Test Automation with Selenium IDE

We just added for your references two videos on Test Automation with Selenium IDE. Yana, our staff instructor talks about advantages of test automation, installation of Selenium and related issues, creating your first automated test case. Enjoy!!!

Is it possible to combine morning and night classes?

That question comes sometimes when prospective students have scheduling issues.

Here is the best answer I am able to come with. We have multiple resources, which we can combine to cover gaps, recover for a missed session, and customize the individual schedule:
- Day-time classes (10am-3pm)
- Night time classes (7pm-11pm)
- Instructor-facilitated online classes (6pm-7pm)
- Self-paced online classes
- Webinars and video recordings of the classes
- 3-4 schedules for QA projects

We are more than willing to do all the accommodations possible to make it more convenient to students to study. There is one thing though the students should consider seriously - any deviation from the set schedule will require more commitment on their site to have things done.

Portnov Web Site redesigned

We have brand new design for Portnov Computer School web site in place now. I hope it is more user friendly. One of the important features of the site is easy to understand outline of our programs and classes.

We are working on removal of the technical inconsistencies related to changing the hosting provider. Spanish and Russian versions are coming next month.

Please report any technical issues you might encounter so we can fix them ASAP.

One more time about bug reporting

We are using surveys for collecting and analyzing the answers to the Software QA questions, which we want students to answer during the class. The results of the survey help instructors to decide which issues should given more attention in the class.

Here is the video taken in our online class where we discuss what the survey reveals. The subject of the survey is "Bug Reporting and Bug Tracking".

2 online QA programs are running now

It just happened that way - we do not want to enroll more than 15 students in one instructor facilitated QA Training program. The one we started on August 10 was overcrowded, which resulted in another class being scheduled for August 25.

One of the lessons learned so far is that since we have online QA students from all over the world we have to offer two schedules for two major geographic areas such as Americas (mostly US) and Europe. Because of the US-centered schedule we have right now our students in Ukraine, Finland, and Israel have to go to the virtual classroom at 3-4 am local time. Honestly, we did not expect our course to be that much popular outside of the US.

Our focus in online course development is given right now to developing quizzes and making online sessions more interactive. The home work is now given before the session, not after. We ask online students to watch videos and webinars, to read the textbook before the class. Then, when we meet, we discuss what we learned rather then simply listening to the instruction.

I hope that after finishing the August 25 batch the course development will become mostly finalized with minor modifications to be made from time to time.

Software QA Online program becomes popular

We started new online program on August 10, 2011. But the demand was really more than we expected. So far we have set the limit for maximum number of students in the virtual classroom to no more than 15.

Because of that there will be another online class offered in 2 weeks and we already have 5 students enrolled.

Right now our major focus in improving the course is given to feedback, home work, and quizzes. We are working on taking the most from technology in managing the learning curve and controlling the progress.

The web site for the online classes is practically completed but we are working on complete redesign of the www.portnov.com now

At some point we would probably need to synchronize both web sites eliminating ambiguities and contradictions which are likely to be present.

Online QA Testing Training Course gets new web site

Yes, www.portnov.net web site is Up and Running with all the web pages in place. Small corrections will be done as we find problems down the road.

All the suggestions and bugs reported will be given serious consideration.

The next project is redesign of our major web site - www.portnov.com

Next online program starts on August 10, 2011

We just finished the first run of the online career change program. One student out of that class obtained employment in Software QA 2 weeks before graduation. There were 10 students in that group: 2 from LA, another 2 from Chicago, Sacramento, upstate New York, one from Israel, one from Russia, and 2 from Ukraine.

Out of 6 US-based students one is working, 2 joined the job market last week, one just gotten his resume done yesterday. And one decided to come to our campus and continue his study here with an internship provided by the school. He wants his family to relocate to the Silicon Valley, which is booming now.

I will keep you posted on the developments.

The next online class will start on August 10, 2011. Here is the web site for our online operations. It is being populated with the content as we speak. I hope it will be more or less completed within a week or two.

The School is now approved by the State of California

We have been in operation since August of 1994. All that time we were in compliance with existing regulations, which change some times.

Because of such a change we had to go through the whole cycle of getting approved under new rules and it took us just about one year of developing rules and procedures, creating new Catalog and new Enrollment Agreement.

The new Catalog will be posted on the School web site soon.

And, by the way - we are back from the vacation. Two new groups will be starting this month.

Clear way to recover missed sessions

We were asked a few times by students who cannot attend a session or two if there is a way for them to recover missed sessions. Before we suggested to join other groups - we have 2-3-4 at a time at different stages of the program.

