Software testing special interest group? (No exp. necessary!)

DMS General
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Last time I asked this, there may have been 50 members of DMS. :stuck_out_tongue: Thus, as membership has increased about 15x since then…

How many of you are app developers? :raised_hands:
How many of you don’t code, but still want to be the first to try cool new products? :raised_hands:
How many of you like giving/receiving feedback? :raised_hands:

Developers, have you worried about testing your app on multiple devices & OSes before you roll it out? I had a great idea back in 2011/12 that never made it to market simply because I was never confident that:

  • Any ol’ Windows user could run it out of the box and have it work properly
  • Even if it was destined to work properly on their machine, would they know how to configure & use it?

For context, the application centered around usability enhancements for Netflix, which only works on Windows and OSX without employing workarounds, and most of us were Linux-heads back then.

Fast-forward a few years: now we’re a much bigger group with a wider array of devices & experiences, so whether you’re an app developer looking for feature testing, usability testing, or A/B testing, or someone who just wants to help said app developers in exchange for being the first to use a cool new product, there could be many great partnerships & working projects fostered by a software & firmware test group within DMS for members’ projects.

I’m imagining the apps we test would already be written to a significant extent. Users in the SIG will simply install it and use it (though testing firmware would probably be more like plugging it in or SSHing into it), but would have a direct line to the developer (who is part of or at least watching the SIG) to report & troubleshoot issues. We could cover more advanced testing topics such as automated regression testing if there is interest among the developers participating.

So… who’s interested?

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Sounds kewl… I’d like to be a part of the “no experience necessary” part of it… :wink:
Will there be any requirement to be present during day/evening hours for any types of meetings or anything during the week?

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Possibly, but for the most part, I envision that the “beta testers” would mostly enjoy the software or hardware projects on their own time and could report back in person or electronically as to how everything is going. We’d organize on an “ad hoc” basis only whenever there are things to test; any meetings would be up to the developer looking for feedback.

Now, possibly under this same umbrella, we could offer classes or workshops in various kinds of software testing. I’ve been working professionally in automated test design for CLIs & GUIs for several years now, and could talk about that if there is interest.

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