QA Internships

Introduction

Participatory Culture Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit based in Worcester, MA. We were founded in 2005 with a mission to build tools and services that give people more ways to engage in their culture.

Miro is our core project. It’s a free open-source cross-platform desktop video application that is designed to make mass media more open and accessible for everyone.  Included with Miro, is the Miro Guide, our open content directory.  It is browsed by a large and global audience of Miro users and is also available in any web browser at miroguide.com.

What’s inside?

Miro is written in python by a small group of incredibly talented programmers. It is essentially a desktop media library that integrates rss feeds , BitTorrent technology, and search capability of multiple online websites (blip.tv, youtube, google…) to promote open distribution and consumption of media.

What do we want from internship participants?

The testing of Miro is completely integrated into the development process.  Quality is a part of the entire release cycle, and each code change is evaluated and tested.  We are very flexible about where you work from, but we expect you to be self-motivated, dedicated, driven, professional, independent, and ready to get your hands dirty.

Duration

Ideally, an internship will last approximately 8 weeks.  This should give participants a reasonable amount of time to get familiar with the application and our process.  Because we plan for short release cycles, you should be able to experience all parts of the development process.

Development Process

Our development team is distributed around the world and maintains constant communication mainly via our irc channel and through weekly discussions.  We use an agile development process and define our releases in short cycles.  Once core features and bug fixes are decided upon for a release cycle - they are given top priority in the target milestone in bugzilla.  Developers work off these lists, and testing is able to immediately verify these changes through the nightly build generation.  When the agreed upon features and bugs are fixed, and the software is tested both internally and by external volunteers, it is deemed ready to release.

This is a brief overview of our cycle.  As a team we are committed to continuous improvement and during the course of weekly development calls evaluate our processes and tools and make adjustments as deemed necessary.

Tools

  1. Bugzilla
  2. Litmus
  3. Timeline
  4. IRC (irc.freenode.org #miro and #miro-hackers)
  5. Mailing Lists (testing , development )
  6. Wiki Pages
  7. planet.getmiro.com blogs

Tasks Calendar

  • Week 1-3 -  Exploratory testing, regression testing via litmus, bug submission.
  • Week 4 - Bug triage
  • Week 5 - Bug verification
  • Week 6 - Miro Guide testing
  • Week 7 - New feature test planning
  • Week 8 - Test case creation in litmus

Expectations

  1. Defined time commitment in terms of hours / week
  2. Completion of tasks as defined by calendar
  3. Weekly emailed status of finding / questions
  4. Participation in irc discussions / support forums / mailing list

Benefit to Participants

  1. We will provide references to participants who make a meaningful contribution.
  2. Actual experience as part of a software development cycle
  3. Ability to openly reference the project and your contribution to potential employers
  4. Familiarity with tools that are commonly used in software development projects