uTest University Webinar – Live Exploratory Testing

To go along with my course on Exploratory Testing, I had the opportunity to do a live webinar demonstrating how I do exploratory testing. The community management team did some great marketing and over 300 people signed up! Unfortunately, we found out at the start of the webinar that the uTest GoToMeeting license only supported 100 participants so a lot of folks were not able to attend. It was quite a humbling experience to have so many people interested in watching how I test.

As you can see from the video, the app I chose was quite buggy. That coupled with my poor internet connection presented some interesting challenges. It was difficult to maintain my train of thought and to investigate a single issue when other issues kept popping up, but I think it gave a good representation of what exploratory testing can be like sometimes.

Looking back at the video I need to improve in the following areas:

  • Speak slower and clearer – I was trying to articulate my every thought and this lead me to speak in quick, incomplete sentences. It might have been beneficial in showing how choppy my thought process can be, but I think it might also made it difficult to follow what I was thinking.
  • Repeat the question – During the Q&A portion, I didn’t do a good job of stating the question I was answering. I read the question and kinda mumbled it before jumping into the answer. I did OK on some questions, but I need to remember to do a better job of this next time.

http://university.utest.com/recorded-webinar-exploratory-testing-lucas-dargis/

Two contributions to the uTest University

Back in December of 2013, uTest officially launched the uTest University (blog post) which is intended to be a single source for testers of all experience levels to access free training resources. This is a neat opportunity for testers to contribute to the growth and development of the testing community by creating courses and writing articles. The university also offers  Author Page

My first course was derived from a uTest forum’s post I I wrote back in June of 2013. I was on a cycle where the customer required logs from Charles Web Debugging Proxy be attached to every bug report, but none of the testers (myself included) or the knew what that was or how to use it. I spent some time learning how to use the tool and then put together a tutorial to share with the rest of the team. Fast forward 8 months later several other customers started required the same thing. To make the information a bit easier to find the tutorial was turned into a uTu (uTest university) course:
How to Set Up Charles Web Debugging Proxy for iOS Devices and Windows 8

My second course came at the request of the uTest Community Management team. They needed a tutorial for new testers to show them how to create videos (screencasts) of their bugs. They specifically wanted it based around the free tool Screencast-O-Matic. I had actually never used that tool before, so I spent some time getting familiar with the tool. I also compiled a list of suggestions and tips based on things I see frequently in the videos of other testers. The result is:
How to Set Up and Use Screencast-O-Matic

 

Improve Your External Bug Videos

If you have ever tried to take a video of a bug on your phone or tablet (Or if you are a test lead or developer trying to view them) you know it can be a challenge. If you you don’t know what you’re doing, your video can difficult to view and understand.

This is my first instructional video and it’s simply awful 🙂 Hopefully these tips will help to ensure your audience can get the full value from your videos.

One thing I want to point out. When I was using my iPhone to take the video of the Kindle, you’ll notice that my phone is in the portrait position. Videos taken in this orientation are saved sideways when you try to view them on a computer. To overcome that problem, simply make sure your phone is in landscape position when you are filming.

You can buy a Clingo stand for yourself here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JTHN4K/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00