SILK Automation framework used in Cymfony- By Vijay Murugan

Cymfony Automation Frame Work:-


Automation Framework is a concept, similar to OOPs. Automation Framework is an advanced thought from Record Playback or writing some functions and executing them.

Automation Framework is a discipline and should have proper design/architecture. Automation Framework should have some of following components.

Components of a Framework:-

1. AUT Specific libraries
2. Tool wrapper function libraries.
3. Execution Engine (Script Execution should be derived
based on given test data) Data Driven
4. Results reporting mechanisms (PASS & FAIL for each test cases/procedures and
compiled results for all. Itwould be better,if it captured AUT's snapshots)
5. Planning for long term automation.
6. Keeping GUI objects info/declarations dynamicallyor static.
7. Planned approach of unattended execution.

Also framework design differs by tool, scripting languages and type of AUT etc,

Cymfony is using automation framework called “oops automation framework”

Oops framework is a combination of two or more frame works.
Oops framework Architecture as follows:-






Note:
1.WebDeclares.inc : will have Connection to client database &input excel
2.Product_Declares .inc & Global Var.inc : Will have Reusable functions.
3.Testcases.t : will have All Test case Scripts
4.Main.pln : Will have list of executable test cases
5.Main.res : Will have Results

Advantage of Framework:-

1.Reusability of utility Script.
2.Using package of Object Identify.
3.Dynamic object identification
4.Easy to Debugs
5.Multitasking


Disadvantage of Framework:-

1.If any changes happen in the page design we need to change the pervious scripts for the new design.

Understanding of Php Coding – By Awadhesh

PHP

Introduction:
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. It is a server-side scripting language, like ASP. These scripts are executed on the server. PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.). PHP is an open source software
PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts. PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"
PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc).

Basic PHP Syntax
A PHP scripting block always starts with . A PHP scripting block can be placed anywhere in the document.
On servers with shorthand support enabled you can start a scripting block with .
For maximum compatibility, we recommend that you use the standard form (Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script which sends the text "Hello World" to the browser:







Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon.



Why do use $ in Php
$ sign is Exclusively use in Php. It instructs to Php Engine That the code inserted with $ sign is Variable.

Variables in PHP
Variables are used for storing values, like text strings, numbers or arrays.
When a variable is declared, it can be used over and over again in your script.
All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.
The correct way of declaring a variable in PHP:
$var_name = value;
Let's try creating a variable containing a string, and a variable containing a number

Naming Rules for Variables
• A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"
• A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ )
• A variable name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it should be separated with an underscore ($my_string), or with capitalization ($myString)

String Variables in PHP
String variables are used for values that contain characters.
Below, the PHP script assigns the text "Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:

The Concatenation Operator
The concatenation operator (.) is used to put two string values together.
To concatenate two string variables together, use the concatenation operator

If we look at the code above you see that we used the concatenation operator two times. This is because we had to insert a third string (a space character), to separate the two strings.
The strlen() function
The strlen() function is used to return the length of a string.

The strpos() function
The strpos() function is used to search for a character/text within a string.
If a match is found, this function will return the character position of the first match. If no match is found, it will return FALSE.

The position of the string "world" in the example above is 6. The reason that it is 6 (and not 7), is that the first character position in the string is 0, and not 1.

To be Continued

Testing Techniques - By Amar

Testing techniques-1

View more presentations from cnpltesters.

Maestro performance testing approach. – By Siddu

Maestro Performance Testing Approach

Performance testing is one of the key areas of any application, in maestro the performance degradation is mainly observed while loading the widget. Hence we have considered this as a first area to explore and test for performance.

The first challenge for us is, there are millions of combinations of widgets, which one should we consider for testing?

To solve this we are adopting the following approach:

1.Write a query to extract user created widget data. Following widget creating options/combinations will be considered:

a.Widget Type
b.Entity Type
c.Chart Type
d.What to Plot
e.Date range used

2.Run the query and collect the data from all the production clients DB.

3.Identify widely created widgets and its combinations

4.List out all the performance related defects logged in JIRA and Bugzilla. Defects can be logged on production as well as QA sites.

5.Analyze and extract the defects related to widget loading and plotting.

6.Study the database to identify the large tables getting combined while creating the widget.

7.Study the database for complex queries formed during presenting in the UI.


Following data is taken from production Nintendo client.




By observing the data most of the users are creating with

Widget Types: “entity” and “entity sentiment”
Entity Types: “Company” and “Product”
Chart Types: “Line” and “Pie”
What to Plot: “Volume Assets”

-- Will be updating upon further findings

Testing process and few tips on Effective Software Testing - By Shwetha

Testing process

An important part of software quality is the process of testing and validating the software.

Test management is the practice of organizing and controlling the process and artifacts required for the testing effort.
Aspects of test management

Test management can be broken into different phases:

1.Organization
2.Planning
3.Authoring
4.Execution and
5.Reporting.

