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STAREAST 2008 Preconference Tutorials

Go To:   Monday  |   Tuesday  

  Tutorials for Monday, May 5  8:30 a.m. — 4:30 p.m.  
MA  


Becoming an Influential Test Team Leader

Randall Rice, Rice Consulting Services, Inc. Full Day Tutorial


Have you been thrust into the role of test team leader or are you in this role now and want to hone your leadership skills? Test team leadership has many unique challenges, and many test team leaders—especially new ones—find themselves ill-equipped to deal with the problems they face. The test team leader must motivate and influence people while keeping the testing on track within time and budget constraints. Randall Rice focuses on how you can grow as a leader, how to influence your team and those around you, and how to influence those outside your team. Learn how to become a person of influence, deal with interpersonal issues, and influence your team in building their skills and value. Discover how to communicate your value to management, how to stand firm when asked to compromise principles, and how to learn from your successes and failures. Develop your own action plan to become an influential test team leader.
 

Randall Rice is a leading author, speaker and consultant in the field of software testing and software quality. He has worked with major organizations worldwide to improve the quality of their information systems and optimize their testing processes. Randy has over 30 years experience building and testing mission-critical projects in a variety of environments and has authored over 25 training courses in software testing and software engineering. He is publisher of The Software Quality Advisor newsletter and is co-author with William E. Perry of the book, Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing. Randy also serves on the board of directors of the American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB). In 1990, Randy founded Rice Consulting Services, of which he is Principal Consultant and Trainer.   Randall Rice
 
 
MB  


Introduction to Systematic Testing

Dale Perry, Software Quality Engineering Full Day Tutorial


All too often testers are thrown into the quality assurance/testing process without the knowledge and skills essential to perform the required tasks. To be truly effective, you first must understand what testing is supposed to accomplish and then understand how it relates to the bigger project management and application development picture. After that, you can ask the right questions: What should be tested? How can I design effective and efficient test cases? How much testing is enough? How do I know when I’m finished? How much documentation do I need? Dale Perry explores a testing lifecycle that parallels software development and focuses on defect prevention and early error detection. As Dale shares the basics for implementing a systematic, integrated approach to testing software, learn when, what, and how to test—plus ways to improve the testability of your system.

Dale Perry has more than 30 years experience in information technology. He has been a programmer/analyst, database administrator, project manager, development manager, tester, and test manager. Dale’s project experience includes large systems development and conversions, distributed systems, on-line applications, both client/server and web based. He has been a professional instructor for over 15 years and has presented at numerous industry conferences on development and testing. With Software Quality Engineering for eleven years, Dale has specialized in training and consulting on testing, inspections and reviews, and other testing and quality related topics.   Dale Perry 
 
 
MC  


Web Technology for Testers: Automated Testing Under the Hood

Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consulting Full Day Tutorial


Most Web site functionality is server-based and can be accessed under the hood by sending HTTP packets directly to the server’s application APIs. With this approach to test automation, changes in the GUI do not break tests, allowing you to automate more, tests and increase your productivity, and improve ROI. In this hands-on tutorial, Paul Gerrard discusses the four key elements that are necessary to perform under the hood testing—a technical understanding of how most Web applications work, ways to identify the tests that can be executed without accessing the GUI, an easy-to-use automation tool, and a safe test environment in which to experiment. Paul demonstrates under the hood testing with a fully functional Web server and the free Web testing tool (Webdriver™) to provide an environment within which you create and run tests. If you bring your Windows laptop computer to class, you will be writing and running your own automated tests in less than an hour. This tutorial is designed for testers needing insights into common Web architectures; an understanding of HTML, CGI, HTTP, HTML forms and cookies; and how to test ASP, .NET, Perl, PHP, and other Web sites without accessing the GUI.

Laptop Required
Laptop
Required

   To participate in hands-on testing, please bring a laptop with Windows XP or Vista with either wireless capability or a 25-foot network cable.

