The most precious moments in Delhi, India!

Coming back to my motherland

Having returned I have been busy adjusting myself for the work ahead.

Making myself to post this

Ajay Balamurugadas Esq. made me to put this blog post today. Yes it came through!.

Making me indeed a citizen of the world

My Beloved Delhi, India!!! After twenty long years I came back to you with a heart replete with gratitude for having me treated in my very young years of this life where I had my University education in India, took initiation to mould me into the person I am today, carrying all the good values you gifted me making me indeed a citizen of the world having faced lot of obstacles!!! Thank you ever so much, thank you, thank you!!! Lucky me…

It is true, selfless love, that is what India is to me, that is what the people are for me!!!. Now I am back home with a heart that is literally bursting out of gratitude, love and joy at being able to taste, feel, enjoy and truly appreciate the mother India through their food, the colours and the most special people I have known all my life!!!.

Extremely fortunate in my life

I am extremely fortunate to get this word “Persistence” with a star from James Bach Esq. with his signature on this certificate.

Also I was very fortunate enough to learn a wide range of Software Testing from these world renowned experts when they attended and spoke in ThinkTest 2015 and also in RST class in Delhi, India.

How I got this chance? Was it a miracle? Or it is because of my persistence? Or helping nature of Indians and testing experts like James Bach? Yes, answer is all.

I saw there was a post by Santhosh Tuppad Esq. saying that “If you post a question and if James Bach selects it then you will get a free seat for the Conference”.

Oh, this made me feel diligence to get this free seat. I quickly posted a question. Yes!. Mrs. Smita Mishra replied to my e-mail.

My dream came through. I got the free seat for the conference and for the RST class. Many people helped me to achieve this seat.

They are Smita, Ajay and James. There are many more in the list.

I had to face lot of obstacles to attend this conference and the RST Class. I won at last!. Yes I won!. Gods’ grace!. Lucky me…

Within a week all the arrangements were done and I got a new job too. Yes it is because of Gods’ grace.

The benefits I got from this valuable event are I came to know better ways of finding important bugs in a short time and also met really valuable personalities. I learnt the exact definition of Software testing then I learnt what is coverage, what is oracle, what is a procedure which were not known properly before. I learnt Testing is not test cases, Patterns of a "good" Test Automation Framework, then building agility for automated Mobile Apps testing, How to transition our career from Manual Tester to CTO, most valuable learning "50+ tips to improve Tester - Programmer Relationship" which we definitely need to know to have a good relationships with our developers, Your Data is no more ONLY your data which was another valuable speech, Truthful test estimations etc.

I did a presentation also after I came back to Sri Lanka from the knowledge I gathered from ThinkTest 2015, RST class and James’s special individual teaching. Yes I made it!. Majority feedback was excellent.

Token of appreciation

Let me have this opportune moment to express my unreserved gratitude, a very special thanks and esteem to your good selves (My Parents, Ajay Balamurugadas Esq., James Bach Esq., Mrs. Smita Mishra, Michael Bolton Esq., Santhosh Tuppad Esq., and last but not the least Dr. H.S. Prabhakar of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and his wife Madam Sujata Prabhakar) having showered so much of unexpected opportunities with a magnanimous gesture and for taking such care to make me feel so comfortable, that made me feel one with their noble family!!!. You made me feel really very important so much so that I have no explanation to offer, I was well received and looked after and they were landmark days for me.

Let me once again express my deepest gratitude to all of you and I feel very happy that I have been well accepted.

I extend to you and the family and your associates, all the divine grace be showered upon you continuously for a very successful future.

I am really very lucky, sincere thanks to all of you, those who helped me and also for those who gave me obstacles. Yes, obstacles helped me to make myself without giving up. Yes they made me to have a determination. I succeeded. I made my dream true.

A most Precious Moment with World Renowned Software Quality Expert James Bach Esq.

Testing Attitude

The main purpose of software testing is to find errors. Trying to discover any possible error or failure in the process of software testing. The goal is to successfully complete the high quality of the product is to avoid pain sufferers. The software efficiently and productively employed in a user friendly way to provide enterprise customers with a good quality solution.

Testers’ objective and taking challenges…

The aim is to provide a controller supplied products meet specific customer requirements and avoid repeating the mistakes and achieve quality, timely delivery and optimum performance. A good tester will find errors that were not detected by other team members.

Testers are creative so..

 How you become a good tester?