Test artifact and resource organization: is a clearly necessary part of test management. This requires organizing and maintaining an inventory of items to test, along with the various things used to perform the testing. This addresses how teams track dependencies and relationships among test assets. The most common types of test assets that need to be managed are:

•Test scripts
•Test data
•Test software
•Test hardware

Test planning: is the overall set of tasks that address the questions of why, what, where, and when to test. The reason why a given test is created is called a test motivator (for example, a specific requirement must be validated). What should be tested is broken down into many test cases for a project. Where to test is answered by determining and documenting the needed software and hardware configurations. When to test is resolved by tracking iterations (or cycles, or time period) to the testing.

Test authoring: is a process of capturing the specific steps required to complete a given test. This addresses the question of how something will be tested. This is where somewhat abstract test cases are developed into more detailed test steps, which in turn will become test scripts (either manual or automated).

Test execution: entails running the tests by assembling sequences of test scripts into a suite of tests. This is a continuation of answering the question of how something will be tested (more specifically, how the testing will be conducted).

Test reporting: is how the various results of the testing effort are analyzed and communicated. This is used to determine the current status of project testing, as well as the overall level of quality of the application or system.

The testing effort will produce a great deal of information. From this information, metrics can be extracted that define, measure, and track quality goals for the project. These quality metrics then need to be passed to whatever communication mechanism is used for the rest of the project metrics.


A very common type of data produced by testing, one which is often a source for quality metrics, is defects. Defects are not static, but change over time. In addition, multiple defects are often related to one another. Effective defect tracking is crucial to both testing and development teams.

Test management challenges
•Not enough time to test
•Not enough resources to test
•Testing teams are not always in one place
•Difficulties with requirements

Test management recommendations
The following are general recommendations that can improve software test management.
•Start test management activities early
•Test iteratively
•Reuse test artifacts
•Utilize requirements-based testing
•Leverage remote testing resources
•Defining and enforcing a flexible testing process
•Coordinate and integrate with the rest of development
•Communicate status
•Focus on goals and results
•Automate to save time


Few Questions should be constantly posed by the tester prior to testing which will make the objectives of testing very clear.

One way to sum up the objectives of test management is answering the following questions:
•Why should I test?
•What should I test?
•Where do I test?
•When do I test?
•How do I conduct the tests?


A few tips on Best Testing Practices.
•Learn to analyze your test results thoroughly:
Do not ignore the test result. The final test result may be ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ but trouble shooting the root cause of ‘fail’ will lead you to the solution of the problem. Testers will be respected if they not only log the bugs but also provide solutions.

•Learn to maximize the test coverage every time you test any application.
Though 100 percent test coverage might not be possible still you can always try to reach near it.

•To ensure maximum test coverage break your application under test
(AUT) into smaller functional modules. Write test cases on such individual unit modules. Also if possible break these modules into smaller parts.

•While writing test cases, write test cases for intended functionality first
First test cases should be written for valid conditions according to requirements. Then write test cases for invalid conditions. This will cover expected as well unexpected behavior of application under test.

•Think positive. Start testing the application by intend of finding bugs/errors.
Don’t think beforehand that there will not be any bugs in the application. If you test the application by intention of finding bugs you will definitely succeed to find those subtle bugs also.

•Write your test cases in requirement analysis and design phase itself.
This way you can ensure all the requirements are testable.

•If possible identify and group your test cases for regression testing.
This will ensure quick and effective manual regression testing ‘accepting user information’ is one of the modules. You can break this ‘User information’ screen into smaller parts for writing test cases: Parts like UI testing, security testing, functional testing of the ‘User information’ form etc. Apply all form field type and size tests, negative and validation tests on input fields and write all such test cases for maximum coverage.

•Applications requiring critical response time should be thoroughly tested for performance.
Performance testing is the critical part of many applications. In manual testing this is mostly ignored part by testers due to lack of required performance testing large data volume. Find out ways to test your application for performance. If not possible to create test data manually then write some basic scripts to create test data for performance test or ask developers to write one for you.

•Go beyond requirement testing.
Test application for what it is not supposed to do.

•While doing regression testing use previous bug graph (Bug graph - number of bugs found against time for different modules).
This module-wise bug graph can be useful to predict the most probable bug part of the application.

•Note down the new terms, concepts you learn while testing.
Keep a text file open while testing an application. Note down the testing progress,observations in it. Use these notepad observations while preparing final test release report. This good habit will help you to provide the complete unambiguous test report and release details.

•Many times testers or developers make changes in code base for application under test.
This is required step in development or testing environment to avoid execution of live transaction processing like in banking projects. Note down all such code changes done for testing purpose and at the time of final release make sure you have removed all these changes from final client side deployment file resources.

•Keep developers away from test environment.
This is required step to detect any configuration changes missing in release or deployment document. Some times developers do some system or application configuration changes but forget to mention those in deployment steps. If developers don’t have access to testing environment they will not do any such changes accidentally on test environment and these missing things can be captured at the right place.

•It’s a good practice to involve tester’s right from software requirement and design phase.
These way testers can get knowledge of application dependability resulting in detailed test coverage. If you are not being asked to be part of this development cycle then make request to your lead or manager to involve your testing team in all decision making processes or meetings.

•Testing teams should share best testing practices, experience with other teams in their organization.

