What are Test Days?
Test Days are an opportunity to exercise a completed, or in-development, Feature planned for an upcoming Fedora release. Each Test Day brings something unique and you're encouraged to join and share your ideas, tests, and results.
Where are Test Days held?
Discussion is typically held on IRC in the #fedora-qa channel. There are quite a few different IRC clients out there you can use to join the discussion, including:
- Web-based mibbit (no additional software required)
- Chatzilla firefox extension
- A list of popular linux clients
How To Get Involved
Suggestion Box
Have an idea for an upcoming test day topic? Please drop me a line if you'd like to request a Test Day topic.
Test Execution
Often a Test Day will include focus areas for which to target when testing a Feature. These areas have been identified as critical components of the feature. If looking for a quick list of areas to target, these make great candidates.
Exploratory Testing
Exploratory testing is an approach to software testing that is not scripted or planned in as much detail as a more traditional test plan. Rather than walking through a series of pre-defined test cases, the tester is asked to think about the high-level test areas in the software. From there, the tester is encouraged to use their knowledge of the product and the code in order to navigate through different areas of the software. As they walk through the software, their emphasis is to find bugs, expose new test areas, and learn more about the product to help guide future test efforts.
The simplest definition from Exploratory Testing Explained by James Bach works the best:
Exploratory testing is simultaneous learning, test design, and test execution.
For further reading on exploratory testing can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_testing.
FAQ
What build should I test?
Each Test Day will indicate which build will be under test. Note, the nature of the build may also depend on the Feature being tested. For example, testing of a kernel feature may only require updating to the rawhide kernel package. However, testing of a custom spin of Fedora may require downloading, or building, a LiveCD.
Feedback
Don't hesitate to send your thoughts, comments or suggestions.