Paul Gerrard is the founder and Principal of Gerrard Consulting, a services company focused on increasing the success rate of IT projects. He has conducted assignments in all aspects of Software Testing and Quality Assurance. Paul has degrees from the Universities of Oxford and London. He founded the ISEB Tester Certificate Board, and is the host/organizer of the UK Test Management Forum and Summit conferences. He is a regular speaker at conferences in the UK, Europe and the USA and has won “Best Presentation” prizes at the EuroSTAR and BCS SIGIST conferences. With Neil Thompson, Paul wrote Risk-Based E-Business Testing—the standard text for risk-based testing.   Paul Gerrard
 
 
MD  


Exploratory Software Testing Explained

Jonathan Kohl, Kohl Concepts Inc. Full Day Tutorial


Exploratory testing is an approach to testing that emphasizes the freedom and responsibility of the tester to continually optimize the value of his work. It is the process of three mutually supportive activities performed in parallel: learning, test design, and test execution. With skill and practice, exploratory testers typically uncover an order of magnitude more problems than the same amount of effort spent on procedurally scripted testing. All testers conduct exploratory testing in one way or another, but few know how to do it systematically to obtain the greatest benefits. Even fewer testers can articulate the process. Jonathan Kohl describes specific heuristics and techniques of exploratory testing to help you get the most from this highly productive approach. Jonathan focuses on the skills and dynamics of exploratory testing itself, and how it can be combined with scripted approaches. (For insight into how to manage and measure ET, attend Jonathan Bach's tutorial on Session-Based Exploratory Testing.)

Laptop Required
Laptop
Required
  This is a hands-on course, participants are asked to bring laptops (preferably with Microsoft Windows capability) to use for some of the exercises. A laptop is required for this tutorial.

Jonathan Kohl is the founder and principal software testing consultant with Kohl Concepts Inc., based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A noted testing thinker, Jonathan is recognized as a leader in the exploratory testing community. He is a popular author and speaker who believes that testing is a challenging intellectual craft. Jonathan’s blog on software development and testing issues is one of the most well-read testing blogs in the industry. Jonathan is a regular contributor to Better Software magazine, as an author and technical editor.   Jonathan Kohl
 
 
ME  


Test Process Improvement

Martin Pol & Ruud Teunissen, POLTEQ IT Services BV Full Day Tutorial


What is the maturity of your testing process? How do you compare to other organizations and to industry standards? Join Martin Pol and Ruud Teunissen for an introduction to the Test Process Improvement (TPI®) model, an industry standard for test process maturity assessment. Many organizations want to focus on achieving the highest level of maturity without first creating the foundation required for success. Improving your testing requires understanding twenty key test process areas, recognizing your current position in each of these areas, and knowing the next steps to take for improvement. Rather than guessing what to do next, use the TPI® model as a guide. Employing real world TPI® assessments they have performed in a variety of organizations, Martin and Ruud describe an assessment approach that is suitable for both smaller, informal organizations and larger, formal companies.

Each tutorial attendee will receive a copy of the reference book, Test Process Improvement, by Tim Koomen and Martin Pol.

Martin Pol has played a significant role in helping to raise the awareness and improve the performance of testing worldwide. Martin provides international testing consulting services through POLTEQ IT Services BV. He’s gained experience by managing testing processes and implementing structured testing in many organizations in different branches. He was responsible for the creation the testing standards TMap® and TPI®. These models have become world standards. Martin received the first “European Testing Excellence Award” for his contribution to the field of testing across Europe.
  Martin Pol 
Ruud Teunissen has performed several test functions in a number of IT projects: tester, test specialist, test consultant, and test manager. Ruud participated in the development of the structured testing methodology TMap®—Test Management Approach. Together with Martin Pol and Erik van Veenendaal, Ruud is co-author of several books on structured testing including Software Testing: A Guide to the TMap® Approach.
  Ruud Teunissen
 
 
MF  



Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 Team Edition for Software Testers

Dave McKinstry, Notion Solutions, Inc. Full Day Tutorial


Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System 2008 provides a set of productive, integrated lifecycle tools that help test and development teams communicate and collaborate more effectively. Gain a comprehensive knowledge of the testing capabilities available to you with Visual Studio® Team System. Chris Menegay helps you understand the challenges test teams face and how Visual Studio® Team System 2008 can help. Learn how to create and execute functions including defect reporting, defect tracking, and manual test execution, as well as Web, load, and unit tests. Chris demonstrates how to use reporting features and create quality reports to analyze the status of projects. Become familiar with Team Foundation version control, where all tests are stored and historical changes are tracked. The new testing tools coming in the Rosario release of Visual Studio® Team System will also be covered in great detail so you can properly prepare for integrating these tools into your software process.

