TestingWoods

Testabulous 2012

2012-01-12T23:24:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a hiatus it has been. Almost an year since i last posted. With dawn of new year, atleast i hope to work on one of my resolutions - to blog as frequently as 1/month and not 1/Year.

With that promise, lets break the hiatus with a new year note to our community.

This post has been unique right from the point when I thought I need to break monotony with a new year wish to the this point when I am penning without a concrete plan. I am letting my thoughts wander and just don’t want to say “Wish you an interesting new year”.

Alright, taking a leaf from Stevie’s (Steve Jobs) presentation style, I will ask(and answer) three questions to help carve an ecstatic 2012 for the testing community we all are championing.

1.Whom are you serving daily?

My thoughts: You are serving the testing artists, who look for better thoughts, those who enjoy the better thoughts and those who think we have better thoughts.

2. Who the hell cares about the testing artists?

My thoughts: I do and daily remind myself to do that! I believe Testing is a craft…only a few respect, most others think “Anyone can do testing”

3. When testing industry has crossed $13B USD(source Internet), why still people think “It’s just freaking QA/testing(used interchangeably)” or "Anyone can do testing"?

My thoughts: I feel it’s the mindset that have existed for ages. Remember the old 70’s – 80’s (atleast that’s what I do), common perception for teaching was similar, it was considered to be the worst but easiest option available to people who could not become Engineer/Doctor/CA(in some pockets of our society though). Maybe, that upbringing is so ingrained that people have not outgrown the rusty thoughts. With premise remaining same, the teaching has just been replaced by QA/Testing in IT industry. These people who are at helm think, anyone can do QA/testing because it’s just freaking QA/testing.

I am sure, above three questions must have provoked some thoughts and maybe ignited some passion to help our community. It’s because each one of us have the authority and responsibility to help our community garner much needed respect. I hope we will see QA/testing become poster child of IT industry during our lifetime.

Wishing you and your family an un-parallel 2012.

Thanks for your time,

- Manav

"Freaking QA Tester"

2011-02-08T13:55:00.003-05:00

Last week, I was talking to one of the seasoned IT executives and was educating him about the craft called – Testing. Taking a leaf from two of the experts – I follow –Michael Bolton and James Bach, I was explaining about – Confirmation Testing Vs Exploratory Testing, Defect Vs Issue etc. Seemingly uneasy at understanding the analytical, critical, logical landscape for Testing, he yells – “It is just freaking QA”. Killing my urge to reply in the same passionate yell, I just said “Oh, thanks for proving your point, I rest my case” and walked out.

Clouded with so many questions and thoughts, I am still finding it difficult to accept the narrow mindsets and preparing to challenge next time (if situation permits).

Having given myself a few days to cool off and reply appropriately, I was on usual business on Monday morning, checking and replying mails. A new mail pops up with a very provocative message. I just got blown away on the second side to the same coin

Mail from this account executive of some company, read:
I sent you an email a few weeks ago about how SFDC, Pershing, Zappos and hundreds of other quality assurance professionals are reducing test center cycle time, increasing test coverage and consistently delivering to production much higher quality releases.

Imagine if you could consistently reduce production defects by 50% while cutting test time in half. Too good to be true? If you don’t believe it, please take 3 minutes to see how has used to transform their test center operations from a “necessary evil” into a leadership organization.

If you’re challenged with delivering higher quality applications to production with less time to properly test, please contact me to discuss further and organize an online demonstration or hands-on trial. You can call me directly at (xxx)xxx-xxxx or reply to this email.

This was the second mail I received directly from this gentleman.
Two contrasting yet related incidents made me ponder, something is grossly wrong. Something needs an overhaul to help our craft gets its due respect and also transform the technological advances of generations to come.

Anyhow, I thought of questioning this guy and understand how much he understands the testing to make such lofty (read: exaggerated) claims. Here is what I asked him:

I must appreciate that your mails do lend the provocative edge to make the reader, read and not shift delete. With that said, I have a couple of very curious question to validate the claims you are making, so that I can assure myself of investing my 3 minutes for your case study.

1. How do you define Quality (when you say it’s 2x)?
2. How do you measure quality?
3. On what basis do you say that the time assigned was the ideal for testing? For what I know from my experience, the Testing NEVER stops. So what is your yardstick to the claim that you can reduce the time by ½
4. What constitutes the TEST COVERAGE?
5. Please define “Quality in Production”? In what stage of lifecycle of testing this is declared that if we achieve this / that, the testing team will deliver quality in production. Also it will be beneficial what all includes in that call out

To no surprise and very much on lines to what I could have expected I received the reply, which was same old sales s***. These are the basic questions we daily answer for our clients. Since this is what our clients demand from us, is there harm in demanding the same.

For both the seasoned IT Executive and this sales Account Executive, I pity the company who has employed such a sales person, and their gullible clients (I am sure they have many). Through these inept representatives work culture is totally on display.
On a positive side, we “Freaking QAs” can take an inspiration to help these morons and many more like these, who are thriving in our industry.

- Manav Ahuja

Towers de SOA Testing

2010-06-21T15:05:00.002-04:00

In an attempt to understand and learn SOA, i did an extensive research and have collated my findings as below. Hope this will help the beginners like me.

Introduction

As Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) begins to form the fabric of IT infrastructure, active and aggressive SOA testing has become crucial. Comprehensive Functional, Performance, Interoperability and Vulnerability Testing form the Towers of SOA Testing. Only by adopting a comprehensive testing stance, enterprises can ensure that their SOA is robust, scalable, interoperable, and secure.

Web Services have blurred the boundaries between network devices, security products, applications and other IT assets within an enterprise. Almost every IT asset now advertises its interface as a Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) interface ready for SOAP/XML messaging. Web Services interfaces provide unprecedented flexibility in integrating IT assets across internal and external corporate domains. Such flexibility makes it the responsibility of IT staff from all domains such as Developers, Network Engineers, Security & Compliance Officers, and Application QA Testers to ensure that their Web Services work as advertised across functional, performance, interoperable and security requirements.

Towers de SOA Testing

Tower I: Functional & Regression Testing

Functional and Regression Testing is the First tower of testing SOAs. IT Professionals need to quickly test Web Services and setup desired regression Test Cases. Ease-of-use in setting up such tests encourages technologist with varying skills and responsibilities to test their Web Services quickly and often.

Tower II: Performance

Performance is the Second Tower of SOA Testing. QA Testers, Network & Security Engineers should test the scalability and robustness of Web Services and determine performance and endurance characteristics of their WSDL operations. Testers should determine response times, latency, throughput profiles for target Web Services. In addition to performance profiles, tester should run test for a specified duration for measuring endurance and robustness profiles. They also need to determine scalability by bombarding target Web Services with varying SOAP messages across a range of concurrent loading clients.

Tower III: Interoperability

While loading a Web Service WSDL, consumer applications need to determine both design-time and run-time interoperability characteristics of the target Web Services. Developers should run a set of comprehensive WSI Profile tests and report interoperability issues with the Web Services WSDL. Adhering to WSI Profiles ensures that SOA assets are interoperable and that WSDL can work within heterogeneous .NET & Java environments.

Design-time WSDL interoperability testing is not enough. Run-time Interoperability testing is also necessary. Testing the interoperability of a Web Services requires creating specialized test suites for a WSDL. These tests ensure that the target Web Services are interoperable by actively sending specialized request to the Web Services and determining whether the Web Service responds per WSI Profile specification. Comprehensive design-time WSDL WSI Profile testing combined with active run-time Web Service interoperability behavior testing ensures that IT assets can integrate independent of platform, operating system, and programming language.

