Apple Numbers (QA Fail)

Apple makes things easy - which is why I like using it as my computer platform. Just about everything is easier to do on Macintosh.

However, they seriously failed with making graphs in Numbers.

On Christmas Day, I was trying to create a chart of how early my daughter would wake up Christmas morning.

I was struggling with generating a chart from a bunch of data. Basically it was a spreadsheet that had years as one row and times in the second row.

Here's a sample shot of the data:

When I clicked on the "Insert Chart", this is what I got:

Looks like I'll have to do a lot of chart manipulation to make this to work. (I tried putting the data via column view and got the same results.)

Google Sheets

I put in the exact same data in a Google SpreadSheet, select the fields and clicked "Insert Chart" and got a perfectly matched chart:

What I Learned

Apparently if I need to create a quick chart, the way to go is to use Google Spreadsheet (or Excel). Apple Numbers isn't all that user-friendly when it comes to creating charts.

Apple should make it simple to create charts - they do have some unique layouts/styles that aren't available in other applications. I shouldn't have to be a chart master to make it work - especially if the data is simple.

The Best 2019 QA Posts

This year I posted a lot of useful information about QA software testing. Along the way, I learned a lot more about new techniques and testing strategies.

• False Negative - Understanding how False Negatives can occur
• Massachusetts QA Fails - What happens when things do not go through QA
• Test Plan Guidlines - Fundamentals of what makes a good quality test plan
• Adobe Flash - Adobe Flash going away
• Test Strategy - Fundamentals of a Test Strategy document
• What Wikipedia Can Not Tell You About Test Link - Some TestLink Annoyances
• Letter to the QA Manager - Sample letter to the QA Manager
• Blue Button - Useful Chrome Extension to help debug a website.
• World Quality Report - Learn all about the World-Wide trends in qa testing in the Capgemini document

2020 Goals

Very excited about some of the things I learned this year. I'll keep the QA Monday topic going until the end of February.

Three Specific QA Goals for the next set of posts:

• Discover some of the Basics of QA Testing.
• How can testers become better testers.
• What tools are available that people may not know exists.

I'll focus more time on the quality of content, not just to post because I have to post.

Add Search to Chrome

Did you know that you can search through many websites without actually navigating to them? This cool trick is beneficial if you wanted, for example, to go directly to the Wikipedia article on orangutans without visiting Google.com or Wikipedia's front page.

Setting up the Search

First, go to Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines. There, you'll see your default search engine (the one Chrome uses whenever you type a query into the search), other sites already available for quick searches, as well as the option to add other websites to the list.

To prep up for this, go to a site that you want a "quick search" and search for something using the search engine. Copy the URL that appears on the first page after you click on submit.

• Click Add
• Enter in a search engine name
• Enter a KeyWords - Usually just the search engine name
• Then enter the URL and replace the old search term with %s

Sample Search Entry

So, for quick Wikipedia searches, click "Add" under Manage search engines and add the site. Then, the next time you type "Wikipedia.org" in the search text, on the far right, you'll see a prompt telling you to press tab to search within the site. Once you press the tab button, you'll see "search Wikipedia" written in blue on the left side of the search field; type your query and Chrome will only search within Wikipedia.

This function isn't specific to reference or search sites. You can use the search field to search directly through nearly any site'even PCMag.com'as long as it's included in your managed list of search engines. Chrome will automatically add these "keyword searches" to any site you visit.

To do this manually, add "site:" to a query. Say, for example, you want to see everything PCMag has written about fitness trackers, you could type "fitness trackers site:pcmag.com" into the search field, and Google will return results from their site.

Incognito in Chrome

Google's Incognito Mode is a quick way to go "private" in Google Chrome. It's a way to browse the internet without keeping any history on your computer.

Google Description

Simple description of Google's Incognito from Google:

Five Things I have learned while using Incognito

1. You can only have one active Incognito session open at once. Which means that you can't open multiple Incognito windows with different Facebook logins.
2. To Launch the Incognito mode simply Press ' + Shift + n.
3. Did you know that Websites knows that you're in Incognito mode! This may impact you're experienced with the websites. For example, if you try to create a new Facebook account, Facebook will make your login experience a bit more adventurous.
4. Google Extensions like Go Incognito let's you open the current page in Incognito mode.
5. Some websites will set prices when browsing normal vs Incognito mode. Always good to see what the price of something is when your not logged in.

What happens when you browse privately

Chrome won't save your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms. Files you download and bookmarks you create will be kept.

Your activity isn't hidden from websites you visit, your employer or school, or your internet service provider.

Misconceptions that exist within software testing

Someone recently asked, "What are some of the misconceptions that exist within Quality Assurance Testing?"

Some QA misconceptions that I have seen/encountered over the years:

QA Can Be Done By Customers

Let's save money and time. Let's have the customers test this feature.

Big mistake to have paying customers test untestable code is very risky. They may encounter some bugs that may block them from performing crucial tasks.

In addition, you may introduce code into production that may not be reversible.

