My Journey to Certification(a success story)

Thoughts

Every success carries a history behind it. No success is an accident. It always needs a regular disciplined effort and of course a good supporting environment. My Journey to certification goes as below.

Just like any other developer I was also very much afraid of exam pattern, questions and everything that is related to the certification exam. I have also skipped a couple of exam dates in this process. But yes at sometime and somewhere I was accumulating the confidence within myself to go for certification. Mindfire’s work culture has always helped me to tighten my grip on ColdFusion. In fact it allowed me to have knowledge in most of the areas of this technology. The wise decision by Sumit (my that time team lead) to get exam buster to test and get accustomed with the exam was very helpful. I was been continuously inspired by my team members to prepare the best for the exam. In the mean time Rabi (my current team lead) arranged one account in uCertify.com site to prepare more rigorously for the certification. This helped me increasing my confidence to go for certification. This is true that only practical experience in any technology does not help in total to get certified. You have also to go for study of help documents. As because when we work , it covers only some part of the entire technology. So to know and expertise  yourself, you have to go for study of entire documentation of the technology.

Because of the busy project schedules it was not easy to go for study in working hours. So after returning from office around 10 to 11 ‘o’ clock in the night, I was getting little refreshment and was sitting for studying till night 3 ‘o’ clock. In the previous night of my certification exam, almost everyone of my teammates wished me best of luck for the exam, especially Chandra, Smaranika, Preety and Rabi. They all inspired me to give my best in the exam. and get certified. But finally I may say that, though I tried for normal certification in ColdFusion 9 but it’s my god, who made me certified in Advanced ColdFusion. I scored 81% in the certification test. Which in a single go made me certified as an Adobe Certified Expert in ColdFusion and Adobe Certified Expert in Advanced ColdFusion, which is really a matter of pride for me, for my team and for my Company.

Thanks all for your help and support, without which it could have never been a success.

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Experience of Web & Database Testing Workshop

Software, Software Quality, Thoughts, , , , ,

Knowledge as we know is not limited. We cannot say we have gained all the knowledge that we had to . Each day is a learning process, each person we meet we learn something from them, each work we do we learn something and the list is endless. And when it comes to our career , we would always want to have the best of our knowledge be it through learning , through training , etc.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend the 2 day workshop on Web and Database testing. Since the trainer was a senior industry veteran, with almost 20 years of experience, everyone was looking forward to attend and learn something new from the training. It was a 2 days training session with 25 QAs attending. There were many interesting topics covered in this session .

Continue reading Experience of Web & Database Testing Workshop →

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

I am in Mindfire Solutions and I am a Winner

Software, Thoughts, , , , , ,

Winning is a special thing. In every aspect of life winning gives a satisfaction, endless happiness and helps  prepare a path by showing a ladder of success to the next level. And of course , winning moments are the best moments in life. It has been more than a year since I am associated with Mindfire Solutions and I feel like a winner. Because being a part of a winning team makes you feel like a winner and Mindfire Solutions is a winner for 2012. It is not just me and my co-workers saying it, leading management consulting firms and industry leaders say it too.

Continue reading I am in Mindfire Solutions and I am a Winner →

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Mission Certification: Accomplished

Stories, Thoughts, , ,

Since I have cleared two of the Microsoft’s certifications within a month I have been besieged with questions of my colleagues on how to clear the exam. There is phobia that the certification exams are tough and we must prepare rigorously for them. It’s nothing like that. Now I feel happy to share with you the inside of cracking the certifications.
Somebody said in the past that “Work Smart Not Hard!“.This is the trick since we do not get enough time as professionals.

Continue reading Mission Certification: Accomplished →

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
QA Software Testing

Am I a Good Tester??

Thoughts

QA TestingWhen it comes to the profession, everyone wants to be the BEST in their respective areas. A designer strains his mind and tries to produce the best designs ever. An architect thinks big and tries to build the best architecture in the market. A software developer tries to write the best, optimised and standardized code. Even the person who sells paani poori on the road side tries to be the BEST in the business. From where this mentality of being BEST comes from? Why do we think of being the best in whatever we do? The answer is simple. It adds value to our career, knowledge and organization in which we work which in turn draws more business, business in terms of more customers for the paani poori waala, business in terms of more orders for the designer, business in terms of more assignment for the developer and business in terms of more clients for an organization. And all of us know business is directly proportional to money 🙂 :).

Continue reading Am I a Good Tester?? →

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
Why Do You Do Things You Do?

