41
votes
Should bugs found by exploratory test methods be taken against QA?
I think the first big problem here is the attempt to assign blame. In accident reports, the FAA doesn't start with who to blame, they start with what went wrong and what were the causal factors. ...
- 501
34
votes
Should QA ask developers for requirements?
No. Requirements should be originated from a single point. Your developers might misunderstand something so that you'll be testing not what your stakeholders require but what your developers ...
- 11.6k
28
votes
Accepted
QA gets all the work at the end of the sprint
Get the whole team to work on the problem.
Given the arrangement you've discussed clearly the team needs to look at options to resolve this. The problem itself seems fairly endemic in all of the ...
- 25.2k
19
votes
How to convince project managers that onboarding a tester early is important?
In this situation - unfortunately - your best option is the slow and painful method. I've used it as a general tester, and for test automation.
The way I approach this is to use these techniques:
...
- 31.5k
15
votes
When does the testing phase start in a project
When a new project development starts in an organization when does the testing role come in?
It depends.
It depends on the company, industry, development approach, etc.
Two commonly referred to ...
- 25.2k
13
votes
Should bugs found by exploratory test methods be taken against QA?
There can be a several reasons for test cases for bugs found later during exploratory testing not being identified during the project planning phase.
Couple of them may be,
Testers are humans. To err ...
- 7,758
12
votes
How to deal with a lead developer who questions every action or process suggested by QA lead?
I think this is a delicate topic in the software industry, one that I have experienced in the past.
Essentially what I did was have a one-on-one conversation with the person and tried to bring it up ...
- 1,192
12
votes
Is software testing different when we are dealing with game development?
In game testing, a tester focuses mainly on the following points (from Johan Hoberg's blog):
Fun Factor Testing
Balance Testing
Game Level/World Testing
AI Testing
Multiplayer/Network ...
- 5,443
11
votes
Asking UI developers to adjust markup to improve automated tests
My preference is to turn this into a team discussion with the goal of getting coding standards in place that require test-friendly locators to be used.
There can be resistance to changing the ...
- 31.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Signal to noise ratio during early testing
Greater communication between dev and qa so that qa already knows about wip issues.
Communicate first in person where there is disagreement, then document the agreement.
Clear definition on what ...
- 25.2k
10
votes
Separate QA v.s. Scrum Team Member - How should QA be involved?
My ex-client went through a very similar thing. When I started, QA weren't invited to walkthroughs, project meetings, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, etc., and developers were estimating the time ...
- 2,558
10
votes
Should bugs found by exploratory test methods be taken against QA?
First, the previous answers are good and bring up different view points to consider.
I agree that management shouldn't be finding ways to blame QA for missing bugs or finding bugs in unexpected, ...
- 2,280
9
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a lead developer who questions every action or process suggested by QA lead?
Emphasis added:
There have been situations where the Devs and the QAs ask questions about this same process. And I always jump in to clarify when this happens. Since I have been there, done that. ...
- 215
8
votes
How to deal with a lead developer who questions every action or process suggested by QA lead?
I've seen this pattern in nearly every shop with qa/qe and engineers. My advice from being a dev for 20 years and now a qa engineer for 5 years:
This is a practice that programmers actually do with ...
- 25.2k
8
votes
Separate QA v.s. Scrum Team Member - How should QA be involved?
I've been there. This is my experience:
Start with - Review all the documentation you're given. Chances are good something critical has been overlooked because Project Managers tend to focus only on ...
- 31.5k
8
votes
Asking UI developers to adjust markup to improve automated tests
Personally, I do not think making a request via Jira instead of via Slack would make any difference despite Jira being more formal and having more publicity and visibility.
My personal suggestion is:
...
- 9,942
8
votes
QA gets all the work at the end of the sprint
Great Communication Brings Great Results
Being last in line, QAs keep facing this repetitively. QA should proactively communicate delays and respective risks to stakeholders.
I’ve never seen any agile ...
- 1,845
7
votes
Accepted
Asking UI developers to adjust markup to improve automated tests
I had exactly this discussion with our developers recently, and I do not have satisfactory solution.
My situation was complicated by the fact that (for our Angular-based pages) some tests are ...
7
votes
Should QA ask developers for requirements?
I wouldn't say it's "good practice" to ask the developers for requirements, as they'll have their own interpretation of them.
If possible, always try and get your requirements from the business ...
- 2,558
7
votes
What are good practices for improving quality in a project new to me?
Start with understanding what works:
What data is valid ?
What data is used ?
What is successful ?
What are the variations ?
What are the users like ?
What are the long term business goals ?
What are ...
- 25.2k
7
votes
Should bugs found by exploratory test methods be taken against QA?
I think your tittle can also read "should we blame QA for finding bugs?", to which I hope no one replies yes, although I'm not so certain about the management in your organisation.
You got ...
- 4,548
6
votes
When does the testing phase start in a project
Testers have a role in every phase of a project (be it waterfall, iterative, or full on agile):
Project planning - ensuring proper consideration is given to procuring and setting up of test ...
6
votes
Accepted
When does the testing phase start in a project
I lean toward involving Test from the beginning. When building something, if you don't support ways of testing it from the beginning, you end up having to rip it up and add that later. This hurts ...
- 206
6
votes
Is software testing different when we are dealing with game development?
Software testing against Games is potentially cheaper as you can ask players to do it for you for free during closed beta, open beta or even early access stage, when games actually test your game for ...
- 9,942
6
votes
QA gets all the work at the end of the sprint
In the spirit of working in a multi-disciplinary team, I think developers should participate in the QA process if there's a backlog of work, (or even if there isn't).
I think it's bad practise for the ...
- 161
5
votes
Separate QA v.s. Scrum Team Member - How should QA be involved?
As your question is tagged Scrum I will try to answer it within that context.
It starts with the Scrum's Definition of Done:
When a Product Backlog item or an Increment is described as “Done”,
...
- 32.6k
5
votes
Signal to noise ratio during early testing
The paradox of when to write a bug...
Noise is merely a perception of those receiving something unexpected. If we look at ATDD and BDD the idea is that all tests are written before the coding cycle ...
- 521
5
votes
What practices do you use to Test-infect your engineers?
Challenge developers
Another company I was working for held competitions among developers / testers. People love challenges; when challenged with coming up with new testing ideas and writing tests as ...
- 9,942
5
votes
What practices do you use to Test-infect your engineers?
Testing on the Toilet (from Google)
Repeating the testing on the toilet prints on your toilets might be a way to spread testing knowledge and get developers to do more and better testing.
I have ...
- 32.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Communicating markup changes between developers and testers
Yes, this is a communication issue.
If any of the tests are failing this tells you that you have a change in the code that is not handled or you have a bug.
You should know that some attributes are ...
- 977
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible