[All Things Quality] I'm In Better Software Magazine!


From One Expert To Another

I mentioned a while back that I would be in Better Software Magazine. copyrightjoestrazzere

And here it is - the November/December 2012 issue http://www.stickyminds.com/BetterSoftware/magazine.asp. It's free to download as a PDF.

Right there on page 17, are excerpts from the "From One Expert to Another" interview I had with Alan Page.

You can read the full interview at the StickyMinds site: http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectType=ART&ObjectId=17707

Enjoy!


This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] Release Tracking Template

Release Tracking Template

In my shop, we each have official "Goals" which help form the basis of our annual bonuses.

All of the folks on my QA Team, have one Goal related to successful releases. Here, "successful" basically equates to "Released to Production with no issues requiring an emergency fix". copyrightjoestrazzere

In order to track these release events, I just use a simple spreadsheet. Nothing fancy here, but it allows me to quickly review a year's worth of releases when completing the annual Performance Appraisal forms.

You can access the template I use here:


This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] From One Expert to Another: Joe Strazzere

From One Expert to Another: Joe Strazzere

Stickyminds.com, the online companion to Better Software magazine, runs a series of articles titled "From One Expert to Another".

These articles use an interview format where one QA/Testing expert questions another. copyrightjoestrazzere

Past editions have interviewed such industry notables as Markus Gärtner, Alan Page, Paul Poutane, Dawn and Shannon Code, Meeta Prakash, Simon Baker, Catherine Powell, and James Bach.

When Joey McAllister of Stickyminds and Alan Page approached me about being the subject, I was quite flattered! And here is the interview:

From One Expert to Another: Joe Strazzere 
http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectType=ART&ObjectId=17707

Excerpts will also appear in the next printed version of Better Software magazine.

Alan Page works at Microsoft, is a true expert, writes a terrific blog at http://angryweasel.com/blog/, and was the lead author for one of my favorite Testing books, How We Test Software at Microsoft.


 This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] Software Testing is NOT "Breaking Things" - Part Two


Breaking Things, or is it Monkey Testing?

For some odd reason, I really don't like it when software testers say "I enjoy breaking things". copyrightjoestrazzere

When you test and find a bug, you haven't broken anything - it was already broken!  If anything, the developer who wrote the code broke it.

see:

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] A New Version of WinTask - 3.9


WinTask 3.9

The good folks at TaskWare have released a new version of the favorite tool in my toolbox - WinTask.

The big news here is that WinTask has added support for Chrome.  So now you can test Windows applications, and web applications in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome! copyrightjoestrazzere

Here is the vendor's version history of WinTask: http://www.wintask.com/version-history.php

Check this tool out at http://www.wintask.com/

You can see some of my WinTask utility scripts here, using the WinTask tag.


This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] Test Automation Is ...


Test Automation Is

According to Google (and Google knows everything), test automation is: copyrightjoestrazzere
  • Test Automation is easy
  • Test Automation is complex
  • Test Automation is now
  • Test Automation is making you crazy
  • Test Automation is a good thing
  • Test Automation is important
  • Test Automation is required
  • Test Automation is bad
  • Test Automation is not the icing on the cake
  • Test Automation is preferred
  • Test Automation is a specialized career
  • Test Automation is sometimes complicated
  • Test Automation is a much talked about topic
  • Test Automation is in itself a software development activity
  • Test Automation is more difficult that people often realize
  • Test Automation is a full-time effort
  • Test Automation is more than a set of tests
  • Test Automation is becoming cross-discipline
  • Test Automation is the next logical step
  • Test Automation is largely a technical exercise
  • Test Automation is an investment
  • Test Automation is an agent of transformation
  • Test Automation is always viewed as the most desired approach for testing
  • Test Automation is obviously the right thing
  • Test Automation is no longer confined to programmers and scripters
Can you add to the list?


