Useful definition

Client or Customer

A company that has engaged Applause and the uTest Community to test their product.

TTL

The Test Team Lead (TTL) is the primary point of contact for testers. The TTL helps testers within test cycles and reviews all submitted bug reports and test cases, etc.

TE

The Test Engineer (TE) builds the test cycle, assembles the testing team and is responsible for the overall execution of the test cycle. Also, the TE is responsible for marshalling the test team through completion of the test cycle achieving the goals of the request.

TSM

Test Architect (TA) title has been replaced by Testing Services Manager (TSM). The TSM works directly with the client. They manage a team of TTLs and TEs to identify and provide appropriate solutions for the client’s testing, feedback or research needs.

SDM

The Solution Delivery Manager (SDM) is the customer’s primary point of contact, and works with the customer directly.

CM

The Community Manager (CM) are members of the Community Management Team. The Community Management Team's goal is to help our global community to learn how to be excellent testers, to get opportunities for paid projects, and to connect with fellow testers across the community and the globe. Meet the uTest Community Management team from here.

CE

Community Engineers are members who work closely with the CM team and help with their tasks and responsibility.

DT

The Dedicated Testers’ function is to provide the team with speed, specialized expertise, and quality control. This role differs from the traditional role of our community testers and they are supposed to have a singular focus and dive deep. These testers should be seen as experts by their community peers and help support the TTL in chat management as an expert. Testers who have a strong history of quality work are more likely to be approached by a TSM/TE to ask about becoming a DT.

ACE

Accessibility Expert leads numerous audits simultaneously, mentors other members of the team and presents final audit results to clients.

ACA

Accessibility Auditor participates in audits by reporting accessibility bugs and completing test cases. They may still require some direction and assistance from other members of the team when testing and writing bug reports.

TCW

Test Case Writer responsible for writing test cases and ensuring each test case has detailed, clear and easy to follow steps and expected results as well as verifying that the documentation and test cases provided by the customer are valid and can be used and making any necessary adjustments.

Project Or Test Cycle

One specific test of a company's product. Each individual test cycle includes numerous testers and can vary greatly from other test cycles depending on the cycle setting, type, etc. In the test cycle, testers must carefully follow the instructions in the test cycle's overview to find bugs on the in scope product, execute test cases, submit reviews, or conduct usability studies, if available.

Test Case

A Test Case is a set of predefined steps that must be followed and executed by a tester in order to test specific features and functionalities of a product, such as exercising a particular program path or verifying compliance with a specific requirement.

Slot

A slot is a reserved position within a test cycle for a tester with specific requirements such as location, device, OS, etc. A slot may or may not be linked to test cases, if a slot is not linked to a test case it is referred to as an Exploratory slot which means a tester can freely test the product and report bugs that are found and are within the in scope areas.

Issue/Bug report

Is a written summary of a specific error or defect (bug) in a product's features or functionality. A bug report should contain all the required information to understand, reproduce, and fix the bug.

Fn

Functional Testing the features/functionality of a product with the intent of locating issues.

Ln

Localization Verify the quality of a product in terms of a particular target culture/locale.

Ux

Usability Measures how easy to use and user-friendly a product is by testing it with real users.

Security Testing

A process intended to reveal flaws in the security mechanisms of a product.

Automation Testing

Using an automation testing tool to execute repetitive testing steps, which may be difficult to perform manually.

PT / PI Payment Testing / Payment Instruments

At its core, Payment Testing is any test that requires the use of a payment instrument to complete.

AC

Accessibility Ensures that a product is usable by people with disabilities like hearing, color blindness, old age, and other disadvantaged groups.

API Testing

Validates Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The purpose of API Testing is to check the functionality, reliability, performance, and security of the programming interfaces.

Voice testing

Testing voice-enabled products with native speakers. It combines functional testing, dialogue verification, usability testing, and payment testing to help companies deliver voice experiences that foster ongoing customer engagement and satisfaction.

Bug Hunt Testing

This is a robust exploratory test. The goal of this kind of testing is to only find out a specific bug or a specific bug on a specific device or specific type of bug that occurs within the testing scope. Testers invited to this cycle should carefully read and understand the overview and the requirements and they must avoid reporting issues that are not in scope.

On-site testing

Visiting a physical location to evaluate the quality of the service and collect feedback.

Live Testing

ET

Exploratory Testing Exploratory Testing is a simultaneous activity of learning, test design, and test execution. In other words, the tester is designing their tests and executing them at the same time. As an exploratory tester, your next action (the next test) is influenced by your previous actions, your observations of the product’s behavior, and your own thought process. The key aspect of Exploratory Testing is not the test technique being used or the product being tested, but the skills and experience of individual testers.