Dave McKinstry, is a Principal Consultant and trainer with Notion Solutions, Inc. He has been leading clients in .NET architecture and development projects since the initial beta release of Visual Studio.NET. Since joining Notion Solutions in 2005, Dave has focused on assisting clients with their adoption of Visual Studio Team System. With over 15 years in the industry, Dave’s experience includes leading clients through .NET Architecture, .NET application development, BizTalk Server solutions, SharePoint, SQL Reporting Services and almost anything .NET related. He was one of the first individuals recognized by Microsoft as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Team System and holds his MCSD.NET and VB6 certifications.    
 
 
MG  

Transition to Agile Development: A Tester's View

Bob Hartman, NetObjectives Full Day Tutorial


Adopting an agile development methodology changes many familiar practices for both developers and testers. Join Bob Hartman to examine the challenges many testers face as agile development practices move into the mainstream and into their organizations. Teams new to agile or exploring agile practices have discovered that the transition from traditional testing practices to the lean-agile “test first” approach is a significant challenge for the development team and, in particular, for test engineers. Learn how requirements practices and documents differ from convention when the team is using agile development practices. Find out about new workflows needed for test development and execution, and process changes for tracking and repairing defects. Discover how faster release schedules can affect testing and the entire team. Bob discusses transition strategies and solutions for test and development teams by describing case studies—both successes and failures. Learn from these experiences and apply their lessons to the challenges you may face as you enter the land of agile development.

Bob Hartman is Net Objectives' Vice President of Business Development and Marketing who also does training and coaching for the company. In addition to having Bachelor and Masters degrees in Computer Science, Bob has over 30 years of experience developing software, including 7 years running his own consulting company and 14+ years of experience at the VP of Development level or higher. Bob also has a unique talent in breaking software within the first 10 minutes of using it. Bob has served in every role in the software industry including developer, tester, documentation writer, trainer, manager and executive. He is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and does additional training and coaching in the area of agile development. Bob teaches courses on Lean Agile Testing, Implementing Scrum, and Lean Software Development among others.    Bob Hartman
 
 
MH  


The Art and Science of SOA Testing

Mamoon Yunus & Rizwan Mallal, Crosscheck Networks Full Day Tutorial


Based on today’s Web services standards, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) has ushered in a new era of how applications are designed, developed, tested, and deployed. The promise of SOA to increase development productivity and application flexibility poses new challenges for testers—multiple Web services standards and implementations, legacy applications (of questionable quality) now exposed as Web services, weak or non-existent security controls, and services of possibly diverse origins chained together to create applications. Join Mamoon Yunus and Rizwan Mallal as they lead you through an intensive tutorial that includes hands-on lab work. Roll up your sleeves and dive into the process of testing SOA Web services. Beginning with the Four Pillars of SOA testing, you will learn new concepts to master SOA testing challenges through techniques such as WSDL chaining, schema mutation, and automated filtration. Learn how traditional techniques such as black, gray, and white-box testing are applied to SOA testing to maximize test coverage, minimize effort, and release better products.


Laptop Required    Laptop Required

Mamoon Yunus is an advisor to Crosscheck Networks and an industry honored CTO and visionary in Web Services-based technologies. As the founder of Forum Systems, Mamoon pioneered Web Services Security Gateways & Firewalls. He has spearheaded Forum's direction and strategy for six generations of award winning Web Services Security products. Prior to Forum Systems, Mamoon was a Global Systems Engineer for webMethods where he developed XML-based business integration and architecture plans for Global 2000 companies.
  Mamoon Yunus 
Rizwan Mallal is the Director of Technology at Crosscheck Networks. A founding member and Chief Security Architect of Forum Systems, Rizwan is responsible for all security related aspects of Forum’s technology. Previously, Rizwan was the Chief Architect at Phobos where he was responsible for developing the industry's first embedded SSL offloader. Before joining Phobos, he was a member of the core engineering group at Raptor Systems which pioneered the Firewall/VPN space in the mid 1990s.
  Rizwan Mallal
 