•Increase your conversation with developers to know more about the product.
Whenever possible make face-to-face communication for resolving disputes quickly and to avoid any misunderstandings. But also when you understand the requirement or resolve any dispute - make sure to communicate the same over written communication ways like emails. Do not keep any thing verbal.

•Don’t run out of time to do high priority testing tasks.
Prioritize your testing work from high to low priority and plan your work accordingly. Analyze all associated risks to prioritize your work.

•Write clear, descriptive, unambiguous bug report.
Do not only provide the bug symptoms but also provide the effect of the bug and all possible solutions.

SILK test cross training- By Archana M

AUTOMATION TESTING:

Definition: Automated testing is running test cases where manual intervention is not required to run each one.

Benefits of Automated Testing:

Reliable: Tests perform precisely the same operations each time they are run, thereby eliminating human error

Repeatable: You can test how the software reacts under repeated execution of the same operations.

Programmable: You can program sophisticated tests that bring out hidden information from the application.

Reusable: You can reuse tests on different versions of an application, even if the user interface changes.

Better Quality Software: Because you can run more tests in less time with fewer resources

Fast: Automated Tools run tests significantly faster than human users.

Cost Reduction: As the number of resources for regression test are reduced.

SILK TEST AUTOMATION TOOL

Introduction:

Silk Test is a tool specifically designed for doing REGRESSION AND FUNCTIONALITY testing. It is developed by Segue Software Inc. Silk Test is the industry’s leading functional testing product for e-business applications, whether Window based, Web, Java, or traditional client/server-based. Silk Test also offers test planning, management, direct database access and validation, the flexible and robust 4Test scripting language, a built in recovery system for unattended testing, and the ability to test across multiple platforms, browsers and technologies.

You have two ways to create automated tests using silk-test:

1) Use the Record test case command to record actions

The record test case command helps us to record various actions which we perform on AUT(Application under test) actions are captured in the 4TEST language (which is the inbuilt language in SILK test tool).

These recorded actions are then saved as *.t file.

The *.t file saved in the SILK test environment, can be played back by clicking on the RUN command or by pressing F9 functional key.

In this way we can record actions on AUT and then play them back for verifying the results of the actions recorded.

2) Write the testcase manually using the 4Test scripting language.

One can write testcases manually by using scripting language i.e. 4test language by using various methods and functions available.



How SilkTest works?

Applications are composed of graphical user interface (GUI) objects such as
windows, menus and buttons that a user manipulates using a keyboard and a
mouse to initiate application operations. SilkTest interprets these objects and recognizes them based on the class, properties and methods that uniquely identify them. During testing, SilkTest interacts with the objects to submit operations to the application automatically, simulating the actions of a user, and then verifies the results of each operation. The simulated user, SilkTest, is said to be driving the application.


SilkTest consists of two distinct components that execute in separate
processes:

1)The SilkTest Host software

2)The SilkTest Agent software


The SilkTest Host

The host software is the SilkTest component you use to develop, edit,
compile, run and debug your test scripts and testplans. The machine that runs this component is often referred to as the host machine.


The SilkTest Agent

The SilkTest Agent is the component of SilkTest that interacts with the GUI
of your application. The Agent translates the commands in your 4Test scripts
into GUI specific commands, driving and monitoring the application you are
testing. The Agent can run locally on the same machine on which the Host is
running or, in a networked environment, any number of Agents can run on
remote machines. In a networked environment, the machine that runs the
Agent is often referred to as the remote machine.

Unit Testing

Unit Testing: Unit is testable piece of s/w that can be build and executed under the control a test driver or Testing individual s/w component.

Unit Testing focuses on the smallest unit of software design or module.

# Unit Test Environment:-

1. Driver: It is just like main program that accepts case, data and prints the relevant results
A test driver simulates a calling component or external environment.

2. Stubs: - It is just like a dummy subprogram that returns control to the module undergoing testing.
A test stub simulates a called component.

The unit test heavily uses white box testing and the testing can be conducted in parallel for multiple components.

3. It is usually done by the developer.

# Activities in Unit Testing:-

1. Develop unit test plan
2. Design unit test case
3. Develop unit test case
4. Execute unit test case

# Unit test conditions:
-Interface
-Local data structure
-Boundary conditions
-Basis path
-Error handling paths.

# Unit Test Techniques: -

# White box Testing:-

-Basis path testing
-Loop Testing
-Condition Testing
-Data definition and use testing
-Internal boundary value testing

# Black box Testing:-

-Specification derived tests
-Equivalence portioning
-State transition testing

# Common errors uncovered during unit testing.

-Incorrect arithmetic precedence
-Incorrect precision
-Incorrect symbolic representation etc.

# Major benefits of unit testing:

-Be able to detect and remove defects at a much less cost compared to other later stages of testing.
-Simplifies debugging.
-Able to achieve a high level of structural coverage of code.

# Why unit Test:-

-Nobody is perfect.
-Bug in development tools.
-Certain bugs easier to find in unit testing.
-To localize defects

What is a unit?

In conventional structured programming language like C, Pascal
Unit:- Function, Procedure or subroutine.

