A Very challenge thing to a Software Tester is if he posted one critical issues by spending more time, then the developer will simply add comment as “Unable to reproduce”.
At this stage we have to fight with the developer by adding more screenshots or by conducting meetings to explain how to reproduce the issue.
Now a simple way comes to capture a defect in the application. Using this we can record how to reproduce the issue.
http://www.screentoaster.com/
1) Go to the above site and register as a new user
2) Login to the application and click Start Recording button
3) It will display Record button
4) Now go to your application and click “Alt+S”
5) Try your scenario to reproduce the issue
6) After reproducing the issue click “Alt+S” and go to screen toaster
7) Click stop recording
8) Now the video to reproduce your issue is ready to view
You can upload the video into screen toaster and you will get a URL for that
You can upload it in YouTube
You can download the video in “AVI” and “SWF” formats
Now attach the video or give the link while reporting the issue. Developers will not say “Unable to reproduce” after seeing this video.
For your reference I have attached a video to explain about how to record a video to capture an issue.
I have recorded the scenario in login page of “YouTube”
http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stU0ldRkRIR1pYRVlcXF9RUFVX/how_to_record_a_video
“Happy Testing”
SnagIT is a wonderful tool for taking screen shots, videos etc.
ReplyDeleteMSR (Mercury/HP screen recorder) is also a good tool to do this. This tool is part of Quality Center license. Works as add-in to QC.
ReplyDeleteSnagIt, QC & Screen Recorder are good tools if your developers are not on-site. However, nothing is more concrete than communicating directly with your development staff and having them sit right next to you and witness the error first hand.
ReplyDeleteWhat if your SUT doesn't have a connection to the Internet and is HP-UX based?
ReplyDeleteKen.
If you need to prove the defect occurs using such a tool then start looking for a new job because your work environment is poison.
ReplyDeleteIf a defect I filed is marked as 'cannot reproduce' development is asking me to give a finite set of steps to reproduce it. If it takes me 2 minutes to reproduce it then I can just document the steps. If it takes 30 minutes or more of random testing then development is going to say they don't have time for that.
The best way to reproduce a hard to reproduce defect is to better understand the application and eliminate all the things which could be going wrong until the only remaining thing is the problem. As someone else said, "communicating directly with your development staff and having them sit right next to you and witness the error first hand." is the best solution. They can then analyze the defect with you and solve the problem.
"communicating directly with your development staff and having them sit right next to you and witness the error first hand.is the best solution."
ReplyDeletesure it's the best option, how do you do though when they are sitting 4000 km away ?
In that (widespread) case, a good tester should already have her defect well documented with finite amount of steps, screen shots, user definition, test data in use and even time frame...
and if video shots do help - use them!