Erin Snyder's Barbarian Blog

How to Conduct a Successful QA

Erin Snyder — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:53:08 -0400

There comes a point in every project where the team enters a fun little time called Quality Assurance. One may think that such a process could be frustrating, especially when conducting a QA across multiple satellite offices, but I have found the solution! Bullet points and screen grabs! No joke. These two simple steps make conducting a successful QA via email a cinch!

Bullet Points are helpful because you can separate out your steps, clearly showing the developers where one thought ends and the next begins! How novel. I’ve also found its helpful to include a bit of background about what you were doing when you ran into your bug or error (browser type, previous steps, what you were trying to accomplish, etc).

Screen grabs are equally as wonderful because you can visually display what went wrong. Rather than saying “something’s looking weird” and following it with an incoherent explanation of what you see on your screen, you can simply say “something’s looking weird” and drop a screen grab of the error you encountered right into the email. Now the developer doesn’t have to decipher your rambling, descriptive paragraph – they can just SEE it.

Follow this simple steps and the QA process will be simpler for all parties involved. You’ll be happy because you won’t receive emails back from the dev team asking you to clarify points of your email, and the dev team will be happy because they won’t have to guess what you were trying to explain. Do a really succinct job, and someone on the dev team may just send you a fancy blue ribbon… similar to this one I received from Mr. Adam Miller and proceeded to print, cut out, and proudly display on my monitor. Blue ribbons all around!

Decision '08

Erin Snyder — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:07:59 -0400

Election time is definitely getting closer. You can tell because every time you turn on the TV or pick up the paper there’s some story screaming about how a candidate has changed their stance, or won new support, or done something drastically “foolish” that could jeopardize their entire campaign. I think its safe to say that this kind of press is going to continue straight through until November.

With everyone getting behind a candidate and swearing that the other is crazy, claiming ‘how could you vote for HIM’, I think its important to make sure you don’t lose your sense of humor in the maddness… Kind of like the folks over at JibJab. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check out their new original, Time for Some Campaignin’.

Amazon's 'Kindle'

Erin Snyder — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:12:21 -0400

I have seen this “Kindle” thing floating around on Amazon for quite a while now. Essentially, Kindle is Amazon’s improvement to e-books – a hand-held wireless device that allows you to purchase and download electronic books and novels. It sports an iPod-esque white color scheme, can hold up to 125,000 digitally formated books, and is being sold for $359. Pretty nifty. The Amazon folks are saying it will be big, but I’m just not sure.

Sure it has some obvious pros… You could save a lot of trees by purchasing electronic novels. A book will never be “out-of-stock” or have a waiting period since a digital medium can’t sell out. You can download books on the fly and wont have to schedule a trek to the library or bookstore into your busy day. And its definitely a huge improvement over e-books. At least now this hand-held device can travel with you (at a super light weight of roughly 10 ounces) and your e-books won’t have to live on a bulky laptop.

Regardless, I think there is something amazingly powerful about holding a book in your hands and actually turning the pages… being able to bookmark your place within a novel and see just how many pages you’ve read… having the option to lend a book to a friend, or sell it back to a used book store. None of these things are really possible with Kindle.

Above all, the intimacy of reading a paper book is one of the few things that removes us from the ever-present glare of an electronic screen (be it a computer, phone, iPod, or TV). I stare at my computer all day at work, and when I get on the T to head home, I pull out a book and read. There is something great about getting lost in the pages of a book, and I’m just not sure if that can be replaced by another screen. We rely so heavily on electronics in our day to day lives, its sometimes nice to unplug, and reading certainly does that for me.

Who knows… Maybe Kindle will catch on and become ridiculously popular. Maybe people will be all about the lack of pages and digital formatting. I’m just not ready for that yet and won’t be rushing out to purchase one anytime soon.

Here’s a handy article if you want to read more.

The New Apple Store

Erin Snyder — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:53:39 -0400

So the green monster is down. It has been replaced with a very flashy, very impressive-looking 3-story apple store, complete with lots of glass and glowing apple logos… and its just around the corner from the Boston office. Today is “opening day”, and even though the doors won’t open until 6:00pm tonight, Adam managed to get a glimpse at some crazy folks waiting in line outside the doors this morning on his way to work. Good times.

The Weather Curse

Erin Snyder — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:19:43 -0400

Similar to how weather will always be enjoyable during your work week and then nasty on your weekend, it is a known fact that the same will happen when you travel. In other words, you will always leave nice weather in your hometown for less pleasant weather in your destination city, only to have these trends reverse the second you return home.

Here’s the perfect proof:

So basically, us Boston folk that were in SF this week missed a beautiful week of sunny, mid- and hi-70 days at home. Upon our return to Boston, we will be greeted by a wonderfully overcast and cool weekend…. right when SF decides to break out the sunshine and 70s. Such is life.