INDIA’S first ever #TESTATHON — 2016 Awaited Procurement of Milestones!

I keep exploring Google, for latest news, competition or webinar related to testing. On 6th May 2016, I found a contest, related to Software testing. I was waiting to participate in this event for two years.

This was INDIA’S FIRST EVER TESTATHON.

For those who want to know about #Testathon:

Testathon is similar to any other hackathon with one exception, it is for bug lovers. The aim of the event is to connect testing community with each other and enjoy finding bugs together. On the day of Testathon event, you’ll be testing amazing apps with some of the best testers to win loads of prizes.

Testathon took place for the first time in India in Hyderabad at FACEBOOK Office and was 5th event, while other 4 were in London, Stockholm, San Francisco and Cluj Napoca. To showcase the power of the testers, Global app testing along with giant Sponsors and Partners like Facebook, Spotify, Dropbox, Uber etc has launched Testathon — hackathon for testers across the world.Find out more at : testathon.co

When I got the news that it is happening in India, without wasting a single minute, with full of excitement, I called my Husband and said “I am going to Hyderabad”. Of course, at that point time neither I was selected nor aware if I would be selected for INDIA’S FIRST EVER TESTATHON, but one thing I was sure of that I wouldn’t want to miss “THIS opportunity”. We hear many competitions related to coding, programming language but hardly any for testers. Testathon was a golden chance for me to showcase my skills on larger platform.

Immediately I went ahead and filled the form for competition. Meanwhile I had informed my friends also about this competition. That whole night I slept with random thoughts in my mind,

• Will I be selected?
• Oh there is place for 50 testers from India! What will happen?
• I have worked mostly on Salesforce application. Will I fit into their filtering criteria?
• I hope I had filled the form correctly.
• I would have spoken to my husband 100 times and would have asked him. Will I get selected?

At that moment, my whole intention was to get selected among 50 finalists.

Being selected in this event itself was a milestone for me.

Here comes the most awaited news in the form of an email :)

On 8th May 2016, I got an email from Testathon to claim my ticket to Testathon.

Tan tedannnn tedannnnnnnn (Background music)

I got Ticket to Testathon

Yes, this mail was about INDIA’S FIRST EVER TESTATHON. For me, personally, this was an initial step in the testing world to participate with other top testers from India. There was no limit to my happiness as the reason was not only being selected, but another the competition being held at Facebook office in Hyderabad.

I got full support from my company. Actually, What a co-incidence! I was trying to organize similar kind of event in my company in our testing team and luckily I got the chance to be a part of Testathon. Two of my colleagues also filled the form. One of them was selected along with me and another colleague was in waiting list. She got a chance to go for Meetup before the competition. Testathon had arranged meetups for the people who were in waiting list.

We boarded our plane one night before the competition and flew to join other talented participants of the Testathon.

There was a feeling of exam when I woke up in the morning! Whole night we were busy making plans for the competition held Next Day.

Here is the timetable of an event that we received:

It was 14th May 2016, the day of competition. Finally, we reached Facebook office at 8:00 am.

OMG! Such an amazing office.

My expression was “Jis Office ka lobby and reception itna mast hai us office ke andar ka view kaisa hoga.”

We waited eagerly at the reception for final registration. As soon as I stepped inside, it gave me a feeling of five-star hotel. A jaw-dropping office with small Waterfall, games room, desks and many more. Everything was soo good. We went ahead in a queue, to collect our tags, make team, login for Bug tracker tool.

Oh Bug Tracker Tool, I was thinking, that we spent so many hours making the Bug template for competition and Alas! we were no longer going to use! What the hell :|

There was supposed to be one team with only women. So we thought of including other 2 girls and we can be that one team. We headed towards cafeteria to have breakfast, then, after 30 mins we got a presentation about competition.

Then started the most awaited competition. All of us got a mobile app to Test for 2 hours.

My second milestone was to raise as many bugs as we can

We were supposed to carry our own devices for testing. By the way, there was a prize for the person who carried more devices such as Mobile or tabs. Oh! I was in short of 3 devices to get this prize. If I remember correctly, I had carried a total of 8 devices.

The 2 hours of testing time allotted was over and we tested the app on different devices with different network connection. Believe me, you would not realize how the time flies. We were able to raise 30–35 issues, that were approved and validated by Facebook. We provided plenty of Suggestions too.

Then we had lunch, again, a delicious lunch buffet with live counters.

Post lunch we had another round of testing for 2 hours. We tested another application with different sections like engagements, safety etc. Every team had to select one section. Since it was a women’s team we were supposed to select “Safety & Security” section for Testing.

This time our progress was quite slow as me and my team member didn’t know much about security testing. I thought it would have been helpful if any one of us knew security testing as it was related to Safety & Security in the application.

We submitted few bugs with more suggestions.

Next 2 hours of testing was over. Finally, what a relief! I thought, we can now just relax and wait for results.

But, Competition was not over yet. We got 30 mins for filling out a form which consisted a set of questions and that was again a part of competition.

During the competition, Panel was interacting with all of us on our strategies, team, topic etc.

I felt their intention was to see how well we can multitask by communicating and then concentrating on our work.

At 5:30 p.m, we had a short break. Post that, Testathon team announced the results.

There were prizes in multiple categories for both individuals and team.

I was thinking we should get at least one prize- ‘this was my 3rd milestone or wish’.

They started announcing winners of different categories, Finger crossed, I was sitting and thinking at least one prize.

And finally….

My name was announced: Surbhi Aul

Most active QA on social media.

This award was about Most active QA during the competition. I felt the purpose of this award was to find out who can manage things and have fun during the competition as there was a lot of pressure. Of course the other reason would be Promoting Testathon.

Actually I was expecting an award for “Best growth bug” too.

Well, No worries. I was happy.

I am from Salesforce background. It was an achievement, to participate and to get acknowledgement in Testathon. I had completed all the milestones promised to myself be it small or big.

I believe “Winning means, you are willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else”

This competition not only gave us chance to collaborate with testers from different countries but also taught us a lesson about time management.

Lessons:

• Better Planning. With a team of 5, only 1 person was raising bugs which consumed a lot of time.
• Knowledge on different kinds of testing matters.
• Should have covered multiple parameters of test coverage for mobile testing, other than UI or functional part of testing.
• Typing speed matters as the person with fastest typing speed can raise a bug faster.
• Bug raising was time consuming as there were lots of fields to fill.
• Screenshot tools could have helped better. We were struggling to take screen shots as there was just one tester who was working on raising issues and capturing screenshots.
• We should have used more tools for mobile testing.
• Final verdict: Be fast and plan well.

This competition has boosted my thirst for knowledge, to go out and participate in similar other competitions. Thanks to my team members for amazing contribution during the competition.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank Global app testing and Facebook for giving us a chance and opportunity to participate in Testathon. Such competitions help in demonstrating our skills and talent, also gives importance to testing which encourages everyone to “Be A Passionate Tester”.

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