Tower IV: Vulnerability Assessment

Vulnerability Assessment is the Fourth Tower of SOA Testing. Active Web Services Vulnerability Assessment is an emerging area of SOA testing. By creating specialized tests for a target Web Service, security officers can measure the vulnerability profiles of the target Web Service. Security Engineers need to ensure that Web Services vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, deeply nested nodes, recursive payloads, schema poisoning and malware traveling over SOAP messages do not affect their critical Web Services. They need the ability to rapidly scan Web Services and assess areas of exposure, determine severity levels, provide vulnerability diagnosis, and publish remediation techniques. Web Services Vulnerability Assessment is a crucial pre-production and post-production step that every .NET and Java developer and security professional must take to ensure risk mitigation within their Service Oriented Architecture.

Finally SOA – it is and it is NOT?

• Service-Oriented Architecture is an architectural strategy that helps achieve closer business-IT alignment, by taking a three-dimensional perspective of the enterprise. The three dimensions being: technology, people and processes.
• The key aspect of SOA is to make business functionality available as a set of well governed, standards based, loosely coupled services and processes, defined in a flexible and agile manner.
• SOA is an infrastructure-based architectural approach to deliver business ‘functionalities’ as ‘shared services’ by using open standards and/or protocols of communication.
• SOA is an approach that allows for implementing business ‘capabilities’ that can be consumed as services.
• SOA is not about technology specific design or architecture – it is business driven (through capabilities and functionalities/functions) for service enablement of the processes!

Reference:- Internet research

~Manav Ahuja

Achieving exhilarating Customer Delight, in turbulent times…

2010-05-28T10:18:00.002-04:00

In all the bloodshed in economies across globe, no one is immune. Each one of businesses have got impacted except (bankruptcy lawyers of course). So how it has impacted the IT industry in general the big engagements? Many of us might ponder - what heck, i don't care, i have a job and i know how to survive this storm.

Do we really know?
Do we really know how to sail through?
Do we really know how we can keep our flags high and achieve the Customer Delight in these turbulent times.

To help ourselves lets interview ourselves:

We: What are Top 2 Current IT Challenges?
I: Personally i feel

a) The first impact of the overall liquidity crisis is already popping out - some funds have decided to go slow or sudden "No investment plans" have become the norm. It may get worse (or already is) before it gets better.

b) Since the economic issue here is not the equity markets but the credit market there is a significant risk not just to growth but even sustenance of current state.

We: Do we have ready made quick fix solutions?
I: Are we dreaming. Lets wake up to reality, its a mess we created and we need to clean up, there are no shortcuts.

We: How to get Customer Delight in this turbulence?
I: Good question, I feel,

1. I call it as "Keep your blinkers on" - Focus on our existing lines of business and focus on customers pains.

2. Postpone the more uncertain long term strategies if required.

3. Ask our customers - Lets partner to help relieve your pains and strategize accordingly to help them zoom through this current mess.

4. Think about how this downturn affects our customers / partners Vs how does it affect us.

We: That's good, but are there any actionizable thoughts for keeping afloat?
I: Abundant, In fact each person if soliloquy,can share varying perspectives. Here are a few of mine:

1. First and foremost - Lets target and Keep our team together - share and celebrate successes, be transparent about challenges. Invest in our best people.

2. Since we cannot manage economy, so lets manage everything else - our business and circle of influence.

3. Lets throw out the models and spreadsheets, because all assumptions will be wrong. Just
* Focus on quality.
* Reduce risk.

4. Lets not target getting ahead but let "surviving/sustaining" be the "cool" mantra. After-all this era is an era of survival of the quickest.

5. Lets be brutal when it comes to raising red flags during Go-No go and even Risk management. There should be "No waiting zone" for escalation(s) at any stage of our engagement.

6. Most importantly, we all are at key decision making roles so "Lets be true to ourselves". No appeasing-pleasing the boss / sycophancy will really work. Its a time for real circus and let we be the real jokers.

7. Focus on long term objectives and quality.

8. Lets target ONLY on our B&B (bread and butter) and deliver value in that. All add-ons can come as situational commodities.

9. Lets avoid being mind share oriented.

10. For everyone at senior levels, I know "Revenues are vanity, profits are sanity", but defer this for a while and lets be more niche for our B&B (bread and butter) than being generalist even in that.

11. Since V-shaped recovery is far from likely, so lets Go on the offensive and pound on our competitors’ shortcomings.

12. Be aggressive with our messaging and be out there. In a downturn, i feel, aggressive PR and communications strategy is key.

We: Thanks for your insights.
I: Pleasure is mine. Thanks for privilege.

13000+ e-separate Infosys in 1 month

2010-03-06T13:17:00.002-05:00

Infosys gets a wakeup call, when over 13000+ headcounts, walk out of the lush green campuses across the country, that too in just 1 month. This exodus marks the wakeup call for the elite senior management, board of directors who have been in denial mode for last 4 years. Denial of what? Well denial of strategically well planned, but most deadly executed headcount (UN) friendly policies. Policies such as

a) Internal mandatory certifications. This most illogical mandate rolled out somewhere in 2006, hit many road blocks right from day one. Reactive and run time changes were implemented. Management who created this with a vision to mark it as one of the USP's of Infosys in already bleeding software outsourcing market. With a vision to take a lead from its #1, 2, 3, competitors - Wipro, TCS, CTS etc.
The hardest hitting shot was, when it got tied with the compensation and promotion of a headcount through the CRR cycle.

b) CRR - well not sure where it was copied from, even though management claims to have inherited and improvised it after a huge research on companies which had somewhat similar appraisal parameters. Believe me, this is most ridiculous way of getting people rated for the performance. BTW not directly, but in relevance to some of the most morons you might have in the parallel groups. And you end up being rated as good as your manager can represent you.This has parameters coming from across not only performance. Everything gets overridden by your adherence to the non relevant certification (a) to even the progressions and promotions as per new iRace.

c) iRace - Performance DOESNOT matter - yes, it’s a race, a hapless race mandated with shrewd bullyness in a typical top down approach. # of years of experience is what governs your designation. Only designation, yes, because in Infosys, the culture has been such that you will be appraised as per your designation, but soaked as per the one level up, because that’s the role you play. If you are a fast tracker, mind you there are many levers that will pull you so that you cannot win in the (i)race

Recently, Mr. NRN, was addressing a gathering and to his sudden surprise, he was showered with the cruciatingly hard fact based questions. First as usual to a big corporate guru, he jumped into the denial zone. But when he couldnot weather the storm, he took refuge in accepting a little bit and saying that senior management needs to investigate there seems to be an issue.

Just a few days later, the corporate HR head - Nandita Gujar, wrote some kind of blog in infy intranet, which was thronged by a very very hard hitting almost 3000 headcounts. The fact is that unlike NRN, they didn’t take a refuge in any anonymity, but rather used their very own names, designation and employee id's.

O yeah this reminds me to a funny incident which will culminate the mentality within middle management as well. I was a part of this very middle management and was working closely with my offshore peer. One background, I was a fast tracker and he is a veteran of over 16 years at infosys.But we were peers. Don’t conclude yet...please read below

There arise a little argument during our discussion and when he couldn’t question the authenticity of my logic he asked me "What is your employee id"?

