Monthly Archives: March 2013

Tracking and auditing donations made to government and non-governmental organisations

Posted in Ideas, Musings by
There are instances where authorities misuse donations or public funds. For example, when some one donates furniture to government schools and if it is not properly publicised, and the school also receives government funds, the school authorities can obtain fake bills and show that the furniture were purchased from the government fund and loot the money sanctioned by the government. Donor will be under the impression that his money was used for a certain purpose and the government will be under the impression that government funds were for the same purpose.
 
One way to make donations transparent would be to create and maintain a public repository where all the donations made to government and non-governmental organisations and how it was used are reported and maintained, and can be under the watch of the government auditors.
This will not only reduce the leakage of funds but also improve trust and confidence among donors and encourage more donations.
 
 
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Submitted this idea for a better a future, as part of the Leaders of Tomorrow contest conducted by ISB, where I went on to receive the Best Profile award.

Making higher education accessible to the underprivileged members of the society

Posted in Ideas, Musings by
India is capable of becoming a knowledge super-power. Why not help the under privileged too be a part of this? There are quotas and reservations, but still there are people who cannot afford the cost of education.
 
What can be done in addition to the reservations? Though the law prohibits educational institutions from taking capitation fee from students, most colleges do collect capitation fees and donations, which are kept unaccounted and in turn becomes black money. When the government is unable to curb this, why not pass a bill, legalize it and make it taxable. Some might argue, why sell education. Even otherwise, it is sold, illegally! Rather than letting go off tax revenue, why not proactively account those.
In return to taking capitation fees, the bill should mandate educational institutions to admit 5-10% of students without charging them in any form and for any purpose, through a single window system facilitated by the government.
Such an amendment will not only benefit the underprivileged to get quality education, but also the government in terms of tax revenue.
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Submitted this idea for a better a future, as part of the Leaders of Tomorrow contest conducted by ISB, where I went on to receive the Best Profile award.
 

Creating a better nation with well informed citizens

Posted in Ideas, Musings by
How to do this on a large scale? One way is by extending the scope of RTI act, so as to include mass media, which has an important role in nation building, such that, 25-30% of the first page of all regional and nationwide news papers, 20-30 secs of air-time of all regional and nationwide TV/Radio channels during prime time be handed over to the government for free usage or for an yearly fees based on the newspaper’s/channels’ readership.

This space/air-time, which can be shared between the state and central government proportionately on daily or weekly basis, can be used to impart moral education, educate people on social issues and create awareness on legal matters and government policies. The government can use this to proactively disclose information on issues of larger public interest, which in some cases can reduce the number of RTI applications and also avoid harassment of RTI applicants.

Also, this space/air-time can be used to sensitise people on various frauds/scams and the modus operandi of scamsters. Preventing people from getting cheated will spare a lot of liquid cash which can be a growth booster rather than that money getting converted as black money.

Moreover, the government and politicians, most times spend lavishly to inaugurate new schemes or infrastructure facilities. Availability of such newspaper space or air-time can also be used to declare open any new schemes/infrastructures, which in turn will save money for the government, prevent chaos and traffic jams and save time for a lot of people including the government.

The newspaper space can sometimes be used to publish large scale tenders, which to some extent can prevent corruption in allotting tenders.

Publications of all such kind will create better informed and educated citizens and over the long run will pave way for a peaceful and better society.
 
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Submitted this idea for a better a future, as part of the Leaders of Tomorrow contest conducted by ISB, where I went on to receive the Best Profile award.

Test Automation :: the Hype and the Illusion

Posted in Testing by
When someone asks me what do I do? I say I am a software tester and the next question they put forward is Manual or Automation? When I say manual, they most times look down at me and start advocating to learn test automation. The actual reason being, test automation has been hyped so much that it is something akin to Artificial Intelligence or like a Virtual Tester and testers who don’t have the habit of questioning the logic are made to believe so. Here is a blog Purpose (Dis)Solved by Dhanasekar, where he makes an analogy between locks and testing and how test automation is hyped to attract clients.
 
At Moolya, while I got to know more about testing, I had a small confusion. What is check automation? Moolya’s approach to testing is context driven, exploratory, mission focused,  risk based, check automation and a few more heuristic based approaches. I know what these terms mean but never heard the term ‘check automation’ before. Approached Ms.Parimala, Master Shifu at Moolya, to clarify what is check automation? She referred me this blog on Testing vs. Checking by Michael Bolton, to explore. That perfectly answered my question. 
Testing is a sapient process and best results can be achieved only when it is done by humans. All that is automated are not tests but mere checks.
Here is also an excerpt from Jonathan Kohl’s interview to DZone and his thought that test automation shouldn’t be a goal; test automation helps you achieve goals.
“Think of all the things people can do well that machines can’t do well. Machines can’t feel, they can’t have a hunch, they can’t be suspicious, they can’t investigate, and they can’t change their minds due to better information. I don’t see automated testing throwing manual testing aside.”
 
To all those who believe test automation is a sure way to do better testing, and still have an illusion that automation is a superior class, which always improves productivity, please watch this video, which also explains why automation is not a sapient work.
 

Happy Testing!