You Are Not Done Yet: Application Configuration and Interoperability

You are not done testing unless…you have given your application's configurability options a thorough going-over. Applications can be configured via many different avenues: global and per-user configuration files and global and per-user registry settings, for example. Users tend to appreciate being able to customize an application to look and work exactly the ways they want it to look and work; they tend to get grumpy if all those customizations are nowhere to be seen the next time they launch the application. Interoperability with other instances of the application and with other applications fall into this same boat: most users expect a certain level of interoperability between applications, and they often get grumpy if your application does not meet that bar. Window interactions show up here too. Here are a few items to kick off your configuration and interoperability brain storming session:

Configuration

• Verify settings which should modify behavior do


• Verify settings are or are not available for administrators to set via policies, as appropriate


• Verify user-specific settings roam with the user


• Verify registry keys are set correctly, and that no other registry keys are modified


• Verify user-specific configuration settings are not written to machine or global registry settings or configuration files


• Brainstorm how backward compatibility problems might occur because a setting has moved or changed and thus broken functionality in a previous version or changed default values from a previous version

Interoperability

• Verify clipboard cut, copy, and paste operations within your application


• Verify clipboard cut, copy, and paste operations between your and other applications


• Verify drag and drop operations within your application


• Verify drag and drop operations between your and other applications

Window Interactions

• Verify z-order works correctly, especially with respect to Always On Top windows (e.g., online help)


• Verify all modal dialog boxes block access to the rest of the application, and all modeless dialog boxes do not


• Verify window and dialog box focus is correct in all scenarios


• Verify window size is correct after restore-from-minimize and restore-from-maximize


• Verify window size is correct on first launch


• Verify window size is correct on subsequent launches


• Verify window size is maintained after a manual resize


• Verify multiple window (i.e., MDI) scenarios work correctly


• Verify window arrangement commands (e.g., Cascade All) work correctly


• Verify multiple instances of the application work correctly across all scenarios (e.g., that a modal dialog box in one instance of the application does not disable interactivity in another instance)

Posted by The Braidy Tester at 07:30 AM  Permalink