With introduction of online program we started to video tape life sessions and yes, they are available not for simply recovering the missed sessions, but also for repeating the things learned from the convenience of student's home or office. The videos are placed on Youtube. They are not available to the general public, but we are providing students with an access.

Some issues covered in the online class are delivered in a much more concise format than it happens in the physical classroom where the session takes 4 hours. The recordings taken in the online program are very helpful if our on-campus students want to refresh certain subjects fast.

WIA approved school - what does that mean to you?

WIA abbreviation stands for Workforce Investment Act (US Federal Law passed in 1998). You can get all the legal data on the Act at US Department of labor web site

The essence of the Act is explained in a simple language on Wikipedia - I like the way it talks about different aspects of the Act.

What it means to those interested in taking our classes is very simple - there are government funds to pay for your training. The funds are being distributed locally, at the county level. Most of our WIA students are coming through NOVA - Santa Clara County organization, which is distributing funds in that county. PeninsulaWorks is taking care of that program within San Mateo County. We are getting sometimes students from San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties as well.

The eligibility rules exist. And they are not very easy to understand for the general public. If you are out of work then there is a chance you might be eligible. In that case I would suggest that you contact the School and we will suggest you which steps to take to find out if that program might benefit you.

We at the School are not able to determine your eligibility, but we will explain the steps needed to find out what your options are.

Portnov Computer School on Youtube

We have several channels on youtube including Spanish and Russian language channels. Originally the purpose for having the youtube presence was to give prospective students an idea of what our trainings are about. We video taped sessions in Portnov School classrooms - real teachers, real students, real study environment.

It saved us a lot of time talking to the wrong prospects who might like the idea of learning Software QA, but who would not feel comfortable with the school itself.

Over time the vision changed. We are creating a library of videos, which might benefit current and former students as an educational tool, learning materials to review again and again any time they might be needed. I think the most important once are the videos related to the job search activities.

Down below is the link to first (out of 7) part of the class on Test Documentation delivered by Iana Mourza

Bug Reporting and Bug Tracking - Software testing Tutorial

I delivered an online class session on Bug Tracking and Bug Reporting in Software testing business. We video tape the sessions and some of the videos I am making public on Youtube. Both issues were covered in one session, but with the time saving in mind I created 2 separate videos. Enjoy:

Software Testing Interview Questions

Software Testing Interview Questions, by Shivprasad Koirala is a book I purchased on Amazon.

Here is the review I wrote for Amazon on that piece of an exemplary crap:

1. I was first amazed by that book from the very "About the author" section, where the author is characterized as having literally:
- good experience in software industry
- in a big multinational company

No company name, no country - nothing. I've seen that kind of fact hiding in resumes where folks are playing games trying to get a phone call or an interview, which they would not supposedly get without hiding the material facts.

2. From the very first page you suddenly realize, that the author has no idea what he is talking about. He starts with a company structure, which I have never experienced myself working as QA person in Silicon Valley since 1992. And that would be fine, obviously, but he claims: that is how most of the companies work.

3. Than it comes to the resume structure discussion, which is below any criticism. It is a shame to send out a resume like that.

4. The text is not written in conventional Technical English reader can expect from a book purchased on Amazon. Not to mention things like writing "Microsoft word" with lower case "word". Or "covering letter" as another example.

So, after some time spent (wasted) I came to the conclusion that the author never worked in US and it is not an accident he avoids disclosing where he worked. Well, I looked at the LinkedIn and no wonder - the gentleman lives in India and he never worked in QA role for a small nor big, local nor international company.

I personally consider that kind of "publishing" a fraud.

Graphic User Interface (GUI) Testing

I never did a thorough research on what other folks are saying on the matter if anything. But we have been teaching the subject from the day one of Portnov Computer School.

Here is the online training class video captured life and edited by me to eliminate things, which are not of much interest to the people outside of that specific class.

Online Software QA Testing Training & Placement

We started the pilot program on May 9, 2011. The goal is to bring all the participants to the employment in Software QA/Testing field no matter where they live. That is why the course includes:
- 20 instructor facilitated session on Software Testing
- 10 instructor facilitated real-life application testing sessions
- 10 self-paced online classes such as JavaScript, SQL, Selenium, XML, UNIX, Shell, Perl, Mobile Applications Testing
- resume preparation
- job search and interviewing techniques
- individualized job market coaching

We will record the sessions and make some of them available to the public. Here is the very first one, introductory session:

Lets talk about the school on Yahoo Answers

Here is the question asked Is Portnov Computer School for real? I think it is. I also think it is difficult to believe anything like that could be real. To good to be true?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have proposal for you. Actually, two proposals:
- follow the link and share what you think about the school
- lets do many more things, which look too good to be true to the outsiders. Let me make that statement even stronger: lets ONLY do THE THINGS, which are too good to be true, which people should be seeing to be believing.

