[olpc-nz] Helping our new testers

[Tim McNamara]

[warning: a few themes are being mixed together here!]

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 4:30 PM, Tabitha Roder <tabitha at tabitha.net.nz>wrote:

> The basic test template is here:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_testing_template#The_NZ_activity_test
>

This template is really only relevant for new XO builds. It's also somewhat
unnecessary - OLPC tends to do its own regression testing between builds.
Now that there are paid QA staff at OLPC again, our group will probably find
most of its requests are supporting Sugar Labs.

I would like to offer more structure, so that our more experienced testers
have a way to semi-formally induct newer people into the group. How we
introduce new people into the group is fairly poor.

I think a well-written introduction to testing and to our group would be
really beneficial.

Weekly test plans mean that there's an incentive for people to turn up
because they know they are achieving goals that are required. I don't like
this dialogue:
  A: what should we do today?
  B: just find bugs.
  A: oh...

I would prefer that conversation went something along the lines of:

 A: what should we do today?
 B: here are five things that we can knock off as a group, which would you
like?


> It would be good to keep things as simple as possible which is why I
> suggest this is a good place to start. You can make it prettier and print it
> out like a form, but that would then require typing up later. (By the way, I
> haven't seen many weekly testing summaries out of Wellington in a long time,
> what is happening down there?)
>

In all honesty, I feel that the Wellington group is dying.

Our experienced testers are bored and our newer ones are confused. People
are moving their arrival times from 10:30 to 11 and 11:30.  We need
something to change to bring people's motivation back.

Take me for example: I need to take 6 or so hours out of every Saturday to
do testing, once transport to Wellington is factored in. Now, it's really
discouraging (when I need to write my thesis) to not have a plan. It's hard
to know whether what we're doing is actually making a difference. Tinkering
with applications isn't sufficient to hold interest past a few months.

No one is taking leadership really. I'm somewhat reluctant to take too much
charge. I'm quite opinionated and don't want to come across as pushy.
However, I do try to make suggestions to the mailing list. But it's fairly
rare to get much engagement from others.

I don't want to recruit new people into the group yet. We're not good enough
at motivating the newer people that do turn up. I think that adding some
structure will do a long way to add to our professionalism, increase
motivation and also lead to greater results for OLPC/Sugar Labs.



> I was writing out a list of things to test on Thursday and posting it to
> the list, but for some reason I stopped, think someone suggested there was a
> better way.... I can start doing that again if you want. I was usually
> putting in links to the test request information and where to download the
> necessary files. Should I start that again?
>

That's what the wiki page is. I don't think a single person should be
burdened with this level of administration. If it's part of the overall
wiki, then developers will be able to add things themselves.

It would be useful if someone from each of the groups uses the "Claimed"
status on each of the tests, so that we avoid duplication.


> If we are going to have any more basics of NZ testers stuff, I suggest we
> put it on http://laptop.org.nz and keep it simple.


Simplicity is a good start. I think it would be better to be comprehensive
that is well-written and easily readable.

I think our site will be a good one as an index. Our site's certainly
prettier than the OLPC wiki. But I think the global wiki is a natural place
for a resource that tells people how to test things. I've never been able to
log into http://laptop.org.nz successfully though. Once the content is
drafted, I would prefer a platform like FLOSS manuals.


> I think the best way for NZers to get involved really is to have a
> conversation with one or some of us, online or face to face.
>

I think personal connections are very important. But, we also need to
recognise that people volunteer their time because they want to support
education of the world's children. Wellington is not being as effective as
it could be in achieving this goal. I think we need to change the way we do
things.

*exhale*

Tim
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