 
  Tutorials for Monday, May 5  8:30 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.  
MI  


Measurement and Metrics for Test Managers

Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering 1/2 Day Morning Tutorial


To be most effective, test managers must develop and use metrics to help direct the testing effort and make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important testing activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, test managers must measure the results of both the development and testing processes. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics is complicated because many developers and testers feel that the metrics will be used “against them.” Rick Craig addresses common metrics: measures of product quality, defect removal efficiency, defect density, defect arrival rate, and testing status. Rick offers guidelines for developing a test measurement program, rules of thumb for collecting data, and ways to avoid “metrics dysfunction.” Various metrics paradigms, including Goal-Question-Metric, are addressed with a discussion of the pros and cons of each. Attendees are urged to bring their metrics problems and issues for use as discussion points.

Rick Craig is recognized worldwide as an expert test and evaluation instructor with Software Quality Engineering. He has implemented and managed testing efforts on large-scale, traditional, and embedded systems, and co-authored a study that benchmarked industry-wide processes. Rick is co-author of the reference book Systematic Software Testing.   Rick Craig
 
 
MJ  


Test Automation Patterns: Best Practices and Common Pitfalls    

Gerard Meszaros, ClearStream Consulting 1/2 Day Morning Tutorial


The extensive use of automated testing has been a breakthrough in improving the quality of software. By now, many companies have experimented with automating functional tests and, perhaps, unit tests. Those that have had good experiences rave about automation and cannot imagine having been successful without it. However, for every success story, there are many untold stories of disappointment. What separates the successes from the disappointments? In this class, Gerard Meszaros describes common problems encountered when writing and running automated tests. He characterizes the problems in the form of their visible symptoms, discusses their root causes, and suggests possible solutions expressed in the form of patterns that have worked for others. Many of these causes and patterns are equally applicable to unit tests using xUnit, automated functional and acceptance tests using tools such as Watir, and some even apply to record and playback test tools such as Mercury’s QuickTest. Gerard illustrates these concepts with demonstrations and short, hands-on exercises..

Gerard Meszaros is a Calgary, Canada based consultant and trainer specializing is agile development processes. He has more than 25 years experience building and testing software intensive systems in both product development and IT environments with technologies ranging from Java and .Net to Ruby and SAP’s ABAP. Gerard coaches cross-functional teams as they learn how to better envision, specify, develop, and test software systems using agile methods. He is frequent speaker at major international software conferences and is the author of xUnit Test Patterns – Refactoring Test Code published by Addison-Wesley Professional.   Gerard Meszaros
 
 
MK  



Using Visual Models for Test Case Design    

Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com 1/2 Day Morning Tutorial

Designing test cases is a fundamental skill that all testers should master. Rob Sabourin shares a graphical technique he has employed to design powerful test cases that will surface important bugs quickly. These skills can be used in exploratory, agile, or engineered contexts—anytime you are having problems designing a test. Rob illustrates you can use how Mindmaps to visualize test designs and better understand variables being tested, one-at-a-time and in complex combinations with other variables. He presents Application-Input-Memory (AIM) heuristic through a series of interactive exercises. We’ll use a widely available free, open-source tool called FreeMind to help implement great test cases and focus our testing on what matters to quickly isolate critical bugs. If you are new to testing, these techniques will remove some of the mystery of good test case design. If you’re a veteran tester, these techniques will sharpen your skills and give you some new test design approaches.

Laptop Required    Laptop Required

Robert Sabourin has more than twenty-five years of management experience, leading teams of software development professionals. A well respected member of the software engineering community, Robert has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering, SQA, testing, management, and internationalization. The author of I am a Bug!, the popular software testing children’s book, Robert is an adjunct professor of Software Engineering at McGill University.   Rob Sabourin
 
 
ML  


Software Inspections in the 21st Century    

Ed Weller, Integrated Productivity Solutions, LLC 1/2 Day Morning Tutorial


Software inspections were first formally developed at IBM in 1972. More than three decades later, inspections remain relevant, and more importantly, they are feasible and will work in most environments. Ed Weller has successfully initiated numerous inspection programs that have stood the test of time. His experience provides the practical basis for this tutorial covering the economics of inspections and how they can improve the bottom line; the roles within the inspection process and why they are important to success; the steps in the process and how to measure their effectiveness; measurements needed to evaluate success and point out areas for improvement; the relationship of inspections to unit testing; and the impact of the global workforce on inspections and tools necessary to adapt inspections to multiple locations and time zones. Join Ed for this inspection process overview and identify the six critical factors you need to consider when your organization is thinking about or planning to implement inspections.

