[Dot] Code Dump » unit test http://www.dotcodedump.com Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:27:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Stack Overflow http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/09/stack-overflow/ http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/09/stack-overflow/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:20:00 +0000 admin http://blog.lintnernet.com/?p=36 I am playing with a new programming question and social answer service called stack overflow.

Here is a question I submitted, and I am going to rely on wisdom of the crowd:

What is the downside of test driven development.

My Question Feed

]]> http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/09/stack-overflow/feed/ 0 Creative Application Testing http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/07/creative-application-testing/ http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/07/creative-application-testing/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0000 admin http://blog.lintnernet.com/?p=28 Be Inconsistent

Application testing can help improve quality. Many types of application testing have been defined such as: unit testing, QA, regression testing. The problem is that they are too structured, and test for known actions, and inputs. To really give an application a work out you either need a large test base, or creative developers and testers. Creative testing should not be about testing for quality, it should be about trying to break the application.

Most developers will treat the application as there baby, and hand craft the inputs when they test, becuase they want it to work. This is the worst way to test, if you are testing, design your testing strategy to break it every time. This is becuase users will input what they think is needed, and have no idea about what parameters your function uses. If the test is nothing like the real world then it’s useless. Any test that is not useful is not worth doing.

If your application is going to have a general audience such as the Internet, then it must be ready for everything. Almost none of them will be a developer (in most cases). So if your application breaks, you probably just got punked by a soccer mom. If this sounds like a problem you are having, then you need to re-evaluate your testing strategy.

Examples of creative testing:

Start Acting

As developers we have our own outlook, this includes testing. The acting approach to application testing is when you act like a certain type of user. It definitely helps to have seen the desired behavior model actually using a computer. An example of this is act like your grandpa, forget where buttons are. Squint your eyes so everything is a little blurry. Pretend to be impatient, and click links buttons multiple times, don’t wait.

Hack the Site

Go after the security, go after everything. Tamper with the form fields, use artificial posts. Use the query strings to go after non privileged data. Try to take the website down with just a browser. Don’t just kick the tires, try to pick the locks. By testing the security, and going beyond standard QA tests, you are finding out what errors happen when things are missing. You will find out where you need more error handling, and input validation.

Go Crazy

Click things at random, click everything, click it twice, don’t go in with a plan. Encounter a form, enter what every you feel like. Do this on administrative screens. Does it break? Does the data remain valid? Find out if it can withstand random data entry, and mouse clicks. What happens when I enter ‘%^! _\n*%^Tjafasd’ for the first name field. Do anything, but follow the logical flow of clicks.

Unplug your mouse or keyboard.

Can you navigate the site with only one of the input devices at the time. Do you have text links or is your navigation ok for use with keyboard. Do you require text input to get places. You will find out if your site is mouse heavy, or keyboard heavy very quickly. This gives you a sense of how your software will perform to users who may have limited support for one or the other.

Be Lazy

Some users may cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’, and others goal may be to do as little as possible, but still get done with your application. It may ruin your planned workflow, but if something can be skipped it will. Leave things out, take shortcuts. Look for ways to cheat doing work on your application. See what happens if you forget step 2 in your complex widget creation routine.

]]> http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/07/creative-application-testing/feed/ 0 Your mileage may vary: A case against automated testing. http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/06/your-mileage-may-vary-a-case-against-automated-testing/ http://www.dotcodedump.com/2008/06/your-mileage-may-vary-a-case-against-automated-testing/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:38:00 +0000 admin http://blog.lintnernet.com/?p=16
“Your mileage may vary.”

That is what you always hear in the end automotive commercials touting gas consumption numbers, and it’s true it’s all about how you drive. Automated testing is all about how you use it. There are many cases for automated testing, and quite a bit of documentation on how to implement it, this is a case not about why not to use automated testing, but where not to use it.

The very nature of automated testing is not good nor bad, it just is another type of work flow with it’s associated technologies. Most people either one follow the general consensus on unit testing, or don’t have an argument against it. Automated testing can be a great boon, but that comes with the corollaries that it must be applied in the right situations, and right environments.

Automated testing can have many positive effects. The effects can include code stability, quality assurance, and confidence in ones products. Automated testing can be used as alert against regression flaws. This allows developers to have confidence that a certain section of code is operating at a basic level of functionality. It allows developers to make large changes that impact varieties of areas, and know that database retrieval functions still work. This in theory should increase quality across the board.

Automated testing is great for testing CRUD, general business logic, and other back-end type functions. The more complex the logic, the more automated testing fits, because it validates output so you know that your logic functions are working the same way every time. Notifications are getting sent, and that deprecating functions are deprecating. These things happen in the middle tier, and the middle tier is where the most logic and programming flaws will occur. This is a prime candidate for automated testing.

The contrasting system is one where it is all about display, and the front end. Where appearances and style are critical, the system operating is always very important. I am talking about a content management systems. Companies who use content management system are most worried about how it looks, and displaying content in a timely manner. Stability and consistency using an enterprise architecture are the least things on their mind. When you get the call that client from Big Industry Inc. calls and says we have a trade show tomorrow, and we need this white paper on our new product we launched, and forgot to tell you about. They don’t care if you have to hack in a entry that may not be perfect, they just want it up! Now!

Testing is ill suited to qualitative judgments about what is right and what is wrong, I am referring specifically to front end and UI . Photos missing on a page, dates showing up incorrectly, font sizes that are to big, etc. There are ways to write tests, but the headache of trying to write front end tests is not practical for most situations, and the tools are not up to par. Testing in many ways it binds your hands, because you may have to do something that violates system integrity to give your client’s what they request. To make such a modification, or de-activate tests, which is not a issue in theory, but in practice it is last thing you have time for when “real world” pressure is being generated by users.

So I have the decision before me, I can make my user’s wait an extra day, bill them time for testing, on top of making their change, because it makes me feel better about quality, or I can get the job done, document there is something wierd with this section, because of a urgent hot fix, and make my users happy. People want instant gratification, and in the world of marketing and advertising, appearances are king. You get it done now, and you appear, fast quick, attentive. If you wait, no matter your underlying motives, you appear slow, and not caring about your users. Even if appearances are deceiving.

This is a case of form over function, and automated testing should be included in a large enterprise system, with many parts, and very complex business logic. It will make managing the chaos, and infrastructure easier. Whereas, in most content management systems this is not the case. The users want to be able to display content on page, they want it to show up, and they generally want the biggest bang for the tech dollar. Content management systems, should be about simplicity, customization, and flexibility, exactly what automated testing is not.

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