Tools For The Ninja Tester: Debugging and Testing the Web with Firebug

In Japanese history, a ninja is a warrior specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. These include assassination, illusion, espionage, and various martial arts.

To become Ninja Testers, we need to develop testing skills that sets us apart from the commoditized "testing resources" purchased in quantity at the lowest price available. We need to rise above the conscript tester. To do that, we need training in a variety of unorthodox arts of testing. And one of those arts is debugging.

But as testers, don't we provide the bugs and the developer debugs? The answer is yes; however, we're often asked to provide additional information that the developer can use for debugging, such as a log files. But what do we provide when we find a bug when testing a web site? One choice for the Ninja Tester is a Charles log. Another would be information provided by Firebug. This Firefox add-on is very useful for debugging. It provides a level of detail that goes far beyond a session log. Firebug gives you detailed and useful information about errors in JavaScript, CSS, and XML, as well as javascript debug logs. But to use this tool wisely, one must understand what kind of information a developer will want to accompany a bug report.

The Google Tech Talk video below can help you understand what developers deal with. The presenter explores web development and debugging strategies with Firebug, and provides an overview of new and improved features and how to use them.