For this weeks blog post I will be discussing the pattern known as “Sweep the Floor”. Sweeping the Floor is about you starting from the bottom and then getting into the more complex tasks. This being you contributing to simpler tasks, learning from these and becoming more skilled then graduating into larger more complex tasks. Imagine you are an new apprentice on a project, unsure where you stand compared to others on the team and they are unsure about you as well. You want to earn your place on this team, contributing where you can, gaining their trust and growing in the craft essentially. To do this you could simply volunteer for something simple that is necessary to complete. This is a good starting way to contribute to a foreign team and to the teams success early on by showing you can do high quality jobs even for simple matters. Skimping on quality here could lead to trouble later on when it turns out later that this part is actually very important. Some various examples of these tasks include maintaining the build system, production support, responding to maintenance requests, bug fixing, code review, setting up a project wiki and so forth. Basically you would be focusing on the edges of the system where less risk lies rather than the heart of the project where the stress and complexity would be. But this of course could prove tougher to swallow if you have spent a lot of time and money in a computer science degree. The moment leading up to your career in theory has been doing all of the said above tasks almost just without pay. Another negative aspect of this would be you ending up as the teams gopher, condemned to do menial tasks no else wants to do. You may find yourself intimidated by doing anything other than sweeping the floor, feeling only comfortable doing this. There is also danger in that you may not be able to develop appreciation for bigger projects due to the smaller menial tasks you are accustomed to. In short finding the tasks nobody wants to do or complains about and creatively resolving these problems in ways that exceed peoples expectations will allow you to slowly soar above, something that most including myself can get behind.

For this week’s blog post I will be looking at another design pattern, this time called Façade. This time once again from the handy site of SourceMaking.com. The overall intent of the design pattern is to provide a unified interface to a set of interfaces in a subsystem. It defines a higher-level interface that makes the subsystem easier to use, wrapping a complicated subsystem with a simpler interface. The problem that faces it is a segment of the client community needs a simplified interface to the overall functionality of a complex subsystem. Essentially façade discusses encapsulating a complex subsystem within a single interface object, thus reducing the learning curve necessary to successfully leverage the subsystem. The only access point for the subsystem will limit the features and flexibility that power users may need. The façade object should be a fairly simple facilitator. “Façade takes a “riddle wrapped in an enigma shrouded in mystery” and injects a wrapper that tames the amorphous and inscrutable mass of software.” With the quote from the site above the name really comes into play here. A good example of this would be something like that of a catalog. Where the consumer calls one number from the catalog and speaks with costumer service. The customer service representative acts as a façade, providing an interface to the order fulfillment department, the billing department and then the shipping department. Façade defines a new interface where in the Adapter design pattern it uses an old interface. The site/article then goes on to explain some general rules of thumb that can prove useful to those wanting to learn more or follow the design pattern even more. All and all the site is an excellent resource for anyone looking to learn more about design patterns and more with this article proving that with valuable information on a new design pattern I have not seen or used before.

Acceptance Testing

For this week’s blog post I will be discussing another form of testing called Acceptance testing. Acceptance testing is a form of testing where a system is tested for overall acceptability. The reason for this is to see if the systems compliance with certain business requirements and assess whether it is acceptable for delivery. The site shows a helpful diagram illustrating when you uses this testing, with Unit Testing on the bottom, Followed by Integration testing above that, System testing above that and with Acceptance on that the top of that one. The site also gives a good analogy of what it is exactly happening with the illustration. During the process of a ballpoint pen, the cap, the body, the tail and clip, the ink cartridge and the ballpoint are all produced separately, and unit tested separately. After this they are assembled and begin integration testing, with System testing following this. With of course Acceptance testing last to confirm once more that the pen is ready to function properly. Black Box Testing is the most common method used in performing Acceptance Testing. The testing does not follow any strict procedure and is not scripted but is rather ad-hoc testing. Ad-hoc testing is random testing or Monkey testing, essentially throwing stuff at a wall trying to see what sticks and what does not. You perform this testing after system testing like mentioned above in order for the system to be made available for actual use. Internal Acceptance Testing is performed by members of the organization that developed the software but who are no directly involved in the project, usually this is members of the Product Management, Sales or Customer Support. The opposite end of this is known as External Acceptance Testing where it is performed by those who are not employees of the organization that developed the said software. This is then broken up into two different fields, Customer Acceptance Testing and User Acceptance Testing. Customer Acceptance Testing is a pretty self-explanatory name where it is performed by those who purchased the software or are customers of the company that developed it. User Acceptance Testing is performed by the end users of the software, customers’

Customers essentially.

All and all this website was pretty well organized and explained everything very clearly and so forth in a manner where it made extremely simple to read and understand.

 

http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/acceptance-testing/