

I use Live Writer when creating my posts. For the most part, it works OK for me, but the spell-check is awful. The dictionary is nowhere near what Word and Outlook are. Why can't the Live Writer team use the same dictionary as the Word and Outlook teams? After all, it's just a dictionary! I know it's in Beta, but Google's Betas are more solid than Microsoft's.

Because of this limitation, when I create a post, I always copy/paste into Word to do a spell-check. Once it is checked and my typos corrected, I copy/paste from Word back into Live Writer. Then, I insert links, format it, proof it and finally publish it (I have the option selected to do a automatically do a spell-check before publishing).

In a previous post, I used the word 'cancelled'. In Word, acceptable ways of spelling are 'canceled' and 'cancelled'. In Live Writer, ‘cancelled’ was picked up as misspelled and suggested spelling it as 'canceled'. Word just told me is was OK and now it's not?

What did I expect when it can’t even suggest a fix for its own name!

And, while I'm speaking about Live Writer, why do I have to hit 'Shift+F7' to perform a spell-check when Word and Outlook have taught me to use 'F7'. Consistency here people.

Anyone suggest another editor that is fully baked?

Are We Bound by a Code of Ethics?

jdarling — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:22:46 GMT

My last post got me thinking about ethics within our industry. Our profession does not have an absolute code of ethics, but should there be one? Policemen, doctors, psychologists, are just a few of professions that are bound by a code which they live by. For example, if a doctor is in a grocery store, and someone in that store has a heart attack, their code of ethics states it is their responsibility to administer CPR until more medical attention arrives.

The problem as I see it is that there is not a single organization to which governs us. Furthermore, those organizations that do exist, like the Association on Software Testing (AST) and American Society for Quality, are "volunteer organizations". Without a recognized single organization, it is hard to mandate a code of ethics. I know the AST has a code, but not all testers are required to be members in order to practice software testing.

A code is not something that you live by 8 hours a day; it is something you live by every hour of every day. Which leads me into another question: As professional testers (notice I say professional testers, as there are testers who do not view this as a career path), should we report bugs that we find while off-the-job? Are we ever off-duty? On one side, if we report every bug we find, we may not have time to get anything else done. On the other hand, if we do report defects, I think this would bring more legitimacy to our profession, something I feel we desperately need.

Personally, I try to categorize the level of severity of the bug, although this can be difficult to do without knowing the business and technical requirements- a true black box if you will. For example, if it's a typo, I probably will not report it, unless I have time. If the bug is within a purchase path of an application, as was my experience with Delta, I will go ahead and submit a defect report to them. (I did tell Delta about their bug, but as of this writing, have not heard a response). Now, whether or not the company chooses to act on my submittal is up to them.

Should there be an absolute code of ethics for professional testers? Do you feel ethically bound to report a defect that you found while off-the-job? Do you report bugs while off-the-job? Does severity play a role in whether or not you report it?

PS- I do not report bugs for any Microsoft software, regardless of severity; I simply don’t have enough time. Not to mention, they have a vast amount of testers for this.

Should Customers be Penali$ed for Bugs in Applications?

jdarling — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:05:41 GMT

Since Dovetail Software develops and supports Enterprise CRM Application particularly within Customer Service and Support , I thought I would share an interesting happening to me recently that has a software testing twist thrown in the mix.

The other night, my wife and I were making airline reservations for our vacation next month. My father- whom I am very close with- was gracious enough to let me use his Delta SkyMiles for tickets, so I was booking two reward tickets with them.

I previously had tried to book this flight 1.5 weeks so I would not incur the booking fee that is associated with reservations made less than 21 days. During that attempt, I received an application error that said to call Delta, as there was a problem with the reservation. I was able to get a confirmation number, although it had to be done by logging into my account to retrieve it (I was in my father's account).

The next morning (which now is less than 21 days, and mandates a $50 per ticket fee), I logged on again to see my reservation was cancelled. I called Delta, gave the confirmation number, and told them what happened. They said it had been deleted and they could book it over the phone for the less than 21 day service fee, as well as an additional $10 per ticket for making the reservation over the phone. Quick math makes this sum $120. Needless to say, I was displeased and talked to the manager. She said could not do anything about the fee, although she DID acknowledge that their website had been down a few times the previous day. I decided to hold off on booking it.

The other night, I decided to book my reservation again. While doing so, I again received an error that said the booking could not be completed (this time I DID get a confirmation number displayed on the website) and to call Delta with my confirmation code. Sound familiar? I was told it was a problem with my credit card (my father’s actually) and Delta could book the ticket for the same fees as were stated previously. He transferred me over to a manager but I was disconnected, (I think he was new because he put me on hold 5 times).

So, instead of calling back and being on hold for another 20 minutes, I logged into my account, and cancelled the 24 hour Hold that existed for my reservation, so I could free up the seats that I had selected. I then rebooked my flight, but this time paid extra attention to my father's credit card info. As it turns out, there is a bug in their system.

There are two addresses in my father's profile- work and home- with the first address being his office. The credit card in his profile has his home address as the billing address. So, after selecting your flights, the application takes you to a page where you enter the traveler’s name(s) and credit card information. For the credit card, you can enter a new one or select the one on your profile. On this page, my father's card matched his home billing address. I entered our names and chose to use his credit card on file, then proceeded to the Final Confirmation page. It was here that I found the bug within Delta's application. The billing address of the credit card changes to use his work address, which is not the billing address of the credit card. I did not catch this initially, which caused me to spend numerous hours on the phone with Delta and their website trying to book my ticket.

There is a work around, that my wife found (I've infected her!). She went back to the page where you entered your name and credit card info. On this page, there are some options to use another card or edit an existing card, including changing the address. By selecting edit, we re-selected the home address, which was already the selected radio button. We continued with our booking and, to my delight, finally ended up with a successful confirmation.

So, my question is, how many people are calling and paying the additional $10/ticket booking fee that is charged because Delta's online system has a bug in it. How many people are unable to book the flight, even though they are outside the 21 day window, but due to application errors, they lose their confirmation and are forced to pay an additional $50/ticket? Companies are pushing people to use their web apps more, and charging fees for those who don't. If you are making us use them, then should they not at least work? When the website does not work as intended, why do they still insist on charging fees when it's obvious that the customer has done everything possible to perform the specified action online? I am not a novice at computers here...

Oh, and Delta, I'd still like my $100 refund back on my father's card. I have all of the 6 alpha-numeric confirmation codes, so I can PROVE to you that I originally had booked my flight ahead of the 21 day fee, but a BUG WITHIN YOUR APPLICATION caused me to pay additional fees. I think that's the least you can do since I found YOUR bug.

New Twist in Agile: Parallel Programming

jdarling — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:25:19 GMT

The other day, Bret and I started working on a card that broke down into numerous, smaller tasks. We began refactoring our procedural code to be Object Oriented along with adding better validations. We paired throughout the day, while working on one of our larger test case .rb files.

The next day, we discussed whether we should continue pair programming or work in parallel. We decided to Parallel Program, a term he defined. We are working individually on different cards, but in parallel within the same task. We can collaborate on issues/ideas as we move forward (we sit next to one another, so talking to each other is very easy). We have a review process too, so as one of us completes a card, there will be a discussion/code review about what we changed. So far, it's working well. We're also able to get some velocity by doing this too. Not every card can work in this fashion, but for some, it's a good fit.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

EDIT: Bret showed me in Alistair Cockburn's book Crystal Clear, the Alistair refers to this technique as Side-by-Side Programming. I still prefer the term Parallel Programming over Side-by-Side Programming though.