In Object oriented language like JAVA and C++
Unit: Class

In ADA Unit could be Package or Procedures.

In 4GLS, Unit could be a display window, menu etc.

# Misconceptions of Unit Testing:-

-It is waste of time.
-Only proves that code does what the code does
-I am too good a programmer to need unit tests.
-Integration tests will catch all bugs any way.
-It is not cost effective.

# Develop unit Test Plan:-

-Entry criteria:-
An approved detailed design (Program specs) is available

-Validation:-
Unit test Plan (UTP) is reviewed

-Exit Criteria:-
UTP is reviewed and approved.

# Design Unit Test Cases:-

-Entry Criteria: -
-UTP is available
-An approved detailed design is available

Validation:-
-Design of unit test cases is reviewed.

Exit Criteria
-Unit Test cases design is reviewed and approved.

# Develop unit test cases

-Entry Criteria: Design of unit test cases is available
-Validation: - unit test cases are reviewed
-Exit Criteria:- Unit test cases are reviewed and approved.

# Execute unit test cases:-

Entry criteria :- Approved unit test cases are available and Inspected code is available
Validation: Defect report reviewed.
Exit Criteria: - Test items passed the unit testing as per pass/fail criteria in the UTP
Unit testing summary details are available in the defect report

# Test Design
-Test strategy
-Test Planning
-Test Specification
-Test Procedure
# Test Specification:

-Test objective
-Initial stage of the unit
-Input
-Expected output

# UNIT Test Steps:-

-Make it run
-Positive Testing
-Negative Testing
-Special consideration
-Coverage Tests.

Unit Test Plan Template
Unit id: Prepared by
Unit Name Prepared on
Testing By Testing on

SOFTWARE TESTING

INTRUDUCTION:

Software Testing is a critical element of software quality assurance and represents the ultimate process to ensure the correctness of the product.

Software Testing: Testing is the process of executing a program with intent of finding errors.

# What is the purpose of testing:-

-To show the software works: - it is known as demonstrated oriented.
-To show the software doesn’t work: - it is known as destruction oriented.
- To minimize the risk of not working up to acceptable level. It is known as evaluation oriented.
-To show the product is free from defect.

Why do we need test:-

Defect can exist in the software, as it is developed by human who can make mistakes during the development of software. It is the primary duty of a software vendor to ensure that software doesn’t have defect, error free application or product.

# The most common origin of software bug is due to

-Poor understanding and incomplete requirement
-Unrealistic schedule
-Fast changes in requirement
-Too many assumptions and compliancy

# Approaches to testing:

1. Debug oriented.
2. Demonstration oriented.
3. Evaluation oriented.
4. Prevention oriented.

# Purpose of debugging: Find the error/misconception that led to failure and implement progress changes that correct the error.

# Test Case: - Test case is an identify associated with program behavior it has set of input and list of expected output.

# What is bug: - Software did not operate as intended.

# Importance of Testing:-

-Testing is a critical element of s/w QA.
-Post release removal of defects in the s/w most expensive.
-Significant portion of life cycle effort expanded on testing.

# Mainly Testing Involves:

-Plan for Testing
-Design test conditions, cases.
-Develop test data.
-Create required test environment
-Execute tests
-Analyze actual result with expected results.
-Results: Test Passed or Failed.

# Level of Testing:

1. Unit Testing
2. Integration Testing
3. System Testing
4. User Acceptance Testing.

India Glorious win on the World Cup 2011 !!!!!

India won the world cup in 1983.It was indeed the most prestigious and memorable day for the entire country.



We achieved this under the the captaincy of Mr. Kapil Dev.



The wait is finally over. After 28 long years, India finally laid their hand on the ICC Cricket World Cup. During the miracle run in 1983 it was Kapil Dev who led the troops to glory and this time it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who led from the front and helped India achieve their dream. The Indian team had a billion hopes resting on their shoulders, and they made each and every Indian proud on Saturday night as they became the first lost nation to lift the world cup.










The best part of this victory was that it was not just cricket fans that were ecstatic, but it was every Indian who basked in the moment of glory.

Info On BUDGET 2011

IT & ITeS:

• Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) to be levied on units operating in Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
• MAT rates to be hiked from 18% to 18.50% while surcharge is reduced from 7.50% to 5%.
• Excise duty on parts of ink jet and laser jet printers reduced from 10% to 5%.
• Excise duty of 5% has been imposed on specified IT products such as microprocessor other than motherboards, floppy disc drives, CD-Rom drive.
• Full exemption is provided for components of computer connectivity cable imported for its manufacture.
• Full exemption on payment of additional duty of customs on packaged/canned software.

