Software Testing – the Bad, the Good and the Myths ______ Software testing is a field that has gained a lot more visibility in the past few years, even in Romania. Some people think that being a software tester is boring, only for geeks or that is something anyone can do and get paid a lot of money to do it. Well, some things are true, some are not. Whyttest’s Software Testing Department contributed in writing the below article in order to tell you what they actually do all day and if the myths really have some truth in them. ______ It’s pretty hard to describe a day of a software tester, since they vary from project to project, technologies used, skills and thus, it would be easier to better understand if we call it a week in the life of a software tester, which would be more accurate. The activity can be categorized into 6 separate events: Meetings Planning and status check are 2 very important things. Kick-off meetings, daily status, weekly status, beginning and end of sprint reviews, internal training and such, are a good way of ensuring the information needed to do the task is known to all the parties involved. In order to be efficient, software testers need to know about their subject from the get-go and have access to all the necessary information. Requirements Review Sometimes, a tester has to test an application that he has never interacted with before, so it might be useful for him to review the requirements set by those who do know it and he can also provide some feedback. There is always a lot of mutual learning by doing so. Sometimes the tester tests without the software requirements specifications and documentation. In this case, he will use exploratory testing, mind maps, and other techniques to learn more about the system. Test Preparation By examining the requirements and reading the appropriate documentation, software testers know how to get to work and it doesn’t just happen at a flick of a snap. Before executing tests, a tester must understand the technology, the data model, the risks, context, etc. This is when the tester creates the test cases and scripts, sets the time for each case or at least a higher-level estimate for a set of related test cases, among other tasks. Test Execution This is where the fun begins. Executing the tests manually or via an automation framework is happening during this phase. A few other important things to mention here are reporting defects, updating test cases on-the-go and providing a status report. Also, a very common practice is to also ask around for clarifications if something seems more than buggy or there is not enough information in the documentation offered. Bug Clarification Further investigation and assistance in root cause analysis – once bugs have been found, it is the tester’s job to explain the reported bugs, including to conduct a causal analysis. This can also cover reproducing the bug, which

THE COURT LIFE OF A RANDOM TESTER Mishaps and near misses *** Story by Marina Matei In the great land of Testeria, unknown by man, lived a tester. His life was a simple one: he kept testing every game that was hurled in his direction. Although he didn’t whine, he sometimes wondered what his life would be if he wasn’t testing all the time. The answer? It would be nothing. Nothing was more important for him than making sure that the game entrusted to him was no less than perfect. But one day, all of this changed. His perfect testing life was shaken by the worst thing that could happen to a tester. All of it started one morning; a nice, warm one. Nothing predicted the disaster that would soon happen. He arrived at his office like every other day and sat down at his desk. He picked his controller and tried booting the game. Suddenly, his worst fears came to life: there was no internet connection. The tester looked at his screen in shock. He didn’t believe his eyes. This couldn’t happen, not to him. He got up and began walking to the castle’s grounds. There, he searched for the Great King’s lair, the home of the great Project Lead. ‘O, Great King, we are in big trouble!’ said the tester, kneeling down in front of Project Lead’s throne. ‘What would be the problem, Random Tester? Why aren’t you testing?’ echoed the king’s voice throughout the throne chamber. ‘We have no internet connection, your Majesty.” answered the tester, his voice and legs shaking at the greatness that was in front of him. ‘Let me see what I can do.’ Project Lead got up from his throne and went into a nearby chamber. He spent several minutes there, doing God knows what, only to come out looking defeated. ‘Random Tester, I am afraid that we forgot to pay the Internet bill.’ said Project Lead, a small tear forming in the corner of his eye. ‘No! This can’t be!’ Random Tester was already panicking. What was he to do if he couldn’t test?! ‘Please tell me there is something I can do!’ ‘Fortunately, you can. As I cannot leave the castle unattended, I am trusting you to go to the Will Not Fix village and pay our internet bill.’ answered Project Lead. Random Tester started shaking once again. He couldn’t refuse a direct request from Project Lead, but the thought of going to the Will Not Fix village was terrifying. That village was the home of all the bugs that were not worthy enough to be repaired. The longer a bug stayed in there, the crazier it got. They became so crazy, that they would attack every tester in sight, including their authors. Still shaking, he took the money Project Lead handed to him and began walking towards the village. He arrived quite shortly, as Will Not Fix was pretty close to the Testing Kingdom. As soon as he set foot

