Part - 1 Areas to be looked at when testing

Hi all,

Here Iam with yet another exciting topic on testing. For many years we are testing but are we really aware of what we are need to look at when we test an application or a software. It means to say are we testing the application in the areas where it needs to be tested. Through this topic I would like to put upon the areas where in we need to concentrate when we are testing.

What are we going testing?

What are we testing? A very important question to be answered before we start testing and deliver them to the client. Most of the times we are not able to find answers for this that is why most of the time we end up writing test cases that are not adequate enough to solve our problems due to this bugs or issues leaks out making the application bug-prone and the end-result customer is unhappy and the business goes down. Whenever we are going to test we need to understand the application and note down the points where in we need a better clarity and discuss the same with concerned person. Only when a tester is having a good idea of the application and what he is going to test he should proceed. The test case that are written should have covered everything possible so that we are able to give a bug free application to the customer.

The below are some of the important areas to be looked at when we are testing:

When testing a GUI

Communication; aspects to be tested are:
• Tool tips and status bar

Missing information
• Enable/ Disable toolbar buttons
• Wrong/ misleading/ confusing information
• Help text and Error messages
• Training documents
Dialog Boxes; aspects to be tested are:
• Keyboard actions
• Mouse actions
• Canceling
• Okaying
• Default buttons
• Layout error
• Modal
• Window buttons
• Sizable
• Title/ Icon
• Tab order
• Display layout
• Boundary conditions
• Sorting
• Active window
• Memory leak
Command structure; aspects to be tested are:
• Menus
• Popup menus
• Command Line Parameters
• State transitions
Program rigidity; aspects to be tested are:
• User options
• Control
• Output
Preferences; aspects to be tested are:
• User tailor-ability
• Visual preferences
• Localization
Usability; aspects to be tested are:
• Accessibility
• Responsiveness
• Efficiency
• Comprehensibility
• User scenarios
• Ease of use
Localization; aspects to be tested are:
• Translation
• English-only dependencies
• Cultural dependencies
• Unicode
• Currency
• Date/ Time
• Constants
• Dialog contingency

When Testing an Application Testing

C, C++ Applications

Memory leak detection
Code coverage
Static and dynamic testing
Test coverage analysis
Runtime error detection
Automated component testing
Measurement of maintainability, portability, complexity, standards compliance
Boundary conditions testing

Java Applications/ Applets

Automated component testing
Functional testing
Performance testing
Applet/ application testing
Code coverage
Boundary conditions testing

Win 32-based Applications

Memory leak detection of win32 programs
Performance testing
Stress testing of Windows applications and system clients


There is more to come in Part -II... See ya soon...:)