RE: Advice on software testing?

Subject: RE: Advice on software testing?
From: "Cardimon, Craig" <ccardimon -at- M-S-G -dot- com>
To: 'Peter Neilson' <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:48:41 +0000

Sounds similar to tech writing, where you might not be done writing the manual, but you ship it because you are told to. Such is real life.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Peter Neilson
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 4:36 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Advice on software testing?

Here's a scenario that occasionally happens, and that should underlie any
test plan using unusual hardware:

- Tuesday: The sole beta-test version of the custom hardware device
promised for Monday is ready for you to begin testing. You've read the
specs and the code, and you have a plan. You have two weeks before it gets
taken away from you.

- Wednesday: You're revising the test plan to cover the new items you
discovered in the hardware and the latest changes to the software.

- Thursday: You begin actual testing, entering bugs into the reporting
system.

- Friday: Testing is going well. You report that you might be done well
within time frame.

- Monday: You discover that over the weekend the system was shipped out.
"We needed to make it billable."

- Tuesday: You try to get your boss to push through to a level of
management that can make the decision on what to do.

- Wednesday: The consequences of the decision now belong to you. Whether
you have to spend the next two months in Irkutsk, or test remotely over a
dial-up connection, or publish a lie that reports no bugs, it's not
something you want to own.

How do I know this stuff can happen? Kansas City is not quite Irkutsk, but
I'd not planned to be debugging software on a machine sitting on a factory
floor. On the other hand, we did discover that the SCR-controlled forklift
trucks created electrical noise that crashed the custom device. Nothing in
the original specs had anticipated that problem.

On Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:11:28 -0400, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
wrote:

> The guy I'm going to be working with will be contacting me. He's one of
> the senior support dudes. I work with him when I'm wearing my tech
> writer hat.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Swallow [mailto:techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 3:10 PM
> To: Cardimon, Craig
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Advice on software testing?
>
> Do you have a testing/QA group where you work? If so and you'll be
> joining, talk to them. Otherwise many good suggestions made so far.
> But collaborate with development, and never test without a plan.
>
> On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
> wrote:
>> My manager told me I'm going to be adding software testing to my
>> repertoire. Any suggestions for a newbie software tester?
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Advice on software testing?: From: Cardimon, Craig
Re: Advice on software testing?: From: Bill Swallow
RE: Advice on software testing?: From: Cardimon, Craig
Re: Advice on software testing?: From: Peter Neilson

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