On 02/11/2011 Rob Weir wrote:
I have no idea how QA was done before for OpenOffice.org, but it make sense that you have basic elements like: ... 2) Manual scripted tests. This could be based on written test cases and test documents. These tests require some expertise to design/write, but once the test cases are written they can be tested by a much larger set of volunteers. Even power users could be helpful
The guess is mostly correct, but it misses the localization aspect. N-L teams used to have coordinated, but independent, QA activites; and here TCM was a great tool to have, since each team could assign a set of tests (set "Writer-1", set "Writer-2", set "Calc-1" and so on) to volunteers and make sure that important functionality was tested in all languages.
This allowed to find localization bugs but also generic bugs, since several teams were running the full testsuite and providing multiple feedback.
The final version of OpenOffice.org was released when blocker bugs, including those affecting only a specific localized version (like a translation error that had broken styles management in Writer in the Italian version) had been fixed.
Needless to say, localized testing is a great way to engage volunteers from N-L communities.
Regards, Andrea.