Let's Tell You How Long it Will Take

Some Developers and Product team members may say, " The feature shouldn't take long to test, let the lead developers figure out how much time to test a feature. "

In reality, The only people that know how long to test something are the people doing the manual testing.

QA is Easy, Anyone can Do it

Some people think, Anyone can QA, that's an easy job.

Nice thinking, it's almost saying anyone can paint a wall. Sure anyone can. However, those that know what they are doing, actually do a better job and will produce a better quality product.

Don't trust your work to anyone, use someone that knows the technology and can better judge the work.

GodFather Quotes

Here are some quotes from the movie GodFather but changed for QA. After each quote is a brief description of the logic.

If Vito Corleone was a QA engineer these are things he may say:

GodFather QA Quotes

"Great tests are not born great, they grow great . . ."

No matter how good a test case is, there's always room to make it better. Don't assume that once you create a test case, that it will be perfect forever. There's going to change the may make the test run faster, test better or fix issues discovered by exploratory testing.

"I don't trust automation to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of machines whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of code to test for them."
- Mario Puzo, The Godfather

Automation is critical to every test plan. However, it would be a mistake to let all the testing be done by automation. QA should run some manual critical path testing to make sure that the product is working as expected.

In my experience, I have found that automation may miss some critical errors and not raise an alert to the automation review team.

"Behind every successful test action there is a bug."
- Mario Puzo, The Godfather

No matter how good a test is, bugs will still get by QA. The important thing is for QA to find as many customer-facing bugs as possible. Realistically all bugs won't get found. (Some QA bugs may not get fixed because of low priority issues.)

IBM - You Make the Call

It's a slow week in QA, so I thought I put up an original QA graphic.

You Make the Call

If you were watching the NFL in the 1980s, you probably saw the famous IBM commercials where they challenged you to make the call. These commercials would show some strange plays and let the viewer think on what the correct call should be.

I reference that phrase, "You Make the Call" all the time to the engineering and operations team. So, I decided to create an updated graphic.

You can catch some of the classic IBM commercials on YouTube:

GitHub Tips for QA

Here are four useful tips on using GitHub for QA:

Tags

If your company use tags, you should know about the Tags project page. It displays the latest tag and get the ability to download the tags.

Releases

Find out the latest release and past releases with dates of deployment on the releases page. Not every project have project "releases" but those that do may have useful information here.

KeyBoard Shortcuts

Learn some of the popular Keyboard shortcuts that are available on GitHub

Today I Learn: The fastest way to any GitHub Repository Wiki is to type in G W on any Repository page.

Use the Show All to view all the cool short cut options. (or simply go to the Keyboard shortcuts - GitHub Help page.)

View the Blame on Any File

Using the information from the previous tip, when looking at a GitHub file, if you type in b - you'll get modification information on that file. Perfect when you are debugging an issue and need to talk to someone about why a change was made.

One More Thing

Have you noticed that the Github search graphic is a perfect QA graphic:

I don't think it's realistic that people will be searching for bugs on GitHub.

Mandela Effect

Have you heard of the Mandela Effect?

Here's a brief description:

So how's does this relate to QA activities?

In release testing, people may have a false memory of features being tested before signing off on the current release. Everyone may assume that a feature was tested because it always is.

Note: This could also be true with automation. A feature that people may think is covered by automation is in fact still in development.

Value of Having a Checklist

This is why having a product-related checklist is critical to ensuring that all critical paths are tested. Don't just assume that someone else has tested it - find out by asking!

Reset the checklist for every release - that way you can ensure that critical features have been touched by manual or automation.

Best Screen Capture Tool for Chrome

When it comes to screen capture applications there are a lot of different options. You certainly don't need to buy one as all the major operating systems now have built-in screen capture tools.

If you constantly take screen shots of webpages in Google Chrome there's one tool that stands out above the rest. That's Snag-it.

A "Must Have" Tool for QA

What makes Snag-it the best screen capture tool for Chrome? Well, there are things that I can think of.:

• Snag-it will automatically capture the inner window browser frame area. This means that you can capture the main webpage area. You don't need to play around guessing the window area.
• Snag-it can capture the whole browser window. So if you need to show the URL in your screenshot you can.
• Snag-it can scroll and capture the full webpage. This is useful when you need to capture the whole page in a bug report or for archive purposes.
• You can select multiple regions. This is great when you have two Chrome browsers open and you're doing a comparison. You can also have shown the page against a product spec and highlight areas that are incorrect.
• You can capture both images and video using the browser region functionality.
• You can drag and drop a Bookmark icon to the Snagit Menu Bar icon, or to the Dock icon to quickly get a full website capture. Downside: If your site requires a login you would only see the login page. Still a neat way to capture a URL without having to load it in a browser.
• When you capture the website the URL is saved as part of the MetaData. You can view the content using the "Capture Info" under Effect Styles. Not only will you get the URL, but Snagit will display the Google Chrome version and the date/time of capture. All useful information in any bug report.

Try it!

You can try out SnagiT for free for 15-days from TechSmith's website: Download Free Trial. After that the cost is $49.95.

What do you think?

Is there another tool that offers better screen capture functionality? Let me know what I am missing in the comments below.