Portnov Computer School Guarantee

Many prospective students ask us if the Portnov Computer School would guarantee job placement or multiple internships. I decided to write down what we really want and are able to guarantee to our students and graduates.

So, here it comes, the

PORTNOV COMPUTER SCHOOL 12-Points GUARANTEE

1. WE GUARANTEE our commitment to YOUR PERSONAL career change/employment in the field of study
• We measure our success in career change of our students. Your success is our success. Your failure is our failure.
• The only way to fail is to quit. We never give up on anybody.

2. WE GUARANTEE honest and fair dealing with you
• There is no hidden agenda
• No preferential treatment given to any student or group of students
• All the discounts available will be offered to you without asking
• We do our best to accommodate your needs, implement the suggestions, listen to concerns

3. WE GUARANTEE each student in good standing (academically and financially) gets an internship (paid or unpaid) in the occupation of training with a local SF Bay Area company.
• The internship is a crucial element in building your future marketability. For many students an internship company becomes a long-term employer.
• Guarantying a job after completion of the training is illegal, so we cannot promise that

4. WE GUARANTEE Students are allowed to audit/repeat classes taken before at no charge on availability basis
• If you paid for the class once you may audit that same class unlimited number of times
• If the class you took in the past has been discontinued we will replace that with another one

5. WE GUARANTEE School develops and updates professional resumes at no extra charge – lifetime
• We believe that at some point in your career you will be able to make a strong professional resume. Until then we will update your resume at no charge as long as you need help.

6. WE GUARANTEE real life projects are included into the curriculum
• As a part of our curriculum students participate in testing applications given to us by companies interested in extending their QA team
• Experience gained doing the projects will increase marketability of a graduate

7. WE GUARANTEE that our instructors are industry professionals with high level of expertise
• We chose instructors carefully making sure they deliver high quality training
• All the instructors have many years of industry experience
• All the instructors are providing individualized approach to teaching

8. WE GUARANTEE access to all the training materials, resources, software, lab time
• The school provides each and every student with books, downloads, training materials
• Lab time is available to those interested in practicing on the campus

9. WE GUARANTEE that the School will continue to operate under the guidelines established and enforced by the State of California Bureau for Postsecondary and Vocational Education
• The school is approved by California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education under license number (coming soon, the application is pending)
• The rules of operation for an approved school assure high standard of education and business conduct

10. WE GUARANTEE Flexibility in recovering for missed classes, switching day-night classes
• We will accommodate your individual schedule to your personal needs including gaps, drop outs, breaks caused by whatever reason

11. WE GUARANTEE easy communication with the school counselors, teachers, and administration
• Our staff and teachers are available 40 hours a week to discuss all the needs and requests you might have
• They are available also electronically via email, Skype, School Forum, other media

12. WE GUARANTEE we provide the best of Interview and Job Search preparation
• Mock Interviews are developing the interviewing techniques
• We share with you insider knowledge of how Job Search sites operate so you achieve the highest resume positioning

Software QA Internships at Portnov Computer School

April 2011 is just about to end. Today we looked at the statistics of Internship Placement. The numbers are pretty good: in the year 2011 (first four months) we placed 86 graduates as interns. Considering that the school has around 250 students a year the number is just right.

One comment I should make based on what we are experiencing some times: if it takes an approval of your spouse to accept an internship, please, get that approval before you go to an interview, not after.

Many managers would consider that situation (not excited, not immediately accepting) as having lack of interest and they will turn to people who express their enthusiasm about the offer.

What it takes to get the first job in Software QA

Mr. Roman Savinkov who works as QA Architect for PayPal in his book (published in 2008) says literally the following:

Here is my position: for your first job in testing you must:
- Know how to use email and a Web browser
- Be familiar with black box testing techniques (Boundary Values, etc.)
- Be familiar with the main concepts of test cases, SDLC, and bug tracking

I was told many times that requirements are growing and to start your career in Software QA you have to know much more than what we teach in Portnov Computer School. Well, obviously there is more than one opinion on the matter.

Lots of news in April

Since April 1 Sofia has placed 14 graduates as QA interns, which is very good. We have now more requests for interns than we have resumes available. The process is a bit slower now compare to a month ago because we implemented mandatory mock interviews and internship clearance interview to make sure the prospective interns are able to talk about the study projects they did in the school, what they tested and how exactly they tested the software.

