To review the first session – I explored the product and took free-style notes while doing it. I came up with a list of ideas that i can explore further. I also came up with an issues list that I would like to speak to someone about.
For my second session I uncovered a lot of information but I didn’t operate their product. How can this be testing? What did I do?
I emailed one the folks at Rypple and asked what kind of information they would be interested in. I used the quality related information from James’ Heuristic Test Strategy Model. The quality heuristic can be remembered with the mnemonic CRUSPIC STMPL. What does that stand for?
It’s most of the ility type words that people talk about in the context of software. This mnemonic has become stuck in my head – when James and Michael present it they often tell stories that might help you remember it. They also encourage people to make up their own mnemonic as well.
CRUSPIC STMPL stands for:
Capability
Reliability
Usability
Security
Performance
Installability
Compatibility
Supportability
Testability
Maintainability
Portability
Localizability
I wasn’t expecting much of a response. I was pleasantly surprised. I got a response from Tiho who is listed on Linked In as Star Software Developer at Rypple. Here is his response.
Adam,
Thank you very much for following up and being so thorough in your testing. Your mnemonic is awesome and we used the same list when we first thought about different quality factors that we would focus on (as we all know, TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, so we optimized for some over the others).
Here’s some quick reasoning for why certain things were done/optimized:
Capability: we’re a SaaS solution implemented in an agile focusing on feedback (still in beta, so our capability models are improving as we learn more from our users every day)
Reliability/Robustness: highly important to us since we are SaaS and therefore have only one version/installation of the product and people are using it for sensitive and personal matters
Usability: highly important because we depend on the bottom-up movement and people like you finding it easy to use immediately so that they can in turn helps us build a strong community
Security: *highly* important due to sensitivity of information being shared through the system (we have https version of the site as well and also offer some additional security measures as a part of the Enterprise offering — also we prevent sql injection, cross site scripting, and use a state of the art facility to store the data)
Performance: important but only to a degree at the moment because we have outsourced our hosting (and can deploy additional resources as needed) and also because currently we are still in private beta and do not grant access to everyone who comes to our site )
Installability: N/A – we’re SaaS
Testability: important as we are agile and drop weekly iterations based on user suggestions and our own research (need to have test harnesses)
Maintainability: less of a concern as we have only one version and one installation, but we do follow XP code practices and refactor on an ongoing basis.
Portability: N/A but we did pick a stack that we could easily move to another hosting provider if we needed to
Localizability: not an issue in private beta as we currently support only English, but that will soon change and we will offer localization
We also focused on additional quality factors:
Value: is the value of our service obvious and compelling for the user to come back (after first time, and after repeat use)?
Delightfulness: is the user experience delightful and does it create the “wow” effect?
Consistency: is the user experience always consistently good? (important since we frequently update our service and expose more and more channels into Rypple)
I hope this explains a bit more about our service. I highly recommend watching our welcome video at
http://vimeo.com/2120404 and our video on getting started at
http://vimeo.com/2440068 - please also let me know what you think about these video segments and if they convey our message properly?
I am looking forward to reading your response. BTW, we are also based in Toronto and we often have Rypple Meet Ups so let me know if you’d like to join us at our next event and I’ll be sure to invite you when we finalize the date.”
Wow what a great response! An exploratory testing gold mine!. More to follow in the next post.
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