Tech Bytes moved to Venkat's Blog

I have started this blog with the objective of sharing the current trends in software development way back in 2005 and been updating with some interesting tools, topics that i have come across. I have been blogging on Software Testing here. I have been off from blogging for quite some time. I am in the process of coming back to mainstream blogging. All my blogs will be consolidated into one blog here Venkat's Blog with the objective of exploring the craft of Software Testing & Development.

Testuff - The Test Management Tool for small & medium projects

Almost an year ago, I have evaluated some low cost and open source Test Management Tools. Managing the Test Efforts & Test documentation is always an issue for small and medium companies.

The following were my requirements for Test Management Tool

• Capture the Requirements
• Design & Prepare Test Cases
• Map Test Cases with Requirements
• Link Bug reports with Test Case ID after the test execution
• Test Execution Reports
• Version Management for the Test Cases
• Search Feature

Testuff comes with all the above features and some additional capabilities to record the test execution and link them with the issue tracker. It comes free for single user.

Testuff Features

Test video recording

Really good testers don't follow the pre-written testing scenarios to the letter. They explore the program using their intuition, their experience and their common sense. They look under the rug, between the cracks and behind the closet. They find more bugs. But those bugs are much harder to reproduce. Or at least they were, until now.

Video recording meets software testing

• Everything you see on the screen is recorded.
• Every test is completely documented.
• Every bug is reproducible.

And best of all, the communication between testers and developers no longer depend on their (sometimes limited) communication skills!

On-demand test management

You don't have to struggle with the shortcomings of Excel or spend thousands of dollars on an "Enterprise Test Management Solution".

Pay less

On-demand services usually cost much less than the equivalent software products. Testuff is no exception. Even better, for the duration of the beta trials Testuff is completely free of charge

Get more

Most modern software services create web-based user interfaces and try to make them look as close to desktop applications as possible. We've taken this trend a step further and created a real desktop application with a web backend. This way you get both a great user experience and the ability to work with people on the other side of the globe accessing the same test data.

Start right away

You have enough on your hands without going through complex install and maintenance procedures for the tools your use. Just download our desktop client and start improving your software right now.

Bug tracker integration

You are using a bug tracker, right? We have no intention of convincing you to change the way you manage your bugs as long as it isn't a simple text file or scraps of paper scattered on your desk. We can connect to anything else. Almost.

Testuff comes with built-in support for many bug trackers (in alphabetic order):

• Bugzilla
  
• Elementool
  
• FogBugz
  
• Jira
  
• Lighthouse
  
• Mantis
  
• Trac

We are working to include support for even more bug trackers. Your favorite isn't listed? Let us know!

Privacy and Security
We know the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data are extremely important to you. We have gone to great lengths to give you peace of mind.

• All client-server communication is encrypted with SSL to protect your information. The credentials are verified upon each request made by the client to prevent impersonation and information theft.
• Passwords are not stored in the database; instead, only secure hashes are used. Even the company DBA's have no way of knowing your password. That is why when you forget your password, we generate a new one for you - we simply don't know what the old one was.
• All the data on our servers is encrypted to provide an extra layer of security on top of all the other measures.
• Each company's data is stored separately from the rest to ensure that other users of Testuff can't access your information.

We also realize that losing your tests and bugs means losing money and are doing all we can to make sure your bits are safe with us.

• We continuously backup the servers to prevent any data loss. We store copies of the backups off-site and are able to get the service back online quickly in case of a disaster.
• We monitor our servers 24 hours a day and promptly respond to any failures.
• You can export your data any time you like and save a copy under your bed.

Software Quality and Testing Podcasts

These are free mp3 files you can download and listen to at your convenience. It contains various topics on Software Quality, Testing, Development.

Some of the important Podcasts :

• Podcasts from Stickyminds
  
• Randy Rice's Podcasts
  
• Testing & QA Podcasts from SD Times
  

Explore the Testability aspect for Java Code

The Testability Explorer is an open source project that lets you measure the testability of Java code. This is an interesting idea: a metric not of direct quality, or of testing, or of test coverage, but of ease of testing. Presumably code that is easy to test will get tested, and will therefore be of higher quality, other things being equal.

The following information over Testability Explorer is useful

• Demo
• Project Home
  
• Read Me
• What is Good
• How it works

Customers are Not Crash Test Dummies

An interesting Webinar on Security & Software Testing

Lack of comprehensive software testing makes consumers nothing more than crash test dummies. A majority of cyber security issues today are created by flaws that can be largely tested away in the software development life-cycle but are not. Every flaw that escapes quality assurance practices has a high likelihood of causing significant costs to the end user.


Security today is part of quality assurance practices, or at least it should be. But in quality assurance, everything should be measurable before it is meaningful. One of the arguments author David Rice makes in his book "Geekonomics" is the importance of making security visible in the market place; that is, buyers can price their risk through some easy to comprehend metric. But before that, at least the manufacturers of software have to understand the required metrics. Today, David's talk touches on security metrics, their importance, and their use in software purchasing practices.


Fuzzing is about crash-testing your software, instead of using consumers as crash test dummies. Fuzzing is a compelling solution to eliminating cyber security problems. Fuzzing is not new, it has been used actively by the security community since 1990s. What is new is how fuzzing is used in a business context: fuzzing is being employed as part of procurement criteria to compare the security and quality of software and thus influence purchasing decisions. Metrics in this field are still immature, but Ari Takanen will give a brief look at where we are today.

Register for the Webinar