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STAREAST 2008 Preconference Tutorials

Go To:   Monday  |   Tuesday  

  Tutorials for Tuesday, May 6  8:30 a.m. — 4:30 p.m.  
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Adapting to Agile

Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Consulting Full Day Tutorial


When a development team adopts an agile process such as Scrum or XP, testers find that their traditional practices no longer fit. The extensive up-front test planning and heavyweight test documentation used in traditional development environments just get in the way in an agile world. In this participative workshop, you experience the transition to agile through a paper-based simulation (no programming required). In a series of iterations, the team attempts to deliver a product that the customer is willing to buy, thus generating revenue for the company. As with real projects, producing a working product on a tight schedule can be challenging. After each iteration, your team reflects on key events and adjusts to increase productivity for the next iteration. Learn to apply the principles of visibility, feedback, communication, and collaboration to increase the team’s rate of delivery. By the end of the workshop, you will have a visceral understanding of agile and, in particular, the shifting role of Test/QA in agile development.

Elisabeth Hendrickson began working in the software industry in 1984. She has held positions as a Tester, Programmer, Test Automation Manager, Quality Engineering Director, and Technical Writer working for companies ranging from a 20-person startup to a large multi-national software vendor. Elisabeth Hendrickson founded her company, Quality Tree Consulting, in 1997 to provide training and consulting in software quality and testing. Elisabeth is frequently invited to speak at conferences around the world. In 2003, Elisabeth became involved with the Agile community, became a Certified Scrum Master, and in 2006, she joined the board of directors of the Agile Alliance. Today, Elisabeth splits her time between teaching, speaking, writing, and working on Extreme Programming teams with test-infected programmers who value her obsession with testing.   Elisabeth Hendrickson
 
 
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Key Test Design Techniques

Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering Full Day Tutorial


All testers know that we can create many more test cases than we will ever have time to create and execute. The major problem in testing is choosing a small, “smart” subset from the almost infinite number of possibilities available. Join Lee Copeland to discover how to design test cases using formal black-box techniques including equivalence class and boundary value testing, decision tables, state-transition diagrams, and all-pairs testing. Also explore white-box techniques and their associated coverage metrics. Evaluate more informal approaches such as random and hunch-based testing and learn about the importance of exploratory testing to enhance your testing ability. Choose the right test case documentation format for your organization. Use the test execution results to continually improve your test designs.

Lee Copeland has more than thirty-five years of experience as a consultant, instructor, author, and information systems professional. He has held a number of technical and managerial positions with commercial and non-profit organizations in the areas of applications development, software testing, and software development process improvement. Lee frequently speaks at software conferences both in the United States and internationally and currently serves as Program Chair for the Better Software Conference & Expo and the STAR testing conferences, and SQE’s new Agile Development Practices conference. Lee is the author of A Practitioner’s Guide to Software Test Design, a compendium of the most effective methods of test case design.   Lee Copeland 
 
 
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Essential Test Management and Planning

Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering Full Day Tutorial


The key to successful testing is effective and timely planning. Rick Craig introduces proven test planning methods and techniques, including the Master Test Plan and level-specific test plans for acceptance, system, integration, and unit testing. Rick explains how to customize an IEEE-829-style test plan and test summary report to fit your organization’s needs. Learn how to manage test activities, estimate test efforts, and achieve buy-in. Discover a practical risk analysis technique to prioritize your testing and help you become more effective with limited resources. Rick offers test measurement and reporting recommendations for monitoring the testing process. Discover new methods and develop renewed energy for taking test management to the next level in your organization.

A frequent speaker at testing conferences, 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
 
 
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Risk-Based Security Testing

Paco Hope, Cigital Full Day Tutorial



Software security testing is a key element in your quality assurance strategy for protecting your applications and critical data. Organizations need applications that not only work correctly under normal use, but continue to work acceptably in the face of a malicious attack. Software security testing, which extends beyond basic functional requirements, is a critical part of secure software development. By showing you how to use security risk information to improve your test strategy and planning, Paco Hope helps you build confidence that attackers cannot turn security risks into security failures. You’ll learn to think like an attacker and develop test cases for security requirements. Explore a white-box approach that looks inside your code to help you design your tests. By employing risk-based security testing, you can achieve the most benefits with less effort and avoid downstream security problems and mitigation costs. Paco offers an eye-opening experience for all QA professionals responsible for test strategies, plans, and designs. It will change the way you think about test development.