I was stunned to irrelevancy with the discussion. It was just like the mapping of certifications with the designations of headcounts.

Anyhow, I told him but counter questioned why? The answer I got is "I wanted to know how long you have been at Infosys".....no wonder his is the kind of people who can stay and survive the hypocrisy which prevails inside the fake brand name, for which people like me fell.

Before i close this post:- Latest update:- Infosys has created 9 tracks to do "research" into the issues in each of the illogical policies which got implemented and thus resulted in huge exodus. These tracks are like a democratic country creating a committe for any cause of revolution.

SMB's fail because...

2009-11-27T12:05:00.002-05:00

I have created an evolving thread on this to come up with a succinct findings and publish later.

Enjoy and share your thoughts at

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2877&discussionID=10246991&sik=&trk=mywl_artile&goback=%2Emwg_*2_1

Why the more you rise in corporate ladder, more egoist you become?

2009-09-23T21:37:00.001-04:00

Is there a mandate, that once you reach some senior / executive position you start breeding look-at-me-I'm-so-special culture. The ego becomes bigger than professional-ism. Replying mails quickly hurts, replying lengthy downsize your position and rather no reply is to show i-am-too-busy.

What are the reasons for this kinda virus attack in the people who are on rise in corporate ladders?

Can you procure "Determination"?

2009-09-23T21:35:00.000-04:00

Recently doing a research on Determination, i read a loads of chronicles on Determination and very interesting thoughts as well. I am putting in a small mathematical form

Determination = (Willfulness + Discipline ) * Ambition

So ironically, if you see, Its not something inborn quality but quite a derived one.

As we all know, We can hone our skills in "willfullness", We can make a paradigm shift in "Discipline" repository and to a good extent even improve "Ambition".

So a question comes, is it really that easy to say that "Determination" is not (un)procure-able?

Setting your venture - a Guide

2009-07-06T23:45:00.002-04:00

I cam across this intresting piece as a detailed process for setting up the venture

http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/07/01/starting-business-in-india-simplified-process/

I see a good amount of information to take care.

- Manav Ahuja

Customer is King

2008-08-08T15:40:00.003-04:00

I was chatting with my spouse, who incidently is no stranger to IT industry. What we discussed, gave me enough to share with my dear readers.

So Lets first understand the context with a question:- What are the most common reasons for client escalations?

If i were to dare, from my (our) past experience, i will try to collate the key reasons for any escalation.

Disclaimer:- Please pardon, these are from my(our) very personal experience and any resemblance of any sort is purely coincidental.

Alright, here goes my list:-

1. Art of delegation:- Everyone in team think "they can do all". This is the most common problem i feel we face with stakeholders who are reluctant to delegating the things at right time to right people. Customers may not know the reality (or root cause), but they fume at not seeing the results. After all they pay for the results.

2. Assumptions:- Teams make so many assumptions, that they over-kill themselves.I feel the pragmatic approach to any service is waning. Teams have started living for the day/moment and are decreasingly future oriented. If i were to use technical jargon, Teams have started becoming "Agile".

3. Pompousness:- This is so very implicit that teams tend to ignore the fact that clients are smarter these days. Any degree of Pompousness will be killing for any team.So we need to be aware.

4. No status reporting:- This is seriously gross. Teams refrain - may be for zillion of practical and mental reasons, to share the very status of any deliverable/service.They report when asked.

5. Sitting on issues/problems - I somehow feel the tricks we learnt during our entrance exams are very life living. The thumb rule we were taught was - never sit on a question, instead leave it and move on. If i were to apply the same rule - i would say teams, sit too much and donot go back to client for more information. I know leaving situation is anachronic but going back to client is best. Even they will appreciate.

Miscellaneous others:-

7. Not creating the motivating team culture.

8. NOt relating with each member of team

9. Team Thinking every project/assignment a stop gap arrangement for different personal goals in life - could be money, designation(power), onsite experience etc etc

10. To top all - People have become "Being individual" and does not work/showcase and live as team .

There are definitely many more. But this is what my(our) small experience has taught. Maybe will retrospect more some other day, some other time.

Till then..lets recite and create a placard - "Customer is King".

~ Manav Ahuja

Recipe for success

2008-04-23T03:09:00.005-04:00

I came across this very thought provoking recipe

Setting Goals
but NOT in concrete

Staying Focused
but turning aside to Help someone

Following Plan
but remaining Flexible

Moving ahead
but not too fast to miss the smell of flowers

Climbing the Ladder
but not stepping on Toes

Fighting to Finish
but choosing your battles

Taking a Bow
but applauding those who a part in your success

wow - i am amazed at the thoughts and variations who ever coined this. Brilliant

~ Manav Ahuja

Large System Integration Testing Projects - What to watch out for...

2008-03-29T02:45:00.008-04:00

Testing was looked down (even in some corners it is still prevalent). But let me take a lead and proudly say, that after seeing the IT world from all sides - Dev,Testing,Maintenance - Product and Services as well...I feel Testing is a REAL intellectual challenge and process. It gains its enormity from the point that No other process except testing can give a solace(or sleepless nights) when it comes to credibility of a release. It also is infact one of the most THORNY activity in any software Life cycle.

Various factors make it critical - Type of bid (Fixed, T&M, Size of project,Domain etc etc)

Anyhow i thought of putting my thoughts togather on What are the key characteristics and challenges when there is a testing planned for a LARGE System Integration projects

Tighten your seat belts ...Here you go..

•Large systems integration projects usually are mission critical and have high quality goals not only in terms of providing functionality but also towards high availability, performance, resilience and robustness of the system.

•These projects span over multiple years and business dynamics tend to change during this period.

•More often than not, these are developed in multiple releases having parallel development and testing phases of overlapping releases to maintain the schedule of the project.This increases the complexity of managing large projects.

•These have very typical characteristics of having many possibilities of getting under estimated due to the uncertainties and large number of independent variables that leads to schedule slippage and effort over run.

•Generally significant number of stakeholders and big team size of large programme leads to issues related to communication and coordination.

•Typically in such projects, project team can never be sure that the functionality that is being designed is the one will be deployed finally into the production. There is high possibility of the scope creep that is initiated by the customer, from technical point of view initiated by the vendor and from risk point of view that is decided by the need of the project.

•Usually large projects executed by multiple vendors from multiple locations in different countries having diverse culture and exploit multiple technologies.

Can you collaborate more.,...

~ Manav Ahuja

Newly coined phrase for the current phase of my life

2008-03-29T02:14:00.005-04:00

Today while chating with some near dears of mine, i accidently coined something which is giving a new meaning to my life.

Without keeping it a secret any more here it is:

"Be optimistic to the last iota of the breath, even if you are the ONLY one to be so".
..... Manav

What IT Vendors SHOULD provide

2008-03-21T13:52:00.005-04:00

I know surveys are the most crudest things to proclaim anything.They are the best means to corrupt the thought process as well.

BUT...

Recently i was reading one of the blogs and found this intrested piece (a survey report) and felt its so very relevant to us. So thought of sharing through my blog as well.

Keep strategizing...

~Manav Ahuja

GUI Testing - "Most Common Bug Patterns" - Part -1

2008-03-16T05:14:00.003-04:00

Being a long timer Web developer and thereafter Web Tester i think it has been long due that i start recollecting my experience and share it here for the entire community to leverage / synergize and take a note of for future. I have just finished collating a few so thought of penning at these early hours of Sunday morning (BTW its 05:18 AM) and haen't taken the nap yet whole night. Well i believe Make hay when sun Shines...so weekends are for me and me alone.