So You Wanna Be A Game Tester.. L’enfant terrible or the walking energy drink that goes by the name of <<MOJO>> decided to share some words of wisdom & his QA experience at Whyttest. Have fun reading!  ________ It may be passion, curiosity, learning something new, upgrading your brain’s SSD or simply put: you want to be a Game Tester. Games are everywhere now and everyone plays them. But you know that, you have played them. But now you want to help the games you love to play. Driven by passion, you do it involuntarily. Every person that is passionate about gaming finds issues, bugs, exploits (“clever use of game mechanics”). Some see it naturally, others develop it over time. That passion, the curiosity about how games work behind the 4k textures, makes you want to help offer the quality. That desire for quality brings game testers and game developers together. To be able to offer that quality, you need to create that quality. As a game tester you want to be able to create the best testing environment during projects to achieve the best results. You may have or not have already a basic experience with video games: understand genres of games, know how it feels and what makes a good video game, you pick any type of controller and you’re good to go on any difficulty. The skills and abilities that helped you become a badass at video games will also help you be a badass in game testing to a certain degree. Don’t worry, knowing video games is just a perk, everyone can grind it out in the end. You already may be a team leader, a Guild Master, a Raid Leader or a simple peon, still mining or carrying that wood. But you will do your part because game testing is a team co-op game. Your effort, dedication, knowledge and skill set will help build and create the quality in the end. Veteran player or newbie with a shotgun, you find yourself with a plethora of weapons of choice, raging from the latest consoles and phones, to your trusty gaming PC, a couple of monitors and a chew off controller or mouse that doesn’t fell right still. You greet your team every day and you get debriefed by a funny looking dude. You get a mail, unfortunately you didn’t win that prize money today, but you get your task for your workday. You plan it out as a team, by the documents provided or created. You are ready to go and start the grind. You may be the 1st one to break the ice by submitting the first issues of the day or you help your fellow colleague investigate and have him submit his 1st ever issue. You may coordinate a small team of fellow colleagues with a testing request or handle a rigorous task by yourself at your project leader’s request. You are responsible to find problems that every gaming project may encounter during its

From time to time, one curious Whyttester goes to our Serbian colleagues to experience their vibe, way of working, culture and maybe teach them something and vice versa. 2 weeks apart and some words later, the man has something to tell! Enjoy!   ____ Hey there! My name is Mircea Olteanu and I am a Quality Assurance Tester for (of course) Whyttest. When I am not at work, I usually just kick back with my passion: music, which I love to listen, collect and sometimes even play in my hometown of Roman for the amazing people there. When it’s not that, I will most often turn to video games and going out with friends.   But enough about me, you most probably clicked this in order to read the experience I had during my (sadly short) stay in Serbia, right at our sister-company from Belgrade. When I was presented with the offer to go there and assist our colleagues there, I have to admit I was not sure I was up to the job, although thankfully, my friends and co-workers encouraged me to do so and get out more, whatever that means. I guess I just didn’t expect that I would be stepping so much out of my comfort zone and travelling alone to another country, by plane no less, which would mark my first trip with this mode of transportation. I have to admit, the room was getting hotter by the second just thinking about it, but I was determined to face this whole challenge with my chin held high and as prepared as I could be for the experience I was about to have.   I arrived at the airport (my first checkpoint in this high difficulty game) way too early, just because I was afraid there was a chance of losing the flight. I did my best to navigate through Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport, asking everyone around what my next step should be for reaching the gate through which I would be boarding the small airplane. I had no problem waiting around for about an hour and a half, my trusty headphones and Spotify didn’t let me down one bit and so I managed to get to the seat of one of the things that once terrified me, without any problem. The takeoff and landing were the worst parts, as I have been warned beforehand, but I have to say it was a real eye-opener that airplanes aren’t really that bad.   After getting my luggage, I was greeted with a cardboard that had my name on it by the owner of the amazing apartment that I would call home for the next two weeks. I have to say, I underestimated the roads and how Serbia would look, it astonished me how much the way from the Tesla Airport and into Belgrade reminded me of Romania and our views and buildings. Coming as a surprise, exiting my temporary home and getting to the office took one minute on