Archive for the ‘Software Testing Nightmares’ Category

5 Reasons why ignoring Software Quality could be your downfall

Software failures are costing companies significant amounts of money and damage to their brand, people are losing jobs and in some cases their liberty because of avoidable software failures!
Read our “5 Reasons Why Ignoring Software Quality Could Be Your Downfall2″

Times are tough. You know it, I know it, your competition knows it and your boss definitely knows it. With greater competition, more consumer choice and a greater dependency on technology than ever before, every organisation faces the challenge of building quality IS systems to support rapidly evolving business requirements. New applications need to get out the door quicker than ever, and you know that the new application upgrade will be hot on its heels. Time is money and IS departments are constantly looking for ways to cut down their application time to market. On average 40% of total application delivery time taken up with testing, so is it no wonder that this is an area marked out for special attention.

Why does testing take so long? Is the question often thrown at the QA department. Well it’s a highly manual process — even though some departments may use automation tools, it is still a time consuming activity. There is a skill in balancing the required resources, with time pressures, and software quality. Original Software refers to this as the Quality Conundrum, and it is something that IT management need to get to grips with. And fast.

You want better quality software? Right, well it will take more time to get right. You want the application live next week? OK, but we will either need to double the team of testers or we will only complete 75% of testing and the quality will be compromised. We don’t have any more budget for more resources? Well there is a decision to be made between an on-time application or a high quality application—you can’t have both.

A familiar conversation? This is the Software Quality Conundrum!

Ignoring the issues surrounding software quality won’t make it go away. Understanding corporate attitudes and distinct advantages to getting software quality right and the problems that can arise if things go wrong, is an important first step in the right direction, and to help you on this journey, read our “5 Reasons Why Ignoring Software Quality Could Be Your Downfall“.

Top 10 Software Failures of 2011

We came across an interesting blog this week. Its content gives the folks at Original Software a multiple number of examples that make it to our “Software Testing Hall of Shame” as 2011 draws to a close.

Phil Codd, Managing Director at SQS, lists ten software failures, as voted by Consultants. We think it’s great as it highlights the damaging effects of inadequate software testing and the ramifications on the company at fault.

So go on folks, have a read and make sure you make application quality a number 1 priority for your application delivery team in 2012!  “Top Ten Software Failures of 2011″

Have a happy holiday season everyone and may 2012 be risk free and healthy for both you and your software.

Microsoft Joins Testing Hall of Shame

Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with this embarrassing blunder that has definitely qualified for a spot in our Software Testing Hall of Shame!

A Microsoft antivirus definition file was the cause behind Google Chrome’s browser to disappear from users’ PCs!

Scores of users reported the deletion of the Google Chrome browser from their PC after running Microsoft’s Security Essentials. Google told Chrome users that Microsoft incorrectly marked the browser as malware and it was later reported that 3,000 users were effected.

Can you blame Google for being a little cheesed off at their Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) rival. It has been alleged that Chrome will pass Mozilla’s Firefox as the second-most-popular browser by the end of this year, pitting Google and Microsoft for the top spot.

As reported in ‘ComputerWorldUK’ by Gregg Keizer: “An incorrect detection for PWS:Win32/Zbot was identified and as a result, Google Chrome was inadvertently blocked and in some cases removed from customers PCs,” Microsoft said in a statement posted to the Facebook page of its malware research center. “We have already fixed the issue…, but approximately 3,000 customers were impacted.”

So it seems the moral of this story once again is that inadequate testing and quality checks lead to issues.

I wonder what tools Microsoft were using to assist them? I would recommend they look here: http://www.origsoft.com/manual-testing-is-here-to-stay/

Apple Joins Testing Hall of Shame

Another organisation has made it to our Software Testing Hall of Shame this week and what an embarrassment to such a high profile company.

According to an article by ITPRO, hackers are taking a big bite out of Apple’s data security.

A website known as “JailBreakMe” has been exploiting Apple’s iOS flaw by allowing users to upload software onto Apple devices that has not been approved.

Worse still, Apple users can potentially have malware downloaded onto their devices.

Affected devices include the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2 and the iPod Touch running iOS up to version 4.3.3. The soon-to-be-released iOS 5 could be affected too, once it is released in the Autumn.

The German Federal Office for Information Security, as reported by the Guardian, has deemed the situation serious enough to put out a warning on the “critical weaknesses.”

Tom Brewster, ITPRO, states: “Hacker group Dev-Team released the new jailbreak service this week, allowing users to hack their devices solely by following steps online through the mobile Safari browser.”

Apple could have been spared the embarrassment and expense with more efficient and thorough penetration testing of their systems.

Application quality should be at the heart of any development project. It just goes to show, even the big high-tec shops still get it wrong!

Tesco Bank Should Have Tested on IE9

The news on CIO’s website of Tesco Bank having to issue emergency guidelines for Internet Explorer 9 users, made me chuckle.

Either testing on multiple browsers wasn’t carried out in full or the testing technology being used didn’t support IE9. Either way, Tesco Bank will be entering our ‘Software Testing Hall of Shame’ this week.

Perhaps the bank wasn’t aware that Original Software had announced its support for IE9 back in March: Original Software in Pole Position to Support Internet Explorer 9.

With Original Software you can discover an easier way to ensure your web applications are tested on all browsers.

The Cost of Software Failure

Our Software Testing Hall of Shame hosts a gallery of software glitches all serving to illustrate the importance of testing software. The latest addition comes from the London Stock Exchange where, billions of pounds worth of share trades were lost after the London Stock Exchange’s main trading system ground to a halt shortly after the market opened last month.

Dealers were left twiddling their thumbs and angry after the LSE officially called a halt to all trading on its electronic order-driven system.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been the focus of much unwanted attention over the past few months, following problems with its new trading platform, MillenniumIT, that caused irregularities appearing on traders’ screens and trading downtime.

Could these problems have been avoided with more thorough QA procedures? Our guess is yes. This is a great example of how business risk is heightened when systems are launched too quickly, not allowing enough time for testing. But then again, the 15-month system replacement has had a catalogue of problems from the start.

What do you think? What can be done in the future to prevent this sort of thing happening again?

HMRC Software Glitch Makes Returns Taxing

Yesterday, January 31st, was the last chance for self-assessors to submit their tax return online at the website for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Even though the HMRC said only on Friday that their computer system was working well and they did not foresee the problems experienced in recent years, our majesty’s government failed to test thoroughly again!!

Apparently, accountants were having problems after it appeared that the company that supplies software which allows accountancy firms and advisors to access the HMRC website had shut its links early. Returns that should have taken no more than 10 minutes to file, were taking up to an hour. HMRC confirmed that some advisors using third party software were experiencing what they called a ‘slowdown’.

CCH Personal Tax was the software concerned and although its parent company, Wolters Kluwer, said they had not been notified of any issues with the software, problems certainly existed.

Now we can’t be sure what the problems really were,  but this story is yet another example of poor or incomplete testing. Such high profile software glitches only go to justify Original Software’s mantra that “application quality must become a business imperative” – especially if government reputations are to remain unscathed.

Source: Yahoo News

Another Tax Blunder, Get IT Fixed

HM Revenues and Customs have done it again! You would think that they would have learnt from past mistakes and have a plaque hanging on their wall that says, “failure to plan is planning to fail.”

Not only is their internal administration process still flawed, but now their shiny new Pay As You Earn (PAYE) computer system is thought to be the problem behind 1 million workers facing a surprise £1,500 tax bill.

A new IT project, which had not been properly tested, has meant that 1.4 million tax payers have underpaid. Almost 6 million tax payers will be told over the next few months that they have paid the wrong amount of income tax.

The new computer system, designed to automate a manual process, brought a promise of organisation. The automation of matching up the information on individual records with the end of year HMRC checks, on the amount of deducted tax and national insurance contributions by employees using the PAYE system, did not work as expected.

The project is a good idea, reduce time, resource and cost of the manual effort, but automation can not be achieved if the computer system has not been properly tested.

Most nightmares in this hall of shame have been detrimental in many ways, but it is never funny when it effects the lives of ordinary people. During a time when money is tight, this quality nightmare will hit the unlucky casualties hard.

For more on this story visit: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201009115713464.

Bad Aer Lingers after online booking nightmare

Flight company’s booking system, not only riddled with software glitches, but they are so un-customer friendly that in order for ME to do THEM a favour and let them know why their web sales are so poor – alerting them to the software glitch, I either have to pay £s per minute to call their website helpdesk or post a blog about their immense screw-up (thereby shame-facing them at the same time) There is simply no other option available on their website for getting in touch with their webmasters – Come on guys a simple email address wouldn’t hurt, would it?

Sorry, deep breath, this has just got me so riled!

So, knowing that I was planning a short break in Spain later in the year, a friend kindly forwarded me a promotional mail he had received from Aer Lingus, about a sale on flights to Malaga.

 Well, I’m in Marketing, so I was never going to be fooled that it would actually only cost £29.99 (not when you take into count that I wanted to fly at the weekend, I actually wanted a seat and to take a bag etc), but anyway, £102.56 each for me and my husband (plus a handling fee of £20) didn’t seem too awful.

  Happy with the flight times – check.

Think an extra £370 pp to be able to take checked bags, have seat selection and airport lounge is a bit extreme, but happy to run with the cheap option – check.

Flights cheaper than taxes – typical – £20 handling fee snuck in there – typical – check.

Well, ready to complete the booking then…

Click continue.

Start filling in my details, scroll down – OMG!!! How come the price has suddenly hiked itself right up to almost £600!!!!!

Ouch, that’s a nasty software glitch. Working at a company that actually manufactures software testing solutions, I can tell you straight off, that this here is an application error – and not just a malicious ploy by the budget airline to part you from more of your hard-earned cash! It seems that Aer Lingus have not been testing their application very well. We’ve seen time and time again that choosing not to invest sufficiently in quality assurance can really come back to bite you on the rear end! With ample time devoted to testing, better test coverage, some validation rules and database effects, this would have been picked up way before it went public. Oh well.

Maybe some customers might not have double-checked the price again, and unknowingly proceeded, only to be ripped off by the good chaps at Aer Lingus, but more likely, customers like me, would have just been put off and decided to check out prices at BA instead! I guess I’ll do a good dead and let them know – perhaps suggest they buy our software while they are at it… An hour later and after crawling their website, I discover, to my annoyance, that unless I want to waste even more of my time and money phoning a premium rate number, there really is no way to contact their technical team! GRRRRRR! Oh well, at least it is good fodder for our ‘Software Testing Hall of Shame’!

In trying to re-create the error before I put this post live, I came across another, completely different bug , where the system now wouldn’t process to that last screen, but looped me back to the start again. Do they do ANY testing on their systems? It’s just riddled with bugs.

Software errors force Boris to back-pedal on hire charges

A cycle hire scheme championed by Boris Johnson is having to refund thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money after it was hit by glitches.

This week my favourite London Mayor, the enigmatic Boris Johnson, makes it into our Software testing Hall of Shame!

I was alerted to the fact that there was an impending hall of shame contender on Friday when I read sky news’ article ‘Boris Bikes’ Launch Despite ‘Many Concerns’

Mr Johnson apparently told LBC radio: “I have no doubt lots of things will go wrong.”

He insisted it would prove a “great success” in the long run but added: “The reality is that the software issues and technical issues of getting the whole thing up and running for tomorrow has been extremely difficult.” “It will be more of a gradual launch than a big bang. I have so many concerns it’s hard to pick one out.”

It seems that the blonde haired buffoon had not allowed enough time for adequate testing of the scheme and ironing out the kinks. By this point they were left with little choice but to go ahead with the launch despite concerns, but as the saying goes: Failure to plan is planning to fail.

Unsurprisingly Monday morning came with numerous reports of mayhem in the capital over the weekend.

The London Evening Standard reported that a quarter of both the promised bikes and their docking stations weren’t ready in time. The Boris bike section of the TfL website froze on Sunday and users yesterday claimed their electronic keys were not working despite activating them online. Problems have emerged with people who purchased multiple electronic keys from the same bank account – the daily or weekly subscription charge is automatically levied on all keys as soon as one is used, even if the others are not in use.

Oh dear, Boris.

The Telegraph humorously reported that ‘Mr Johnson, who describes himself as cycling like a “very elderly French onion seller”, admitted he is expecting “delirious” criticism of the scheme.’