Managing test data - The challenges of testing on live websites

Angelina Jolie is my customer. Tom Cruise shops at my online store. Sachin Tendulkar has often worked for me collecting meter readings. Wayne Rooney is a frequent supplier who ships my products to their destinations, taking care of fulfilment and logistics. Bill Gates features regularly as a job-hunting candidate when I am posting online jobs. Even Albert Einstein has managed some general administrative work behind the desk for me.

Before you think I am talking through my hat, allow me to tell you that these are all only “user records” in my software application testing!

For those of you who...


Read the full article in the December 2011/January 2012 issue of Software Test and Quality Assurance

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1885 words
Nonfiction/Corporate
US publication

Affectionately yours

My dear friend,

I don’t know how you are or where, but I hope you’re doing fine. We may have lost touch with each other for some time now, but I haven’t forgotten you, I never will. I don’t know what keeps you from writing to me or calling me, but for both our sakes, I hope it is a good enough reason for breaking off that wonderful relationship we shared for a brief period of time in the past – our friendship.

I have come to realise now, that friendship is a burden more than anything else. Though I have been fortunate to include you in its folds, I think that the shoulders of all are not meant to be strong enough...

Read the full article on the Blog of Kansas City Voices

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480 words
Fiction/Drama
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"We really enjoyed your flash fiction piece"

Anonymous

Prose Staff

Rose & Thorn Journal

"I thought that (this was) intriguing"

Richard Rosenbaum

Associate Fiction Editor & Online Fiction Editor

Broken Pencil

Kalia

Kalia watched the dancing water gradually become calm, even as he readied to disturb it again. One rough callused hand fingered the smooth round flawless surface of the second pebble. His eyes, although still young and sharp, were red rimmed and hooded with crusty lids and small sparse eyelashes. At the moment they were narrowed and shielded by his shaggy eyebrows, puckered and closing ranks together against the blazing afternoon sun. With the other hand he brushed back the tail-end of his turban, now soggy with sweat and moisture of the humid air of Fatehgarh village, tucking a stray lock...

Read the full story in the Volume Nine, 2011 issue of Kansas City Voices

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1900 words
Fiction/Drama
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"We feel that it has a unique voice and that the description of the characters and setting are excellent."

Susan Peters

Prose Editor

Kansas City Voices

"The detail is good and the images are strong"

Melinda Selmys

Editor

Vulgata

"It’s a well-written story, and we were impressed with your craft. Clearly it came from a capable hand."

Luc Saunders

Editorial Associate

The Sun

"It is a pleasure to accept your manuscript... fine contribution."

Nathan Grant

Editor-in-Chief

African American Review

An idol is forever, not just for Christmas

10th May 1979. Margaret Thatcher has just become the new prime minister of England. Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time ever since either planet became known to Science. The Sahara desert experiences snow for a period of thirty minutes.

In a small dusty village in the remote interiors of a large state of west India, a tall young man is anxiously pacing the floor outside his house. From time to time, he stops to glance through the open door, then resumes pacing as vigorously as ever. He is oblivious to the heat of the afternoon sun on his bare head, unaware of the scorching earth...

Read the full story in the November 2011 issue of Underground Voices

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1090 words
Fiction/Drama
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"Very well written, and I liked the cycle being played out here."

Anonymous

Editor 1 (of 6)

Flashquake

"We love it."

Anonymous

Editor-in-Chief

Flashquake

"Terribly well written"

Geoffrey C Porter

Editor

Untied Shoelaces Of The Mind

"It is well-written, and the opening is particularly gripping"

Elizabeth Rosen

Essay Editor

Ducts

"I like your work."

Anthony Brown

Editor

Stickman Review

"It's a delightfully written story"

Penni Mitchell

Managing Editor

Herizons

"This is fine writing"

Valerie Polichar

Editor

Grasslimb

Go mobile

So you have a website, you update it regularly with interesting content, you're linked to social media sites and you've even analysed your Google Analytics profile. But then you realise that while you were busy tweaking your website to look good in Internet Explorer on a desktop, a tenth of your traffic actually comes from mobile devices!

So what do you do? You whip out your iPhone or Blackberry, frenzily type in your URL and hit 'Go' - only to see your website looking like a bad bowl of alphabet soup!

If this sounds all too familiar, then you may need to go mobile.

According to MobiThinking, the...


Read the full article in the Fall 2011 issue of Work Your Way


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800 words
Nonfiction/Corporate
UK publication

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Words from the Wise

"Thank you very much for such a well written and well researched article."

