A system that has been working fine for the past 25 years has been given to you for testing and that has no errors how will you convince your senior that you have performed testing?

Questions by nishaarun   answers by nishaarun

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By giving all possible inputs, confirm that the system had been working fine, and then by showing all possible testcase to our senior we able to convince them....

Correct me if am wrong

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rabbi08

  • May 18th, 2008
 

Following are the things I feel you can do to impress your RM:
1)You can submit test cases/documentation related to SRS  and also test cases of additional features available in the system but are not specified in SRS.
2)Try to provide suggestions to improve the product by giving him the comparison of similar products.

StevenPace

  • Jul 13th, 2008
 

Test documents should outline what areas are to be tested, what was tested, and the results.  When such documents don't exist, lots of wasted effort occurs, lots of redundant tests, lots of areas left untested.   And when the new version comes out, the old test documents are very useful.

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as you said application is developed 25 years back and its obvious that i am new to this application, so even if you have test cases i need to understand the test cases and steps, so during the execution definately i will have some misunderstandings at different levels of test cases, for the sake i need to consult with the senior or team lead, it itself proves that i am working on the application, and as you have test cases and available, while executing we can mark pass or fail, that's how we can prove that we have done Testing and when you dont have test cases and needed to test the application, again the problem of misunderstanding will be there, so that's how you can prove that you have performed testing on the application

hope you got my point and plz correct me i am wrong.

HI

First of all execute the test cases if exists or else just perform the adhoc/exploratory testing, if u executed the test cases then provide those test results as a proof.

And u said it was developed 25 yrs back, so after that so many advanced options were came, so u can suggest the new enhancements to the application, that will also works better.


CNU

yogeshv

  • Sep 8th, 2009
 

1. There is no system without bugs, there may be some loop holes where the bug will be there.
2. Test case/Scenarios used for testing can be submitted as the proof which means we have performed the testing.
3. As it is 25 years old system, we can provide our inputs on the basis of enhancing the model to the upgraded version.

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goksn

  • Sep 23rd, 2009
 

WHY management ask me to test a product which is 25 years old? This question is important.

If the answer, is due to some <i>latest code change</i>, then we have to analyse and create a partial regression suit in order to test the change (and in turn its side effects).

WITHOUT any reason, no body will ask the tester to test the application which is 25 years old.

StevenPace

  • Sep 26th, 2009
 

goksn is profoundly correct, the reason for the testing is the most important question.  If  there is no reason, than the reason is that the system is very important, and they are  worried by taking it for granted.  It is hard to imagine a system that has no links to anything external, but it is also hard to imagine a system that has functioned unmodified for 25 years if it does have a conection to anything external, the computer world has changed profoundly in that time, there were virtually no personal computers 25 years ago...
If it is a critical system, there would have to be test documentation somewhere.  If you could find it, it would be a big help.  I would read the test documentation, and I would be looking for assumptions which are no longer valid.  25 years almost guarantees that there are incorrect assumptions, many of them, and the documentation could be updated, and the system should be tested in those areas that were not tested (because it was not necessary at the time).  For example, the Nazis assummed that their enemies could not possible try every possible code within a reasonable amount of time.  This was a valid assumption before computers were available.  The allies created computers.   Their assumption was no longer correct, and how much more incorrect would such an assumption be 25 years later?  A common mobile phone could crack an enigma code in seconds today.

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The answer depends on how well the senior member knows me.  If I have proven my trustworthiness to this senior member in the past, then I simply submit thorough test results and call it good.  Beyond that, if I am new to the team and this senior member is questioning my character, then I may also have to prove myself to him/her in other ways.

The application is 25 years old.  Granted, there may be no errors in the program, but the business requirements that were used to design this software are likely out-of date.  The knowlege, skills, and expectations of its users have likely evolved over the past 25 years and there are likely gaps in the requirements between those used to design the software 25 years ago and corresponding requirements that meet current standards.  There is great potential for improvement here.  Consequently, I would call out these gaps between existing requirements and those that would bring the application to current standards.  I would compare the program with competitive products to better understand these gaps, and I would submit an enhancement request corresponding to each missing or incomplete requirement.  


 

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