Posted on October 12, 2011
New to Software Testing? Been in the Software Testing career for a while? No matter how much or little experiences you have, you will always find different challenges regardless of which industry you are in, or the size of your team. I would like to share with you some things I have learned throughout the years and hopefully this will give practical perspective of software testing.
Many projects that I have worked had the software deployed in production without any formal documentations or sign off procedures. The challenge for me wasn't about how to test the system with little information but to give confidence to the business owner or users that we have developed a robust system that will support their daily business activities.
Software Testing is very much similar to research and development where planning and analysis must take place. There are three main factors that contribute to successful testing:
- Testing scope must be clearly defined;
- The knowledge of the system under test;
- Interpersonal skills.
It is very important to know 'what' first before we can start thinking about 'how'. When I said 'what' doesn't mean knowing everything up front but it is something that every team member is aware the work to be done in the next days, weeks or months. By knowing where to start we can prioritize deliverable tasks to a point where the system ready for acceptance and released to production.
Effective testing is not about executing a large number of test cases but it all about finding as many defects in the shortest time possible. Every tester should have a good knowledge of the system functionality. The learning process usually starts from spending time with the Subject Matter Expert then followed by reading software specifications. Learning phase should be taken into considerations when estimating the effort to complete testing phase.
Last but not the least testers should work closely with every team members from business users, Business analyst and development team. Good interpersonal and communication skills will surely help working in an environment where we need to liaise with people from different background and expertise. The right answer comes from asking the right question to the right person.
In summary, career in Software Testing can be challenging yet rewarding. Regardless the size of your organization or project, you will need to focus on these areas and everything else will fall into place. You must first know what you need to do, learn what you need to do and communicate with your team members what you do. I hope you find this article is useful and all the best with your career.
Posted on October 1, 2011
Every social media marketing service provider has an opinion on this topic. Why? Mainly because acquiring fans through a social media marketing campaign is a whole lot easier than generating revenue...and, nine times out of ten, their customers eventually grow dissatisfied with just growing their respective fan bases. After all, marketing (whether via social media, SEO, paid search, or whatever other method) is about making more money, right?
Absolutely. However, how you quickly you generate revenue off of a given marketing campaign can vary dramatically depending on which marketing method you choose to employ. It's tough to see immediate results on SEO--ranking for certain keywords in your industry can be a constant battle. Conversely, generating traffic and eventually revenue via PPC can be almost immediate. So where does social media marketing fit into the mix? How long should a business have to wait before consistent social media marketing actually pays off in the form of increased revenue?
I for one, believe that a company's "social" team (whether in-house or outsourced consultants) needs to stick to one thing...social! In order to maximize revenue potential, social media marketing campaigns need to tie into other sales and marketing efforts within your business.
Think of it as an assembly line...social media can be a traffic driving machine if used properly. The "social" team needs to work tirelessly to (1) increase Facebook fans/likes, Twitter followers, YouTube channel subscribers, etc. and (2) drive those fans/followers/subscribers to a highly-optimized webpage, to a physical location/retail store, or wherever else the ultimate, "ideal" location might be.
At this point, the "social" team has done its job by growing fans/followers/subscribers and getting them to leave the comfort of Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, etc. and visit your website/restaurant/retail store, etc. Now it's up to the online marketing team to do their job with conversion optimization...or store management to create the ideal ambiance for the increased foot traffic sourced courtesy of the "social" team's efforts.
The Worth of a Fan
Likes, fans, followers, and the like are hugely valuable. If you are a business owner that is dissatisfied with your social media marketing provider or team, as long as they're either (1) driving traffic and/or (2) driving revenue, they're probably doing at least a decent job. Now it's your job to do something with the social assets that they've created for you.
Think of it this way. Businesses pay oodles of dough for leads. A lead might consist of a name and an email address and/or phone number, address, or other personal/business information. Some businesses pay loads of money just for a name and an email address. So how valuable is an email address, really? Have you ever done any email marketing before? If so, you know that email addresses can be valuable, but conversion rates are usually pretty low. Generally speaking, you need a boat load of email addresses to see a major revenue impact on your email marketing efforts.
Why is this the case?
How often do you open unsolicited emails? How often do those emails even make it past your spam filters? Even if you open a salesy email, how often do you actually read it through and respond to the call-to-action? I think that I can speak for all of us when I say that the answer to each of these questions is not very often.
The same issues exist with collecting phone numbers in your lead generation efforts. How often do you answer your phone if the call is unsolicited? Let's say you accidentally (or intentionally) answer a phone call from an unidentified caller...how excited are you when they open the conversation with a bogus introduction and sales pitch? That guy/gal that called you, whether he/she is a wonderful person or not, is subconsciously perceived by many people to be a little bit slimey. It's the unfortunate nature of the beast for businesses with telemarketing based sales efforts.
Posted on September 24, 2011
The article intends to educate customers about reasons that cause Windows 7 to perform slowly. The information has been compiled from various sources and is only for informational purposes. Other than the causes described in this article, your computer may perform slow due to internal technical glitches or unintentionally designed flaws in the operating system.
Windows 7, the most sought operating system among Windows and even Non-Windows users, has changed the computing experience of users who were frustrated with Windows Vista or upgraded from Windows XP or earlier versions. Though Windows 7 comprises a host of new features, updates, and tools etc., it tends to show its darker side by frequently performing slow. We all know that no hardware or software in this world is free from technical errors. Windows 7 is therefore no exception.
Are you one of those users who are facing slow performance issue in your Windows 7? Do you want to know what can cause it to behave like that? If yes, then the article is for you. Below are the common reasons due to which Windows 7 performs sluggish:
Faulty hardware piece attached to the computer - It often happens that a piece of hardware starts malfunctioning suddenly due to a number of reasons. You might not come to know about the hardware problem as it may not be apparent. You may only find your PC performing slow or behaving eerily. You can identify the hardware issue by rebooting your computer in the Safe Mode. Since Windows loads without drivers and software etc. in Safe Mode, you will get to know if it's a hardware or software issue.
Corrupted/faulty driver(s) - Drivers are small applications (software) that establish interaction between a hardware and software. These drivers always need to be updated with latest updates whenever these are available. Often, drivers go missing or corrupted due to several reasons such as virus infections, upgrading or updating Windows or hardware etc. To get rid of this problem, replace the faulty or damaged driver with new one. It is recommended to install the latest and compatible drivers for Windows and update them regularly. You can your hardware vendor's website for drivers. You can also check Microsoft's website for the list the compatible drivers with your hardware.
Virus infections - Did you ever imagine that viruses, spyware, malware like infections can ever make your Windows 7 perform slowly? If you never, then you must know that infections do make your computer behave oddly, slow performance is one among these odd behavior symptoms. These infections when enter your computer, eat up the memory of your computer, corrupt the files, load it with more viruses, spyware infections etc., and thus cause it to perform sluggish or shutdown, reboot in a continuous loop. It is recommended to run the full system scan from your antivirus program. If it finds infections in the scan results, command it to remove the infections. You should also update your antivirus program on a regular basis.
Software slagheap - Though Windows 7 is designed to run lots of and heavy applications simultaneously, however if you run more than required applications, you may find it performing sluggish. For example, you may have two antivirus programs simultaneously installed and operating in your computer. To get rid of this problem, you will be required to operate only the programs that you really need on your computer.