Few things to consider before testing any application

Software Quality, Thoughts, , , , ,

I have a wall-pWhy Do You Do Things You Do?aper on my desktop which says: – “Why Do You Do The Things You Do” which forced me to write something like this which i feel should be considered before testing any application: –

1. Learning: – Analyze your test results thoroughly. Do not confuse yourself with ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ but finding the root reason of ‘fail’ or ‘pass’ will give you an idea for the solution of the problem. Testers knowledge increases by sending solutions for the problem

2. 100% of anything is not possible so having 100% test coverage is not possible but we can try to touch 99% of perfection.

Continue reading Few things to consider before testing any application →

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
Netscape Vs Internet Explorer

The Browser Wars 1993-2004 – Part 1

Internet, Software, Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Netscape Vs Internet ExplorerThe First Browsers

Browsers began to be taken seriously around 1993 . The first were the Unix browsers such as Line Mode Browser, ViolaWWW, Erwise and MidasWWW, and MacWWW/Samba for the Mac. In a short span there were more like Cello,Arena,Lynx,tkWWW and Mosaic. The most popular was Mosaic. It was designed by National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) to run on multiplatforms.

Marc Andreessen, a founding developer of Mosaic, started his own Mosaic Communications Corporation and his first product was Mosaic Netscape. The company was renamed Netscape Communications Corporation and the browser Netscape Navigator. The Netscape browser was much better interfaced and reliable than other browsers of that time but the best thing was it was free.

Corporates soon recognized this as a new market and many more IT companies jumped in like Browse, IBM’s Navipress, SlipKnot, Web Explorer, UdiWWW, Omni Web, Web Rouser, Mac Web . And then one day Bill Gates took notice of Netscape and soon Microsoft introduced it’s own Internet Explorer 1.0.

 The Browser Wars

By 1995 Netscape Navigator in only about a year was more than 80 % of the web browser market. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 1.0 with licenses from NCSA’s Mosaic on its Windows 95 Plus! Pack in August. Some time later Netscape was free only for educational institutes and non profit organizations while Internet Explorer 2.0 was released as a free download. Everybody realized how competitive the new market had become and started to provide free installation with new updates appearing regularly at a rapid pace

On October 1997, when Internet Explorer 4.0 was to be released, Microsoft had a 10 feet “e” logo put on the lawns of Netscape office with a sign “From the IE team … We Love You”. Netscape responded by knocking it down and setting their Mozilla dinosaur mascot on top of it , with a sign reading “Netscape 72, Microsoft 18” representing the market distribution.

Internet Explorer 4 was a turning point. It was introduced as a part of Windows to exploit the already dominant personal computer market of Microsoft. IE 4 was free and already there with Windows and thus no need for users to get another browser.

The U.S. Government soon took notice of this and was concerned because Microsoft had already had some trouble over monopoly rules in the past. Microsoft defense was that Internet Explorer was not a separate product but an upgrading feature for Windows, although the IE was part of the Plus! Pack which was sold separately from Windows 95. Microsoft in its reports said that the government, under influence from its competitors, was trying to constrain the Windows business.

The Trial – Part 1

 

On May 18, 1998 the U.S. Justice Department and the Attorneys General of twenty U.S. states sued Microsoft for illegally obstructing competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly and for violating a 1994 consent decree by forcing computer makers to include its Internet browser as a part of the installation of Windows software.

Bill Gates himself was brought to trial. But his attitude was reported to be “evasive and non-responsive” and saying ‘I don’t recall’ so many times that the judges got irritated. Intel Vice-President Steven McGeady, called as a witness, quoted Paul Maritz the senior Microsoft Vice-President as to “extinguish” and “smother” rival Netscape Communications Corporation and to “cut off Netscape’s air supply” by providing Netscape Navigator’s clone for free.

To prove that IE 4 was an upgrading feature of Windows, Microsoft provided videotapes that demonstrated that removing IE 4 from Windows caused slowdowns and malfunctions. Interestingly Microsoft Vice-President James Allchin had stated the video to be a seamless segment filmed on one PC, but the prosecutors found some icons mysteriously disappear and reappear on the PC’s desktop, and thus claimed it to be a fake. Allchin confessed and blamed his staff, “They ended up filming it – grabbing the wrong screen shot,” he said. Microsoft had to drop the the claim that removing IE slowed Windows and got irritated by the lawyers’ “nitpicking on issues like video production”. Microsoft submitted a second videotape to demonstrate how easy it was for America Online users to download and install Netscape Navigator onto a Windows PC. Microsoft’s video showed the process as being quick and easy with the Netscape icon appearing on the user’s desktop. The government produced its own videotape of the same process, revealing that Microsoft’s videotape had conveniently removed a long and complex part of the procedure and that the Netscape icon was not placed on the desktop, requiring a user to search for it. Brad Chase, a Microsoft Vice-President, verified the government’s tape and conceded that Microsoft’s own tape was falsified.

Continued in the next part

Author- Soumendra Barik

Spread the love
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •