The Latest

Warning: Security Storm Brewing [magazine]

For too long now, consumers have been bailing, patching, and plugging their software each time a new security hole is discovered. And they've been absorbing the damage done by the leaks. A wave of security-conscious buyers is rising, demanding software that is sound and secure by design. Are you ready to give it to them? Find out why you should be.

Talk Talk Talk [article]

In a previous column, Esther Derby wrote about how important it is for managers to talk. Managers need to talk about goals, strategy, and mission. Managers need to talk about how daily work keeps the business humming. In this week's column, Esther writes about how important it is for managers to also ask questions and listen.

Developing a Requirements Team [article]

Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. No, they are not a law firm, but the stages of team development proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. I wish I had known about this model much earlier in my career. If you haven't encountered it before and want to help your requirements team, read on.

Building Better Test Teams [article]

Mustering the best project or test team is key to any project's success. In this week's column, Johanna Rothman explains her interviewing techniques to help you find the perfect candidate. Find out if your candidates are qualified before they become part of your team. Johanna's methods cover six typical questions that will help you build a better test team.

Keyword-Driven Testing [article]

A curious phenomenon occurring among testers has caught Danny Faught's attention; testers everywhere are independently writing their own keyword-driven testing scripts. But what is keyword-driven testing, and how does it work? Is it better than data-driven testing? In this week's column, Danny reveals the testing method's simple design that has made it popular with many testers and non-testers alike.

Tips and Hints for Developing Automated Test Scripts [article]

Jose Fajardo delineates techniques for building more maintainable and robust automated test scripts. The author provides valuable insights for testers working with automated test tools and building a repository of automated test scripts for future testing efforts. A myriad of suggestions for documenting test scripts, debugging test scripts, performing peer-reviews on test scripts, and synchronizing test scripts are offered.

Controlled Flight into the Ground [article]

Perfectly good airplanes will sometimes crash for no apparent reason. The root cause is often pilot error. This is called "controlled flight into the ground." Seemingly well-run projects can also crash and burn. In this week's column, Peter Clark provides some indicators that will help you prevent your projects from falling victim to a controlled flight into the ground.

Learning Speed from Quality Programming [article]

As software professionals we spend far too much time fixated on speed and asking questions about how long a task is likely to take. In this week's column, Mike Cohn says we need to focus more on quality than speed. When something is done well, it's only a matter of time until it is done quickly.

This Way, Mr. Roboto [article]

Have you ever felt like you were going in circles trying to explain programming to nontechnical people? Simply telling them what programmers do just isn't enough. In this week's column, Naomi Karten demystifies the programming world by showing nontechnical people how to think like programmers?on a basic level. This seemingly intricate journey starts with a few simple directions.

Testing Testability [article]

Recently I overheard a conversation between a test analyst and a business analyst about how a function should be tested. The response from the business analyst was, "If it is not breaking the application, it must be working fine!" Testing staff comes across such scenarios where a part or functionality of the application under test is not "testable." The tests they carry out are not conclusive enough to say that the functionality is working as specified. In this week's article, Ipsita Chatterjee defines testability and looks at the benefits of incorporating it in the products. Also discussed are simple ways to monitor the incorporation of this non-functional requirement in the software development life cycle and a few industry myths about testability.