Ok enuf...back to business...The moment we think portal / website, the first few things come to mind are the - Promptness,Lesser the number of mouse clicks better the site,Ease of navigation, less text and not to crumpled Home page.

Well to further my thought process here are some of the bug patterns in standard GUI Implementations:

- In case of combo box, we should check the functionality of arrow keys. Most of the time, we checked up / down keys, we should check right / left keys also.
- Bit map should be provided for all the tool buttons.
- CTRL+ shortcut for the various options doesn’t work consistently.
- If two / three dialog boxes are opened at the same time, then the dialog boxes shouldn’t overlap one another. They should cascade.
- CTRL+tab key should result in to flipping among the open windows.
- Arrow keys should also be mapped with spin control buttons.
- Whenever there is some activity going on, some way of notification to the user should be there. It may be Hourglass mouse pointer, display on status bar, an animated GIF, or use of a progress bar. The point is that the user should be aware that something is going on in background.
- Menus should follow the standard conventions, e.g. “About” submenu should be under Help menu and so on.
- Tool tips should be displayed for all the tool buttons.
- Floating toolbars should not be another task bar window, but should be positioned inside the GUI window.
- Any additional user created toolbars or menus should not distort the GUI.
- Change in Font should reflect at all intended places. Also, the views should not get distorted.
- Tiling and Cascading should be tested thoroughly along with Minimize and maximize options. Windows should not get lost at any point of time.
- Check box should get checked/unchecked with SPACE bar, when in focus.
- Option buttons should get set/reset with SPACE bar, when in focus.
- Whenever a “Select ALL” facility is given, a “Clear All” should be provided and vice versa.
- All the Control buttons and Menu bars that launch another dialog should have three trailing DOTs (…) in the name. E.g. Browse…

Whoo hoo...this has come out good. I will put more pressure on my "medula oblongata" and try to make this a series. to complete most of the critical GUI components.

Should we not say this...GUI Testing Bug Patterns - Part 1.

Have a good one...

~ Manav Ahuja

Entreprenurship - Ignite the passion within

2008-03-16T04:47:00.002-04:00

Who and what defines Entre...

Noun : Entrepreneur – An entrepreneur (a loanword from French introduced and first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon) is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. A female entrepreneur is sometimes referred to as an entrepreneuse. …… From Wikipedia

Simple...uhh. Its more beneath than out. These nerds cannot be a part of herd (except the herd of achievers/loosers). They really are people who feel fear is just another word, Loss is an oppurtunity and success is just a milestone not destination.....Wow i am turning and playing with words. :-)

But is it that easy to be an entrepreneur. I thought of sewing my thoughts and come up with my kinda insights on the game - Entrepreneurship.

I feel Entreprenurs are crazy souls for whom life is all about passion. And they donot rely on any source of inspiration. The catalyst for the ignition of their passion comes from within.

...now what abt the characteristics of these buffoons..Let me try

- Work-a-holics
- Die hard optimists
- Least emotional (this is subjective but i would still list this among the prominents)
- Risk takers (Both calculated and un-calculated)
- Self driven and believers
- Problem conquerers
- Hands on - Not Task delegators
- Unstoppable
- Donot take but provide Inspiration
- They are the change and real innovators

I may have missed some key ones (but they might be your perception/perspective) :-). Mine - i have listed all. But one thing for sure We all are entreprenurs in our respect isn't it? Its just that some of us take the plunge and rest sit back in cubicles(cozy spaces within our organizations) and see the other quarter making history everyday.

Before saluting a "Bye" ...let me leave you soaked with famous quotes from REAL Entrepreneurs of the era:

It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's

"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent."- Thomas Edison

"Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."- Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!"- Madam C.J. Walker, creator of a popular line of African-American hair care products and America's first black female millionaire

O-la-la...thats real thoughtful stuff....i have enough Food for thought ...for my coming week(s) :-)

In my son's words let me move off in true US style --- "Have a good one" -

~ Manav Ahuja

Most Popular Licenses in Open Source

2008-02-15T11:58:00.007-05:00

Today researching the Open Source (after a loooong break), i comtemplate that i have forgotten all the different types of licenses and their grants. It proved a catalyst and here i have agregated the content from http://opensource.org

NOTE : What i am providing is a brief overview what would be of intrest to all of us - the open source community. So please visit the whole terms in license and then Build-Operate-Deliver :-)

Most Popular Licenses among Open source communities and the ones widely used::

- Apache License, 2.0
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free,irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such derivative Works in Source or Object form

- New and Simplified BSD licenses
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- GNU General Public License (GPL)
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- GNU Library or "Lesser" General Public License (LGPL)
This license, the Lesser General Public License, applies to some specially designated software packages--typically libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and other authors who decide to use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first think carefully about whether this license or the ordinary General Public License is the better strategy to use in any particular case.

- MIT license
Same as BSD licences but with an additional "NO Endorsement clause".

- Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL)
The Modifications which You create or to which You contribute are governed by the terms of this License, including without limitation section.The Source Code version of Covered Code may be distributed only under the terms of this License or a future version of this License released and You must include a copy of this License with every copy of the Source Code You distribute. You may not offer or impose any terms on any Source Code version that alters or restricts the applicable version of this License or the recipients' rights hereunder. However, You may include an additional document offering the additional rights described.

- Common Development and Distribution License
Subject to third party intellectual property claims, the Initial Developer hereby grants You a world-wide,royalty-free, non-exclusive license

- Common Public License 1.0
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform,distribute and sublicense the Contribution of such Contributor, if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form

- Eclipse Public License
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, each Contributor hereby grants Recipient a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute and sublicense the Contribution of such Contributor, if any, and such derivative works, in source code and object code form

Be Free, Have free...

~ Manav Ahuja

What is "Project Management"? From my interview yesterday....

2008-02-14T12:32:00.001-05:00

Very happy valentines day ...:-)

Yesterday after a long hiatus was getting interviewed (yes for a change not taking but giving one). And one question i was asked "What have you accomplished on Project Management and what would you say about Project Management"? I gave many an insights, my perspectives and facts and of course my accomplishments.

Retrospecting...i feel of penning my second (streamlined) thoughts.

What would you say about Project Management?

Here are my 2 paise on this...
Project Management, is an art not only skill.And I feel this art (SHOULD)comprise of
- Scope Management
- Integration Management
- Time management
- Cost Management
- Quality Management
- HR Management
- Communication Management
- Risk Management
- Procurement management
- Client (even Multi Vendor) Management

So if i were to march into the risky category, giving some thumb rules - Some of the keys (from my experience) to successful Project Management are

- MUST CREATE A PROJECT VISION
- Develop realistic project objectives / Goals
- Create / re-visit with predefined frequency - The MASTER Project plan
- Track / Measure / Analyse progress
- Solve problems quickly & effectively
- Motivate
- Keep Senior Management and even the Team members informed on project status. In succinct
- BE diplomatically transparent
- And above all follow my tips to make our team invaluable(see my post on "Lets Define Team")

Lastly, let me pictorially put the factors which govern "Project's success matrix".

Happy Project managing...

