Preview release, as we all know, is a big milestone release for OSAF.
Obviously, our quality standards are going to be very high for this
release. As a 4 member QA team, divided between Cosmo and Chandler,
we are grossly understaffed for doing detailed, exhaustive testing of
all the new features. Without going on a mass hiring spree, we would
like to brainstorm on ideas about how we could collectively as a team
commit ourselves to raising the quality standards for this release.
Some of the things we think would help are:
1. More automation
Add more automated tests to the test suite. This would especially
help in regression testing of existing features by reducing manual
cycles. This also includes adding unit tests for all the new features
being checked in. So when we hit Feature Complete deadline, it would
mean all the unit tests for the specific feature are also done. These
would be run continously on tinderboxes and thereby help catch any
regressions.
2. More pariticipation in the IRC QA sessions
As you all know we now have a dedicated IRC office hour for QA
sessions on wednesdays at 11:00 AM PST. Traditionally only the QA
team, PPD team and the dev managers have been participating in these
sessions. What we would like is to see is more participation from
other team members, especially in cross-product and cross-feature
testing. Hopefully this is not asking for too much. Just like we make
time for staff meetings, design sessions etc, we should make time for
this in our schedule and commit ourselves to exercising the app in
different ways and testing new features to help uncover bugs.
3. More internal dogfooding
If we could just get people internally to download Chandler
periodically and use it for maintaining their personal calendars as
well as updating the office calendar that would be a big help.
The other suggestions we have heard are:
1. Maybe increasing the frequency of the IRC QA sessions from once a
week to twice a week with partipation from all prouct teams.
2. All the teams dedicate 1 day a week to testing after feature freeze
3. Hiring a contractor till preview ( I am not sure how much value
this would add)
We would like to hear more suggestions if you have any that have
worked in your previous companies.
A few things to remember that the bugs in the software will turn up
eventually and we will need to fix all of them before the release. So
it would be most efficient on everyone's time in finding them earlier
than later. Also when you cross test features, you bring fresh
perspectives on usability of the feature, uncovering any design bugs
earlier on, if any. This would be valuable user feedback for the PPD
team as well.
At the end of the day we need to release quality software and if that
means we need to get more creative and figure out ways in which we
can leverage the strength of the team for getting there I sure hope
we can do that.
Comments, suggestions are most welcome..
Aparna
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