® CMMI is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University
SM SCAMPI is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University

Edward F. Weller has more than forty years of experience in hardware, test, software, systems, and software process engineering. His primary focus for the past fifteen years has been on software process and metrics. He is the principal of Integrated Productivity Solutions, LLC, a consulting company focused on improving quality and productivity. Ed is an SEI-Certified High Maturity Lead Appraiser for SCAMPI SM V1.2 and instructor for the Introduction to the CMMI®. Ed has given nearly forty presentations and tutorials at conferences. Ed can be reached at ed.weller@integratedproductivitysolutions.com.
   Edward Weller
 
 
 
MM  


Driving Software Process Improvement through System Testing    

Nathan Petschenik, STS Consulting 1/2 Day Morning Tutorial

To achieve success in system testing—preventing significant defects from reaching users—technical testing excellence is necessary but it is not sufficient. Equally important are the skills to influence the entire project team’s behavior to help prevent defects from reaching system test in the first place. Nathan Petschenik focuses on providing participants with techniques that system testers can use to drive process improvement activities that positively affect the quality of the software that reaches system test. This highly interactive session offers the opportunity to participate in a Role Awareness seminar that can help you identify and break down barriers and impediments to software quality on your project. Learn how system test teams can use measurements to help project team members—both testers and developers—get better at their jobs. By nurturing front-loaded quality—quality designed-in and built-in, not tested in later—system testers can leverage their efforts and ensure a successful system test.

Nathan Petschenik is Chief Consultant for STS. His career in system testing leadership includes significant experience as a software developer, software development manager, systems engineering director, product manager, and project manager. He is an expert in Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) methodologies. Nathan authored a paper “Practical Priorities in System Testing”, first published in IEEE Software, which is considered a landmark in the transition of software testing from art to science. His book System Testing with an Attitude has received excellent reviews.   Nathan Petschenik 
 
 
MN  


Taekwondo-mation: Dynamic Scripting Techniques 

Dion Johnson, DiJohn Innovative Consulting, Inc. 1/2 Day Morning Tutorial


The martial arts are composed of various methods of combat that serve the purpose of defeating an opponent or defending oneself from a threat. Automated test scripts have an opponent, and that opponent is the application under test with all of its complex dynamic behavior. To defend against this, it's time that we train our automated scripts to be more dynamic via the techniques provided in the automation martial arts known simply as "Taekwondo-mation". Taekwondo-mation comprises relatively simple techniques that can be employed without the implementation of an overly complex framework. These techniques address dynamic data entry, exception handling, and dynamic application navigation—all of which can increase the coverage, maintainability, scalability, and robustness of your automated tests. Using the Ruby scripting language and Internet Explorer, this hands-on workshop helps you learn how to employ Taekwondo-mation techniques on an HTML application. Scripting experience and/or knowledge of basic programming control-flow statements and logic (if-then-else, for-next, etc.) is required.


Laptop Required
Laptop
Required
  Be sure to bring your Windows-based laptop with Internet Explorer and Excel.  Because working in pairs is encouraged, bring a friend to share your PC.