This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Apple iOS 6 Maps

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about one release ago
And it's gone right to my head

Apple's new iOS 6 software update replaces Google Maps with Apple Maps as expected, but so far, unhappy users are panning the change in websites and online forums. copyrightjoestrazzere

Apple is receiving massive backlash from users around the globe, who report that Apple’s replacement maps, “Apple Maps,” are riddled with strange glitches, inaccurate direction and location data, and fall short of Google Maps.
  • Called "an unsightly blemish on what is otherwise a beautiful OS"
  • Train stations have gone missing
  • The Sears Tower in Chicago has been moved to a smaller tower
  • In Ireland, Dublin has been given a new airport where a farm called Airfield currently stands.
  • Searches for London mostly tend to redirect users to the small city of London in Ontario, Canada.
  • Stratford Upon Avon disappeared
Perhaps Apple should have tested more.



This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] It's Time To Vote - For SQAForums!

Vote for SQAForums.com

Once again the Automated Testing Institute is conducting their annual "Automation Honors" voting. From their website: copyrightjoestrazzere

The industry's original set of awards dedicated to software test automation is again looking to crown industry leading tools, resources and practitioners with automation's top honor. That means it's time for all of you to get busy!
The ATI Automation Honors awards rely on industry practitioners to identify which tools, resources and people are the best, which have the most significant upgrades and/or which are setting the trends that will help to take software test automation to the next level in the coming year. The 4th Annual Awards promise to be even bigger and better with more categories, more trend analysis, a live ceremony at the TestKIT 2012 Conference, video presentation ceremony, and much more.

In the category of "Best Automated Testing Forum" my vote again goes to SQAForums.com.

With almost 200,000 registered members and numerous tool-specific and tool-agnostic forums, SQAForums is the best place I've found to ask questions and get answers about all facets of test automation, as well as general Test and QA issues. And, I'm lucky enough to be one of the Moderators!

If you like SQAForums, as much as I do, you can go here to vote:
http://www.automatedtestinginstitute.com/home/index.php?option=com_jforms&view=form&id=22&Itemid=186

And if you haven't visited SQAForums yet, why not come and pay a visit at:
http://www.sqaforums.com

Tell them your friend Joe sent you!




This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] There's A Bug And It's Been Assigned To Me

To the tune of "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea"

There's a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me copyrightjoestrazzere

There's an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There's a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There's a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There's a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There an error in a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There an error in a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There a problem in an error in a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There a problem in an error in a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There a typo in a problem in an error in a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There a typo in a problem in an error in a failing in a fault in a glitch in a defect in an issue in a bug and it's been assigned to me
There's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me

There's a feature in the code and it's been assigned to me
There's a feature in the code and it's been assigned to me
So there's a bug, there's a bug, there's a bug and it's been assigned to me


This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.

[All Things Quality] Remembering September 11, 2001

Anna Williams Allison

Eleven years later, I remember September 11, 2001.

I remember being in a morning meeting and one of the staff members was late. When he came in, he asked if we had heard the news about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. We hadn't. We finished our meeting, then went upstairs to the lunch room (with its huge projection television) and saw that the news channels still weren't sure if this was an accident or some sort of attack.

Shortly after that, we watched in horror as another plan crashed into the second tower. Then it was clear that this was no accident.

A very sad, unsettling day.
copyrightjoestrazzere
The next day, I got a phone call from a friend. He told me some more sad news. A former co-worker was on American Airlines flight #11 - the first plane to crash into a tower.

Anna Williams Allison was a colleague at Bachman Information Systems. She and I both worked in the Quality Assurance department.  She was very smart, very energetic, and a terrific QAer.  I learned a lot from her, and I like to think she learned something from me.

When we both left Bachman, we remained friends, and occasionally spoke, emailed, shared ideas about QA and work, and had lunch. She eventually formed her own company - doing QA training and presentations. She was very good for the QA field.

Anna was on flight 11, on her way to a customer engagement.

I miss her, both professionally, and as a friend. Each September 11th, as the country shares remembrances of a sad day in our history, I think of her again. We in the QA community are poorer without her.


This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.