Tag Archives: software testing

Too Much to Test and Not Enough Time to Test It All

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beginner videoJustin Hunter’s presentation at the 12th annual international software testing conference in Bangalore, India, December 2012.

The techniques discussed focus on how to reduce the amount of time spent selecting and documenting test scripts, reduce the amount of tests needed for execution by creating unusually powerful tests and thus increase the thoroughness of software test suites.

The talk explored the significant risks, for users, companies and employees of failing to catch software application failures before release (for example, looking at releasing Apple Maps with significant failures). And discussed how combinatorial (also orthogonal array or pairwise) software testing can be used to create test plans that test a large number of parameters/factors quickly.

The slides from the presentation:

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Mind Maps – What, Why and How

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beginner videoIn this video Justin Hunter shows how to use mind maps to clearly and concisely organize and communicate information about your software tests.

You can quickly see mind maps in action by logging into your Hexawise account (it is simple to setup a free demo account, if you don’t have one yet) and open one of the sample test plans. You can make changes to the test plan and export a new mind map and see how the changes are reflected in the mind map.

The video is using Hexwise v 2.0 which is slightly different than the current version on the public site (v 1.x doesn’t have the option to email yourself the mindmap). The main Hexawise site will soon be using Hexawise v2, which includes many enhancements.

As mentioned in the video help.hexawise.com provides guidance and tips on using specific Hexawise features to create software test plans and documentation. As shown in the video to view the mind map you click on the Export option which is in the upper right of the screen. The export option provides several export options including the option to generate mind maps.

Hexawise also can import mind maps that you have already created.

Related: How to Think about Test Inputs in Software Testing – Using Mind Maps for Test Planning

Detailed Example for Creating Pairwise Test Plans Using Hexawise

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beginner video

This is an 8 part series of videos showing, in detail, various steps that can be used in creating a pairwise software test plan. Many test plans will not require many of these optional steps. Most of the videos have run times of 1-4 minutes.

The series of videos looks at how to create a set of functional test cases for customers purchasing products on Amazon.com using the Hexawise, a tool to create software test plans with pairwise and combinatorial test coverage.

Video 1 of 8, getting started creating up a new test plan.

Video 2 of 8, marking invalid pairs. This allows a test planner to avoid pairs that are not sensible – for example, if a certain product is not available for payment with a check (perhaps a service that requires a monthly payment). Hexawise will then avoid creating any test conditions that contained the invalid pairs that were identified.

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How to Think about Test Inputs in Software Testing

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beginner video

This video provides practical tips for selecting appropriate test inputs for pairwise and combinatorial software test design.

Our experience shows as software testers begin to use pairwise test design strategies selecting the correct input parameters to test is often a bit of a struggle. This video will help testers get up to speed with designing pairwise software test plans effectively.

Related: Introduction to Pairwise Testing: Banking Example – Hexawise – More coverage. Fewer tests.

Pairwise Testing Introduction: Banking Example (2 Videos)

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beginner video

A basic introduction to pairwise software testing, designing a set of pairwise tests for a simplified banking application, and answering the following questions:

What is pairwise testing?
What challenges does pairwise testing solve?
How do pairwise software test design methods prioritize which specific test conditions are included in each of the tests in the plan?
What two aspects of pairwise test solutions don’t receive as much attention as they deserve? (Variability between tests, and front-loading of combinatorial coverage)

Video 2 of 2:
This video demonstrates:

  • How should you think about including parameters and values in your inputs so that they trigger specific business rules?
  • How can you remove “impossible to test for” scenarios from presenting?

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