•          Be creative
•          Have a 'test to break' attitude which breaks false dreams about products
•          Think positively
•          Have good perseverance
•          Have Innovative ideas
•          Be Committed
•          Be Dedicated
•          Be Intelligent
•          Be Accountable
•          Be a Team Oriented player
•          Be Friendly
•          Be Passionate
•          Accept the assigned tasks as directed by leaders/Managers
•          Always ready to go the extra mile to support our customers
•          Be Imaginative
•          Have outstanding analytical thinking

You think like this J “I am here to destroy and break the thing. What I break is false dreams about products. I try to wake people up from their false dreams about products. It may feel like we are breaking the product itself, but it was already broken when we were given it. I'm going to find faults that I know is there; This is what I get paid”.

Testers pursue errors, not people

Issue on the functioning of the product, not the people who make blunders. It is very common for some men to use their own time and attack you again. My database is filled with many of these examples. J

Here you can have this kind of relationship with developers. “You are remarkable in progress. This is what they do well. We are going to take the time to help you find defects in it. Together we shall build the best quality product”.

A gentle balance must be struck between combative in the sense of finding errors in the work products and development to be part of a team in the development of the final product.

Testers add value

• Testers are adding value to the software and we shall question the test right from the start. 

This:

• The Hold developers building products based sources of error-mounted.
•  Ensure that the implementation team can deliver what the customer wants.
• WIRED that the administration takes the bottom line for quality and financing searching.

How testers do it

•          By examining the internal structure and design
•          By examining the Functional User Interface
•          By examining the design objectives
•          By examining the user requirements
•          By examining the code
•          And many more.. Think about them..

My advice to all the fellow members that when you work, work truly then you will get the result one day or the other. Take challenges and succeed!.

I thought of sharing 7 simple steps that can improve software testing as well as the software testing career

• Tip 1 - Written communication – This is applicable to all instructions or tasks given to you by your superior. No matter how friendly your lead or manager is but keep things in emails or documents.

• Tip 2 - Try to automate daily routine tasks – This will save time and energy by automating daily routine task no matter how small those tasks are.

•  Tip 3 - Admit mistakes but be confident about whatever tasks you did - Avoid doing the same mistake again. This is the best method to learn and adapt to new things.

•  Tip 4 - Continuous learning – Never stop learning. Explore better ways to test application.

•  Tip 5 - Get involved from the beginning – Ask your lead or manager to get you (QAs) involved in design discussions/meetings from the beginning.

•  Tip 6 - Keep notes on everything – Keep notes of daily new things learned on the project. This could be just simple commands to be executed for certain task to complete or complex testing steps, so that you don’t need to ask same things again and again to fellow testers or developers.

•  Tip 7 - Increase your conversation with developers to know more about the product. Whenever possible make face-to-face communication for resolving disputes quickly and to avoid any misunderstandings.

Security Testing

SQL Injection

SQL Injection vulnerabilites are quite common and very dangerous. An SQL injection vulnerability can only occur with a software application that fronts a database. Which just happens to be a very common occurance. SQL Injection attacks deal with the same problem of input not being validated. With a bit of understanding of the web application and a sniffer trace, a malicious user could create an SQL statement that was not intended and "trick" the web application to return or perform some other SQL command rather than the intended command.

The first thing that will need to be done is to understand how the web application interfaces with the backend database. Either you will have the design documents to work with or you can use a sniffer utility to determine what is occuring.

See the Tools sniffer applications for more information on types of sniffer applications.

If a site is vulnerable to SQL injection a large number of other problems could occur. This is a simple and easy vulnerability to exploit. All an attacker needs to know is SQL and have some understanding about how the information is passed.

Example of an SQL injection vulnerability

To understand how a SQL injection vulnerability could occur, imagine the following situation. For example say your website has a method to search for users. A usersearch page is created which could include something like the following.

<form method="post" action="searchuser.php"> <input type="text" name="username"> <input type="submit" value="Search" name="search"> </form>

This html snippet passes in the username to the dynamic page searchuser.php. The searchuser.php will take the username and add it to an SQL statement. Take for example the following php code snippet.

sqlResult = statement.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '" + $username + "';");

Think about this statement and see if you can figure out what is the problem. You might say the $username should be validated before it is added to the SQL statement. That is exactly what should be done. A malicious user could attach additional SQL statements to the username. This could be done by passing is something like.

admin' OR 1=1 --

Think about what the SQL statement would look like.

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = 'admin' OR 1=1 --';

Notice this will either select the admin account or it will before 1=1 which will result in true. Which in SQL terms this will return the entire users table. Which the users table could contain all sorts of other additional sensitive information. This is just one example of what type of attack could be performed with SQL injection.

How to protect against SQL injection vulnerabilities

SQL injection vulnerabilities can occur anytime there is some type of input provided. They do not need to occur when output is sent. Any input should be validated, checked, and sanitized against a white list before being used.

