Test random Thoughts: Bug Bash

　defect sweeping (bug Bash) is a short-term full-time testing activity . At Microsoft, many development teams perform a bug sweep at the end of the milestone (milestone). Programmers, testers, program managers, internal users, and marketers use their skills and professional backgrounds to focus their efforts on finding software flaws in a 1-3-day window. Usually, each participant gets a small gift and finds the winner with the greatest number of defects wins a prize.

It is generally believed that the advantage of the defect cleaning is the introduction of "More Eyes". Programmers are more aware of the program logic and implementation details, it is possible to find hidden defects, testers are better at flaw guessing and continuous attack, it is possible to find other testers missing defects, the program manager can from the business perspective of the software, it is possible to identify business processes, the overall design defects, internal users are software user, It is possible to find vulnerabilities in usability and accessibility. In short, the differences in skills and roles of participants help to identify different types of defects at different levels.

Does the defect sweep make sense if only the testers are involved? With my observations, the Test team regularly organizes all members to perform a defect sweep, which is a very good practice that helps team building and personal growth.

In my department, the Test team has nearly 20 test staff. Each employee is responsible for testing a subsystem or a standalone module that will form the entire business system. We make a release in about 2-3 months and perform a bug sweep before each release. The general process and key points are as follows:

The defect sweep lasts a full afternoon (about 3-4 hours). This is a natural time window that allows testers to concentrate on their work. Over this window, testers are likely to be distracted from doing other work.

All the testers took their laptops and sat down in a large conference room to test sit around. One way to build a team is to collaborate with team members to accomplish a challenging task. A bug sweep is a test team working together to search for flaws in the entire business system.

When testers test an unfamiliar subsystem, he may not understand the business objectives and usage of the system. At this point, he can ask the colleague who is responsible for the system test. As everyone sits in a conference room, most of the business problems can be answered immediately. This allows the tests to move smoothly and strengthen the collaborative team spirit.

The test lead is involved in the defect cleanup and he also performs tests in the conference room. Leadership is a necessary foundation for team building, and it manifests itself as a leader who does what he claims is very important.

The test lead will not periodically report on the test progress: How many defects have been found, how many defects the current champions have found, etc. This is a boost to the morale of the Test team and a healthy competition among testers.

At the end of the "defect sweep" meeting, the development team of each subsystem immediately held a "defect sorting (Triage)" meeting. Programmers, testers, and program managers examine the list of defects to determine which defects need to be repaired immediately, which defects can be delayed, and which ones do not need to be repaired.

Within a week, the Test team held a "defect review" meeting to conduct an in-depth analysis of the lessons learned. The team identifies representative defects, analyzes root causes, enumerates the wrong symptoms, summarizes the applicable test methods, and proposes recommendations to avoid recidivism. This meeting is the most important part of the defect cleaning, which makes testing skills, development knowledge, effective practice can be shared and precipitated in the team, is a powerful tool for team learning and personal growth.

For the defect cleaning of the second runner-up to give appropriate incentives, prizes can be sports equipment, shopping coupons, book coupons and other small gifts. This is to improve the fun of the whole activity, so the prizes should not be too expensive. In my team, the champion prize is about 150 yuan, the runner-up prize is 100 yuan, the third prize is 50 yuan.

　　defect Cleaning is an effective supplement to routine testing . The Test team connects each subsystem to a business system and performs end-to-end (end-to-end) system testing to uncover flaws that individuals find difficult to detect in subsystem testing. In addition, testers do not have any preconceived "prejudices" when testing unfamiliar subsystems, and are often able to immediately detect flaws that are "ignored". And senior testers may also find some hidden problems that beginners can hardly detect.

However, compared to the defects found, I think the defect cleaning is more valuable in the following two areas.

　　Team building . In the daily work, the testers are more time independent, and the relationship between them is not close. In the flaw sweeping, the testers conduct osmotic communication, exchanging intelligence, laughing at bad designs, funny flaws, and even talking about unrelated jokes to amuse each other. All of these "little things" are imperceptibly gradually build a team.

　　Team Learning . The team held a "defect review" meeting to summarize the defect pattern (bug pattern), refine the test strategy, and supplement the test checklist (check list). This is a kind of positive collective learning behavior. In the process, testers can accumulate experience, share skills, and test teams can precipitate knowledge and rally morale.

Test random Thoughts: Bug Bash