One decade of Software Testing

The decade of 2000 – 2010 was most important timeframe in my life. Especially from the professional side. I started my IT career in Feb 2001 as a Software Trainee in Testing Group of one of the midsized company located in Noida, headquartered in USA.

There were many ups and downs in my life in this decade. I worked with some big shots IT companies like Verizon and HCL Tech. On the other side, I worked with a startup companies also. The experience was good. There were many professional achievements that I reached in my career . But I am summarizing only 10 (since it is a decade) here

1. I started my career with one of my close relative who will always remain an ideal for me.

2. I was the first person who installed TETRA (A Telecom Technology) for a UK based company in India.

3. I worked onsite and that too, in great countries located on this globe.

4. I got three consecutive awards for “Performance of the Year” in my first organization in 2002, 2003 and 2004. A hat-trick and a record which is still unbroken.

5. I worked with some of the best talents in the industry and still working with them.

6. I surpassed some of my very seniors in many professional areas, keeping them far behind my performance.

7. I joined and worked in one of the biggest Telecom Company in the world – Verizon.

8. I roamed all around India, due to my professional liabilities.

9. I joined and worked one of the biggest IT giant of India – HCL Technologies.

10. At one point of time, when I was job hunting, I got three offers on same day and that too, from very reputed organizations. I joined Verizon at that time.

My progressive work experience gave me many lessons in my professional life. But there is one thing, which is just opposite with my personal life as compared to my professional life. In my personal life, I always find myself all alone in life. But at professional front, that is not the case, There is always someone who remains and stood with me whenever I am in alone state. That is the good part.

Now since the next decade is already started, it is very crucial for me. I need to prove myself on big scale and on a giant canvas. I am sure I can do that but it needs thorough dedication and hard work, along with smart work and mental calmness.

-- Sanat Sharma

Once a year “Reproducible” Bug

Wishing all my readers a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy New Year 2011.

Recently, I was discussing, with my wife, some great defects that we are finding while performing our regular testing. She interestingly narrated me a scenario where one of her company’s customers is getting a defect on regular basis. Now the definition of “Regular basis” is very unique. Those guys are getting a specific defect every year and that too, on March month. Initially, I was surprised to listen to this. But once I drilled down the topic, I came to know that the customer is a financial organization. The application that they are using might be having some load/stress scenarios in the month of March every year. Since it is financial year closing in India in March, the scenario is 100% reproducible yearly.

When I queried about the resolution and proposed solutions for that defect with my wife, she said that they are trying to get the logs for all the actions that will occur in that specific month so that they can analyze the issue and resolve it. Ironically, the issue is reproducible in the customer premise from the last 4 years. But still not detectable.

I have seen reproducible issues, un-reproducible issues, hard to reproducible issues but this is the first time I heard about “Once a year reproducible issue”. Actually, this is something which is not very common in current market. But there are some Telecom applications that always got crashed in festival time in India like Diwali or New Year. I witnessed the same many times in my profession life. 6 years back, I have seen the Telephone Network Choking in the office of India’s one of the biggest telecom service provider company. When screwed that issue, I came to know from the senior management that this is how it is working at the festival times from the last 7 yrs. When discussed about the solutions, the company was not willing to spend the amount that is required to upgrade the system which redirects towards the solution of the problem.

Actually, the solution of these kinds of issues, or in fact any kind of issue, totally depends on the size of the customer. If we are getting a good business (obviously it means good money) from our customers, we would spend time to resolve the issues immediately even if the issue is “Once a year Reproducible defect”. It all depends on business which eventually converts into money.

Money matters all. That’s the key of business, in fact key of life – professionally and personally.

-- Sanat Sharma