Well Hello DotNetNuke people!
It has been more than a few months since my last post and a lot has gone on with QA in that time!
When I first started at DotNetNuke the "Engineering" team consisted of 6 or 7 people, counting Shaun Walker, and zero Full Time QA people.
Jennifer Nurse had been interning and doing testing and test automation and she continues, while attending Simon Fraser University, to work part time on our test automation.
I remember my first weeks at DNN like it literally happened last month. An "All Hands Week" in the Bay Area that I almost didn't make thanks to those stingy US Immigration folks! Being indoctrinated into the tools and workings of the company and seeing
developers do
Technical Phone Support.
That's right, if you purchased DotNetNuke Professional back then our support was handled by the developers!
Fast forward to April of 2011 and we have a Feature Team, Maintenance Team in Engineering, we have a complete Support group, Marketing, Administration and each of these areas have at minimum 2 staff whereas in 2009 it was common for 1 person to have 2 or 3 areas of responsibility
The QA Team
We have come a very long way since then and the ride is not over by a long shot!
I was hired as a "Test Lead" and the idea was that I would try to shape the QA process for our future growth.
That lasted about 7 months when it was obvious there was too much work to be done and we need to split the QA work and hire a QA Manager.
Today we have 1 QA Manager, 1 Test Lead, 2 QA Analysts, 1 Contract QA analyst and Jennifer Nurse as a PT Junior QA Developer.
Even adding 3 new Full Time resources we are just able to keep up with the volume of new feature work and maintenance tasks within the company.
We are striving to fully automate our regression tests however, with the breadth and depth of DotNetNuke 6.0 release work, we have had to place on hold all but our BVT updates
DotNetNuke 6.0 Release
With DotNetNuke 6.0 there is literally not 1 spare minute in the day for any one of us to slack off. And by slacking off I mean reading the DotNetNuke Forums, checking out new DotNetNuke web sites, trying out new Software Test or Development tools, etc. It is heads down full steam ahead on DotNetNuke 6.0 testing.
QA Request for DotNetNuke 6.0 Release
DotNetNuke 6.0 is a MAJOR release for DotNetNuke
I cannot emphasis this enough:
DOTNETNUKE 6.0 is a MAJOR release!!
We have moved from VB to C# as the Framework development language
We are delivering a major UI/UX overhaul
We are delivering new features for Module Icons, Page Manager, Folder Providers,
There will be new Templates and a new Mega Menu .
If you have not installed DotNetNuke CTP2 and test driven it why not?
I believe this linked post says it best about how much it means to DotNetNuke users if you do not participate in testing DotNetNuke 6:
http://tinyurl.com/3lut8dq
As stated in the linked post DotNetNuke employees have pleaded, in blogs, on the DotNetNuke forums, on Twitter, and in personal communications with Core Team members, Trustees and Community members, that you download, install and test using a CTP (Community Technology Preview) package.
This has been the first time DotNetNuke has provided this early a preview for an upcoming release.
We need your Feedback and any Bugs you find!!
We are trying to make this as dog simple as possible for feedback all you have to do is log your findings in the Dotnetnuke Alpha and Beta forum:
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Forums/tabid/795/forumid/190/scope/threads/Default.aspx
All you have to do is post the bugs you found or comments about what you liked/s-liked or want enhanced.One our friendly management team will pick up the posted comments/feedback/bug(s) for internal use.
Please, install and test the latest CTP from CodePlex:
http://tinyurl.com/5rc5o3x
Please help DotNetNuke to stay the #1 Open Source CMS running on the Microsoft stack!