Discover the pattern...

“There will be some non-reproducible bugs” – This was my initial belief until that “T” break.

10 minutes before that “T” break:
At that time, I was part of a testing team which was given the task to test an application, which was already tested by a team (second phase) and we had their test report. A bug was mentioned in a column named “Non-reproducible bugs” of that test report.

My first instinct on seeing that report was “This is not a reproducible bug so we can't reproduce this bug" and not to my surprise, the whole team(including our team lead had the same thought on non-reproducible bugs).

->“venkat, lets go down for T”(in Tamil). that was Mr.X (Identity under cover).

During T :
We shared so many things (starting from how we can kill our time(holidays) in gulf to our Indian cricket team) and when our topic squeezed into our work, I shared the above non-reproducible bug column, the next moment his face turned sick and he said “These testers are so incapable that they couldn’t reproduce a bug”.

With little fear-factor, I asked him if a bug can’t be simulated again, then what’s wrong in categorizing it as a non-reproducible bug?

He smiled at me and said “Each and every bug can be reproduced. Only due to some constrains(like time and considering the severity of that bug. It will be deferred/ put into that “Non-reproducible” column)”. Take it from me, every bug will definitely have one/more patterns. Simple/hard thing is “you have to find that pattern”.
He also said “Don’t believe in all those theories and shutter yourself at this initial stage of your career”.

I nodded my head as reply and we departed.[ he(42 yrs old) ran through the steps but I slowly headed upstairs].

After T break :
I have decided not to work on that non-reproducible bugs immediately, so I postponed that to post-lunch and during lunch time, I shared that thought to my fellow tester, he laughed at me and said “Don’t waste your time buddy” but post-lunch, I again stressed him “Mate, lets try that out”.
It took a lot from three of us (nearly 1hr and 20 minutes of questions, tricks and guess works, tackling traps..).

Actions performed: (we haven’t planned anything at that time, but now I can relate those things to below).
a) Gathered maximum information from that tester, who logged the bug(we asked him to sit with us) .
b) Analyzed test data (To find whether this bug sparks out only when we use some kind of test data).
c) Random usage of that particular functionality (with proper log).
d)Prepared various patterns(guess works- Functional/non -Functional).

Finally, The tester, who logged the defect helped us to discover the exact pattern to reproduce that bug ... :) and we all three had that victorious faces but the credit goes to Mr.X (hope, I can catch up with him again).

-> Reproducing a bug is as important as of finding a bug.
So if you have a non-reproducible bug column in your test report, please remove it and start discovering and once you have decided to discover the pattern, I am sure, you will meet that irregular bug at least once and after that it will be just a matter of uncovering it...

Have a break........ :)

Lets discover,
Venkat.
All izz well.
Catch me @ Kpvenkatesan84@gmail.com.

M -ve

Have you ever heard of people having “M” as their blood group? You are right ->MANAGERS….

I hope, you can catch, what is M+ve and M-ve mean?. -> Yes, the sword is on “Manager’s Attitude”.

Here is a strange story(not so strange for some people) -> A testing team under a manager(immediate superior) who doesn’t know testing !!!!!!!!!!!!!????...

When I say “manager doesn’t know testing, it's not about millions of testing definitions(or) different testing approaches but the impact of testing which is the key from manager’s perspective.

It is not the question of, who is capable of taking the manager’s role?? But whether the managers are willing to learn or not????? It is very crucial for a manager to align with the team to know his/her team's activities and more importantly the team's impact in the whole picture.

How many managers can say, they know in/out of their team’s activities????????—>Many… but hope people will agree with me that, there were some, who doesn’t even bother to know the activities of their own team, they simply think that, managing the metrics will do it for them…

Then what is their role as a manager????? (just to approve leaves and to provide appraisal ratings!!!!!!!- on what basis????)..

These managers who doesn’t know the objective and impact of his/her team’s work will definitely rate their team members depending upon metrics and statistics, sometimes even number of defects irrespective of its severity will fetch you platinum rating... :)
Personally, I feel numbers(ratings) doesn’t matter. but the fact is.. it will have impact of its own.. money -> huge impact, position.... hopefully list will go on and on…

Unless these managers change their attitude, this issue can't be sorted out. Managers should not get stagnated & say “From now on, I will work only with outlook and excel sheets”. Instead they should be willing to learn more, which will in turn make their whole team to learn more….

I'm reminded of a beautiful quote by John Quincy Adams:
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." These italic blue lines were stolen from a cricket column written by akash chopra….:)

Even if you can’t inspire your team, you can just Shift+dlt your trust on micro-management, believe in you and your team, that will do wonders-> this was not stolen, it’s mine.. :)

Team: If your immediate manager has M-ve, pull up yourself and act fast to change his/her attitude if that is not feasible (M's EGO...) at least don’t allow his negative attitude to seed in you.

Impact for organization: Immediate managers will reflect company’s brand value for their team and If he/she has good attitude then the team will have a great image on company and if he/she is bad then simple, they will update their resume and knock the next door…..:)

P.S : All the above points were not only specific to Managers with M –ve, but also applicable to all who are having negative attitude, But If a manager have this M-ve then, it will definitely affect the entire team. I hope, people with M+ve will never ever care on the above……

Have a great attitude ……… :)

Cheers,
Venkat.
All izz well………

Catch me @ kpvenkatesan84@gmail.com