It has been a long time between drinks, but WTANZ (the Australia & New Zealand chapter of WT) is back! And we are rebooting WTANZ with a session focused on oracles in Software Testing. Details are below:
Date: Saturday 29, June 2013
Time: 02:00 p.m. – 04:00 p.m. ADST – check the time in your timezone http://bit.ly/143UoXf
Participants: Aaron Hodder, Ajay Balamurugadas, Anne-Marie Charrett, Anoop G S, David Robinson, Dean Mackenzie, Erin Donnell, JeanAnn Harrison, Julie Hurst, Justin Rohrman, Michael Larsen, Mike Talks, Muzaffar, Rachel Lelecque, Raghu S, Roman Sheyko, Smita Mishra, Srinivas Kadiyala, Teri Charles
Facilitator: Alessandra Moreira
Application: mail.com
Mission:
Our session will involve testing an alternative web email client: mail.com
The focus will be on finding bugs and observing how oracles play a part in deciding if something we see is a bug or not.
Oracles are principles or mechanisms by which we recognise a problem. Below are links with more information on oracles in Software Testing:
http://www.developsense.com/blog/2012/07/few-hiccupps/
http://www.developsense.com/blog/category/oracles/
http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/2012/06/12/observation-inference-oracle/#comments
The session is done over Skype. To join this session ping WeekendTestingANZ on Skype 15 minutes prior to the starting time and you will be added to the discussion. Also follow WTANZ_ on twitter for updates.
Findings:
It was the first Weekend Testers ANZ session in a while and it was great to see so many people join in and support it! We had 19 active participants which made for an exceptional session filled with discussion and leaning.
The mission was to use Oracles to test the application and to identify issues/defects/features.
The session started with testers logging on to mail.com and creating a new account. Several attendees found the experience frustrating, some were not able to create an account at all using different browsers/OS. Participants used FEW HICCUPS Oracles to help and guide their testing and reported back their findings. Different testers used different test approaches, which ranged from testing as much as possible in one hour to creating mind-maps.
Interesting points were raised during discussion about the fallibility of Oracles, combining Oracles to make a stronger case and the use of personas, combined with Oracles. We also discussed how Oracles are context-dependent and should be used as such.
Thanks to everyone who joined in and helped make this session such a success!
Full transcript of the session can be found here.
I am a tester from Sydney, Australia currently living in New York. I am passionate about learning and helping other testers find their passion and strengths.