Where Is Your Quality Bar?

Quality Bar - Champaign, Il

We often speak of raising the quality bar - making things better. So where is your quality bar?

Well this one is in Champaign, Illinois.

If I'm ever in that part of the world, I plan to drop in to Quality.

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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/.

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Audi

Perhaps Audi Should Have Tested More... Earlier

This is another story about faulty airbags - but not the shrapnel-shooting airbag design by Takata. These airbags are faulty due to software bugs.

So if you own an Audi A4, Avant or Allroad vehicle, you might want to contact your dealer. A software problem may prevent your front airbags from deploying in a crash. copyrightjoestrazzere

• Audi is recalling about 850,000 cars
• Worldwide recall
• Defective software could cause airbags to fail to deploy properly
• An improper algorithm/coding within the airbag control module,
• Front-seat occupants may not have the intended protection
• Affects the Audi A4 sedans, Avant and AllRoad versions from 2011 through October 2014.
• The software update takes about 20 minutes
• The problem was discovered during routine quality assurance testing

It's nice that Audi discovered the problem recently. It's nice that the problem was discovered during routine testing.

Perhaps Audi should have tested more - perhaps before releasing the faulty software beginning 3 years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/business/audi-recalls-850000-cars-over-airbag-software-flaw.html

http://www.edmunds.com/car-news/2013-15-audi-a4-s4-and-allroad-recalled-for-airbag-problem.html

http://online.wsj.com/articles/audi-recalls-850-000-a4s-for-air-bag-fix-1414071876

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/audi-recall-idUSL6N0SI4CR20141023

http://blog.caranddriver.com/102000-audi-a4s-recalled-in-u-s-for-airbags-that-may-not-deploy/

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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/.

Be A Tester - Because Testers Live Longer!

Live Long and Test!

Six years go, I wrote an article titled "Optimistic Developers, Pessimistic Testers". In it, I explained how developers tended to be naturally optimistic folks, while testers tend to be more pessimistic.

A study I happened to read recently, indicated that "being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," and that "pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions."

The conclusion is clear - Testers live longer! copyrightjoestrazzere

Yet another great reason to be a tester.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/pessimists-live-longer-lives-study_n_2781598.html

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/02/pessimism-future.aspx

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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/.

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Intrado 911

Perhaps Intrado Should Have Tested More

You could think of it as the "40 million call bug".

A newly-released study by the Federal Communications Commission explains how a software glitch caused a massive outage in 911 services last April 9th. At the center of the disruption was a system maintained by a Longmont Colorado-based company - Intrado. copyrightjoestrazzere

Each of the calls to the Intrado system had a counter assigned to it. Unfortunately, once the number of calls reached 40 million, the system ran out of counters and stopped accepting new calls.

Intrado's servers noticed that they had run out of counters. But the "out of counters" log entries were categorized as a "low priority" state, and thus no alerts were sent to any humans.

• When the 40 millionth call was received the 911 system stopped working
• Affected 81 call dispatch centers.
• More than 11 million people across seven states were affected
• Entire state of Washington was denied access to 911 services
• The outage continued for six hours
• More than 6,600 people tried, and failed, to reach help
• The out-of-counters condition was logged as a low-level incident because that was the default level

Perhaps Intrado thought that embedding a magic limit in the sofware was a good idea. Perhaps Intrado figured that the limit of 40 million counters would never be reached. Perhaps they figured that even when they ran out of counters, it wasn't very important. Perhaps all of the 6,600 people who couldn't reach 911 emergency services didn't really need help quickly.

Perhaps Intrado should have tested more.

See Also:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/10/20/how-a-dumb-software-glitch-kept-6600-calls-from-getting-to-911/

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/morning_call/2014/10/massive-911-outage-traced-to-glitch-at-colorados.html

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/04/29/3171950/centurylink-files-state-report.html

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/20/7014705/coding-error-911-fcc-washington

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/04/washington_911_fail_state_want.html

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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/.

Steve Asks All Things

Ask All Things!

