Capture core information for defect in an automated fashion – if possible
When we submit defects, we often include a core set of data that's included on every ticket. For most organizations, this will include the submitter, the environment where the issues was discovered, the steps to reproduce, and often some sort of attachment showing or demonstrating the issue. In many cases, this core information can be captured and filled out automatically. Some defect tracking tools provide features that provide this functionality, but even if they don't a lot of times you can write a really simple script to populate a lot of this information for you. At a minimum, if your team has an expectation for some of these aspects to be filled out for all tickets, consider making those fields required to help ensure that each one is at least touched/reviewed before the tester clicks submit.
This tip was part of a brainstorm developed at the September 2011 Indianapolis Workshop on Software Testing on the topic of "Documenting for Testing." The attendees of that workshop (and participants in the brainstorm) included: Charlie Audritsh, Scott Barber, Rick Grey, Michael Kelly, Natalie Mego, Charles Penn, Margie Weaver, and Tina Zaza.
Submit an automated test that fails along with your bug report
We touched on this one before with this tip from Dave Christiansen, however the topic came up again at last month's IWST. Depending on the tools you use, you might consider attaching automated scripts to your defects. If you can find a bug, and then quickly record a simple script that recreates it, attach that and send it along with the defect report.
This tip was part of a brainstorm developed at the September 2011 Indianapolis Workshop on Software Testing on the topic of "Documenting for Testing." The attendees of that workshop (and participants in the brainstorm) included: Charlie Audritsh, Scott Barber, Rick Grey, Michael Kelly, Natalie Mego, Charles Penn, Margie Weaver, and Tina Zaza.
Start from the abstract and move the the specific
Let's say you're testing a text field and you need a value for first name. Your first inclination might be to test with the value:
TomTheReallyLongNamedGuyWhoHasFunkyCharactersInHisName12345!@#$%^&*()_+-=
There's nothing wrong with that. It's a fine test value. However, if that value ends up finding what you think might be an issue, then work backwards from the issue uncovered to try to find a more specific test value that both highlights the issue and is also a more realistic value a user might input.
For example, let's say the issue uncovered is that the length of the name entered overwrites the available space on certains screens - then just use a really long name and ditch the special characters. Or let's say it's a hyphen that makes the application choke. Then ditch the length and do a simple hyphenated name.
FireShot
I found really cool web page capture program over the holiday call FireShot. FireShot is a simple tool that lets you capture and annotate web pages. I needed something that would capture more than a simple screenshot since I couldn't size the page small enough to fit it into one image. This was perfect. Snap the shot, mark it up, send it off. Simple - and it's just a browser plugin. Check it out.
Support Details
For those of you who do web testing, Support Details is a handy little utility for when you report issues. It automatically pulls down information related to the browser you're using, and it allows you to either download that info (csv, pdf) or email it to someone who can look into the issue. Since I have several computers and each has a couple of browsers (all constantly doing their own automatic updates) this is really nice for when I submit something that I suspect might be browser specific.
Excel-based Test Reports (2)
Continuing the previous tip, I provide sample MS Word document template you may use for bug reporting. What does it have to do with Excel?
- You can use a single Excel document as a "one-stop-shop" container for the bug reports. And this is the idea of today's tip.
By following a simple one-time setup procedure you can embed the document template into your Excel report.
- Select the cell you want to contain the attached document(in the example that's an "Attached Documents" cell).
- In the Excel's Main Menu, select "Insert / Object".
- In the "Object" dialog, select "Create from File" tab.
- Keep "Link to File" option unchecked.
- Click "Browse", select the document in "Browse" dialog, and click "Insert".
- Click "OK" to embed the document.
Afterwards, you can create new copies of a template within the Excel report document as simple as "select template cell - Ctrl-C - select destination cell - Ctrl-V".
Excel-based Test Reports (1)
Today's tip is for those testers who use standalone Excel-based reports.
The picture above represents a typical "Summary" tab enlisting reported issues, status, short description, etc. Detailed descriptions along with the images are usually stored on a separate tab.
Now what you can quickly and easily do is to connect 2 data rows from separate tabs with a hyperlink.
- Select the cell you want to use as a navigation control (in the example that's an "Issue #" cell).
- In the Excel's Main Menu, select "Insert / Hyperlink".
- In the "Edit Hyperlink" dialog, select "Place in This Document" tab.
- Select target tab name (in the example that's "Screenprints" tab).
- Type in the cell reference (in the example that's "A3").
- Click "OK" to save settings.
Are you still using screenshots?
PDF Download by Nitro PDF Software is a free add-on for MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.
It allows taking complete snapshot of a web-page and saving it in PDF format. That is, all text blocks, hyperlinks, and other page elements can still be accessed (copied, searched for, etc.) , while potentially harmful content (like JavaScript) is removed.
By default, PDF files are allowed for uploading/downloading in web-based defect tracking systems. From now on, you have an opportunity to provide even more valuable content in your bug reports.
How to install PDF Download
- Follow the link.
- Download and install the add-on.
- Restart the browser
How to use
Once you are on the page you want to capture (that is, you have it opened in your browser), simply press the button on toolbar, and select an option in the menu.
The add-on places request to a download server, which captures pages, creates PDF files, and sends them back for download.
Let your bugs have social networks
One of the things I really like about JIRA is how much linking it allows. (Other tools do this too, but I wanted to namedrop the tool because they do it particularly well.) From a story, I can link related stories, defects, CM tickets, deployment tickets, etc.... Basically whatever ticket type I want. This is great, because over time I've developed some risk heuristics based on the number of links a ticket has:
- If it has a lot of links to other stories, I likely need to test more around business functionality concerns.
- If it has a lot of links to other bugs, I likely need to test more around technical functionality concerns.
- If it has a lot of links to CM tickets, I likely need to test more around deployment and configuration.
I've also developed some similar heuristics around estimating how long work will take based on links, how much documentation there will be to review, etc...
JIRA also shows you how many people have participated in a ticket. That is, it tracks who's "touched" it. I have similar heuristics around that. The more people involved, the longer stuff will take, the more likely there was code integration, etc...
What does the social network of your tickets tell you about your testing?
Make sure exception notifier is on
Today's tip comes from a talk Dave Christianen gave last night at a local Ruby group meetup. When testing a Ruby on Rails application (or really almost any time), make sure you have Exception Notifier turned on. If you test Rails apps, and haven't seen Exception Notifier, check it out.