Source: http://www.testingsecurity.com/how-to-test/injection-vulnerabilities/SQL-Injection

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. Avoid arguments.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never tell someone they are wrong.
3. If you're wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Start with questions the other person will answer yes to.
6. Let the other person do the talking.
7. Let the other person feel the idea is his/hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Sympathize with the other person.
10. Appeal to noble motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Important Skills - Communication Skills

Here are six techniques you can use to help you say things simply but persuasively, and even forcefully:

1) Get your thinking straight. The most common source of confusing messages is muddled thinking. We have an idea we haven't thought through. Or we have so much we want to say that we can't possibly say it. Or we have an opinion that is so strong we can't keep it in. As a result, we are ill prepared when we speak, and we confuse everyone. The first rule of plain talk, then, is to think before you say anything. Organize your thoughts.

2) Say what you mean. Say exactly what you mean.

3) Get to the point. Effective communicators don't beat around the bush. If you want someone to buy something, ask for the order. If you want someone to do something, say exactly what you want done.

4) Be concise. Don't waste words. Confusion grows in direct proportion to the number of words used. Speak plainly and briefly, using the shortest, most familiar words.

5) Be real. Each of us has a personality -- a blending of traits, thought patterns and mannerisms -- which can aid us in communicating clearly. For maximum clarity, be natural, and let the real you come through. You'll be more convincing and much more comfortable.

6) Speak in images. The quote that "a picture is worth a thousand words" isn't exactly true (try explaining the Internal Revenue code using nothing but pictures). But words that help people visualize concepts can be tremendous aids in communicating a message. Once Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative became known as Star Wars, its opponents had a powerful weapon against it. The name gave it the image of a far-out, futuristic dream beyond the reach of current technology. Reagan was never able to come up with a more powerful positive image.

Your one-on-one communication will acquire real power if you learn to send messages that are simple, clear, and assertive; if you learn to monitor the hearer to determine that your message was accurately received; and if you learn to obtain the desired response by approaching people with due regard for their behavioral styles. 

Your finesse as a communicator will grow as you learn to identify and overcome the obstacles to communication. Practice the six techniques I just mentioned, and you'll find your effectiveness as a message-sender growing steadily.

But sending messages is only half the process of communicating. To be a truly accomplished communicator, you must also cultivate the art of listening.

If you're approaching a railroad crossing around a blind curve, you can send a message with your car horn. But that's not the most important part of your communication task. The communication that counts takes place when you stop, look and listen. 

We're all familiar with the warning on the signs at railroad crossings: Stop, Look and Listen. It's also a useful admonition for communication.

It's easy to think of communication as a process of sending messages. But sending is only half the process. Receiving is the other half. So at the appropriate time, we have to stop sending and prepare to receive.

Work Smart For Your Career Development

• Have a strategy or plan one if you don’t have initially

No one likes to work for more than 8 hours a day. Psychologically too, working for more than 8 hours a day will falter your concentration and reduce the quality of your own productivity - and, this ‘overtime’ work that you have to do is usually due having no pre-planned strategy. This is one simple strategy that you should apply when you are working: which is simply, do what is more important first and less important saved up for later. So you can start by writing down all your targeted tasks to be done and have a priority check list.

• Have an effective schedule

There are times too when you find it hard to accomplish as your scheduled plans. Perhaps you are forgetting something when you did that schedules before. Another thing that you should always bear in mind is to be sure that you are arranging your work according to your ability and capacity. You should know your working skills, development and ability more than others do. But this is of no reason for you to put a full stop to improve your working skills. Always keep it at an ongoing base.

• Clean your table

Few have taken notes to this particular factor, assuming it doesn’t do much good anyway. But actually, by tidying up your table, and moderately decorating it without making it look slapdash, you are able to boost your own positive working mood. Another benefit of cleaning your table is to save time to find stuffs that’s part of that trash piles.

• Finish your work

Rule no. 1 when you are working is to get that particular job entrusted to you done, and in time. If you’ve practice proper scheduling, have a working strategy, you should be able to get by this one pretty easily.

• Starting immediately

Postponed workloads will only give you more pressure than leisure, of course. So whichever work that you feel can be done in an instant and fast, you should do it first without hesitation. It’ll take you off from that tedious string of work. The human brain functions sharper in the morning so that is the best time to get some little stuff done.

• Private time Vs Working time

The inability to differentiate private time with working time is a real threat in your career advancement. It may seems like not a problem for you but sometimes we tend to get carried away and forgot what we were supposed to do in the first place. You should remember the trust that your superior has put onto you and respect that trust. Be professional when you’re working. But it doesn’t mean that you have to work like a robot day after day, there’s no harm in taking a 5 minutes break ever 2 to 3 hours of work to get back your focus and calm your mind.

Another key factor that enables you to further develop your career is your ability to love your work. If you love you work, you won’t feel burden much by it.