Dion Johnson has over thirteen years of experience in providing IT services to both government and private industry. With a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, Dion has spent much of his professional career as a consultant, tasked with handling all aspects of the delivery of onsite customer services, particularly in the areas of quality assurance, quality control, software process improvement, and requirements analysis. As a conference speaker, Dion has delivered award winning and highly acclaimed presentations at many of the most prestigious industry conferences, including STAREAST, STARWEST, and the Better Software Conference & EXPO. He also writes for Better Software magazine and StickyMinds.com.   Dion Johnson 
 
 
  Tutorials for Monday, May 5  1:00 p.m. — 4:30 p.m.
MO  


To Infinity and Beyond: Extreme Boundary Testing    

Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com, Inc. 1/2 Day Afternoon Tutorial


If you think you have already explored all of the important boundaries as part of your testing, this dynamic, interactive presentation will open your eyes to some often-missed edges and offer your great techniques to expose and explore them. You’ll dive into the rich universe of boundaries related to systems behavior, environments, system limits, design limitations, and even eccentric user behaviors. Rob Sabourin helps you learn to reveal the final frontiers of your software and look beyond the confines of common knowledge to see the aliens and strange monsters lurking. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll participate in a series of fun, interactive exercises and experience rich boundary examples from Rob’s recent projects. Practice identifying and exercising the data conditions that influences a systems behavior and understand how critical values lead to emergent behaviors which can make or break software projects. In addition to practicing traditional boundaries value analysis and equivalence partitioning techniques, you will learn about exploratory testing, failure mode analysis, and several stress testing experiments you can perform.

Robert Sabourin has more than twenty-five years of management experience, leading teams of software development professionals. A well respected member of the software engineering community, Robert has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering, SQA, testing, management, and internationalization. The author of I am a Bug!, the popular software testing children’s book, Robert is an adjunct professor of Software Engineering at McGill University.   Rob Sabourin 
 
 
 
MP  


Calling All Test Managers: Can’t We Just All Get Along?   

Isabel Evans, Testing Solutions Group 1/2 Day Afternoon Tutorial


Are you dealing with test team members who don’t know who their stakeholders are? Is communication with stakeholders difficult because they don’t understand the test team’s role? Are you experiencing mistrust, blame, and finger pointing? Effective communication can enable conflict resolution and reduce delays and costs. Under Isabel Evans’ guidance you will work in teams to resolve real problems. Learn techniques that provide practical solutions to your conflict problems. Practice using open discussion to identify problems, analyze them, and select suitable solutions. Apply new techniques to guide meetings, aid listening and understanding, and resolve problems. Find ways to deal with blockers to group discussion and consensus. Identify ways to present potential solutions to provide a “Win-Win” for all parties. As a result, you’ll be able to work with your teams to deliver solutions to their conflicts. Don’t come expecting just to listen—come expecting to work in a team and learn by doing!

Isabel Evans is a Principal Consultant at Testing Solutions Group. She has more than 20 years experience in the IT industry, working in quality management, testing, training, and documentation for organizations and projects of all sizes in the financial, communications, and software sectors. She divides her time between software quality (consultancy, project work, training, writing), and gardening. Isabel has spoken on software quality, testing and test management at conferences in the UK, Europe and the USA. Her book, Achieving Software Quality Through Teamwork was published by Artech in June 2004. She is a Certified IT Professional and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.   Isabel Evans
 
 
MQ  


System Testing with an Attitude

Nathan Petschenik, STS Consulting 1/2 Day Afternoon Tutorial


In this intense and interactive tutorial, Nathan Petschenik focuses on the technical skills you need to be successful in system testing. Nathan shares a practical methodology for determining the set of system tests you need to cover your application effectively. Then, he describes the test design skills you need to meet these coverage objectives—ensuring that expected result comparisons are conclusive, making system tests repeatable, solving cycle acceleration problems, testing transactions-in-progress, and leveraging existing tests to cover additional data variations. As a framework for applying the technical system testing skills, Nathan introduces you to proven techniques for driving quality up-front where it belongs. See real-world examples of the techniques discussed and practice them in hands-on exercises. Take back an approach for defining an architecture for your system tests, new skills for designing the system tests in this architecture, and an awareness of specific opportunities for system test teams to drive software process improvements.