~Manav Ahuja

Lets define a "Team"

2008-02-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

Well, seeing the life in a new perspective these days, i really am contemplating hell lot of things. First which have struck is "Who/whats makes teams for what they are". There are many an adjectives which can be appended to a team e.g Exceptional,Highly productive,Great,Fabulous etc etc. But moot questions remains - how to define them in this respect?

I thought of penning my 2 cents on this:
Key aspects from my perspective are:

- Fire in the belly
- Passion for work
- Enjoying what we do
- Not doing for the heck of it
- Matching experience
- Target oriented be it Profit,milestones,scale,innovation etc
- Integrity
- Values which they bring to the table
- Visionary Leader
- Dynamism of indivuduals

Anything to add.

~ Manav Ahuja

Upcoming Conferences

2008-02-08T13:53:00.000-05:00

Today,
i think is turning to be the day of new initiatives. But whatever it takes, lets help each other and our community.

I, today on will start sharing the details on any and ever upcoming testing conferences. Please feel free to add to the list i could muster.

Here are the two of the good ones i have found:

Name Place Date Deadline Theme Link
PNSQ Orlando Oct 13-15 Apr-20 Collaborative Quality
http://www.pnsqc.org

Star West CA Sep29-Oct03 Apr-14 Many
http://www.sqe.com/StarWest/Speaker/Default.aspx

Any and every addition : Most welcome

~Manav Ahuja

Best of the quotes - a daily dose

2008-02-08T13:37:00.001-05:00

All these days i had the habbit of writing the good writings i come across. But always i fall short of space on my hand held pads.

Starting today i am planning to leverage this online space to keep updated with a daily dose of Good quotes that i may come across. This will serve two purposes
- Keep posting and keep blogging
- Keeping some good writing for ever with me.

Here i start with the ones i have come across since moring..

1. Either fight for your stomach or You fight for your dreams
Source : Net

2. "Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrow keeps you Human,
Failure keeps you humble
and Success keeps you glowing,
but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going..."
Source : One of the forward mails on Arther Ashe

3. Always be a trumpet in herd of Elephants
A crow in company of cocks,
Bleat in the flock of goats.
Source: My resignation letter to my earlier company :-).

4. Search your heart with all diligence,for out of it,flows the issues of life
Source: Seven Habbits of .... Stephen Covey

Wow...this is something i am loving now, just for the mobility it provides and the quickness in terms of access.

Relish till next...

Manav

Top Five challenges for Web based applications

2007-12-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

I came across this good relevant material for future referrence and reuse.

Read full article at:
http://www.webguild.org/2007/12/five-usability-challenges-of-web-based.php

Take Care

10 Things to die for...

2007-10-01T07:26:00.000-04:00

I came across this unique philosophy, thought of sharing. Maybe this is the reason for What Google is TODAY.

Have a go at this:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/tenthings.html

Keep (Re)discovering...

How to win BIG outsourcing deals

2007-09-18T10:37:00.000-04:00

Day in and day out we are hearing the M&A (Mergers and Aquisitions) and to add to the fire, the declarations of the BIG (HIGH $ value) outsourcing deals.

How these are done ? i donot care. But i do care - How they are achieved. Pondering this, i thought of spending time penning the challenges and even strategies i would think would be the reciepe for success.

Disclaimer: These are purely my thoughts from my small experience. Please pardon if so.

My heart said there are always two things which go into the deal - one in initial phase (Sales Team) and second in implementation (Delivery Team). So here i segregate the two and put in my 2 cents....

Key impediments in winning BIG outsourcing Deals - For Sales Team

1.External Political Problems
2.Outsourcing Backlash in European and North American markets.
3.Capabilities of Sales/Field force in terms of Market understanding.
4.Marketing Execution Support system for the Sales/ Field force.
5.Knowledge about the solutions and services offered, Vision and Foresight.
6.Cross Skill sharing and skill enhancement.
7.Market responsiveness.
8.Pricing

Strategies for success

1.Segregate and Create 5S.
- Marketing Strategy.
- Sales Strategy
- Offering Strategy
- Vertical/ Industry Strategy
- Geographic Strategy

2.Develop a Business Intelligence System for Sales and Marketing.
3.Create a Cross Functional Consultative Team.
4.Shake the Team dynamics to create a wave of Entrepreneurship within.
5.Innovatively create a customized pricing Model.
6.Inject Flexibility.
7.Develop an innovative Deal closing process.

Key Impediments for Delivery Teams

1.Huge shortage of talent, Infrastructural and Logistical deficiencies.
2.Innovation to solutions, service lines and even operating processes.
3.Service Quality - Going beyond the SLA’s – Value to customer.
4.Cross Skill sharing, Domain Knowledge, Skill enhancement.
5.Data Security – in wake of recent Data breaches.
6.Lack of people with knowledge of essential foreign languages esp – French, German, Japanese, Spanish.
7.Find ways to reduce the total costs.
8.Provide better cost savings for customers

Strategies for success

1.Fuel and Leverage Innovation
2.Inject Quality
3.Create rapid action teams to upgrade the MTP( Manager Thought Process).
4.Target Quantitative Project Management.
5.Pledge to offer four colours to Customer -
- Expertise: We will give top experts in business.
- Rigor : We will help you build a roadmap of success.
- Speed : We will enable you to achieve results FAST.
- Impact : We will be vested in your complete success.

Can we take the plunge --- NOW.

SOAP - for starters

2007-09-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

Let me challenge myself to integrate my old thoughts and recreate the basics of SOAP for you all - The Starters.

In a decentralized and distributed environments, SOAP is a simple and lightweight medium thorugh which the information (maybe structured and typed) is exchanged between peers using XML....aah thats nice definition.
Ok enough of a hiatus. Lets continue...

SOAP in itself doesnot specify any kinda application semantics, rather defines the mechanism for same by providing a modular packaging model and encoding mechanisms for encoding the data within the modules.

Probably because of this SOAP can be used for varied systems - from Messaging to RPC.

It consits of three parts primarliy:

1. SOAP envelope construct
This defines an overall framework for expressing what is in a message, who should deal with it and whether it is optional or mandatory

2. SOAP encoding rules
This defines a serialization mechanism that can be used to exchange instances of application-defined datatypes.

3. SOAP RPC representation
This defines a convention that can be used to represent remote procedure calls and responses.

All these are togather yet they are functionally orthogonal in nature.

The design goal for SOAP has been simplicity and extensibility. Features which DOESNOT form the part of core SOAP include
• Distributed GC (garbage collection)
• Batching of messages
• Objects-by-reference
• Activation

huff huff...hope that the above list includes all it should ...

Quantitative Process Management

2007-09-14T19:09:00.000-04:00

Quantitative Process Management
- Whats this?
- Does it have any applicability ?

Let me try and answer these...

- Whats this ?
QPM is mainly Articulation of the main process of the project totally based on the projects shared vision and even as well as the Business goals.

This primarily targets at
a) Deriving the goals for the sub-processes based on the identified measureable project Objectives
b) Use possible performance Models to derive the goals for the projects process and sub-processes.
c) Track,Analyze the actual results and then take the corrective actions.
d) In case of some earch shattering results or unforseen results, using some of the commonly available techniques such as - Parreto analysis,Control charts, RCA diagrams etc.
e) Last but not the least - Analyzing the actual performance of project using statistical techniques and taking suitable corrective action

- Does it have any applicability ?

Some experts may contest my view that applicability is always vision based. If i need Highest quality and Customer satisfaction i need such Management techniques, isn't it ?

