January 30, 2014

Learn HTML and Style sheets in one hour - Free training

HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is the language of the web pages and a basic test automation skill. If you haven't done so, you can learn HTML and CSS/ style sheets using our three free tutorials.  These tutorials cover HTML structure, important tags like links, images, tables, div and span, tag attributes, SEO (basic search engine optimization) and internal style sheets. You can view the tutorials here.
 
HTML Tutorial 1: This tutorial explains the HTML basics to create simple web pages. What is HTML? How to create the structure of a web page with tags like html, head, body and heading tags? How are tags paired? What is the difference between paired tags and single tags? How to use line breaks?

HTML Tutorial 2: This tutorial explains the important HTML tags. How to implement title, lists, links, images, div, span and tables? What are HTML entities? How to work with tag attributes? What are the important attributes of each HTML tag?

HTML Tutorial 3: This tutorial explains basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization). How to make your web pages more visible to search engines with simple steps? This tutorial also explains internal style sheets i.e. style sheets that affect all the elements of your web page. How to apply style to HTML web elements? How to apply more than one style to the same HTML web element?
Already know HTML really well? Try our HTML Quiz.

January 25, 2014

Types of Software Testing

Software testing is categorized into various types. This categorization is based on the focus, approach or method used. Let us see the software testing types.

White box testing - This testing needs the knowledge of the code and data structures of the software. It involves code coverage and testing interfaces. It is mostly performed at the unit level. Also known as clear box testing or glass box testing.

Black box testing - This testing does not require the knowledge of the internal code and data structures of the software. It is based on the inputs given by and outputs obtained by the user. It involves testing the requirements and exploratory testing.

Manual testing - This testing is done by human testers using their knowledge, creativity and intellect. The testers may use a few tools but the majority of the testing is done by hand.

Automated testing - The testing is executed by a computer running test automation code. The test automation is designed by a human tester. The test automation code is generated automatically by a tool (record and playback) or written by the tester by hand.

January 17, 2014

What is quality?

Let us understand the concept of Quality. View the video that explains What is Quality or read on. Simply put, "quality" is a property or a characteristic of an item, a product, a service or a system. A physical product has properties like dimensions, weight, price or life span. Notice that each of these properties is one of two types, tangible or intangible. Properties like dimensions and weight are tangible. Meaning that they are physical properties that we can measure easily. Properties like price and life span are intangible. Meaning that they are not obvious to our senses or measuring devices. Quality is an intangible property of a product or a system. That is why it is not trivial to estimate it. It is probably impossible to measure it accurately.

What is quality?

Quality is relevant when considering any kind of a thing like a pen, a smart-phone, a vehicle or a software application. The perception of quality depends on the individual's preferences. For some, it can be meeting the specifications. For some, it is a large number of features. For others, it is the combination of other properties like performance, reliability, maintainability, security, portability, usability or aesthetics. High quality is naturally desirable to people. High quality means that the thing is better than its substitutes. Therefore, people tend to prefer items, products, services or systems with high quality. Manufacturers and service providers understand the users' preference for things of high quality.

A system can be specified by laying out its external features, inputs, internal processes, workflows, usage and outputs. For example, if you want to purchase a new car, you could look at the specifications of the model that interests you. You may want to see the dimensions, power, torque, seating capacity, fuel, engine type, driving features and so on. Then, figure if these specifications meet your requirements or not. As another example, consider an email application. Here, the specifications could be the type of email address, read email, write email, send email to one or more email addresses, include attachments and so on. Based on these specifications, you could estimate if this email application is suitable for you or not.

Another way of estimating the system quality is to look at the features. You could determine if there are many useful features in the system or not. For example, consider a calculator application. You could find if it has the basic features like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Then find if it has other useful features like sine, cosine, log, square root and so on. Then, figure if these features meet your requirements or not.

Yet another way of finding the quality is to examine other properties of the system. You could determine if it is fast (performance), able to work for long time (reliable), easy to repair (maintainable), safe (secure) and easily shifted from one environment to another (portable).

It is common to use any or all ways of estimating the quality. If the system meets the specifications, has a large number of useful features and has good performance, reliability, maintainability, security, portability, usability and aesthetics, it is perceived to be of a high quality.

Testing a system gives us data to estimate the quality of that system. Testing a system lets us know if the system meets each of its requirement specifications or not. It gives us data about working features of the system. It also provides data about other relevant system properties like performance, security and usability. Testing provides this data when the system is actually used. This why testing is so important. Especially software testing to estimate software quality.

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January 14, 2014

Software Defect Prevention

As software testers, we focus on defect detection. In this post, let us see different ways to prevent defects in software. Preventing defects is preferred to detecting defects and removing them. The following guidelines may take us out of our comfort zone. However, they help us connect better with other team members (developers, designers and analysts).
  1. Keep the requirements as simple as possible.
  2. Review the requirements for clarity, completeness, no conflicts and testability.
  3. Use design standards.
  4. Review the software design.
  5. Keep the software code as simple as possible.
  6. Use coding standards.
  7. Unit test the code.
  8. Review the code.
  9. Refactor code to make it simple to understand.
  10. Always communicate well within the team about requirements, design and code.

January 02, 2014

Software Programming and Software Testing videos

This blog has a YouTube channel now. It is called Software and Testing Training. The goal of this channel is to provide self-paced online training in Programming, Scripting, Software Testing, QA, Automation Testing with Selenium, Performance Testing and Load Testing using JMeter, LoadRunner, test automation with QTP, TestComplete, Database testing with SQL Structured Query Language, Java and other programming languages, JavaScript, VBScript and other scripting languages and other technologies like HTML, CSS and XML used in software applications and software systems.

The objective of Software and Testing Training channel is to make available software development training, testing training, qa training, software testing tutorial, automation videos, automated testing tutorial and quality assurance training with details and examples. So that the material is very clear to the viewer. The training topics range from software development and testing fundamentals to advanced programming concepts, advanced scripting, database queries, advanced test methodologies and test automation.

Software and Testing Training channel has thousands of subscribers looking for software programming and testing online training. You too can benefit from it. In order to avail the latest videos with exciting software development and software testing content, please subscribe to Software and Testing Training channel by clicking on this link.