Drupal & QA: The Testing Process, Drupal Limitations, and Satisfying Client Expectations

PRESENTATION DETAILED OVERVIEW

This DevOps session will be about specific challenges that were encountered in testing Drupal and how those challenges were overcome to satisfy client requirements and expectations.  These challenges lead me to believe that others involved at the beginning of their Drupal development experience, both Developers and Testers, will probably encounter similar challenges.  

The DevOps session I would like to present is for those starting to develop and test in Drupal about what kind of challenges they may face and suggest paths to their solutions.  Both beginners and probably those with more Drupal experience will be interested to know and curious to see the varieties of bugs and issues encountered in Drupal development and how the issues were settled beyond simple bug fixes.  These bugs and issues in question were not merely Developer errors, but the actual results of what the Drupal software produces.  The session will not focus on Drupal problems, but their solutions.  

Also, we will discuss the concepts of verification and validation.  In other words, “Are we delivering the right system?”, and “Is the system right?”, and what is the role of Quality Assurance in answering these questions.  

Having given several presentations at national academic conferences, I now turn from the academic to the technical field to try to explore questions regarding software testing.  These questions include, for example, “What is a bug?”, “What is the role of QA in satisfying requirements beyond bug hunting?”, and “What do we do to satisfy client expectations when requirements surpass Drupal’s capabilities?”  The aim of these questions is to foster debate and conversation about promoting Drupal not only as a software development tool but also as a means of improved Quality Assurance, that bugs can be found and fixed quickly and that the system clients expect will be delivered.

WHAT WILL THE SESSION ACCOMPLISH:

The aim of the session will be to give to beginning Drupal Developers and QA the mindset to keep an eye on quality throughout the development and testing processes.  

The importance of communication with the client is of paramount importance in resolving issues that Drupal alone cannot.   In these instances, solutions will involve trying to reach common ground with the client to produce satisfactory results.   Both the Drupal Development team and client must know, for the former, what exactly the client wants, and for the latter, what Drupal can produce.  

WHAT WILL THE ATTENDEES WALK AWAY HAVING LEARNED:

The attendees will have learned about system verification and validation, different varieties of software issues found in Drupal projects, and ways to circumvent Drupal deficiencies to meet our client’s expectations.  

The attendees will know the importance of observation: both Developers and QA must observe carefully what is produced and be able to answer 2 questions: 1) does the application function correctly, and 2) is this functionality what the client wants?

Communication – attendees will also walk away having learned the importance of communication on a number of levels throughout the project, from high-level documentation from upper management to specifications for Development and QA.  Testing results must also be communicated back up the chain, to Development and Management and then to the Client for final validation.  Problems will result throughout the Development process, but issues beyond simple bug fixes must be related to the client to reach common ground to satisfy requirements.