Education:

• An allocation of Rs 520.57 bn in FY12 for education, which is an increase of 24% over FY11.
• The proposal to increase the plan allocation for school education to Rs 389.57 bn in FY12 from Rs 310.36 bn in FY11.
• An allocation of Rs 210 bn for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which is 40% higher than Rs 150 bn allocated in FY11. A revised Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Vocationalisation of Secondary Education”
will be implemented from FY12 to improve the employability of the youth.
• An allocation of Rs 103.80 bn for National Programme of Mid Day Meals in schools.
• An allocation of Rs 52.54 bn for University Grants Commission; Rs 56.60 bn for technical education and Rs 9.43 bn for National Mission in Education through information & communication technology.
• Connectivity to all 1,500 institutions of Higher Learning and Research through optical fiber backbone to be provided by March, 2012.
• Additional Rs 5 bn proposed to be provided for National Skill Development Fund during FY12.
• Introduce a scholarship scheme in FY12 for needy students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes studying in classes ninth and tenth which would benefit about 40 lakh Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students.
• Rs 500 mn each to upcoming centres of Aligarh Muslim University at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Malappuram in Kerala.
• Rs 1 bn as one-time grant to the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University at Pookode, Kerala.
• Rs 100 mn each for setting up Kolkata and Allahabad Centres of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha.
• Rs 2 bn as one time grant to IIT, Kharagpur.
• Rs 200 mn for Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
• Rs 200 mn for IIM, Kolkata, to set up its Financial Research and Trading Laboratory.
• Rs 2 bn for Maulana Azad Education Foundation.
• Rs 100 mn for Centre for Development Economics and Ratan Tata Library, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi and Rs 100 mn for Madras School of Economics.

Agriculture:

• The total plan outlay for agriculture & allied sector is to be increased by 19.79% to Rs 147.44 bn.
• The target agricultural credit is proposed to be raised to Rs 4,750 bn in FY12 from Rs 3,750 bn in FY11.
• The Government raised the corpus of RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) XVII to Rs 180 bn in FY12 from Rs 160 bn in FY11 wherein the additional allocation would be dedicated to creation of warehousing facilities.
• Interest subvention proposed to be enhanced from 2% to 3% for providing short-term crop loans to farmers who repay their crop loan on time.
• In view of enhanced target for flow of agriculture credit, capital base of NABARD to be strengthened by Rs 30 bn in a phased manner.
• Rs 100 bn to be contributed to NABARD’s Short-term Rural Credit fund for FY12.
• An allocation under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) increased to Rs 78.60 bn in FY12 from Rs 67.55 bn in FY11.
• An allocation of Rs 17 bn for National Horticulture Mission including Rs 5 bn for north east and Himalayan states.
• An allocation of Rs 13.50 bn for National Food Security Mission.
• An allocation of Rs 7.80 bn for Macro Management in Agriculture.
• An allocation of Rs 11.50 bn for National Mission on Micro Irrigation.
• An allocation of Rs 7 bn for National Agricultural Insurance Scheme including Rs 1.50 bn for Modified national Agriculture insurance scheme.
• An allocation of Rs 5.50 bn for integrated oilseeds, oil palms, pulses and maize development.
• Removal of production and distribution bottlenecks for items like fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, poultry and fish to be the focus of attention this year.
• To improve rice based cropping system in the eastern region, an allocation of Rs 4 bn has been made.
• An allocation of Rs 3 bn made to promote 60,000 pulses villages in rainfed areas.
• An allocation of Rs 3 bn to bring 60,000 hectares under oil palm plantations - an initiative to yield about 3 lakh metric tonnes of palm oil annually in five years.
• As an initiative on vegetable clusters, an allocation of Rs 3 bn made for implementation of vegetable initiative to provide quality vegetable at competitive prices.
• An allocation of Rs 3 bn provided to promote higher production of Bajra, Jowar, Ragi and other millets, which are highly nutritious and have several medicinal properties.
• An allocation of Rs 3 bn provided for Accelerated Fodder Development Programme to benefit farmers in 25,000 villages.
• The Government to promote organic farming methods, combining modern technology with traditional farming practices.
• An approval being given to set up 15 more Mega Food Parks during FY12.
• Augmentation of storage capacity through private entrepreneurs and warehousing corporations has been fast tracked.
• Capital investment in creation of modern storage capacity will be eligible for viability gap funding of the Finance Ministry. It is also proposed to recognize cold chains and post-harvest storage as an
infrastructure sub-sector.
• In view of recent episode of inflation, need for State Governments to review and enforce a reformed Agriculture Produce Marketing Act been recognised.
• National Food Security Bill (NFSB) which will be introduced in the Parliament during the course of the current year.
• Extended full exemption from excise duty to air-conditioning equipment and refrigeration panels for cold chain infrastructure.
• Include conveyor belts in the full exemption from excise duty to equipments used in cold storages, mandis and warehouses.
• Basic customs duty reduced for specified agricultural machinery to 2.50% from 5% and the concession is also being extended to parts of such machinery to encourage their domestic production.
• Basic customs duty reduced on micro-irrigation equipment to 5% from 7.50%.
• De-oiled rice bran cake fully exempted from basic customs duty. Simultaneously, an export duty of 10% to be levied on its export.

Top 20 Software Testing tips.