In April we are launching first two groups with new course and fee structure. More value comes at a higher cost, but so far the enrollment is at the same level as before.

We are processing the the Student Feedback forms, which we collected 2 weeks ago. Lots of changes are coming as a response to your requests.
- the campus is now tobacco free zone with smoking prohibited within the training session time frame
- we are adding more focus and more hours to Technology curriculum in SQA Express class
- students will know in advance the issues covered in all the sessions
- we created Downloads page with all the tools used in the school, so you cab install them on your laptops BEFORE the class, not during the class
- we are working on writing down all the essential procedures so students have better idea of how the program works, what are the internship requirements and prerequisites, expectations, quizzes and so on.

How to become QA tester?

That question was asked by someone at Yahoo!Answers and I realized that my participation is really needed. So, down below is my answer:

I have been in Software QA profession since 1992. And I have been in the QA career change business since 1994. From my experience there are many venues to explore and which venue will really work for you (if any) depends on you education, professional background, user experience, and commitment to the change.

1. Read the book on Software QA ("Testing Computer Software" is my favorite), get beta-testing experience, put it to your resume and go to the job market (how to look for a job is another discussion). It costs you nothing, but not many people can implement that approach.

2. Hire a Mentor who will meet you 1-2 times a week for couple of hours and who will do a nice project with you. Again, put in your resume and go to the job market. It is cheap, customized, and might work just fine if you are OK doing most of the study on your own under Mentor's guidance.

3. Go for a QA Program offered by either City Colleges or private schools (search Google for "software QA Training" to find them). In the ideal world the program includes QA internship with a software development company, which might actually become you first employment in the field.

We are getting the feedback

Last week we asked over 60 students to answer 4 questions about how they came to the school and what they would change to make it better. We are still processing the responses but the list of things to be done on our side is growing and the School Administration is very grateful for the level of consideration given to our questions by the Portnov Computer School students.

The most common complain is about slow Internet connection. It will be resolved within 4-6 weeks time frame according to the promise given to us by Comcast representative. So far we are using 4 AT&T lines, but they are still not fast enough to satisfy our needs. SQA Express students suggest they would like to have more time dedicated to HTML, JavaScript and SQL. We are redesigning the curriculum to do that. Several more sessions will be added to the program without increase of tuition.

We are considering complete prohibition of smoking at breaks since we cannot control the smell brought to the classroom by smokers. I will share in that blog other common suggestions and how we are planning to implement them.

Job Search Videos from Portnov Computer School

We have a few job search related videos posted at Youtube and more videos are coming soon. There is a need of making that information easily available. That is why I am creating that post with all the relevant links in one place.

We have a dedicated Youtube channel on Job Interview Tips. As of today it contains three videos with answers to the common interview questions such as:

Why should we hire you?

Tell me about yourself?

What are your weaknesses?

Watch all three videos at once before each and very interview. It sets your mind properly, so, you look like an ideal candidate.

There are also videos you might use on the Portnov Computer School channel:

50 Job Interview Mistakes (Part 1)

50 Job Interview Mistakes (Part 2)

Job Interview Principles

Job Interview - Rules of Sale

Components of success - Job Interview

Enjoy!!!

Online classes at Portnov Computer School - update

We now have the following online classes:

- HTML

- SQL

- Mobile Applications Testing

- UNIX commands

- UNIX Shell Scripting

- Perl

So far, all the classes are available to the current and past students at no charge. Please, contact the school via email to get the enrollment key.

The pilot online QA Program is scheduled for May 9, 2011. The investment (tuition) is $500. The program will include QA Training & QA Project facilitated by our instructors, resume preparation, job placement assistance, self-paced technical classes mentioned above and a few more to come soon.

One more update - we have protected the DATA folder on the Portnov Computer School web site with a password. Again, please send us an email to get access.

Strong demand for QA

Here is an email forwarded to my attention by one of the graduates working in Sacramento area. It is coming from a recruiter sending a bulk mail to the people he worked with before. Just one more evidence of the QA job market doing really well:

Hello out there in BA/QA Land!

If you are receiving this (ideally not more than once), it is because you and I have corresponded in the past regarding Agile software environments in the Sacramento area. Although I am normally loathe to do anything in a mass email format, the market locally has just absolutely exploded with openings and time is a factor in filling them. So I am reaching out to my contacts on mass in the hopes that someone either is available for a position in an Agile environment, or that (more likely) some of you know others that have experience in Agile environments who are either Under-Paid, Under-Appreciated, and/or Under-Employed who may want to hear more about what is immediately open locally as well as coming available soon.

