Tag Archives: bugs - Page 2

In search of the ultimate bug tracking tool

Posted by on September 17, 2009 16 comments

As many of you know, I’ve been on the hunt for a bug tracking tool for a while now and I’m glad to say the hunt is over.

I needed this bug tracking tool to meet some key criteria.

1) It had to be easy to install. Startups don’t always have a reputation of up front planning and I wanted a tool I could recomend that was quick and easy to install.

2) It had to be open source. I didn’t want to pay for a bug tracking tool unless I had too. My clients feel the same way.

3) I wanted to embed the bug tracking tool into my website Testing Times and then provide it as a service for my clients who don’t have or want a bug tracking tool.

4) It had to be easy to use and secure. I wanted each client to have access to only their project.

TRAC got the heads up for being opensource, but was too hard to install in comparison to YouTrack, which beat it hands down. YouTrack only provided a temporary license though and I had trouble getting my hosting company to support Apache Tomcat. The effort to install something I may have to pay for later, made me feel it was pointless to pursue.

Tails was interesting and looked great, and if I had to pay for a tool, their pricing structure suited my needs. There is no messy install as it’s a hosted service but that meant that I wouldn’t be able to embed it onto my site.

Practitest had similar issues for me, and also the pay per month/user pricing structure didn’t suit my needs.

I was at a bit of a loss until BHARATH suggested Redmine.

Redmine is an opensource tracking tool that’s easy to install, easy to configure and secure.  It ticked all the boxes and it’s now sitting on my website. You can take a look at it at  http://bugs.testingtimes.ie if you like.

I have created a public project called Testing Times for those who want to investigate a bit further.

The real test of course will be my clients, their reaction and how much they use it.

So a hearty thanks to Bharath and a sigh of contentment from me.

Straight up, no ice….

Posted by on August 29, 2009 3 comments

You know the way sometimes, a post, or even a comment on a post gets you thinking. A recent comment by Phil Kirkham on Georgia Motoc’s blog got my subconscious brain working overtime. So much to the point where I feel compelled to put finger to keyboard and write about it.

I had always been a fan of positive praise before negative feedback. As the bearer of bad news (like many software testers), I though this was an effective way of cushioning the impact of what I wrote or said.

So, when Georgia Motoc wrote  a post on feedback discussing the ‘Praise Sandwich’ I was surprised how negative Phil was on the approach. However his comment and  his link (indirectly to a post by Art Petty ) really got me thinking of how I communicate with developers. It made me realise that the positive feedback I was providing was more for my benefit than for the software developer.

Here is some Art’s original post:

5 Reasons Why the Sandwich Technique is a Truly Bad Practice:

  • It is a crutch that is solely for the benefit of the giver, not the receiver.
  • It obfuscates the real message.
  • It confuses the receiver by watering down the key message.
  • It destroys the value of positive feedback by linking it with the negative. Don’t forget that positive feedback is a powerful tool for reinforcing the right behaviors and the sandwich technique devalues this tool.
  • It is insulting to the receiver and borderline deceitful. “Bob, you did a great job on XYZ, but .” It’s like a pat on the back followed by a sucker punch followed by another pat on the back.

I have a real reason why I have changed my attitude to this:

When I’m on a short term assignment (which is often)  I don’t have time or the need to cultivate deep relationships with software developers. What is important is that the bugs I find are communicated in a clear and concise manner. That’s what I am paid for.

The praise sandwich is not necessary and more importantly it does not provide best value to my client.  This is something I learnt on James Bach’s course and has stuck with me. What ever you do ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing right now adding value for my customer”.

Hackers, Blogs and PC’s…. Oh My!!!

Posted by on August 5, 2009 4 comments

What a week!

My ‘problem’ antennas have been twitching this week. It started off with my blog and user access. ‘Hedosnorrenny’ had decided to become a contributor to my blog. Without me asking.  There he (or she?) was, proudly displayed in my WordPress ‘users’.

So, methinks, time to perform some extra security. With all this Gumblar about, you can’t be too careful..  I download some malware software and start scanning. Problem number 2 pops up. Every time my scan runs, it freezes on one particular dll. Uh Oh, virus?

No No my friends…it’s bigger than that…

It’s hardware failure!!! Hooray, at least I know it’s not my antivirus sofware! My Dell laptop M1530 which is only just over  one year old (and so out of warranty) decided to pack in its hard disk. I can understand this. After all, with a 320 GB capacity, that’s a lot of hard yakka.  So, I grin and bear it in true Testing Time’s fashion and replace the  hardware. Fortunately, I’m good citizen material and have recently backed up my data. So, new hard drive and away I go….until….

Problem number 3…

Of course, when wordpress announce a new upgrade for security reasons, I immediately think, fab, this might fix my user registration issue, so upgrade I go.  Then I discover that all my blog links don’t work, neither do my catalogues.

Is there no end to this mess?

Fortunately, because of my good citizen material(see above), I have a backup and roll back an old version and presto…back in business.

I look back on my week of failure and reflect, what could I have done better? I don’t think I could have prevented the hardware failure, and the hacker?  I think I am pretty secure about my access, but I’m willing to admit I still have a lot too learn. 

WordPress upgrade failure?  Completely my fault.

I’m a software tester! What did I think I was  doing, upgrading before testing? I really ought to have known better.

So, yes I’ve learnt a lot this week. Keep your access 100% secure and test before you upgrade. I’ve now got a test site for my wordpress, and any upgrades will be well tested before it has to perform in public.

Basic stuff right? I can’t believe I keep falling into these traps….

Any advice to wordpress users, backup often and have a test site that replicates your real site.

Hmm, I think I’ve heard that advice before somewhere….