Manual and Automated Testing

There are mainly two broad types of software testing – Manual Testing and Automated Testing.
Manual Testing
Manual Testing involves testing the software without any automation script or any tool. Testers check the application or software by taking up the role of an end user. They try to find out if there is any unexpected behavior or failure in the application. Test Management can be taken care of by using test plans and test cases.

Automation testing

Automation testing process involves testing with the help of automation scripts and executing the scripts to run the application with the help of some automation tool. Once the script is ready then these tests can run quickly and efficiently.
Since the cost of automated testing is in the form of efforts and time required to create the scripts, not all tests can be converted to automated test. There should be a valid reason to pay that cost.
Reasons for Automation
1. Regression testing to confirm that new changes have not affected the application adversely. It considers already existing test cases for execution. This is an efficient process when we need to provide feedback to the developer immediately.
2. The test cases need to be iterated multiple number of times often with varying datasets to cover multiple workflow paths.
3. When we require support for agile methodologies.
4. Customized reports are required for monitoring.

Getting Started with Automated Testing

Once the need for automated testing has been established, it involves creation of relevant test scripts. Test script creation can be done only by a skilled testers having knowledge of testing, the suite of tools as well functionality under development. Such resources are costly and their time is a premium. Considering this fact, it is often not possible to budget the automation of all tests. Some of the major decision points while identifying cases for testing automation are
1. System modules where requirements do not change frequently
2. Ample time is at hand to describe a test via scripts
3. The application/software module is critical enough to justify the upfront cost of automation
4. After functional testing we want to do performance testing with multiple virtual users using the same test script.
With the scope of automation decided, next step is to pick the testing tool. The following checklist can help with the selection.
1. The tool should be able to easy to work with. It should execute test cases in unattended manner. It should provide interface to write scripts, efficient IDE and ease of test execution.
2. The tool should provide support to various technologies. It should support testing using different browsers, languages, and types of applications.
3. It should integrate with a software that does Application Lifecycle Management so that it can be used for running automated Build Verification Tests as well as the reports can be integrated with other reports created by ALM software

Automated testing frameworks

There are three automated testing tools namely Selenium, QTP (Quality Test Professional) and Coded UI Test (CUIT) .We will consider above mentioned main aspects of automation and see how these tools provide the support for each category.
Ease of Use
- Recording and Playback Functionality
Each of the testing tools has the ability of recording the actions and playback the recorded actions. Selenium provides the plug-in named Selenium IDE with Mozilla Firefox with which the actions can be recorded. QTP provides record button to record a new test. Recording for
- IDE and tools with which the tester can write the scripts
With Selenium IDE there is no special tool and specific technology to write the script. We can insert commands with ‘Table or Source View’ when required.
QTP provides Keyword View to display test steps graphically or Expert View which shows VB Script lines.
Selenium IDE comes as a plug-in with Mozilla Firefox. With this we can create a test suite which comprise of various test cases. With Selenium IDE is, you can convert recorded Selenium IDE scripts into different languages and after conversion you can run it in Selenium RC. Selenium RC has two components, one is “Selenium Server” and another is “Selenium Client”.
With QTP IDE for the first time 3 add-ins are provided ActiveX, Visual Basic and Web. Various links to best practices, new features for the current version are available with start page. We can either open existing test case or create a new one.
- Ease of Test Case execution
With Selenium IDE we have the option of executing the entire test suite already recorded or a test case at a time.
Depending upon the add-ins loaded in QTP IDE the record and run window shows tabs. Windows Application tab is always available. The tests can be executed with run button which in turn opens the run dialog box. We can specify the location for run specific results and provide parameters if any.
These tools can execute test cases without human intervention.

Activities in Testing Process

Testing Process includes following activities that should be followed sincerely for proper testing.
1. Test Planning

 Before beginning with testing, we need to define test plan based on which we perform testing for the rest of testing life cycle. We should develop a test plan based on following key points to be considered in testing life cycle.

• Test Objectives should be measurable, prioritized, and should be signed off between stakeholders before moving forward with test planning. Acceptance Criteria should also be defined during objective settings to validate if the test objective has been accompanied.
• Test Matrix should be defined on how to test the test objectives and to validate all the requirements are covered in testing.
• Test Schedule should be defined, how milestones in testing will be covered and timeframe in which milestones will be delivered
• Budgeting and resources planing should be defined.
• Testing material including environment ans software/availability should be defined.
• Training required for testing should be defined.

 2. Test Control Activities

Once Test plan is created and signed off by stakeholder, Activities in test plan should be compared with actual and any deviation from the projected plan should be reported to stakeholders as risk.

3. Test Analysis

In this phase, test objectives defined in test planning are converted into test scenarios and test cases.Below are the main task in this phase:

• Reviewing the test artifacts like business requirements, design, and test objectives.
• Identifying and prioritizing test scenarios and test cases based on business requirements.
• Identification of test data for execution of test conditions
• Test environment availability

 4. Test implementation

Below are activities in test implementation

• Developing and prioritizing test cases with test steps
• Preparation of test data for execution of test scripts.
• Environment set up for testing.
• Development of automation test harness.
• Preparation of test suites for regression, smoke testing, and execution of similar tests in batch.

 5. Test Execution and Reporting

• Execution of test scripts either manual or automated.
• Reporting defects found during test script execution.
• Regression testing and retesting of fixed defects. 
• Reporting of test execution status to stakeholders.

 6.  Exit criteria

• Evaluating Testing status against the exit criteria specified in test planning.
• Test Status should validate that all acceptance criteria are verified.

 7. Test Closure Activities

• Delivering all the planned test artifacts to the client. For e.g : Automated Test Scripts,test scripts, test data for further reuse.
• Handover of artifacts and knowledge transfer to maintenance team
• Analysis of lesson learnt during testing process.

Usage of sql jdbc 4.0 driver

This post is related to using sql jdbc driver 4.0

If you are using sql jdbc driver then these are things to note and follow:
1) Download sqljdbc driver from http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=11774
2) Now if your jdk is 32-bit then set the 32-bit driver path to your system property or 64-bit if your jdk is 64-bit
3) Now if you are using integrated security then copy the authorization .dll to your system32 folder and set that property to your system path as well.
4) If you still get issues with it then let us know