test methodologies

Articles

Divide and Conquer: Find Solutions by Splitting Up
With all of the choices available to software developers, it's easy to become overwhelmed not only by a problem but also by its many possible solutions. One approach that can help you and your team stay on track is to divide and conquer.
5 Reasons to Automate Testing by Recording User Interaction
Rich Internet applications with desktop-like functionality can be very beneficial, but they pose special testing challenges. One approach is to start with a closer look at how users interact with the applications.
Hours, Velocity, Silo’d Teams, and Gantts
Johanna Rothman shares some tips for project and program managers turned ScrumMasters who are adopting agile. If your management won’t allow you to take training, start reading.
Wearing the Architect’s Hat: Testing Real-time Enterprise Applications
Simulating production conditions to test enterprise applications calls for some careful considerations. Learn how you can borrow the architect's hat without trying to fill his shoes.

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Better Software Magazine

Simplicity and Precision: Test Planning in Agile Projects
Test planning is often thought unnecessary in an agile project. However, if our mindset is on "planning" rather than "plans," we see that test-planning activities happen throughout the project, taking advantage of levels of precision, i.e., what is absolutely necessary at each level.
Increase Quality With Table-Driven Acceptance Tests

Vague or ambiguous requirements can cause loops in development processes. Creating requirements that include acceptance tests cuts down on the looping and increases the flow of working software to the customer.

Simplify Your Combinatorial Testing

Combinatorial testing is effective for testing multiple, non-sequential inputs that affect a common output in complex software. But, it's easy to misapply it or become a slave to the output. Learn to overcome limitations and benefit fully from this technique.

Software Longevity Testing

How long do you let your software run during testing? An increasing number of software applications are intended to run indefinitely, in an always-on operating environment. And yet, few test plans include more than a brief memory leak test case. Learn how to test for problems due to the passing of time and problems due to cumulative usage.

Food for Thought

Ideas about testing can come from many different and unexpected sources, including reductionism, agronomy, cognitive psychology, mycology, and general systems. Michael feasts on Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and finds much to whet the tester's appetite for learning about how things work.

Understanding Software Performance Testing Part 1
Most people don't fully understand the complexities and scope of a software performance test. Too often performance testing is assessed in the same manner as functional testing and, as a result, fails miserably. In this four-part series we will examine what it takes to properly plan, analyze, design, and implement a basic performance test. This is not a discussion of advanced performance techniques or analytical methods; these are the basic problems that must be addressed in software performance testing.
Off the Trails

A focused approach toward testing a product is important, but sometimes we discover information that we didn't anticipate at all. One of the key skills in testing is dynamically managing our focus; sharpening it sometimes and widening it at other times. If we vary our approaches, we might find something surprising and broaden our coverage.

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Interviews

Testing the Requirements of Collaboration: An Interview with Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan
Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan informed us in this interview that collaboration is king, and we should end the separation of development and testing, while putting everything under a single development umbrella. Jeff also looks beyond the benefits of collaboration and TDD and takes some stabs at the future.
Quality Mobile App Testing: An Interview with William Hurley

We had the chance to sit down with William Hurley ahead of his upcoming session at the 2012 Better Software Conference East in Orlando, Florida. William shared with us the testing methodologies and focuses that increase the quality of your mobile apps, and leave your clients thrilled with your work.

Automating Content Creation: An Interview with Clark Malmgren

We recently had a chance to speak with Senior Engineering Manager (Applications) for Comcast Video Services, Clark Malmgren, about his role in test automation and how his experience and practices can lead to success in many areas of software testing.

Effective Test Data Design: An Interview with Rajini Padmanaban

At STARWEST 2012, Rajini Padmanaban is delivering a session titled “The Art of Designing Test Data” and she recently spoke with TechWell Editor Noel Wurst to share her knowledge on this topic.

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TechWell Stories
To Estimate or Not to Estimate—That Is the Question
Removing Waste in Software Projects
Create a Vendor Contract While Keeping Agile
How Agile Teams Use DevOps for Deployment
Build a List of Things—But Don't Call It Agile

Recommended Web Seminars

May 29 How to Integrate Performance Testing into Agile and Hybrid Environments
Jun 11 Test Infrastructure Changes as Easy as Pressing Play
Jun 18 Adopting Agile and Moving into the Future
On Demand 7 Habits of Highly Effective Agile Teams
On Demand Achieve Scriptless Test Automation Utopia!

Featured Resources

» An Innovative Approach to Integration Testing | IBM Rational
» Improve Quality and Decrease Time to Market with Requirements Management | PTC
» Performance Testing in the Cloud | J9 Technologies
» Perfection Just Became Mobile: An Easy-to-Use Solution for Mobile App Testing | Micro Focus
» Improving Test Automation for Visual Studio Projects | LogiGear

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