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This paper focuses on the strategies and challenges of testing real-world, large and complex, highly available clustered systems in the following areas: Test planning, Strategies and methodologies; Defect tracking processes; System Configuration tests; Cluster and storage fault injection tests; Effective testing practices.

The information provided in this paper is aimed at helping test engineers understand many of the quality assurance issues involved in testing large and complex systems.

Outsource testing can be a great way to get testing tasks accomplished when short on staff or equipment. Outsourcing can also be a great way to complement an existing QA group. However, it can also be a very costly approach towards testing and may not always be the best solution for a project. This paper will address how to define needs, evaluate labs and ways to merge an outsource effort into an existing staff.

Software professionals have long engaged in debate over software development processes. Much has been written about how to improve those processes-resulting in better-quality, faster-to-market products. Often neglected are the people who implement the processes. Developers and testers frequently seem to have adversarial relationships, although they share the same goal: high-quality software. No matter how good they are, the processes are unlikely to succeed if the participants fail to get along.

When testers are left with a mess on their hands, what should they do? When this column appeared during StickyMinds' first month, October 2000, it provoked several reader comments. In it, Bret Pettichord asks the question: "Is it the tester's fate to 'work the clean up crew?'"