Think like a user, but break software like an expert!

Testing From The Trenches...
From Someone Who Has Been There and Done That!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

New Google UI...Has it been tested?

By now you have probably seen the rollout of the new Google UI. 

I have done some exploratory testing on it, and I am actually shocked that Marissa Mayer would let the new UI be released without it being very thoroughly tested.  If I could find some issues in a couple of minutes of playing around with it, I am sure that people using it are going to find that the UI is inconsistent across all apps and that the look is not very 'clean' or uniform anymore.

Undoubtedly there has been automation testing done on the basic functionality of the UI and probably the tests passed, because if you put in a keyword you get expected results.

My problem with it is that if more Test Engineers were doing exploratory testing, they would have seen some of the following issues. 
  • Images search has 'advanced search' under the search input box, but the Safe Search dropdown menu is set off to the right and looks awkward there.  If you click on it, it opens a dropdown menu that covers up one of the image results.  My question is, if the menu is going to cover up one of the image results anyway, why didn't they put it under the search box where it would look cleaner?
  • Another issue, related to the new left column 'Everything Menu' is that once you click on Maps, the entire new 'Everything' search structure is missing.  The old Maps UI displays and has no links on the left side to get you back where you started.  
  • One other search app that also has a problem with the new Everything Menu is Shopping.  Again.  Not all of the apps are listed on the Everything Menu, so you can't easy get back to a previous type of search.
  • For most of the other apps, the links in the left column Everything Menu are displayed, so you can easily return to a previous type of search. This is the way it should be.

Did someone actually look at this flow and try it out?
Just wondering.


Monday, May 3, 2010

The Census Is Every Ten Years...What About Testing It?

The Associated Press had an article recently entitled "GAO: Census has computer problem".
It turns out that they are running into a little glitch.  According to the article 'The bureau's Paper Based Operations Control System did not function reliably in tests and, despite hardware and software upgrades, "may not be able to perform as needed under full operational loads," the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report.'

So, my question is, if the Census is taken every 10 years, why weren't they able to get their Paper Based Operations Control System tested and working in time for the 2010 Census? It turns out that the Paper Based Operations Control System was developed in early 2008, so that is a little later in the cycle, but the question still remains that given 2 years to get it tested, debugged and working reliably, someone dropped the ball.

Besides normal debugging of the software, when you are running a massive data collection service, like the U.S. Census, load and performance testing has to be right up there in the 'to-do list'.

As a result, Census Director Robert Groves said that "We will get the census done with this system. The question is, will everyone be smiling when it is done."  He also said that they will be spending more money on staff in order to finish the work

So it looks like they will be using more people in this process (which in this bad economy is good for unemployed people who have gotten a job with the Census), but ultimately it shows how important proper QA is.  Had they put enough QA Power on this project, the count of the 2010 Census would be done way before it is time to start the 2020 Census!