reporting testing

[Leonard C. Porrello]

We test on both VMWare (for convenience) and native platforms on which
our software runs. However, we do not indicate in the user docs that our
applications run on VMWare. To date, that hasn't been a requirement. If
it becomes a requirement, we would simply list which versions of VMWare
are supported.

In any case, how we test is an internal matter not touched on by user
docs. This has been the case everywhere I have worked. If a customer,
say an OEM who integrates our product with his hardware, needed to know
about our testing, I would send him a summary and/or our test cases
under a separate cover (from the user docs).

Leonard C. Porrello
SoleraTec LLC
www.soleratec.com
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard.porrello=soleratec.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard.porrello=soleratec.com at lists.techwr-l.c
om] On Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 8:03 AM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: reporting testing

This is just for you folks who document software and hardware/software
products.

This is just hypothetical for now... of course...

Does your testing department test your product on the supported OS
platforms "nekkid", or do they use (for example) VMWare for convenience?

If they use (say) VMWare to test (say) several Windows versions, Linux
versions, Solaris x86 versions, and so on, do you list in your published
documentation that the product was tested on the OS or on the
OS-under/over-VMWare?  Or do you just ignore that "issue" and simply
report that a platform is supported or not?

What happens when customers begin demanding that you explicitly support
VMWare? 

If you are already testing using VMWare for convenience, do you just add
a "yes" or checkmark for VMWare, or do you now have to differentiate....
oh my head....  ?

In the end, it's not an ethical issue because we support what we
support, and we are on the hook to make something work if it is found
not to work.  I'm just looking to get a feel for how it's handled by the
rest of the documentation world.  I suspect that it's simply not an
issue for most, but I thought I'd inquire.

Kevin

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