Whats affects productivity the MOST?

2007-09-14T19:02:00.000-04:00

Have we ever wondered at nailing down the factors that affect our productivity. I also always did but never tried. So today i thought let me pen my thoughts.

From my past experience i am collating all the parameters that affect the productivity:

a) Availability and stability of the development environment
b) Team capability, skill and experience
c) Team stability / manpower turnover
d) Maturity of the processes
e) Reusable software available to the project
f) Reusable software to be built by the project
g) Extent of communication possible with users/customers
h) Extent of automated tools used for software development and maintenance
i) Extent of degree of detail of the required user documentation
j) Cohesion of stakeholders and teams

Agree or disagree ?

SilkTest Coding Standards part -1

2007-09-14T17:50:00.000-04:00

Off late i was scrambling to understand the code one of the self proclaimed experts wrote. I really had to negotiate my way through.Finally i did.
Therafter i realized how narrow the available expertize is. And this has catapulted me to come up with my series of MG (Masala Gyan) on best coding standards for Automation scripts. I should generalize them but i feel on the contrary because all tools have different set of languages so why not separate standards. Hence i am sticking this series to ONLY silktest.

OK..enough of MG, here i start off with the first thing to be taken cared : "Naming Conventions"

Silk Reserved Words
There are some Silk keywords (if, while, etc.) that must be lower case. The Silk reserved words that do not fall into this category (string, anyType, etc.) should be mixed case where the first letter is lower case and each new word is capitalized. For example:

if (var1 == var2)
listMerge(list1, list2)

Variables
Variable names should be descriptive and should be mixed case where the first letter is lower case and each new word is capitalized. Variable names should include the standard prefixes or suffixes describing the type of variable.

These include:

· i = integer
· s = string
· lx = list of something (li = list of integer, ls = list of string, etc.)
· rec = record
For example:

integer iNumberOfAccounts
list of string lsStringList
string sName

Constants

Constant names should be descriptive and should be all upper case with words separated by underscores.

const string TIER_PRODUCTCODES = “ABC014” // Global constant

Functions/Test cases/Methods

Function names should be descriptive and should be mixed case where the first letter is lower case and each new word is capitalized. For example:

createNewAccount(string sAccountName)
boolean accountExists(string sAccountName)

To be contd...

What the heck is "Web 2.0" ?

2007-09-14T17:47:00.000-04:00

Change is law of nature and technology is no immune system to avoid this.Our beloved internet is also undergoing the similar change.Remember the .com bust that was actually the web 1.0 which was governed and comprised mainly of the static web pages.This is not being transformed into the user driven content aggregation and management websites and desktop applicatoons through whcih we can share the data across network.

All in all is should say web2.0 is a space which primarily involves the AJAX based web applications through which the user can share, skim,remix,customize and consume the data that too over the network.This is with the intent of facilitating the architecture of participation.

Most common and prominent of the Web 2.0 applications are

• Widgets: Springwidgets
• RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds – a medium of sharing information across websites.
• Blogs – Should really write anything on this :-)
• Social Networks – Facebook,Orkut,Phoja,Bebo etc and many more.
• Project Management - Basecamp
• Wikis – websites which allow users toadd & edit data.

This post would not be complete if i donot write about AJAX - heart of web2.0

Technically AJAX is Asynchronous Javascript and XML - a technology which helps transforming the statuc HTML pages into rich,interactive,reposnive web applications,where the browser can exchange only the needed data with server and not update the whole page.

How about the characteristics of such web applications:

• Direct interaction with page elements e.g inline editing,drag-and-drop etc
• Partial page update instead of reloading of whole page.
• More content on single page
• In-page feedback and confirmation.

Hope that was quite a Gyan masala..

Take care..

Power packed simplicity

2007-08-21T05:43:00.000-04:00

I came across this

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/06/02/business/03google_graphic.html

It really is amazing to see how simple yet powerful the algo / thought process could be.

Njoi

Manav

When to go for Re-engineering of your Test Suite?

2007-07-24T06:13:00.000-04:00

A test suite will need to be considered for a re-architecture when one or more of the following criteria are true –
a) When there is no standard process for defining, organizing, managing, and documenting the testing activities
b) When testing efforts are non-repeatable, non-reusable, and difficult to measure
c) When test cases are redundant and repetitive
d) When the test results and metrics captured are of little or no value in qualifying the product/application
e) When the test suite coverage is inadequate
f) When the most important of defects are not uncovered in the initial stages of testing
g) When the test suite needs a lot of manual intervention during execution, or when there is scope for automation
h) When the application technology becomes obsolete or undergoes change

The test suite after re-engineering should have met the following criterion –
a) Contain a stable core set of tests
b) Remove tests that are redundant, repetitive or un-needed
c) Achieve better testing flow
d) Minimize execution time and user interaction
e) Maintain and improve dynamic testing ability
f) Improve maintainability and portability
g) Enhancing coverage readability
h) Structure enhancements for maintaining parallel and independent test development

How to categorize a mainframe application

2007-06-21T09:16:00.000-04:00

Most of the times we need to analyze and categorize the Mainframe application into simple medium and complex. What do we do?
Here are snapshot questions we can rely on:

Key questions :
a) What the Business Functionality.
b) What are the key interfaces are there.
c) How many key interfaces are there for the application.
d) What is the data and information flow,
e) What are the data attributes for all system interactions.
f) What is the cycle time for complete accessing of the applications.
g) What are the backend data verification [DB2 tables] through Spufi (SQL Processing Using File Input), QMF (Query Mgmt Facility) or any such means and even through Batch runs.
h) Does the application involve CICS or any other information control system from testing per se.
i) How many batch jobs are required to run the application successfully.
j) What is the order of batch runs and the order of their execution
k) Does the application involve any kind of Data collection system. Also are there, if yes, how many batch runs for activities such as – Audit, Resync and Data Archival, Data Retrieval, DB2 load and Unload operations etc.
l) Are any Test Data management systems being used in the application(s) e.g utilities like FileAid (from Compuware) etc.
m) What is the mode in which the tables are available (RW,W,R etc)
n) How many tabels does the application support
o) How is the DB schema designed
p) Which forms (from RDBMS per se) it support. E.g Form -1,2,3 etc.
q) What is the archiving and purge cycle
r) How long is the archiving and purging cycle.
s) What is the support system that the application uses
- hardware platform
- O/S
- Language support
- Database / File System
- Messaging/Middleware/Online Environments
- Tools/Development Environments

Walmart's secret - Sam walton's Golden Rules

2007-04-03T07:58:00.000-04:00

I came across the list in an article in newspaper. How about adopting them...

Rule # 1. Commit to achieving success and always be passionate.
Rule # 2. Share your success with those who have helped you.
Rule # 3. Motivate yourself and others to achieve your dreams.
Rule # 4. Communicate with people and show you care.
Rule # 5. Appreciate and recognize people for their efforts and results.
Rule # 6. Celebrate your own and other's accomplishments.
Rule # 7. Listen to others and learn from their ideas.
Rule # 8. Exceed the expectations of others by setting high standards.
Rule # 9. Control your expenses and save your way to prosperity.
Rule # 10. Swim UpStream, be different and challenge status quo.

My Rule - consider above rules your bible to become the NEXT Sam walton and in process create your behemoth. No jokes, serious thought.

