Jean Ann Harrison, CardioNet, Inc.
he task of writing bug reports is a familiar one for software testers. Testers see an error message or witness unacceptable behavior in an application and create bug reports in their bug report-tracking tool. But is that error message the real bug or was the code written to indicate something went wrong? What about slow performance of a web page loading based on one input? Is the input the bug? Is the reaction from the application due to the input or a bug?
This presentation will not only address general testing practices in finding bugs, but testers will learn to mine the bounty and dig deeper. Go beyond the symptoms like error messages and explore behavior patterns to discover gold mines of information. Molly & Jean Ann will expand on the many benefits when software testing resources are dedicated to providing more descriptive information about the problems to Development. Attendees will learn how to recognize symptoms and be shown testing techniques in exposing root causes of bugs.
Real life situations will be shared with attendees along with step by step exercises to expand attendees’ skill set. When an error condition exists, Molly & Jean Ann will not only repeat the steps to confirm repeatability but also explain what kinds of other variables can be added or detracted to those steps to expose more information about the behavior. Why did one error appear when steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were implemented but the error did not appear when steps 1, 3, 4 and 5 were implemented?
Finally what knowledge does a gold mining bug reporter need to be successful? Throughout the session, Molly & Jean Ann will use personality traits and helpful technical skills to further expand upon the golden nuggets of bug reporting capabilities.
2010 Poster Paper, Jean Ann Harrison, Abstract