As of right now we have 2 Quality Assurance positions available also with Agile environments. Generally speaking, they are hoping for individuals with QTP Automated experience, but they are also willing to look at candidates with just strong overall Quality Assurance background in manual and automated testing overall, ideally for Agile organizations. Again, if you know anyone who might benefit from hearing about an open position like this locally, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Several more QA and BA positions are in the pipes and should be arriving the next several months, so if you /someone you know is not ready to make a move just yet, this looks like it is going to be an extraordinarily strong year for hiring locally in Sacramento, so please feel free to touch base with me in advance, I will maintain an understanding that you are not looking for work presently if that is the case, so no pressure.

Other than that, I genuinely appreciate your time and I sincerely hope I am not troubling anyone with this email format, as it is not generally how I do things.

Portnov Computer School Testimonials

We have over 100 testimonials posted by the graduates of Portnov Computer School on the School's forum. There are many others scattered all over the Internet. And I keep lots of those in my mail box.

So, I decided to bring all the Portnov Computer School testimonials and reviews in one place. here is the link - http://qa-career-change.blogspot.com/ The title of that new blog is "Moving to Software QA - Portnov Computer School Testimonials and Reviews". The testimonials in that new resource will be in English only. I will create one more blog for testimonials and reviews in Russian since we have solid enrollment of newcomers from the countries of former Soviet Union.

If you have your own testimonials you want to share with others, please, make your choice. The forum is a good place - http://portnov.com/forum/ and the new blog is also the very right one.

Portnov Computer School Press Releases

At Portnov Computer School we never did press releases before. We have just started 2-3 weeks ago with Cara joining our team from South Africa. She creates the wording of press releases and I develop the conceptual model for each.

There are many paid and free web sites where we can post press releases for sitting there and for being distributed to other web resources.

The reason I wanted to have press releases is very simple. When search Google for "Portnov Computer School" most of the search results are coming from garbage web sites, which use public information about businesses for creating their "records". Because of that out of first 20 search results 15 belong to nonsense web sites providing no value to users.

Published press releases have relatively high search results positioning. So far we have three:
- about Portnov Computer School moving to Los Altos
- availability of online "Testing Mobile Applications" class
- Portnov Computer School going online

If you search for the same "Portnov Computer School" string now the search results are going to be very different. Try it now.

Teacher evaluation form

We normally talk to students a lot about all the issues they face at all stages of the Career Change process. At the same time I feel the need for a private anonymous communication channel where students would express their concerns more openly.

So, we have an online form now for evaluation of teachers and classes. I think it could be used as well for all other issues.

The link to the form is located on the Data Page at the very bottom of it. Welcome!!!

Enforcing the housekeeping rules

At the previous location the only real challenge to us was dealing with lack of parking. We never ever had any problem with restrooms, for example.

Now we are situated in much nicer building with professional management company taking care of the things and neighbors expecting much higher level of building maintenance to be maintained.

Neighbors are complaining some times that restrooms are not as clean now as they were before we moved in. We are doing our best for being good neighbors. So, ladies and gentlemen, please make sure the restroom looks as nice when you leave as it was when you entered.

Besides that we are enforcing the NO FOOD, NO DRINKS policy outside the kitchen. The new campus will stay nice and professional for as long we maintain it that way. We do not want any food nor drinks on computers, carpets, linoleum, etc.

We are going online, and more news

I hope that at the end of year 2011 we will offer about 20 online classes. As of today our web site gets over 30,000 unique visitors a month. Most of them are out of the local area and we offer them literally nothing. That will change and is is actually changing as we speak.

We recently made available the "Testing Mobile Applications" class online. Current and previous students can enroll at no charge - call the school and ask how if you are interested.

3 separate online classes will cover the the UNIX portion of our curriculum:

- UNIX commands

- Perl for Software Testing

- Shell Scripting for software testing

Firs two of the three are available and the third one will come next week.

Another news - Cara Kagan joined our team from Capetown, South Africa as a Marketing Intern. Cara will stay with Portnov Computer School team for a year. She just published her first Press Release on the School moving to our new campus in Los Altos.

Effective March 1, 2011 we will remove the deep discount currently attached to the QA Express program. It will cost $3,000 not $2,000. So, If you are interested in that specific program, please, make sure you enroll into the February schedule - we are planning to have 2 available.

And the last announcement for today - our day-time classes are now limited to no more than 15 students at a time including full-timers. As a result we expect better quality of the training and more schedules being offered such as Weekend-Only program and 3pm-7pm schedule. Evening classes will be limited to no more than 20 students.