Quality Assurance Myths (March 2010)

The Real Meaning of "QA"

"Effective today, 'Quality Assurance' is now 'Quality Assistance.' Try it. Watch what happens when you start using it." This decree was issued by QA expert and author Jon Bach in our latest Testing the Limits interview. With more than a decade of testing experience (for several big-name companies) Jon knows full well the dangers of viewing QA as the assurance arm of the software industry. "The more we call ourselves 'Quality Assurance' (like we can guarantee quality), the more they will lean on us to assure them. I can’t. But I can certainly assist with the notion of whether something has value to its intended customer." Here are a few other subjects we tackle:

  • The difference between testing at a startup vs. testing at an enterprise
  • The benefits of Agile-fall (a combination of agile and waterfall)
  • A tester's worst nightmare and lessons learned from Toyota
  • Why he should have - but didn't - invent Twitter in 1986

Check out the entire two-part interview.

Whitepaper: Ten Tips of Web App Testing

With new browsers, plugins, third party apps, programming languages and more, testing your web application has never been more complicated. Download this whitepaper for tips on:

  • Third Party Apps: What about the satellite apps orbiting your web application?
  • Cloud Computing: What happens to your web app when "the cloud" fails?
  • Plugins: Use of plugins may be slowing, but what about extensions?
  • And more: Tips on PHP, Java, Ruby, Flash, and others - a complete web testing checklist for your next launch.

Read "Ten Tips of Web Testing" for more on launching a higher quality application.

Quality Quotes

"Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for 'still doesn't work.'" - Unknown "When you catch bugs early, you also get fewer compound bugs. Compound bugs are two separate bugs that interact: you trip going downstairs, and when you reach for the handrail it comes off in your hand." - Paul Graham "One man's constant is another man's variable." - Alan J. Perlis Thanks to quotegarden.com for the material.

IE6 - The Zombie Browser That Can't Be Killed

Developers have long awaited the death of Internet Explorer 6; web heavyweights like Google, Facebook, Reddit, Justin.tv and Digg have all announced the expiration date for their support of IE6; Microsoft has been steering users away from IE6 for more than a year. Earlier this month, in fact, a funeral was held for the outdated browser which was two parts wake and one part wish. Continue reading...

Bug of the Month

Big Brother is NOT Watching You: "Nearly half of the 4,313 security cameras installed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in the NYC subway aren't working, according to am New York. Earlier this week, the agency announced that these cameras are malfunctioning because they're either unable to power up or are suffering from software glitches."

NBC.com Tops Rivals in Battle of the TV Networks

Over the course of a week, 500+ testers from 30 countries searched the web and mobile sites of the major TV Networks for the most compelling bugs they could find - with nearly $4,000 in prize money on the line. Yesterday, the results were picked up by Techcrunch, VentureBeat and hundreds of our Twitter followers. Top-line findings from the competition included:

  • Nearly 50% of survey respondents chose video quality as the most important attribute when evaluating online TV networks, followed by ease of use (33%), TV content & shows (12%) and community features (5%).
  • NBC.com scored highest for video quality; CBS.com scored highest in the ease of use category (see page two).
  • Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities were discovered on 3 out of 4 networks.

Check out our Bug Battle page for more details.