Mary Cummings

Editor

Work Your Way

We need to talk

Formal and automated communication is usually described in the context of large, widely distributed teams made up of specialists. For many testers reality is different. I work with a small company whose development arm consists of a project manager, a tester (me) and about six programmers. This team handles all new projects. We work closely in an unstructured, informal environment to very tight deadlines.

Tight focus, tunnel vision

Earlier this year, the company was commissioned to deliver a web application. The PM and I had a meeting with the customer's representatives. We went over...


Read the full article in the October 2011 issue of Professional Tester


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1800 words
Nonfiction/Corporate
Europe publication

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Words from the Wise

"Your wonderful writing style would be a fine asset to the magazine. Thank you for sending this: I like it very much. I remain a big fan of your writing ability and style and I want it to appear in PT very much. I want your opinions, stated in your wonderfully clear and descriptive way. I think readers will like this article. I think the article is great and will resonate with many readers. It has the weight needed to balance the last two issues where the agile and automation crews have tended to have things their own way due to HP's influence."

Edward Bishop

Editor

Professional Tester

Developing the right attitude

"A degree of tact and diplomacy is an essential tool in the tester's arsenal. A tester must be aware that his/her task is, in its baser nature, finding faults in another person's work and nobody likes that. It is important to learn how to avoid confrontational situations."

"Testers must try to make their bug reports impersonal and unbiased. Focus on reporting the bug in the most comprehensive way not on placing the blame on the developer."

Sound advice. And one that is familiar to all testers. The ubiquitous phrase of "conflict resolution" crops up regularly and often in the tester's day to...


Read the full article in the October 2011 issue of TEST Magazine


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2920 words
Nonfiction/Corporate
Europe publication

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Words from the Wise

"Love the feature!"

Matthew Bailey

Editor

T.E.S.T. Magazine

"I think that the topic you’ve chosen is a strong one, and your opening paragraph reflects this. It really got me excited about reading more on developer-tester conflicts and how to resolve them."

Joey McAllister

Editor

StickyMinds.com

Games gods play

‘Let us churn the ocean together,’ said the Gods to the Demons.

The Gods and the Demons were always at war. Neither side had the upper hand consistently, for they were always evenly matched in strength and valour.

One day, the king of Gods was riding his mount, an elephant, in Heaven. The air was sweet and fresh, the birds were chirping and the environment was alive and vigorous. In this jaunt, a great sage appeared before the king and offered him a garland as a mark of his esteem. The king accepted the garland and placed it on the trunk of his elephant. But the noble beast was irritated by the smell of...


Read the full story in the October 2011 issue of Bards And Sages Quarterly


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1216 words
Drama/Fantasy
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"This was pretty interesting to read. I truly believe that this would work for a role-playing game."

Adam

Manuscript Reader

Bards and Sages Quarterly

"There was some good imagery here, and the world building had me really interested, the past history of Gods and Demons, a sage who could curse the gods, etc."

Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Editor

Bull Spec

"Your piece was quite good"

D. L. Russell

Editor

Strange, Weird and Wonderful magazine

"It is well written"

Alexander Korovessis

Editor

Kasma

"It's a good story overall"

J. E. Taylor

Assistant Editor

Allegory

"I thought this was a good flash, interesting"

Anonymous

Editor

Silver Pen

The art of negotiation (16 tips on how to ask for more money)

How many times have you wished that you were being paid just a little bit more? How many times have you wondered whether it was "good form" to ask for just a bit more pay? How many times have you actually done so?

If a magazine has shown interest in your article or story, chances are they are inclined towards publishing you. In such a situation, a little bit of negotiation might just bring you extra benefits. No magazine minds some amount of haggling over price. In fact, a few may even expect it and advertise their pay scales accordingly. As long as you are not too pushy and know when to back down, you...

Read the full article in the September 2011 issue of Writing World

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2680 words
Nonfiction
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"I love it! It's fabulous!"

Moira Allen

Publisher

Writing World

The deadline

They say women have it more. Old women. Especially old women who’ve faced some tragedy in their lives. So when I plan to write a story about such an old woman, I don’t have myself in mind. After all, fifty-one isn’t that old at all. And everyone in the world has their fair share of sorrow, don’t they?

“We’re now open to submissions. We seek stories of the horror or paranormal genre. Give us your best fiction!” invited the headlines of a popular publication. “We purchase worldwide first print rights.” For an out-of-work writer like me, the lure of payment was irresistible. I resolved to spin a yarn...


Read the full story in the August 2011 anthology From Shadows And Nightmares


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4065 words
Drama/Dark
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"This was a clever and heartfelt concept"

Peta Freestone

Editor

Scape

"There's good writing here"

Michael Colangelo

Editor

Ideomancer

"Quirky, story-within-a-story-coming-to-life story"

Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Editor

Bull Spec