Steve asked a great question:

Hi Joe. I love reading your blog I check it daily. I have a question for you. What do you think about Black Box Quality Assurance testing holds in the future? I have 15 years of experience under my belt, but I do not want to shift into Automation testing, I don't like to code. Do you think that I have future just doing Black Box Testing? Thanks.

Regards,
steve

Thanks for reading, Steve!

I've been in Quality Assurance for almost 25 years. During that entire time, manual Black Box Testing has always existed in many (most?) companies, and I don't see that going away for the foreseeable future. copyrightjoestrazzere

That said, there is really no such thing as purely manual software testing - we all use tools, and those tools have changed over time. Some tools require coding, but many do not.

You owe it to yourself to become familiar with the kinds of tools used in your industry. Automation tools, Web Services tools, Database Query tools, Performance Testing tools - many of these are completely accessible without any significant coding.

Performing only Black Box testing almost certainly won't mean that you have no future. But limiting yourself will always narrow your future options.

Great question, Steve! Good luck in your career.

-joe

Do you have questions? Use the new "ASK ALL THINGS" widget over on the right-hand panel. Send me questions about anything:

• about the testing profession
• about test automation
• about bug tracking
• about being a Manager
• about testing and QA jobs
• about quality
• anything!

I'll read through the questions, pick some that not only interest you and me, but questions that I think will interest others. Together we can not only get you the answers you need, but we can provide others with some useful information as well.

Ask All Things!

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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/.

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Nielsen

Perhaps Nielsen should have tested more

When ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" premiered this season, the show got a big bump in the ratings. Researchers for competing networks were skeptical, since two big television markets didn't even air the show, as it was pre-empted by a broadcast of a NFL Football game. copyrightjoestrazzere

When they contacted Nielsen, the company rechecked its methodology. They found that not only were those particular numbers inflated, but that months worth of ratings were incorrect, due to a software glitch introduced in March.

• Nielsen controls almost all of the television ratings measurement market
• On October 6, Nielsen discovered an error in their TV ratings, which had been present since March 2
• Nielsen misattributed some viewership results
• Errors resulted in incorrect data over a period of seven months
• Advertisers and networks rely on Nielsen to provide the metrics used to conduct their ad sales business
• The error wound up benefiting ABC, while negatively impacting others
• Billions of dollars of advertising are based on Nielsen's ratings
• Some television and advertising executives have called Nielsen's methodology antiquated
• Some have questioned it's ability to measure the ways people currently watch television
• Nielsen says it intends to recalibrate its ratings starting only from August 18
• When the bug was made public, Nielsen's stock dropped, while that of a competitor went up 15 percent

Perhaps this black mark won't cause advertisers to rely more on competitors' products rather than Nielsen. Perhaps the ratings inaccuracies weren't enough to matter much in the long run. Perhaps there will never be another Dancing Star as good as Emmitt Smith. But perhaps Nielsen should have tested more.

See also:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/nielsen-says-glitch-affected-some-tv-ratings-1412981190

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/business/media/tv-ratings-by-nielsen-had-errors-for-months.html?_r=0

http://deadline.com/2014/10/nielsen-software-glitch-subtly-skewed-tv-ratings-since-march-849264/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/nielsen-technical-error-faulty-ratings-data_n_5966416.html

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/10/8554365/nielsen-says-it-has-issued-faulty-ratings-data-march

http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-mistake-means-ratings-are-even-lower-we-thought-160719

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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/.

Ask All Things

Ask great questions!

Years ago, I got what I consider a terrific compliment. A coworker said "As usual, Joe asks great questions."

For me, asking questions is an important and natural part of doing my job as a tester. I even wrote an article about it.

And now, I'm inviting you to ask me some great questions.

Use the new "ASK ALL THINGS" widget over on the right-hand panel. Send me questions about anything:

• about the testing profession
• about test automation
• about bug tracking
• about being a Manager
• about testing and QA jobs
• about quality
• anything!

I'll read through the questions, pick some that not only interest you and me, but questions that I think will interest others. Together we can not only get you the answers you need, but we can provide others with some useful information as well.

Unless you tell me not to, I'll share your name so that others will know that you ask great questions!

So, who wants to be first? Ask all things!

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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/.