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Put an End to the Defect Report-Fix-Check-Rework Cycle Many software organizations have mature defect tracking processes and tooling. Defect reports are often the primary means by which testers and developers communicate, and many teams run their development priorities from the defect tracking system. Bad news. We now find ourselves swimming in defect reports, the majority of which are irrelevant, out of date, repeated, not reproducible, and difficult to associate to the features we've committed to deliver. The solution is to adopt techniques that pull testing forward in the software lifecycle so we replace most of the defect reports with "failing" test cases that are transitory in nature, easily reproduced, and require little management
overhead. The result is that we dramatically reduce our defect management burden, improve our responsiveness to customer feature requests, and ship with higher software quality.
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Richard Leavitt, Rally Software Development
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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
relationships, and even managing his manager. If you are considering becoming a tele-tester,
already are one, or manage tele-testers, join Andy for a discussion of what it takes to survive and
flourish in this environment. Find out the necessary prerequisites and qualities of successful teletesters
and the tools of the trade that make life easier and most productive.
- The case for tele-testing and its limitations
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Andy Roth, IBM Rational Software
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STAREAST 2005: Testing Dialogues - Technical Issues Is there an important technical test issue bothering you? Or, as a test engineer, are you looking for some career advice? If so, join Esther Derby and Robert Sabourin, experienced facilitators, for "Testing Dialogues-Technical Issues." Practice the power of group problem solving
and develop novel approaches to solving your big problem. This double-track session takes on technical issues, such as automation challenges, model-based testing, testing immature technologies, open source test tools, testing Web services, and career development. You name it! Share your expertise and experiences, learn from the challenges and successes of others, and generate new topics in real-time.
Discussions are structured in a framework so that the participants will receive a summary of their work product after the conference.
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Facilitated by Esther Derby and Robert Sabourin
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TPI Test Process Improvement Model Facts and Figures Since the publication of the test process improvement (TPI®) model in the 1990s, many organizations have used it to help establish and improve their test processes. By doing so, they have tested the hypothesis that improving test processes results in better insight into system
quality and a more repeatable and efficient test process. Over the past five years, Ruud Teunissen and his consultant colleagues have gathered many facts and figures about the results of test process improvement initiatives. Learn the details of what other companies have achieved from test process improvement using the model, including examples of a 50 percent reduction of live incidents caused by inaccurate testing and a 40 percent reduction of long-term testing costs. Build a case for process improvement, discover what the TPI® model can do for you, and find out how to manage expectations should you embrace the model.
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Ruud Teunissen, POLTEQ IT Services BV
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Making Test Data More Agile Flexible, reusable, and restorable test data for both the unit and system level is an absolute necessity for testers working on Agile development projects. For teams following a more traditional development process, Agile approaches for handling test data can enhance testing efforts as well. Discussing Agile testing approaches, such the ObjectMother pattern, Peter Schuh explains how testers design tests and test frameworks to survive the ever-changing data structures found in Agile projects. Learn how an Agile process allows testers to get much more mileage out of test data sets during and after the initial development project. Leave with a set of practices and techniques to apply directly to Agile development projects or modify for their current development environment.
- The many dimensions of application test data
- Produce and maintain better tests and test data with Agile approaches
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Peter Schuh, Peter Schuh
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Integrate Automation Seamlessly into Your Testing Workflow In many companies, there is a strange phenomenon-treating test automation specialists and the tests they develop . . . like crazy Uncle George. You know Uncle George. He’s not invited to the holiday parties or summer picnics when we can avoid it. He’s different. We don't understand him completely. Like Uncle George, the automation team is out there working on . . . something. We are pretty sure they are. They run their tests . . . regularly. They seem to be contributing. But why should automated tests be different from other tests? Automation is simply a way of running test cases without (hopefully) so much human interaction. To get the most out of your automation effort, join Jamie Mitchell and learn ways to integrate automated testing into your other test and development processes. Decide who should own an automated test, who owns the failures, and ways to make test results available to everyone, including developers.
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Jamie Mitchell, Test & Automation Consulting LLC
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Test Improvement for Highly Reliable NYSE Trading Systems With billions of dollars changing hands every day, financial trading systems demand extremely high accuracy and reliability. So, how do you improve test process performance in the areas of time to market and efficiency and at the same time reduce failures? Over the last three years, using process and project measurement data as a guide, SIAC has focused on doing exactly that. Steve Boycan highlights the key elements of the process changes that have led to SIAC's current performance: the use of a rigorous requirements engineering process; controlled parallel and iterative work flows; changes to the level of abstraction in test documentation; emphasis on test planning, analysis, and design; causal analysis; and improving the test team's skills.
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Steve Boycan, SIAC
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Web Testing Circus: An Expert-Led Search for Security Defects Step right up! Come see the sights! Join in the fun! The circus is in town and admission is free with your STAREAST badge. Right before your very eyes, our security testing ringmaster Mike Andrews demonstrates for you the wonders of Web security testing. Behold death-defying feats of SQL injection. Stare open-mouthed as he hacks a site using the cross-site scripting attack. Watch him hijack a Web session before your very eyes. Find out how and why Web servers are the most attacked resource on the Internet and what you can do to protect yours. Learn the history of some successful and insidious Web hacks and the freak-show of hackers that perpetrate them.
Bring your laptop with wireless access, and join in the attack! We will set up a wireless network and Web site with known vulnerabilities on an intranet in the session room so you can have a go at finding security bugs.
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Michael Andrews, Foundstone Professional Services
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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. Involving testers in use case development and harvesting use case scenarios for test case development has shown great practical benefit in numerous application development projects. Dean Leffingwell describes the use case-based testing method and highlights practical tips for applying the technique. Learn to employ use cases to express functional requirements and how use case scenarios can serve as templates for testing activities.
- An overview of use case development practices
- Accelerating test development with use cases
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Dean Leffingwell, Consultant
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STAREAST 2005: Planning for Successful Test Automation You have the automation tool. You have the right technical skills. You have the application experts at your disposal. It’s time to jump in and start coding! Or is it? Many well-intentioned test automation efforts fail due to a lack of planning. Steve Walters describes his practical approach for developing an overall test automation strategy. Learn how to plan for automation success, select the right tests to automate, and prioritize them for a faster return on investment. By quickly eliminating poor automation candidates and using Steve’s scorecard to assess the value of automating a test, you will be on the right track to achieving your automation goals. Take away a quantitative approach for deciding what to automate-and what not to automate-and the steps to develop a realistic plan and timeline for getting the job done.
- A written plan to set or reset expectations about the automation effort
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Steve Walters, Dell Computer Corporation
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