1) Learn to analyze your test results thoroughly
2) Learn to maximize the test coverage
3) To ensure maximum test coverage break your application under test (AUT) into smaller functional modules.
4) While writing test cases, write test cases for intended functionality first i.e. for valid conditions according to requirements.
5) Think positive. Start testing the application by intend of finding bugs/errors. Don’t think beforehand that there will not be any bugs in the application.
6) Write your test cases in requirement analysis and design phase itself. This way you can ensure all the requirements are testable.
7) Make your test cases available to developers prior to coding. Don’t keep your test cases with you waiting to get final application release for testing, thinking that you can log more bugs.
8 ) If possible identify and group your test cases for regression testing.
9) Applications requiring critical response time should be thoroughly tested for performance. Performance testing is the critical part of many applications.
10) Programmers should not test their own code. As discussed in our previous post, basic unit testing of developed application should be enough for developers to release the application for testers.
11) Go beyond requirement testing. Test application for what it is not supposed to do.
12) While doing regression testing use previous bug graph (Bug graph – number of bugs found against time for different modules). This module-wise bug graph can be useful to predict the most probable bug part of the application.
13) Note down the new terms, concepts you learn while testing.
14) Many times testers or developers make changes in code base for application under test.
15) Keep developers away from test environment. This is required step to detect any configuration changes missing in release or deployment document.
16) It’s a good practice to involve testers right from software requirement and design phase.
17) Testing teams should share best testing practices, experience with other teams in their organization.
18) Increase your conversation with developers to know more about the product. Whenever possible make face-to-face communication for resolving disputes quickly and to avoid any misunderstandings.
19) Don’t run out of time to do high priority testing tasks. Prioritize your testing work from high to low priority and plan your work accordingly.
20) Write clear, descriptive, unambiguous bug report. Do not only provide the bug symptoms but also provide the effect of the bug and all possible solutions.

Health tips by Awadesh

Health and Fitness has now become one of the major concerns. Earlier humans used to hunt for their living, due to which their body had to undergo a lot of physical exercise. This made life active and alert. Now, life has become more simple and easy. Everything we need is just a phone call away. This easy life has restricted humans to do that bit of physical exercise which is required to keep the body fit and healthy. We get instant, spicy and variety of food which lose their nutrition during the process.
How do we ensure that we have all that we need to have a healthy living? This is a big question among everyone. We need proper nutrition and a fit and healthy body. Good Health is all that one craves for. Becoming healthier and fitter though not very difficult needs dedicated efforts.

Nutrition and Health Diet
The basic foundation for a healthy individual starts from his foetal stage with proper and healthy nutrition derived from his or her mother. Hence, a pregnant woman's diet stands atop all diets.

Your food shall be your medicine. Ayurveda has postulated the role of food and especially nutritive foods for maintaining health as well as cure of diseases. Nutrients are necessary for the proper functioning of mental, physical, metabolic, chemical and hormonal activities. The body is like a machine that will repair and rebuild itself if proper nutrition is provided by way of food.
Sumptous nutrition is available in fruits and vegetables. Fruits have the capacity to give all that a body needs. How to consume? What to consume? Which fruit helps in which way? The answers to these questions can be found in our Nutrition and Healthy Diet


Exercise and Fitness
Simple fitness exercises can help to have a fitter and healthy life. Stretching exercises can help in many ways in mainting a fitter body. Weight loss can be achieved by following simple effortless regular exercises. Medical breakthroughs can happen by regular meditation and exercising. Yoga and other workouts which can be performed easily are available in this website to keep you fit and healthy.
Health and Fitness can make all that difference in one's life. Healthy living is all that one needs, and to achieve that we picked up the best of the articles from reliable sources and have presented here in an organized manner. You might not be able to spend your valuable time on complicated medications and diet controls, but, you can find articles to help you have a better living using simple and easy technics.
Ayurveda, a science in vogue practiced since centuries, uses a wide variety of plants, animal origin substances, mineral and metallic substances to rebalance the diseased condition in the sick. A few tips on simple treatment of life style diseases have been carefully picked for the visitors of this website. These tips can help reduce or control diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.
Yoga for good health
This section provides you with various articles related Yoga and other technics to manage your daily life.
This section provides you with informative articles on Yoga. Simple technics and tips to maintain good health. Before starting to work on Yoga, one has to understand yoga better. For attaining a healthy life, physical excercises, yoga technics need to be practiced with utmost care. These should however be practiced under the supervision of a trained person.
You can find Helpful articles on Yoga, easy to follow yoga Tips and Technics. Introduction to Yoga and its benefits to attain healthy life. Simple and easy to follow physical exercises help you in your daily routine.
Articles for stress relief and eye strain below gives you easy to follow tips and technics to overcome stress and also treat your eyes. These technics result in stress relief and treatment to your eyes.
General Health Care
Tummy troubles and treatment: Is that terrible tummy ache taking the wind out of your sails? Making you sleepless, stressed, and irritable? Well, it’s not just your mind that is irritated but something deep down in your belly your bowel! Get up and get cracking
Weaning the child from breast feeding: Weaning should be a very slow activity. It is a very difficult phase in the baby's growing stage.
A complex breakfast can keep kids mentally healthy: The child's breakfast should be nutrious so that they do not get into depression.
Keep a watch on your wasteline for a healthy living: Expanding wastelines could become hazardous.
Keep a watch on your cholesterol levels: High cholesterol levels can be controlled but exercise and diet.

