Justin Hunter, Hexawise Founder's dashboard

Neha,

Good question. Absolutely. This is something that Hexawise does efficiently and effectively.

Using Hexawise, you will be able to create an efficient set of test cases that will answer not only "will component XYZ work?" but also "will component XYZ work with component ABC?" and "will component XYZ work when it is consumed by Product N version 7?" and "will component XYZ work when it is consumed by Product N version 8?"

The video at https://hexawise.com/intro_movie explains how Hexawise does this better than I can explain it here in a few short sentences.

I think the following example might help if I'm understanding your question correctly. If you can make out each of the features listed in the Google Maps get directions functionality, below, they would be equivalent to components from your example.



Different versions of what is consuming your components could be equivalent to the different types of browser types in the Google Maps tests. In just 35 tests, each of the features is being tested for interoperability with not only each browser option included in the plan but also tested for interoperable compatibility with every other feature in the plan.

I hope this answered your question. If I've missed something, please let me know.

Thank you.

- Justin

Thank you for your input.

I couldn't agree more. For a company that prides itself on providing a really good User Interface and intuitive User Experience, the fact that we didn't allow users to change the order of parameters was a bit of an embarrassment.

We implemented this today.

Here's how it works:

Lets say you have a parameter called "Number of speeding tickets"... If you were to hover your mouse over any of those words (or the spaces in between the words) and clicked, you would pull up that parameter and the values you already entered. You could then rename the parameter or edit the values associated with it (0, 1-3, 4-10, etc.). This is how the "edit parameter / edit values" feature has always worked. If however, instead of hovering right over the words, you were to hover your mouse to the left of the words or to the right of the words, a "drag and drop" symbol appears. When the drag and drop symbol appears, click down on the parameter you'd like to move, drag it to the place you'd like it to be, and unclick. Presto. The new order of parameters is now as you want it.

We're constantly looking for new ways to improve our tool. Please keep the suggestions coming. Thanks again.

- Justin

Bob,

Thank you for highlighting this issue. Apologies for the inconvenience. We fixed it this morning. The export feature you had problems with should be working now. Please let me know if you have any other issues. Thank you.

- Justin

PS, to anyone else who comes across this note later who is wondering how to export information from Hexawise... Exporting can be accessed in the Hexawise tool by following these steps:

1. Go to the "Plans" section on the upper right hand side of the screen.
2. Mouse over the plan you would like to export.
3. Mouse over to the area to the right of the test plan name.
4. You will see two icons, one to re-save your plan with a different name, the other to export data from your plan.

Jon,

Thanks for your suggestions!

I like the idea about highlighting invalid pairs more clearly.

My initial reaction was "this is a great suggestion. We'll implement it soon and improve our product. I love hearing suggestions from users who will help us continuously improve Hexawise." I thought it might work well to have: (A) red lines between each of the boxes of the marked invalid pairs, (B) set the "red lines on" as a default, and have (C) the ability for users to toggle between red lines on and red lined off. I approached my UX/UI Lead with these ideas earlier today.

What my UX/UI lead responded with was: (1) if users have a lot of invalid pairs there would be a "messy, confusing spider web" all over the Define Inputs page, (2) if there were a long list of parameters (and most of them slipped onto other screens) then you would have many lines going "off the screen." Therefore, he was opposed to the idea of lines connecting each of the parameter values (and I see his point). We both agreed, though, that lines between the parameter values would be helpful in those cases where there are a sufficiently small number of parameter values that they are all on one screen and there are a "medium" number of invalid pairs (more than a user could keep track of in their head but not so many as would create messy spider webs). We will continue to examine options to address this. I would welcome any ideas you have for getting around the "spider web problem" and "off the screen" problem.

As to the "total possible..." metric, what is actually shown is the total possible number of test cases, not actually the total possible number of pairs. We will try to address this by explaining the coverage chart more clearly. A quick example: if there were a two step test with 5 types of customers and 4 types of actions, we would calculate there to be 5 X 4 = 20 potential test cases. If you had those same first two steps and then added 10 types of products and 5 countries to ship to, we would say that would be 5 X 4 X 10 X 5 = 1,000 potential test cases.

I hope these responses help. Please keep your suggestions coming!

We've added Get Satisfaction links in the Hexawise test design tool throughout the www.hexawise.com site to allow users to provide feedback, suggestions for new features, problem reports, and ask questions. This means that software testers can provide their input and ask questions when they input parameters and values to be tested in their application or SUT, when they identify efficient sub-sets of test cases that generate maximum coverage, when they review their test plans to identify how much coverage they have achieved in their test plan, and/or when they review Hexawise help files to identify lessons learned in model-based testing, pairwise testing, 3-way testing, n-wise testing, or are searching for benefits delivered, etc.

Rob,

Please call the help line at (877) HEXAWISE if you are still having this problem.

Thanks.

Rob,

Sorry to hear about that problem. Please logout and login again.

Thanks.

Thomas,

I just granted you beta access. Thank you for your interest in checking it out. Please let us know how you like it. We'd love to hear from you if you have questions, comments or feedback. Thank you!

- Justin

Andrew,

Thank you for your suggestion.

I can see how it would be useful to have the ability to constrain entire columns (e.g., selections of all the parameter values in a column) all at once. We are trying to balance "cool features" on the one hand against "a confusing number of choices" on the other. I'm not sure where we'll end up on this one. I'll mention this idea, along with other ones we receive, to clients and see how high a priority it is for them.

Thanks again for your idea. Please keep 'em coming. We really do appreciate it.

If anyone is reading this (and we still have not implemented it), please express your views with the "I like this idea!" button.

- Justin

Adam,

Thank you for your suggestion!

We currently do have a "quick fix" for exporting data. You will find it if you hover to the right of the names of the files you have saved in Hexawise (as shown in the picture below). The export feature is the yellow file icon with the green arrow coming from it; the other two options are "save as" and "delete."

At this point, Hexawise only exports "CSV" files (AKA comma separated value files). Once you have a CSV file saved on your computer, you should be able to open it easily in MS Excel as well as the equivalent programs in Open Office Calc, Google Spreadsheets, and/or Apple's Numbers. Depending upon how many of our customers request an Excel-specific export feature, we might make it a higher priority than it currently is.

Please let us know if the CSV export feature works for your needs or if an Excel-specific export feature is a high-priority item for you.

Thanks again for your idea. Please keep your suggestions coming!

- Justin