Chapter 8
1: What's the difference between a component and a peripheral?
A1: Generally, a component is a hardware device internal to a PC. A peripheral is external to the PC. The lines can become blurry, though, depending on the type of hardware.
2: How can you tell if a bug you find is a general problem or a specific configuration problem?
A2: Rerun the exact same steps that revealed the bug on several different configurations. If the problem doesn't occur on those, it's very likely a configuration bug. If it occurs on the different configurations, it's likely a general problem. Be careful, though. It could be a configuration problem across an entire equivalence class. For example, it's possible that the bug shows up only on laser printers, but not inkjet printers.
3: How could you guarantee that your software would never have a configuration problem?
A3: This is sort of a trick question. You'd need to ship the hardware and software together as one package, the software would only work on that hardware, and the hardware would have to be completely sealed, not having a single interface to the outside world.
4: Some companies purchase generic hardware and put their names on it, selling it as their own. You'll often see this on lower-priced peripherals sold in computer superstores. The same "cloned" peripheral might be sold under different names in different stores. True or False: Only one version of a cloned sound card needs to be considered when selecting the configurations to test.
A4: It depends. Typically, a cloned hardware device is mechanically and electrically identical to its brothers and sisters. Often they are 100 percent functionally equivalent, but sometimes the firmware or device drivers are different, allowing one device to support additional or different features than the others. In the case of this sound card, you would need to research how different or similar the sounds cards are that you plan to test before deciding on your equivalence classes.
5: In addition to age and popularity, what other criteria might you use to equivalence partition hardware for configuration testing?
A5: Region or country is a possibility as some hardware devices such as DVD players only work with DVDs in their geographic region. Another might be consumer or business. Some hardware is specific to one, but not the other. Think of others that might apply to your software.
6: Is it acceptable to release a software product that has configuration bugs?
A6: Yes, probably. You'll never be able to fix all of them. As in all testing, the process is risk based. You and your team will need to decide what you can fix and what you can't. Leaving in an obscure bug that only appears with a rare piece of hardware is an easy decision. Others won't be as easy.
Chapter 9
1: True or False: All software must undergo some level of compatibility testing.
A1: False. There will be a few rare, standalone, proprietary first versions of software out there that don't interact with anything. For the other 99 percent of the world, though, some level of compatibility testing will be necessary.
2: True or False: Compatibility is a product feature and can have different levels of compliance.
A2: True. The level of compatibility that your software has is based on your customers' needs. It may be perfectly fine for a word processor to not be compatible with a competitor's file format or for a new operating system to not support a certain class of gaming software. As a tester, you should provide input to these decisions by determining how much work would be involved in checking that compatibility.
3: If you're assigned to test compatibility of your product's data file formats, how would you approach the task?
A3: Research whether your program follows existing standards for its files. If so, test that it meets those standards. Equivalence partition the possible programs that would read and write your program's files. Design test documents with representative samples of the types of data that your program can save and load. Test the transfer of these files between your program and the other programs.
4: How can you test forward compatibility?
A4: Testing forward compatibility is toughafter all, how can you test against something that doesn't exist yet? The answer is to make sure that what you're testing is thoroughly and carefully defined to the point that it could be deemed a standard. That standard then becomes the means for assuring that what you're testing is forward compatible.
Chapter 10
1: What's the difference between translation and localization?
A1: Translation is concerned only with the language aspectstranslating the words. Localization takes into account the customs, conventions, and culture of the region or locale.
2: Do you need to know the language to be able to test a localized product?
A2: No, but someone on the test team needs to be fluent. You can test the nonlanguage-specific portions of the software, but knowing a bit of the language will help you be more efficient.
3: What is text expansion and what common bugs can occur because of it?
A3: Text expansion can occur when text in one language is translated into another language. The length of text strings can grow 100 percent or more. Text that used to fit onscreen, in dialog boxes, in buttons, and so on no longer does. It can be truncated or cause other text to roll off. It's even possible to have the software crash because the extra long text no longer fits in the memory set aside for the string and other memory is overwritten.
4: Identify several areas where extended characters can cause problems.
A4: The order of sorted or alphabetized words and phrases, conversion between upper- and lowercase, and just general display and printing issues.
5: Why is it important to keep text strings out of the code?
A5: Localizing becomes much easier if the person doing the work has to modify only a text file rather than the programming code. It also makes the testing work easier because you'll know that the code didn't change on the localized version of the software.
6: Name a few types of data formats that could vary from one localized program to another.
A6: Measurements such as pounds, inches, and gallons. Time in 24-hour or 12-hour format. Currency has recently become more important now that many European countries have converted to the Euro. There are many others.
Chapter 11
1: True or False: All software has a user interface and therefore must be tested for usability.
A1: True. Eventually, even the most deeply embedded software is exposed, in some way, to a user. Keep in mind that the UI may be as simple as a switch and a light bulb or as complex as a flight simulator. Even if the software is a single module in a code library, its interface, in the form of variables and parameters, is exposed to a programmerwho can be a user, too.
2: Is user interface design a science or an art?
A2: It's a little bit of both. Many user interface designs have been thoroughly tested in the labs, been through rigorous studies, only to be complete failures in the marketplace.
3: If there's no definitive right or wrong user interface, how can it be tested?
A3: Software testers should check that it meets seven important criteria: That it follows standards and guidelines, that it's intuitive, consistent, flexible, comfortable, correct, and useful.
4: List some examples of poorly designed or inconsistent UIs in products you're familiar with.
A4: This answer will vary based on the products you use but think about these: Try setting the time on your car radio's clockcan you do it without using the manual?
Most Windows dialog boxes have the OK button on the left and the Cancel button on the right, whereas others have Cancel on the left and OK on the right. If you get used to one layout and click without looking, you could lose your work!
Did you ever accidentally hang up on someone when you clicked the receiver hook on your phone to use call waiting or conference calling?
And, the best one of all time…is up to you to find!
5: What four types of disabilities could affect software usability?
A5: Visual, hearing, motion, and cognitive impairments.
6: If you're testing software that will be accessibility enabled, what areas do you need to pay close attention to?
A6: Areas dealing with the keyboard, mouse, sound, and display. If the software was written to a popular platform that supports accessibility, the test effort will be a bit easier than if the accessibility features were programmed entirely from scratch.
Chapter 12
2: The Windows Paint Help Index contains more than 200 terms from airbrush tool to zooming in or out. Would you test that each of these takes you to the correct help topics? What if there were 10,000 indexed terms?
A2: Every testing task is a risk-based problem. If you have time to test all the index entries, you might choose to do so. If you can't test them all, you'll have to create equivalence partitions of the ones you think are important to check. You could base your decision on information you get from the programmers on how the index system works. You might talk with the writer to find out how the entries were generated. You might try one of each starting letter, or the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 16th, … and last. You could even wait until you read Chapter 15, "Automated Testing and Test Tools."
3: True or False: Testing error messages falls under documentation testing.
A3: True. But, it's not just documentation testing. The content of the message needs to be tested as documentation, but forcing the message to appear and assuring that the correct message is displayed is testing the code.
4: In what three ways does good documentation contribute to the product's overall quality?
A4: Improved usability, improved reliability, and lower support costs.
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