Software testing life cycle

Software testing life cycle identifies what test activities to carry out and when (what is the best time) to accomplish those test activities. Even though testing differs between organizations, there is a testing life cycle.

The software testing life cycle (STLC) identifies all testing activities and their relationship with other activities in the software development life cycle (SDLC).

What Does Testing Involve?
• Testing = Verification + Validation
• Verification: building the product right
• Validation: building the right product
• A broad and continuous activity throughout the software life cycle
• An information gathering activity to enable the evaluation of our work
e.g.:
-Does it meet the user’s requirements?
-What are the limitations?
-What are the risks of releasing it?

Software Testing Life Cycle consists of six (generic) phases:
• Test Planning
• Test Analysis
• Test Design
• Construction and verification
• Testing Cycles
• Final Testing and Implementation
• Post Implementation

Software testing has its own life cycle that intersects with every stage of the SDLC. The basic requirements in software testing life cycle is to control/deal with software testing – Manual, Automated and Performance.

Test Planning
This is the phase where Project Manager has to decide what things need to be tested, do I have the appropriate budget etc.
Naturally proper planning at this stage would greatly reduce the risk of low quality software. This planning will be an ongoing process with no end point. Activities at this stage would include preparation of high level test plan-(according to IEEE test plan template The Software Test Plan (STP) is designed to prescribe the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of all testing activities. The plan must identify the items to be tested, the features to be tested, the types of testing to be performed, the personnel responsible for testing, the resources and schedule required to complete testing, and the risks associated with the plan.). Almost all of the activities done during this stage are included in this software test plan and revolve around a test plan.

In Test Planning following are the major tasks:
1. Defining scope of testing
2. Identification of approaches
3. Defining risk
4. Identifying resources
5. Defining Time Schedule



Test Analysis
Once test plan is made and decided upon, next step is to deal a little more into the project and decide what types of testing should be carried out at different stages of SDLC, do we need or plan to automate, if yes then when the appropriate time to automate is, what type of specific documentation I need for testing.
Proper and regular meetings should be held between testing teams, project managers, and development teams, Business Analysts to check the progress of things which will give a fair idea of the movement of the project and ensure the completeness of the test plan created in the planning phase, which will further help in enhancing the right testing strategy created earlier. We will start creating test case formats and test cases itself. In this stage we need to develop Functional validation matrix based on Business Requirements to ensure that all system requirements are covered by one or more test cases, identify which test cases to automate, begin review of documentation, i.e. Functional Design, Business Requirements, Product Specifications, Product Externals etc. We also have to define areas for Stress and Performance Testing.

Test Design
Test plans and cases which were developed in the analysis phase are revised. Functional validation matrix is also revised and finalized. In this stage risk assessment criteria is developed. If you have thought of automation then you have to select which test cases to automate and begin writing scripts for them. Test data is prepared. Standards for unit testing and pass / fail criteria are defined here. Schedule for testing is revised (if necessary) & finalized and test environment is prepared.

Construction and verification
In this phase we have to complete all the test plans, test cases, complete the scripting of the automated test cases, Stress and Performance testing plans needs to be completed. We have to support the development team in their unit testing phase. And obviously bug reporting would be done as when the bugs are found. Integration tests are performed and errors (if any) are reported.

Testing Cycles
In this phase we have to complete testing cycles until test cases are executed without errors or a predefined condition is reached. Run test cases --> Report Bugs --> revise test cases (if needed) --> add new test cases (if needed) --> bug fixing --> retesting (test cycle 2, test cycle 3….).

Final Testing and Implementation
In this we have to execute remaining stress and performance test cases, documentation for testing is completed / updated, provide and complete different matrices for testing. Acceptance, load and recovery testing will also be conducted and the application needs to be verified under production conditions.

Post Implementation
In this phase, the testing process is evaluated and lessons learnt from that testing process are documented. Line of attack to prevent similar problems in future projects is identified. Create plans to improve the processes. The recording of new errors and enhancements is an ongoing process. Cleaning up of test environment is done and test machines are restored to base lines in this stage.


Software Testing Life Cycle Models
http://testingsolution.blogspot.com/2006/12/software-testing-life-cycle-models.html
http://www.extremesoftwaretesting.com/Directory/SoftwareTestingLifeCycle.html

Important software testing links:
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/

Kannada Sahitya Sammelana

Kannada Sahitya Sammelana

Kannada Sahitya Sammelana (Kannada Literature Conference) is the premier gathering of writers, poets and kannadigas. It is held with the aim of preserving and developing Kannada language, its literature, arts, culture and music. It was started in 1915 and held at Bangalore for the first time. It used to be inaugurated by prominent writers and poets from 1915 to 1948. Since then it has been inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The Kannada Sahitya Parishat is responsible for holding the gathering.


Bangalore to host 77th Kannada Sahitya Sammelan:
Kannada Sahitya Sammelana 2011 will be hold upon 4th February. It will be organized by Kannada Sahitya Parishat. It is a Kannada Literature Conference. This is a 77th Akila Bharatha Kannada Sahitya Sammelana at the National College (Basavanagudi) grounds in Bangalore on December 24, 25 and 26 after a gap of 40 years. It is an entertainment of writers, poets as well as Kannadigas.


