What's a Bug in a software?

Bug is the defect present in the software, obstructing its desired performance. The defect(s) could be mistake in coding, error in designing, faulty requirements and many more. Presence of bug continuously degrades the software quality.

How to remove bugs?

Testing Team is deployed, to locate bugs, for their removal. Testers builds test strategies and test cases to identify bugs, in order to remove them. In the era of agile development, tester's role has become more relevant than catching the bug. Now, their work is not limited to just testing only. Testers are working closely with clients and development teams, so as to attain the maximum quality of the software in the minimal time. They are acting as the representatives of end-users/client, to have better & deeper understanding about the quality improvement needs, as desired by the end-users/client.

Testers with acquired knowledge & gained skill and experience, knows how to perform their job efficiently, but a good tester is always starved for anything related to testing. Here, we are giving you, top 5 secrets to achieve a sure shot success in the bug hunting process.

• Explore, beyond the rules

  It is impossible to make 100% bug-free software, considering the impracticality in covering all facets of the software. However, a good test strategy along with effective test cases, keeps your target of achieving bug-free software, close to 100. But, a good tester should not always sticks to test strategy and impulsively follows it. This may makes you the victim of unintentional blindness and shortens your range of thinking. They should try to explore more feasible scenarios, by thinking beyond these strategies. Along with test cases, a good tester should consistently try to explore more functionalities under the test.

• Pattern Study

  Bugs are social in nature, they are likely to reside in groups. Each bug or groups have the tendency of affecting the same place, feature or functionality, again & again, uniquely. Regular monitoring of the bug-catching mechanism and using past test ideas could assist, in locating bugs, by evaluating the pattern of occurrence of the bugs, responsible for the affecting the similar functionality. The information derived from this evaluation, will aware and prevents developers, to make bug-occurring mistakes.

• Quick Attacks

  Unless, you don't have any prior or little knowledge and understanding of the software, you cannot gather requirements, which is a must requirement for formal preparation of test strategies, plans and documentation. Instead of waiting for the requirements, quick attacks may be made on the software by executing wrong or inappropriate things. Quick attacks can be like

  • Leaving any field blank, which is mandatory to be filled.
  • Typing words in the field, that requires numbers only.
  • Typing numerous words or large numbers in the field, to check the acceptability and efficiency to handle, of the software.
• Hit the bug hard

  Discovery of bug may appear as success to you. You may try to record your success in the bug-tracking report, but wait, this is just the beginning, not the end. Presence of bugs indicates potholes in the software, thereby confirming software's unstable nature. Testers should take the advantage of this instability, and try to thrash the software, rudely by feeding it with unfeasible inputs, cutting down its resources, etc. This may results into revelation of more harmful bugs.

• Be open to take help from colleagues

  No one is perfect in the world, everyone needs help. Even the vivid tester, alone could not discover the bugs in all cases. There might be some cases, where a tester alone, is unable to locate bugs. In that case, he/she should feel free to collaborate with their colleagues and share their ideas and views on bug-hunting. This may generate several ideas and effective solutions for any typical case.

Conclusion:

Testing is a large domain, which not only encompasses various approaches and strategies, to provide bug free product, but also empowers the testers to make use of their skills and experiences, to reveal out the defects in a software product, in any possible way. Still, a tester may consider and go through above stated noteworthy points, to make a testing process, easier and meaningful.

Referance: http://www.thinksys.com/top-5-secrets-to-bug-hunting-success.shtml

June 17, 2016

• ThinkSys Team