Benefits of Automation ...Once again plz

2007-03-27T05:39:00.000-04:00

The most obvious Benefits from automation are :

1. Speed and Accuracy – Automation testing is faster and more accurate than manual testing. It can be as much as 50 times faster depending upon the speed of the application to process information. Tools are much more accurate than manual test input. Research suggests that the average typist makes 3 mistakes for every 1000 keystrokes. Also, automation tool never tire, get bored, take shortcuts or make assumptions of what works.
2. Accessibility – Automation tools allow access to communication protocols, lower level objects of systems & operating system that manual testers can not access. This allows for a test suite with much greater depth & breadth.
3. Reusability – Once tests are developed, long term benefits are derived through reuse. Over the period of time, application changes and gains more complexity. The number of tests always keeps increasing as application matures. Testers have to constantly add new test scripts and need not write same scripts again or test the same area manually over and over again.
4. Manageability – You can group the test scripts according to functionality & prepare ready to use test suits. Depending on the change of code, you can pick up the test suite for testing. It is also possible to test different functionalities altogether or one by one using test suits.
5. Discovery of issues – Automated testing assists discovery of issues early in the development process, hence reducing the costs.
6. Repeatability – An automation suite provides repeatable process for verifying functionality of functional side and scalability on the performance side.
7. Availability – As they are automated, scripts can run any time ,any where that too unattended.

...Wow thats a real Ready reckoner...isn't it ?

Why Automation....eek... Fails ?

2007-03-27T05:38:00.000-04:00

Following points are major cause of failure in automation.

1. After creation of automation suit, customer does not maintain the suit for future builds.
2. Lack of structured automation methodology.
3. Test automation is not treated as a project with proper project planning.
4. Testing is performed at the end of development cycle.
5. No modularization in automating scripts.
6. Test engineers are not trained in tool interface & programming.

Automation .....an intresting angle to it

2007-03-27T05:33:00.000-04:00

Challenge:

When the test scripts are executed there is chance that more than one test scripts require the same resource to operate on. Moreover as the test scripts are executed in parallel they will try to modify or make use of the same resource.

If a certain test script is written to make use of a particular environment and will only pass if that environment is available. Some other script which is executing before this script changes the environment will surely fail the former script.
Also if the scripts are not properly cleaning up the environment they changed it becomes difficult for other test scripts to expect the environment in a shape.

Preconditions are used for individual test scripts to set up the environment required for a particular test script. Post conditions are used to cleanup the environment modified by the test script. Preconditions and Post conditions can itself be separate test scripts. So there can be quite high dependency between the test scripts. One test script is expecting to setup the environment for itself and some other test script changing the environment set for it.
Such test automation will lead to chaos and will not provide the correct results even though the product is flawless and code for test script is correct.

Solution(s):
a) Execute each test script individually.
b) Sequencing of the test scripts which will be executed in parallel
c) Locking of shared resources which act as an environment for the test scripts.
d) Cleaning up the environment.

Do’s and Do-not’s of the Interviewing

2007-02-17T14:46:00.000-05:00

In-Person Interview:

Follow these simple rules and you should achieve success in this important phase(s) of interview.

* Do your research and know the details of job/position you are taking interview for and also the tentative types of candidates you will be encountering.
* Don't memorize or over-rehearse your questions.
* Do dress the part for the job, the company, the industry. And do err on the side of conservatism.
* Do greet the candidate with courtesy and respect.
* Don't chew gum during the interview.
* Do greet the interviewee by title (Ms., Mr., Mrs) and last name if you are sure of the pronunciation. (If you're not sure, do request the interviewee about the pronunciation before trying yourself.
* Do shake hands firmly. Don't have a limp or clammy handshake!
* Do offer a chair to candidate before sitting. And do remember body language and posture: sit upright and look alert and interested and in control at all times. Don't fidget or slouch.
* Don't tell jokes during the interview.
* Do make good eye contact with your interviewee.
* Do show enthusiasm and keep the interview as lively as possible.
* Don't smoke beforehand so that you smell like smoke. And do have a breath mint before the interview.
* Do avoid using poor language, slang, and pause words (such as "like," "uh and "um").
* Don't be very soft-spoken. A forceful voice projects confidence.
* Do have a high confidence and energy level, but don't be overly aggressive.
* Don't act as though you would take any candidate or are desperate for having people on board.
* Do avoid controversial topics.
* Do make sure that your good points come across in a factual, sincere manner.
* Don't ask questions with a simple "yes" or "no."
* Don't bring up or discuss personal issues or family problems.
* Do remember that the interview is also an important time for candidate to evaluate the interviewer and the company (s) he represents, so be very cautious.
* Don't answer cell phone calls during the interview, and do turn off (or set to silent ring) your cell phone and/or pager.
* Don't inquire about salary, vacations, bonuses, retirement, or other benefits. Be prepared for a question about the salary, but do try and delay salary talk until you are sure to make an offer.
* Do close the interview by telling the interviewee about the next step in the process.
* Do immediately take down notes after the interview concludes so you don't forget crucial details.

Phone Interviewing:

Here are the keys to successful phone interviewing.

* Do know what job you are interviewing for.
* Do ask the candidate if (S) he is comfortable before starting the interview.
* Do practice, if possible. Have a friend call you to do a mock phone interview so you get the feel of interviewing over the phone.
* When interviewing by phone, do make sure you are in a place where you can read notes, take notes, and concentrate.
* If you cannot devote enough time to a phone interview, do suggest a specific alternate time.
* Do consider keeping some note-cards or an outline in front of you to remind yourself of key points you want to cover during the course of the interview. Do also have the resume in front of you so as to frame questions around candidates experience and accomplishments.
* Do ensure that you can hear and are being clearly heard.
* Do consider standing when interviewing on the phone. Some experts say you’ll sound more professional than if you’re slouching in an easy chair.
* Do create a strong finish to the phone interview by allowing the interviewee to ask questions.
* Don't snuffle, sneeze or cough. If you can’t avoid these behaviours, say “excuse me.”
* Don't chew gum or food, or drink anything noisy.

Happy Interviewing....:-)

RrrrrUuuuPpp

2007-02-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

The Rational Unified Process® is a Software Engineering Process. It provides a disciplined approach to assigning tasks and responsibilities within a development organization. Its goal is to ensure the production of high-quality software that meets the needs of its end-users, within a predictable schedule and budget. RUP enhances team productivity, by providing every team member with easy access to a knowledge base with guidelines, templates and tool mentors for all critical development activities.

RUP's activities create and maintain models. Rather than focusing on the production of large amount of paper documents, the Unified Process emphasizes the development and maintenance of models—semantically rich representations of the software system under development.

RUP is a guide for how to effectively use the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The UML is a industry-standard language that allows us to clearly communicate requirements, architectures and designs.

The Rational Unified Process is a configurable process. Mind you, No single process is suitable for all software development. The Unified Process fits small development teams as well as large development organizations.

Six Sigma...What ??? - Part 2

2007-02-07T03:05:00.000-05:00

Zooming in to the Six Sigma further lets talk about the various Synergies it bring forth vis-a-vis ISO, TQM. Here goes the List:

1. Focus on Money
- Everybody's favorite :-) and But only 6Sigma target this, others :-(.
2. Leadership and Top-Down Support
- Yes all three Support this.
3. Continous Improvement
- Bingo - yet again all three.
4. Deployment Strategies and Guidelines
- Only ISO and 6Sigma support.
5. Measurement Crietria for Quality Goals
- Only ISO and 6Sigma support
6. Performance Targets
- TQM and 6Sigma
7. Application of Statistical Tools
- TQM and 6Sigma
8. Quality Career Path
- Only 6 Sigma
9. Extension to Cost,Cycle Time and other Business issues
- Only 6 Sigma
10. Intehration of other business goals with Quality
- Only 6 Sigma
11. Functional Focus
- ISO and 6Sigma
12. Project Approach
- Yet again 6 Sigma.

