I’m testing the new builds of LiteSpeed and Toad.  I’m not to the point where I’m using my L337 SQL skillz yet because I take a very basic ground-level approach to testing.

I go through an entire program and click on every menu item.

Everywhere that it lets me add something, I add it, and then I go back and edit that something to see if it looks the same as what I added.  Then I delete it.

That’s all.

Sounds simple, but it takes days, and it finds a surprising number of bugs.  You would not believe the number of things that cause a program to crash just by clicking on them.  I’ve done these tests with developers in the same room, and they say things like, “Why on earth would you click there?”  Well, because you put a button there, and somebody’s going to click it.  If it’s not supposed to be clicked, get it off the screen.

In a week or two, I’ll get to the point where I’m testing advanced concepts inside the software, but for now, it’s Click City.

The other benefit of this approach is that you learn just about every piece of the software, every nook and cranny.  In the case of Toad, it’s mind-blowing.  I thought it was just a SQL Server development tool, and I don’t believe in unitaskers, but oh no – this is one serious multitasker.  I can see many Toad-centric howto blog posts in my future.