The Main Aim:
The main aim of Kannada Sahitya Sammelana is of preserving and developing Kannada language, its literature, arts, culture and music. Kannada Sahitya Sammelanna was started in 1915 and held at Bangalore for the first time. Upto 1948 by prominent writers and poets it has been inaugurated. Since then it has been inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Kannada Saahithya Parishath is an Indian non-profit organization that promotes the Kannada language. Its headquarters are in the city of Bangalore, in the state of Karnataka, India. Kannada Saahithya Parishath strives to promote Kannada through publishing books, organizing literary seminars and promoting research projects. Kannada Saahithya Parishath also organizes an annual conference on Kannada literature called, Kannada Sahithya Sammelana.


Venue Detail:
National College ground (Basavanagudi) Bangalore.


For more details (List of Kannada Sahitya Sammelana) click on the below link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_Sahitya_Sammelana

Team Outing

The Team Outing done in the year 2010

We had 2 team outings this year which was a half yearly team outing and an Annual team outing

Firstly the half yearly outing was in the month of --------------- and we all had been to Asia’s largest mall which is very close by to ur office i.e. Mantri Square and had a great time watching the movie RAAJNEETHI. We all enjoyed the movie and stayed back for a good evening snacks and headed back home. Inspite of having very less time to spend with each other in a group we did enjoy every aspect of our outing to the maximum extent.

Secondly the annual team outing was in the month of December and we had been to The GOLDEN TEMPLE in Vellore and on the way back we had been to YELAGIRI HILLS also called as Poor Man’s Ooty .

Our entire outing was filled with lots of fun and the main person to keep us lively throughout was our Automation Senior Vijay Murugan

The most beautiful experience which could be recollected by everyone would be the hill top trekking which we did for almost 2 hours where we came across beautiful farm which was filled with delightful yellow flowers which reminded us of DDLJ movie and all of us enjoyed the scenic beauty of the hills.

Our trip ended by our visit to a Murugan temple on the hill top and headed back to Bangalore

We enjoyed a lot and had a great time with each other which is truly memorable by everyone in the team.

Annual team outing:

Software testing best practices -- By Ram Chillarge

http://www.xtremeedge.in/pdf/testing/Software%20Testing%20Best%20Practice.pdf

Test Management tools evaluated

Team has done the analysis on the folowing test management tools.
1. TestRun
2. Testuff
3. Vienna (nmaqa)
4. Chrysilla
5. Testlink
6. Testlog
7. Automature
8. Aptest Test
9. Rth Test
10. QA-Complete
11. Spira

Will update the blog once we come to the conclusion on which one use

General Info on Test Management Tool

Definition:

A tool that provides support to the test management and controls the part of a test process. It often has several capabilities, such as test ware management, scheduling of tests, and the logging of results, progress tracking, incident management and test reporting.

Some benefits of using test management tool:

1. Creates an unlimited amount of test cases.
2. Links test cases to products and components being tested.
3. Links requirements to tests and issues.
4. Test cases tree (hierarchical folders) provides a familiar method for organizing requirements and test cases.
5. Group any number of test cases into test sets according to the testing procedure design.
6. Assign test cases to specific resources and track progress and current status of local and off shore work force.
7. Easily maintain regression and sanity sets as product testing moves forward.
8. Dashboard customization per user enables a quick review on testing progress, product quality etc.
9. Export test cases to Excel, Word or email.
10. Define when an alert should be sent and to whom using the email notification system.

About Test Automature (Test Management Tool)

Brief explanation:

Automature has three products right now namely Zermatt, Zug and Zuoz. There are two more products named Nyon and Davos which are in the development stage.
Zermatt is a dashboard at the core of the Automature products and includes the user interface for complete planning and reporting and the data warehouse.
Zug provides an execution environment for tests specified using CHUR. ZUG is platform independent and can be used on any environment that supports the Java Runtime Environment.
Zuoz is a collection of atom and molecule libraries, organized by application domain and functionality, intended to be used in test case design using the CHUR syntax.
(Chur: Chur is Automature's test specification language that allows users to describe test case logic in a manner that is intuitive to the test design process, as well as it is efficient and powerful enough to describe very complex scenarios in a simple manner.)

Features supported:

• Specifying Requirements
• Planning Tests
• Specifying Releases and Cycles
• Specifying Test cases
• Requirement & Test case Tagging
• Version control
• Test case prioritization
• Running Tests
• Capturing test results
• Test history
• Multiple user access for each project
• Different user Roles and Permissions
• Multiple project handling
• Data to/from external source (Word, Excel)
• Build wise test results
• Alerting on Changes
• Document Generation
• Test Auditing

For detailed information regarding each of these products, kindly visit the Products page of this website www.automature.com

Trip Updates

The team's planning to go to ONE of the below places

1) Pondicherry
2) Shivanasamudra
3) Hogenikle

Suggestions are welcome by others if there are any other Interesting places in and around Bangalore.