So from above donot you think "6 Sigma really scores over ISO and TQM". Should we not adopt this baby ?

Six Sigma...What ???

2007-02-02T04:06:00.000-05:00

I carry one quote from Mr. Azim Premji (for who Eats business, dreams business and sleeps business). Quote " Successful leaders have made Six Sigma their way of conducting business" / Unquote.
I really agree to his flow of thoughts,But i guess its THE most underrated and least tapped way of executing business. You bet, it is a real volcano, gathering enough power, Gases etc (read proponents) to engulf whole IT world.
But thats future, i thought of coming up a Six Sigma series to give back/ share what i have learnt being a practising Green Belt.

Clarification : Six Sigma is way beyond 3.4 defects per million oppurtunities. It actually targets to return process efficiency of 99.99966%.
In other words process Standard deviation should be so low that it can fit into client performance limits without any hassel.Believe me it aims at such a process in which no matter what target deviation happens it still is within the customer demands. 6Sigma is actually a variance based thinking and where mean is meaningless.
It has three main advisors - USL - Upper Specification Limit (Anything above this is a defect), LSL -Lower Specification Limit( Anything below this is a Defect) and Target (Usually the middle point of USL and LSL).
Six Sigma super set contains - Metric, Culture, Way of Life,Locomotive, Benchmark and of course GOAL.

Hire for Attitude

2007-02-01T07:15:00.000-05:00

Now,when India Inc is really going *gaga* with economic Boom,every industry from FMCG to IT to Automotive to whatnot are feeling the crunch in skilled people. There is a real Demand supply (D&S) Gap. And with every moment its just widening. Another reasons for the cause of concern are - increasing attrition rates,wrong people getting hired etc. But then instead of going into Why's How's. I thought to start off with the basic principles of hiring. Even though the D&S gap exist still everyone does get candidates (prospective employees). So whom should be hiered. Now every organization have their own basic parameters for filtering in-eligible candidates. Lets stick this section on eligible people. So from among them whom should be hiered.
I believe, if i were the interviewer, i will give Attitude 80%, 10% their knack for problems and rest for their skills. Can you think Why Lalu prasad Yadav is an eye candy for Big Business houses. Why NRN,Ratan Tata etc are not ? Its simple because of the free and smart attitude he has for any given problem / scenario. These things cannot be taught in our degree colleges / business schools. Its comes naturally. Now consider this - Steve Jobs is a drop out, still he created a giant called - Apple, Bill gates a similar story - a drop out and i think i need not pen anything on the machine which has everything from his stable. These examples may be rare but its only one thing which differentiaties these folks - Their attitude. Mind you Risk is a suppliment to Attitude.
So coming back to main point - Attitude really rules the roost. It really doesnot matter whether i have the required skills or not, But if i have the attitude i can do whatever new i need to or is expected out of me.
Along with checking persons attitude, we should also check if they have the tongue for Risks. Is yes, i would say donot think twice and just go ahead have the person on board. Believe me, You will never repent for this investment in entire organizational future.

So - Do you all really agree ?

What is orthogonal Array Test Strategy ?

2007-02-01T03:36:00.000-05:00

Orthogonal Array Test Strategy is a systematic and statistical way of testing pair-wise interactions. In simple terms, Orthogonal Arrays are special set of Latin squares, constructed by Taguchi to design the test sets. It provides representative (uniformly distributed) coverage of all variable pair combinations. OATS provides a test set that guarantees, testing the pair-wise combinations of all the variables. It creates an efficient and concise test set with very few test cases rather testing all the combinations of all the variables. It also exercises some of the complex combinations of all the variables. Following are some of the key concepts used in Orthogonal Analysis.

Factors: Number of variables whose pair-wise combinations to be arrived at.
Levels: Maximum of the number of values, each of the factors can take.
Strength: Number of columns it requires to visit each of the levels possibilities equally often.
Runs: Number of rows in the Orthogonal Array.

Usually an Orthogonal Array is represented as Lr (f ^ l) where, r is the number of runs, f is the number of factors and l is the number of levels. So L9 (4^3) represents an Orthogonal Array with 4 factors, 3 levels and 9 runs.

Crisp and Intresting

2007-01-31T20:06:00.000-05:00

Apology for much delay in coming back. Now on i will maintain my updates.

Hey while surfing i came across this interview. This is really short, crisp and intresting. Mind you it is thought provoking.

Njoi http://www.ddj.com/blog/debugblog/archives/2007/01/five_questions_5.html

Commandants of Agile Methodology

2006-10-03T11:16:00.000-04:00

1.Satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2.Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
3.Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter time scale.
4.Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5.Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6.The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7.Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8.Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

9.Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10.Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
11.The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12.At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Effective Web Application Testing Process

2006-10-03T10:48:00.000-04:00

The Key attributes required for the Effective Web Testing Process are:

1. Clarity: For a process to be effective, steps within the process and the results of the process need to be easily understood by all relevant stakeholders.
2. Repeatability and Portability: For a process to be control with any economies of scale, it must be repeatable. Applications change, versions change, personnel change, but a good process can be learned by new team members and adapted to new situations.
3. Transparency: An effective process must be transparent, both to members of the team involved in the day-to-day operations within the process as well as to "outsiders" (such as management, business analysts, etc.) who need to have a view into the process for the purposes of aligning its results with other processes (such as PR and Operations, among others) within the organization.
4.Persistence: The process must create outputs that are not destroyed at the end of the process. In a testing environment such outputs will be documentation, test plans, test results, and defects found. This information should be stored in a centralized repository accessible by both team members and a variety of "outsiders," such as Marketing staff who are coordinating public launches, senior management who are evaluating the effectiveness of their business units.

Total Process Improvement - TPI - Test in a new way

2006-10-03T10:19:00.000-04:00

TPI (Test Process Improvement Model) is a model which aims to aid in measuring the testing process maturity and also provides guidelines for improvements. Developed by Sogeti Nederland BV, it classifies the entire testing process into 20 key areas. It gives an approach wherein an organization can self assess the level at which it is in each of the 20 key areas. There are a maximum of 4 levels (A, B, C, D) for each of the key areas with A being the least and D the highest.
The manager can define a target required level for each of the areas. All key areas need not be at the same level. TPI also offers a set of improvement guidelines on how one could improves one’s process to a higher level for each of the areas. To reach a particular level there is a checkpoint which contains the set of requirements that the particular key area must satisfy to achieve that level.
There is a final maturity matrix which captures the levels and interdependencies between each of the key areas. Each of the rows of the matrix is a key area. The columns of the matrix are the maturity levels. There are 13 levels of maturity. Not all key areas at a given level map to a given level of maturity. For example if Test Strategy is at level A then the maturity for it is only 1 while if key area metrics is at level A the maturity is level 6. This is because all key areas do not have the same priority. In addition the 13 maturity stages are mapped into 3 categories: 1-5 is Controlled, 6-10 is Efficient and 11-13 is Optimizing.