61
votes
Accepted
What should be reported when a bug only happens 50% of the time?
A bug that is only a bug 50% of the time is still a bug.
I would still report/document it as a regular bug, but with an "intermittent" label - letting to know both developers and management about the ...
- 11.4k
53
votes
Accepted
Why is a dedicated QA team member necessary?
First I would rephrase your reasons:
Testing being done by developers is good at the unit test level. A dedicated QA is likely to have more skill in finding and exploiting situations the developers ...
- 31.5k
19
votes
What are valid bugs
Take a deep breath
step back
and look at the big picture
Talk to folks / your boss about standards. Have a meeting. Agree on standards including items such as special characters. Take short term ...
- 25.2k
18
votes
Accepted
How to handle client if you found a high severity defect on the release date?
This is a simple, if uncomfortable, situation to be in. Unfortunately, it does happen from time to time and you need to be ready for it.
The fact that the defect has been found close to the deadline ...
- 618
17
votes
Accepted
Can Agile make a tester more Dis-empowered
For starters, Agile is not an actor.
One doesn't "work with Agile", "uses Agile", or things of this sort. Also, Agile doesn't act, it "doesn't do/make things".
Agile is a mindset described in the ...
- 10.5k
15
votes
What should be reported when a bug only happens 50% of the time?
Try to get a reliably-failing test case, but at the end of the day, it's still a bug. Make sure to state that e.g. "hey, this only fails ~1/2 the time".
(Note that one way to dance around the issue ...
- 251
14
votes
Why is a dedicated QA team member necessary?
There is also a different mindset that a tester (or a dedicated QA) would bring to the team: developer "builds things", tester "breaks things".
(When speaking of a "break things" mindset: Of course, ...
- 4,119
14
votes
Accepted
What are valid bugs
One of the Context-Driven Testing principles is:
The product is a solution. If the problem isn’t solved, the product
doesn’t work.
Another way to say this is that software should work for its ...
- 10.5k
13
votes
Can Agile make a tester more Dis-empowered
It can work both ways, it depends on the situation
In some companies Agile is bunch of buzzwords used to cover the fact that waterfall and command and control are really what's going on.
In other ...
- 25.2k
12
votes
How to handle client if you found a high severity defect on the release date?
Deciding to release with severe bug (and escalate next release with a fix) or postpone release is business decision. It can be done only by someone who understands how customer works.
Maybe it is not ...
12
votes
I am a Junior software QA specialist, I am kind lost to understand what to do in this scenario?
Wonder why you want to present this to management? What is your goal here, what do you hope to achieve. Do you want to show them they have unknown quality issues?
Normaly I would expect the product ...
- 32.5k
11
votes
What should be reported when a bug only happens 50% of the time?
A bug that cannot be reproduced on demand (but is known to exist) is doubly more important than one that can be easily reproduced. They can occur via several scenarios, all very important: e.g. they ...
11
votes
User Story vs Test Scenario
A user story describes a piece of functionality from the perspective of a user. A classic example is:
As a registered customer, I need to see a list of my orders so I can
manage my purchasing.
A ...
- 31.5k
10
votes
What should an automation tester create a script for?
Anything for which you can write a logic piece of code can be automated.
I think usually the things that are very repetitive task that are very cumbersome to do day in and day out can be automated.
...
- 103
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 ...
- 2,508
10
votes
Accepted
How to deal with Automation team if not all members are sound in scripting
No matter what else you do, you will need your team lead's approval before you act.
I recommend that you take some proposals to your team lead, after you have done the following:
Measure skill ...
- 31.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Does DevOps really kill QA?
Simply put, no it hasn't. It might be changing some development shops, but not all, and even where it is changing it isn't killing anything. Or at least, it shouldn't be.
First, let's be sure to ...
- 7,092
9
votes
Accepted
How do I train a new manual tester?
Have them learn about:
Unit vs. Integrated vs. User Acceptance vs Performance testing*
Boundary Value Testing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_testing
Security Testing - https://en.wikipedia....
- 25.2k
9
votes
Accepted
What is the advantage of choosing testing as compared to other career paths in Software Industry?
If you want to earn the most, do what earns the most, probably it is not testing, nor developing.
Pursue what you like to be and enjoy. Some testers become great Directors of Quality, some become ...
- 32.5k
9
votes
How can QA honestly identify their own strengths and weaknesses?
Does it matter? Sounds like impostor syndrome. Your probably less confident about your skills than you should be, it is the Dunning-Kruger effect.
In my book, you are good enough at anything, if you ...
- 32.5k
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
What should be reported when a bug only happens 50% of the time?
The proper reaction is not just "fail the test" and be done (or pass it and be done).
You should do some "due diligence" investigation into whether you can trigger the bug consistently. If you can ...
8
votes
Why is a dedicated QA team member necessary?
I'm going to take a slightly different focus on this question; my
answer is: A dedicated QA team member isn't necessary, but a
dedicated QA role is a good idea.
Consider a situation where you have a ...
- 211
7
votes
A bug is fixed in Development environment but cannot be validated in Integration environment
Push to make everything testable in the integration environment. The location you are testing in should mimic the production environment as closely as possible. Most payment providers should also have ...
- 32.5k
7
votes
How to organize a QA Process/Department?
There are some major red flags here.
You're only going to any testing after development is completely done? If this is development of a single feature, that's fine. If this is for an entire sprint ...
- 7,092
7
votes
How to move my company and I from time-intensive manual testing to automated testing?
It depends on the country you are working in and the company you are working for.
In New Zealand, overtime is legal but you will need to be compensated for it. The legal consequence of forcing ...
- 9,932
7
votes
How to move my company and I from time-intensive manual testing to automated testing?
This is not a matter of number of hours only.
To me overtime serves for emergency, only when unexpected situation occurs. Unexpected things can happen and I accept it and I am open to help my ...
- 10.5k
7
votes
Accepted
Should I offer free security tests to my clients?
Should I add value to my engagement by doing free security testing?
No, you should not and the reason is not about money.
Security testings need to always involve your clients' consents, which means ...
- 9,932
7
votes
Accepted
How to explain what a software tester does to a 6 year old?
Pretend you are going to lend a toy (a teddy bear) to a friend 'cos they really want it.
Before you lend the toy you want to make really sure it will make your friend happy.
You have to have dinner ...
- 25.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible