Conference Presentations

Test Metrics in a CMMI Level 5 Organization

As a CMMI® Level 5 company, Motorola Global Software Group is heavily involved in software verification and validation activities. Shalini Aiyaroo, senior software engineer at Motorola, shows how tracking specific testing metrics can serve as key indicators of the health of testing and how these metrics can be used to improve your testing practices. Find out how to track and measure phase screening effectiveness, fault density, and test execution productivity. Shalini describes the use of Software Reliability Engineering (SRE) and fault prediction models to measure test effectiveness and take corrective actions. By performing orthogonal defect classification (ODC) and escaped defect analysis, the group has found ways to improve test coverage.

CMMI® is a registered trademark of Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Structured approach to outsource testing
Shalini Aiyaroo, Motorola Malaysia Sdn. Bhd
Five Core Metrics to Guide the Testing Endgame

By its very nature, the endgame of software projects is a hostile environment. Typical dynamics include release pressure, continuous bug discovery, additional requirements, exhausted development teams, frenzied project managers, and "crunch mode"-a politically correct term for unpaid overtime. Although testing teams are usually in the thick of this battle, they usually do not do enough to help guide the project in this critical stage. To improve the overall endgame experience, testers can help entire team’s focus with a few key defects metrics. Robert Galen discusses ways to track these five key defect metrics: found vs. fixed; high priority defects found; project keywords; defect transition progress; and functional distribution of errors. Join Robert to increase the likelihood of delivering your projects on time-and surviving yet another endgame.

  • Help traffic the action for the incoming defect stream during the endgame
Robert Galen, RGCG, LLC
PairWise Testing: A Best Practice that Isn't

By evaluating software based on its form, structure, content, and documentation, you can use static analysis to test code within a program without actually running or executing the program. Static analysis testing helps us stop defects from entering the code stream in the first place rather than waiting for the costly and time-consuming manual intervention of testing to find defects. With real-world examples, Djenana Campara describes the mechanics of static analysis-when it should be used, where it can be executed most beneficially within your testing process, and how it works in different development scenarios. Find out how you can begin using code analysis to improve code security and reliability.

  • The mechanics of automated static analysis
  • Static analysis for security and reliability testing
  • Integrating static analysis into the testing process
James Bach, Satisfice Inc
Credibility: Your Key to Success as a Test Manager

For test managers and testers, credibility is everything. Without credibility, people won't take you seriously or believe your findings. There are very specific and achievable things every test manager can and should do to make sure the information conveyed to stakeholders is accurate and reliable. Randall Rice talks about the credibility factors you need to exhibit for success: knowledge, attitude, objectivity, accuracy, trust, and attention to detail. With real-world examples, Randall teaches you to build long-term trust with creative ways to document test findings and present to your stakeholders the information they want-when they need to know it. Take away a list of eight credibility killers, and learn how to rebuild you team's credibility once it is lost.

  • A template for assessing your team’s present credibility rating
  • Ways to deliver accurate and timely information to all project stakeholders
Randy Rice, Rice Consulting Services Inc
Inside The Masters' Mind: Describing the Tester's Art

Exploratory testing is both a craft and a science. It requires intuition and critical thinking. Traditional scripted test cases usually require much less practice and thinking, which is perhaps why, in comparison, exploratory testing is often seen as "sloppy," "random," and "unstructured." How, then, do so many software projects routinely rely on it as an approach for finding some of its most severe bugs? If one reason is because it lets testers use their intuition and skill, then we should not only study how that intuition and skill is executed, but also how it can be cultivated and taught to others as a martial art. Indeed, that's what has been happening for many years, but only recently have there been major discoveries about how an exploratory tester works and a new effort by exploratory testing practitioners and enthusiasts to create a vocabulary.

Jon Bach, Quardev Laboratories
Your Development and Testing Processes Are Defective

Verification at the end of a software development cycle is a very good thing. However, if verification routinely finds important defects, then something is wrong with your process. A process that allows defects to build up-only to be found and corrected later-is a process filled with waste. Processes which create long list of defects are . . . defective processes. A quality process builds quality into the software at every step of development, so that defect tracking systems become obsolete and verification becomes a formality. Impossible? Not at all. Lean companies have learned how wasteful defects and queues can be and attack them with a zero tolerance policy that creates outstanding levels of quality, speed, and low cost-all at the same time. Join Mary Poppendieck to learn how your organization can become leaner.

Mary Poppendieck, Poppendieck LLC
Don't Wait, Innovate!

Our test teams often struggle for so long ... to do so much ... with so little, and they usually manage to just squeak by. In the next cycle when asked to do even more with even less, they are likely to fail. Working harder and smarter isn't enough-the rules of the game must change. Innovation is the currency of success. Using his experiences from several years of success (and a few months of failure) in driving innovation, Heath Newburn will show you how-through innovation-you can drastically increase your team's value and your contributions to your organization. Uncover the secrets to managing change and learn: how to systematically create innovation and foster creativity, how to generate ideas and use your whole team to identify and build on the best of those ideas, how to implement a plan for success, and how to overcome the inevitable obstacles with the six secrets "they" don't want you to know.

Heath Newburn, IBM Global Services
Free Test Tools are Like a Box of Chocolates

You never know what you are going to get! Until you explore, it can be hard to tell whether a free, shareware, or open source tool is an abandoned and poorly documented research project or a robust powerhouse of a tool. In this information-filled presentation, Danny Faught shows you where open source and freeware tools fit within the overall test tool landscape. During this double session, Danny installs and tries out several tools right on the spot and shares tips on how to evaluate tools you find on the Web. Find out about licensing, maintenance, documentation, Web forums, bugs, and more. Discover the many different types of testing tools that are available for free and where to find them. Danny demonstrates examples of tools that you can put to use as soon as you get back to the office.

Danny Faught, Tejas Software Consulting
Testers and Testing in the Agile Development

You have heard about agile software development techniques such as eXtreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and Agile Modeling (AM). The industry is buzzing with everything from "this is the greatest thing ever" to "it's just hacking with a fancy new name." Comments like "there is no place for testers because developers and users do the testing now" and "testers play an important role in the agile methods" are both common. Scott Ambler, an early proponent of the agile movement, explains the fundamentals, values, and principles of agile development. He describes a range of agile techniques and explores many myths and misconceptions surrounding agility. Agile software development is real, it works, and it may be an important part of your future in testing. Better testing and improved quality are critical aspects of agile software development, but the roles of traditional testers and QA professionals on agile projects remain unclear.

Scott Ambler, Ronin International, Inc.
A Strategic Approach - "Beta the Business"

Beta testing is an industry standard practice to obtain user feedback prior to general availability of software. Have you ever considered that the Beta release can be used to validate the software's value to customers and application users? Extending the Beta concept will result in higher customer satisfaction (and higher revenue for commercial products). Also, you can employ Beta testing to evaluate not only the software product, but the distribution (and sales) process, training, customer support, and usage within your customers' environments. Far beyond just finding defects in the product, you can focus Beta testing on how well the software is meeting your customers' needs. What does that mean to the Development team and the organization as a whole? What are the risks and challenges that we face? What are the rewards?

Pete Conway, EMC Corporation

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