August 26, 2013

Free Trial Versions of Commercial Test Automation Tools

Trial Versions of Test Automation Tools


Many vendors of commercial test automation tools offer trial versions. In many cases, you are free to download them, and try to them out for a short period of time to learn if they meet your needs before purchasing. In other cases, you can contact the company, speak to a sales person, and get a free trial.

Here are links to some trials. If you know of others, send me a note and I'll add them:

Automated Test and ReTest (ATRT) Test Manager (TM)
http://idtus.com/contact/

Automation Anywhere

Badboy

EggPlant
HP Unified Functional Testing (formerly QuickTest Pro)

JTest

Oracle Application Testing Suite

PesterCat


QFS Test

Ranorex

Rational Functional Tester

Rational Robot

RoutineBot
SilkTest

SmarteScript

SpiraTest

Squish
TestComplete

Testomato
http://www.testomato.com/

TestPartner

Test Studio

Tricentis Testsuite

Verifaya

Visual Studio Test Professional

vTask Studio

vTest

WebTest

WinTask


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/.

August 20, 2013

Could Your Business Benefit From Beta Testing?

Can your company benefit from some Beta Testing by professional testers?


I'd like to try a little experiment, and you can help.

For the past few years, I've posted information about Beta Testing opportunities I have found while searching the internet: copyrightjoestrazzere

I think Beta Testing can offer testers a great way to improve their skills, while at the same time offering a nice service to companies in need of some professional testing. I'd like to see if I can help facilitate this process.

Can your company benefit from having some Beta Testing performed by knowledgeable, professional testers?

If so, let me know. Send me a note describing:
  • What needs to be tested? (A website? A downloadable tool? Something else?)
  • What kind of feedback you are looking for? (Just bugs? Usability? Performance?)
  • How potential Beta Testers should contact you?
  • Any other specifics you feel are applicable.

I'll post your information here, and see if I can get you some help. If time allows, I'll also participate in the Beta Test myself (I enjoy this sort of thing).

I don't want any money for this. All I'll ask in return is a recap that I can post here once the Beta is complete. I'll want to know how well it worked for your company, if you got helpful feedback during the Beta period, if any particular Beta testers' feedback was particularly helpful, and what you would do differently if you were to run a public Beta again.


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/.

August 12, 2013

Bing Says...

Bing Says...

Previously, I've used Google to tell me about some testing-related words. Google knows everything! So now, I thought it might be interesting to see what Bing says about some of these same words.

According to Bing (and Bing knows a thing or two about a thing or two): copyrightjoestrazzere

  • Mistakes are proof that you are trying
  • Mistakes are great teachers
  • Mistakes are okay
  • Mistakes are the portals of discovery
  • Mistakes are good
  • Mistakes are inevitable
  • Mistakes are made

  • Quality is free
  • Quality is not an act it is a habit
  • Quality is job one

  • Errors are also called residuals
  • Errors are detected by a compiler

  • Testing is easy
  • Testing is not teaching
  • Testing is the future
  • Testing is dead

  • Requirements are net
  • Requirements are clear
  • Requirements are not fulfilled

  • Metrics are not available
  • Metrics are the justification
  • Metrics are fun
  • Metrics are based on
  • Metrics are used in marketing
  • Metrics are quantities assigned to attributes

  • Failure is not an option
  • Failure is not fatal
  • Failure is the mother of success

  • Test Automation is an investment

  • Agile is dead
  • Agile is crap
  • Agile is micromanagement
  • Agile is a form of roundworm
  • Agile is a scam
  • Agile is not scrum
  • Agile is not about the process

Agile is a form of roundworm? Uhm, okay. Maybe I'll stick with Waterfall.


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/.

August 8, 2013

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Lixil's Satis Toilet


Not actually the Satis toilet
(But probably not subject to being hacked, either)

Retailing for over $4,000, the Satis toilet manufactured by Japanese firm Lixil is state-of-the-art in every way. Features include: copyrightjoestrazzere
  • automatic flushing
  • music
  • deodorizing fragrance release
  • a heated seat
  • a massage feature (hmm, I'm not sure I want to know more about this)
  • soft lighting
  • a bidet function
  • the ability to be hacked from any android phone with bluetooth capability

Call me a Luddite, but to me, controlling my toilet via an Android app doesn't seem like the smartest idea anyway. Do people really want to track their poop? Then, to use a hard-coded Bluetooth PIN of "0000" means that clearly someone wasn't thinking this one through to its logical conclusion.

According to Trustwave's Spiderlabs information security experts:
The "My Satis" Android application has a hard-coded Bluetooth PIN of "0000"
as can be seen in the following line of decompiled code from the
application: 
BluetoothDevice localBluetoothDevice =
BluetoothManager.getInstance().execPairing(paramString, "0000")
I can just see it now. Toilets gone wild! Unexpected bidet action... overpowering fragrance... constant flushing... overheating... overly aggressive massage (hmm)... poop counts through the roof... the mind boggles!

The message is clear folks: If you are going to open up your device to external control (via Bluetooth, or via the Internet, whatever), you need to take security seriously.

Before they get too flushed with success, piss away their profits, or start to see any corporate goodwill go down the drain, perhaps Lixil needs to invest in some Google-style "Testing on the toilet" here?

I shudder to think what the onrushing "internet of things" will bring!

See also: