Device testing in a microwave
Adhithya Sankar explores Software Testing like Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch would explore further North beyond the Wall. His passion for whatever he does is what drives him to go above and beyond the call of duty. Adhithya is an equally talented Musician. He actually has multiple hats. He has also featured in a television commercial, sharing the screen with Virat Kohli. Adhithya is a die-hard fan of Chai, and I mean no offense to the Kaapi crowd.
We asked him a few questions about his approach towards testing software, here is how it went.
Udeepta: What excites me about the field of testing?
Adhithya: The Exploration which triggers my curiosity, just like a forest adventure: The surprise attacks, the warning signs, enjoying the serenity of nature, and finally, hunting with our tribe.
Udeepta: Who inspires you?
Adhithya: Gary Vaynerchuk, Kerwin Rae, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Osho, Mark Manson, Robin Williams, James Bach, Simon Sinek, Pradeep Soundararajan, and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
Udeepta: What tools do you want but don’t exist?
Adhithya: There are many but these 3 are what strikes me now –
a) An App/Technology that can help me transfer fragrance/smells. More like WhatsApp or Instagram but with fragrances instead of media. The phone’s receivers should have receptors similar to that of a human nose, the ability to decipher smell, transfer the formula over a network and recreate it on the other device with artificial harmless chemicals. The chemicals need to be reloaded with cartridges. It would either be a make or break technology, examples below.
Simple –
Bro1: “Hey! I just ordered a Pizza. Let me send a video”
Bro2: “OMG, it looks and smells great”
Complex –
Long-distance Relationships:
Video calls.
Wife: What’s that smell from your shirt? That’s not your smell!
Husband: Oh that’s nothing! I got a new cologne 😀
Business –
Swiggy: Smell our dishes before you place an order.
b) A Mental Health – Well Being is an app that uses Face and Voice recognition to detect human emotions, the state of mind, and suggests what to do next, to make them feel better or automatically reach out for professional help if needed.
c) An A. I voice-based assistant which can take my commands, manually test applications under my supervision and instantly create bug reports.
Udeepta: What’s the worst mistake you made in your life as a tester?
Adhithya: In one project, The client had requested us to manually change some data through the back-end. Since we were running low on manpower, I was asked by the devs to support the activity. By mistake, I had changed the data in another table instead of the expected one. Thankfully, the developer was beside me and pointed out saying that, that table was out of use. I realized that I needed to be more aware, ask more questions and let them validate me in every step when I do something new.
Udeepta: Share with us an exciting bug you found.
Adhithya: This is not exactly a bug, but interesting learning: I wanted to test the behavior of the Report Generation Module of an app in a dead spot area of a network(not airplane mode). StackOverflow suggested simulating by getting inside an elevator or keeping the phone inside a microwave oven to create a Faraday Cage. I kept the phone inside a Microwave Oven in my office(The oven was turned off, obviously) and as expected, the report wasn’t generated due to no network. I was really excited to try this!
Udeepta: How has Bugasura changed testing for you?
Adhithya: a) It gives me the confidence that I have proof of every action that I do as a tester instead of me being obsessed with taking screenshots.
b) The timer helps me know when I need to take breaks and how long I have spent.
Bugasura helps you to create reports that can be easily understood, even for a complex bug. It does not take more than a minute to create a bug report using Bugasura. So you always have your focus on finding more bugs without compromising on the test coverage, rather than having to write a detailed report manually from scratch. Apart from this, there are tons of other great features like custom test data, pause and resume test flow, sharing daily status updates across the team, push-to-Jira, etc. The visibility of testing is what management looks for. Collaborative testing can happen while working remotely. Bugasura is a tool that UX, UI, PO, Dev, and QA teams can use together.