Nathan Petschenik is Chief Consultant for STS. His career in system testing leadership includes significant experience as a software developer, software development manager, systems engineering director, product manager, and project manager. He is an expert in Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) methodologies. Nathan authored a paper “Practical Priorities in System Testing”, first published in IEEE Software, which is considered a landmark in the transition of software testing from art to science. His book System Testing with an Attitude has received excellent reviews.   Nathan Petschenik
 
 
MR  


Managing Keyword-Driven Test Automation

Hans Buwalda, LogiGear 1/2 Day Afternoon Tutorial


Keyword-driven test automation has now entered the mainstream of test automation approaches. Although some hail it as “the final answer,” many companies have been disappointed with their results. Keyword-driven testing appears to be easy, and that perception may be a potential problem. Experience has shown that numerous pitfalls do exist, and that an active and well-organized management of this testing approach is essential for its success. When properly controlled, keyword-driven automation projects can easily result in automation percentages of 95% or more with minimal effort, and with significant reusability and low maintenance. Hans Buwalda introduces you to keyword-driven testing, defining the essential factors that are needed to achieve success. His focus is managerial—how to organize the process and the team to minimize risks. Hans shares insights he has gathered in countless keyword projects in many industries all over the world.

Hans Buwalda is an internationally recognized expert in test development and testing technology management. He was the first to create an integrated keyword-driven approach, which he named “testing with action words”, now widely used throughout the testing industry. Originally from The Netherlands, Hans now lives and works in California as CTO of LogiGear Corporation, directing the development of what has been become the successful Action Based Testing™ methodology for test automation, and its supporting TestArchitect™ toolset. Prior to joining LogiGear, Mr. Buwalda served as project director at CMG (now Logica) in the Netherlands. He is coauthor of Integrated Test Design and Automation and speaks frequently at international conferences. Hans holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the Free University in Amsterdam.   Hans Buwalda
 
 
MS  


Load Testing with OpenSTA    

Dan Downing, Mentora Group 1/2 Day Afternoon Tutorial


OpenSTA is growing in popularity as an open source alternative for load testing. However, in the open-source world, the would-be performance tester is confronted by the dual challenges of learning both tool and process without the formal training support of commercial products. Dan Downing demystifies the fundamentals of conducting effective load tests. He introduces you to the five steps of load testing—discover, develop, run, fix, report—and provides templates for you to apply to the key tasks in each step. Dan demonstrates OpenSTA on a real project—modeling load; developing scripts; configuring, launching and monitoring tests; and analyzing , interpreting, and reporting results. Learn about the workarounds he’s discovered to overcome OpenSTA tool limitations, especially in results analysis, and how to access community resources to support your learning. You’ll be energized by Dan’s dynamic style and glean gems of insight from his years of successfully applying OpenSTA in his performance consulting practice.

Laptop Required   Laptop Required

Dan Downing is a co-founder and VP of Testing Services at Mentora, an application testing and managed hosting company. Dan is the author of the 5-Steps of Load Testing, which he taught at Mercury Ed Centers, and of numerous presentations, white papers and articles on performance testing. He teaches load testing and over the past ten years has led more than 100 performance projects on applications ranging from eCommerce to ERP and companies ranging from startups to global enterprises. He is a regular presenter at STAR, HP/Mercury, Software Test and Performance, and Workshop on Performance Testing (WOPR) conferences.   Dan Downing
 
 
MT  


The Craft of Bug Investigation

Jon Bach, Quardev, Inc. 1/2 Day Afternoon Tutorial


At testing conferences, many presentations mention techniques and processes meant to help you find bugs, but few talk about what to do when you find one. If it’s as simple as writing what you saw, how do you know that’s the real problem? What do you do when you find a bug but the developer wants you to give them more information? How do you reproduce those pesky, intermittent bugs that come in from customers? Join Jon Bach in this hands-on tutorial to help you practice investigation and analysis skills like questioning, conjecturing, branching, and backtracking. If you’re telling stories about the bug that got away, this tutorial gives you the opportunity to try some techniques that may trap it so you can earn more credibility, respect, and autonomy from your stakeholders. Collaboration is encouraged during the session, so bring your tool suggestions, tester’s notebook, and scientific mindset.

Jon Bach is senior consultant and Manager for Corporate Intellect at Quardev, Inc., a Seattle outsource test lab where he manages testing projects ranging from a few days to several months using Rapid Testing techniques. In 2000, Jon and his brother James invented Session-Based Test Management for managing and measuring exploratory testing. In his thirteen years of testing, Jon has been a test contractor, full-time test manager, and consultant for companies such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. He has written articles for both Better Software and Computer magazines.   Jon Bach
 

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