SRS

Special Requirement Survey Is a tool that is widely used by Testing Services and Community Management to recruit testers for test cycles where data points are needed that the platform doesn’t capture yet.

KI

Known Issue Known Issues are the issues that are already been found in previous Test Cycles or the issues that the customer already knows about. Known issues are helpful to prevent duplicate submissions, and in order to avoid rejections, testers should always check them before starting testing. The known issues can be added in the Cycle in sort of a spreadsheet or you can recognize them by seeing a blue “bookmark” tag next to the issue to indicate that this is a Known Issue in the title column of the issues page.

BFV

Bug Fix Verification Is a process of verifying if a reported bug has been fixed when a fix or a new build for the product is released. Applause allows customers to run a re-test once a new build with fixes for those bugs is available, effectively verifying that the bug has been fixed.

NDA

Non Disclosure Agreement Which is a binding contract between Tester and Applause App Quality, and by signing the NDA the tester agrees not to disclose any information covered by the agreement. Typically used to protect any type of confidential and proprietary information.

IR

Info Request More information is requested on a bug report or test case, or a tester is required to fix the bug report or test case.

Environment

Refers to device, OS, OS version, browser, or any specific setup that is used for testing.

Triage/Triaging

A process of reviewing a bug report or test case and then sending an info request or recommending the bug report or the test case for approval or rejection.

Placeholder

A placeholder is a submitted bug report without complete information or required attachments for the purpose of reserving the position of the report and later on edit and completing the report or changing it to a different bug.

Reproduction

Is the process of recreating a bug by following the action performed steps in a bug report.

Turnaround Time

This is the time limit when testing work should be submitted. For example, a slot or test case with a turnaround time of 6 hours should be submitted within 6 hours after claiming the slot or test case.

WAD

Working As Designed Work as designed is a rejection where the reported issue is working as designed, meaning that the behavior is exactly how the product is designed to work.

DUP

Duplicate issue A duplicate rejection is a rejection where the bug reported is already reported by another tester or is a Known Issue that is added to the cycle.

OOS

Out Of Scope An Out of Scope rejection is a rejection where the reported bug is not in the scope of the testing product, for example only certain areas of the website are being tested in the cycle and any other areas should not be tested, reporting a bug that is found in one of these areas that are not in the scope of the cycle will be categorized as Out of Scope, the same case applies if the issue was found in a product that was not being tested like an external website.

DNFI

Did Not Follow Instructions Can be used when the tester ignored clear instructions which affected the outcome or made the report unusable.

INF

Need more info A tester did not provide the requested information to the bug report when an info request was sent.

Other

All rejection reasons should be covered by using the above ones. In case the customer has a different reason for rejection, they might use Other.

Somewhat Valuable

The bug has some impact on the product and has some value to the customer.

Very Valuable

The bug has a significant impact on the product and very valuable to the customer.

Exceptionally Valuable

The bug has a critical impact on the product and must be fixed. These bugs bring exceptional value to the customer.

WNF

Won't Fix The bug is valid and approved but the customer is not interested in it or not planning to fix it.

SDLC

Software Development Lifecycle is a process followed for a software project, within a software organization. It consists of a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain, replace and alter or enhance specific software. The life cycle defines a methodology for improving the quality of software and the overall development process

STLC

Software Testing Life Cycle

QA

Quality Assurance

SUT

System Under Test

SPA

Single Page Application

BAT

Business Analysis Testing

API

Application Programming Interface

TF

TestFlight

BTS

Bug Tracking System

UAT

User Acceptance Testing (aka Beta Testing or End User Testing)

RAD (model)

Rapid Application Development

ISTQB

International Software Testing Qualifications Board

SDET

Software Development Engineer in Test

BBST

Black Box Software Testing

UX bug

Usability Bug

UI bug

User Interface Bug

AUT

Application Under Test

SIT

CMS

Content Management System

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language

HTTPS

Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol

VPN

Virtual private network

E2E

End to End

IP

Internet Protocol

OS

Operating System

URL

Uniform Resource Locator

WWW

World Wide Web

IE

Internet Explorer

XML

Extensible Markup Language

AWS

Amazon Web Services

VM

Virtual Machine

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

SDK

Software Development Kit

I/O

Input & Output

IDE

Integrated Development Environment

SMB

Small Medium Business

GUI

Graphical User Interface

ROI

Return on Investment

POS

Point Of Sale

CTA

Call To Action

PLP

Product listing page

PDP

Product detail page

STB

Set-top box

PIP

Picture In Picture

CC

Closed Captions

VOD

Video On Demand

CTV

Connected TV

MFA

Multi-Factor Authentication

2FA

Two-Factor Authentication

CVV / CVC / CSC / CVN

Card Verification Value / Card Verification Code / Card Security Code / Card Verification Number

DMCA

Digital Millennium Copyright Act