Oracle exercise on real example

TL;DR

This post is example how to apply oracle heuristic to identify is there a problem. Disclaimer: this blog post is not about some fancy new software testing framework. Pure software testing craft.

You are still here after disclaimer? Great!

Oracles are simply the principle or mechanism by which we recognise a problem. [Ref.]

Please read the article, it is well written and easy to comprehend. Another quality of excellent software tester.

In order to know how to use oracles in software testing, you need to practice. I hope that this example will help you.

I am “forced” to use Microsoft Word in order to create documentation for one project. I decided to insert images from external documentation using “Insert from URL feature”. In that way, when external documentation changes, link would either break or would automatically point to new image.

I clicked in Word Insert menu, then on image icon. After several minutes, i realized that there is no “Insert from URL option”.

I searched with Google to find quick answer:

Go to Insert – Quick Parts – Field…

Then you will get select box with a lot of options, one of them is insert image from URL (why we should bother to put it as first option in the list).

What!? I will repeat that because it sounds like sentence from Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch:

Go to Insert – Quick Parts – Field…

Hmm…, do we have a problem here? I am calling oracle consistency heuristics Comparable Product into help.

We expect the system to be consistent with systems that are in some way comparable. That might include other products in the same product line, or from the same company. The consistency-with-past-versions (History) heuristic is arguably a special case of this more general heuristic. Competitive products, services, or systems may be comparable in dimensions that could help to discover a problem. Products that are not in the same category but which process the same data (as a word processor might use the contents of a database for a mail merge) are comparable for the purposes of this heuristic. A paper form is comparable with a computerized input form designed to replace it. Indeed, any product with any feature may provide some kind of basis for comparison, whereby someone might recognize a problem or a suggestion for improvement [Ref.].

Lets check Google Docs.

Click Insert menu option. First suboption is Image icon, click on it, there is option window with option By URL. It took me four seconds to find it.

So this word option is not consistent with comparable product because in comparable product is much easier to insert image. Proof that Google docs has better UX than Microsoft Word.

And you can use this as selling pitch for this issue to your product manager.

I once presented oracle consistency heuristics to software testers. Feedback was: Oh, this is fancy and great, but we DO NOT HAVE TIME TO DO THAT!

Then I asked them contra question: How much time you spent in your bug triage sessions?

A lot.

With oracle heuristics, you are first filter for bug. If you can not find inconsistency in listed heuristics, than you will not report this issue. And your bug triage sessions will be much shorter.