STAREAST 2005 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

"Risk" Is a Tester's Favorite Four-Letter Word

Good project managers speak the language of risk. Their understanding of risk guides important decisions. Testers can contribute to an organization’s decision-making ability by speaking that same language. During this session you will learn how to evaluate risk in both quantitative and qualitative ways. Identifying risk is important but managing risk is vital.

Julie Gardiner, QST Consultants Ltd.

A New Paradigm for Collecting and Interpreting Bug Metrics

Many software test organizations count bugs; however, most do not derive much value from the practice, and other metrics can actually harm the quality of their software or their organization. Although valuable insights can be gained from examining find and fix rates or by graphing open bugs over time, you can be more easily fooled than informed by such metrics. Metrics used for control instead of inquiry tend to promote dysfunctional behavior whenever people know they are being measured.

James Bach, Satisfice Inc

A Simple (and Revolutionary) Test Automation Dashboard

Even though most everyone recognizes that automation is a key element in improving test efficiency, many automation efforts unfortunately fall far short of achieving the desired results. One tool for keeping progress visible is an Automation Dashboard-a one-page report that tells the automation story clearly and simply with charts and gauges. This report becomes a tool to improve your organization’s understanding, communication, and use of good automation practices.

Kelly Whitmill, IBM Corporation
A Tester's "Wonderful Life" in an Agile Development Shop

Some subscribe to the notion that agile methods-such as eXtreme programming (XP) and test-driven development-eliminate the need for QA and testing specialists. Others, including Greg Grivas, subscribe to the belief that QA/test is needed in every aspect of Agile development. While gathering requirements as stories or use cases, the test specialist takes on the roles of consultant, facilitator, questioner, and possibly leader.

Greg Grivas, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Achieving Meaningful Metrics from Your Test Automation Tools

In addition to the efficiency improvements you expect from automated testing tools, you can-and should-expect them to provide valuable metrics to help manage your testing effort. By exploiting the programmability of automation tools, you can support the measurement and reporting aspects of your department. Learn how Jack Frank employs these tools with minimal effort to create test execution

Jack Frank, Mosaic Inc
Applying Use Case-Driven Testing in Agile Development

Use Cases provide a user-focused sequence of events that also can serve as a template for functional testing activity. In an agile environment, use case-based testing brings testing earlier into the process and helps teams more quickly deliver higher levels of functionality to their customers. Testing with use cases also provides early peer review for the logic of intended functions.

Dean Leffingwell, Consultant

Blind Men Meet the Quality Elephant

For many organizations, software quality is an elephant found by blind men who think they can see. People hold different opinions about quality based on their work roles and interests. If we testers focus on one definition (our own), we will not communicate well with others in the organization, and our work ultimately will not meet their expectations. However, if we examine our customers' definition of excellence, we will find better ways to measure quality and set priorities.

Isabel Evans, Testing Solutions Group Ltd

Can You Find Bugs in Your Pajamas? Becoming an Effective Telecommuting Tester

Distributed development teams, including test engineers, are becoming more the norm than the
exception. Many individual testers and test managers perform some of their job duties from
home. Test engineer Andy Roth is an extreme example of this situation-telecommuting from his
Maryland home 300 miles from his company’s office. As a “tele-tester” Andy has become a
manager in addition to his testing duties, managing his personal test lab, his time, his peer

Andy Roth, IBM Rational Software
Congratulations! You're the New Test Manager

When creating an entirely new QA organization, where do you start? Although establishing QA processes and standard practices is important, you must communicate with and obtain buy-in from QA staff, developers, customers, and business analysts. Walk in Karl Shearer’s footsteps as he describes the initial stages of QA's formation at Erie Insurance, the challenges and roadblocks he faced, and, ultimately, the successes he has enjoyed.

Karl Shearer, Erie Insurance Group
Controlling Performance Testing in an Uncontrolled World

Think about it ... You are responsible for performance testing a system containing over 5 billion searchable documents to an active user base of 2.6 million users, and you are expected to deliver notification of sub-second changes in release response and certification of extremely high reliability and availability. Your n-tier architecture consists of numerous mainframes and large-scale UNIX

Jim Robinson, LexisNexis

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