A Managing Consultant at Cigital, Paco Hope has more than twelve years of experience in software and operating system security. His areas of expertise include software security policy, code analysis, host security, and PKI. Paco has worked extensively with embedded systems in the gaming and mobile communications industries, and has served as a subject matter expert on issues of network security standards in the financial industry. Paco is co-author of Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security. Prior to joining Cigital, he served as director of product development for Tovaris, Inc. and head systems administrator in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia.   Paco Hope
 
 
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Understanding Software Performance Testing

Dale Perry, Software Quality Engineering Full Day Tutorial


What does it take to properly plan and implement a performance test? What factors need to be considered? What is your performance test tool telling you? Do you really need a performance test? Is it worth the cost? These questions plague all performance testers. In addition, many performance tests do not appear to be worth the time it takes to run them, and the results never seem to resemble—yet alone predict— production system behavior. Performance tests are some of the most difficult tests to create and run, and most organizations don’t fully appreciate the time and effort required to properly execute them. Dale Perry discusses the key issues and realities of performance testing—what can and cannot be done with a performance test, what is required to do a performance test, and what the test “really” tells you.

A partner of IT communication, 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 also 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
 
 
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Just-In-Time Testing

Robert Sabourin, AmiBug.com, Inc. Full Day Tutorial


Turbulent Web development and other market-driven projects experience almost daily requirements modifications, changes to user interfaces, and the continual integration of new functions, features, and technologies. Robert Sabourin shares proven, practical techniques to keep your testing efforts on track while reacting to fast-paced projects with changing priorities, technologies, and user needs. Rob covers test planning and organization techniques, scheduling and tracking, blending scripted and exploratory testing, identifying key project workflows, and using testing and test management tools. Learn how to create key decision-making workflows for test prioritization and bug triage, adapt testing focus as priorities change, identify technical risks, and respect business importance. Come away with a new perspective on your testing challenges and discover ways to take control of the situation—rather than to be controlled by it.

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.   Robert Sabourin 
 
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Requirements-Based Testing

Richard Bender, Bender RBT, Inc. Full Day Tutorial


Testers use requirements as an oracle to verify the success or failure of their tests. Richard Bender presents the principles of the Requirements Based Testing methodology in which the software's specifications drive the testing process. Richard discusses proven techniques to ensure that requirements are accurate, complete, unambiguous, and logically consistent. Requirements based testing provides a process for first testing the integrity of the specifications. It then provides the algorithms for designing an optimized set of tests sufficient to verify the system from a black-box perspective. Find out how to design test cases to validate that the design and code fully implement all functional requirements. Determine which test design strategy—cause-effect graphing, equivalence class testing, orthogonal pairs, and more—to apply to your applications. By employing a requirements based testing approach, you will be able to quantify test completion criteria and measure test status.

Richard Bender has been involved in test and evaluation since 1969. He has authored and coauthored books and courses on quality assurance and test, software development lifecycles, analysis and design, software maintenance, and project management. He has worked with an international clientele in a wide range of industries from financial to academic.   Richard Bender
 
 
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Session-Based Test Management

Jon Bach, Quardev, Inc.    Full Day Tutorial


The agile nature of exploratory testing makes it a widely-used and effective test approach, especially when testing time is limited. But despite the ability of testers to rapidly apply their skill, exploratory testing is often dismissed by project managers who regard exploration as unreproducible, immeasurable, and unaccountable. If you find this to be true where you work, a solution may be to use Session-Based Test Management (SBTM), developed by Jon Bach and his brother James to solve these problems. In SBTM, testers are assigned areas of a product to explore, and testing is time-boxed in “sessions” which have mission statements called “charters”. Together, these create a meaningful and countable unit of work. Using a simulated project, you’ll practice elements of sessions, including chartering, paired testing (working with another tester on the same mission), storytelling (taking notes during your testing) and debriefing (responding to questions after your session). Jon will use a freely available, open source tool to help manage and measure testing effort done in sessions.

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
 
 
  Tutorials for Tuesday, May 6  8:30 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.  
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Spend Wisely, Test Well: Making a Business Case for Testing    

Susan Herrick, EDS – Global Testing Practice Half Day Morning Tutorial


Organizations that develop software always profess absolute commitment to product quality and customer satisfaction. At the same time, they often believe that “all that testing isn’t really necessary.” Test managers must be able to quantify the financial value of testing and substantiate their claims with empirical data. Susan Herrick provides experienced test managers with quantitative approaches to dispelling the prevailing myths about the negative bottom-line impact of testing, to making a compelling business case for testing throughout the project life cycle, and to providing decision-makers with information that allows them to make fiscally responsible choices about test efforts. During a hands-on activity, you will calculate, analyze, and substantiate answers to such questions as, “What will it cost if we don’t test at all?” “Should we rely on the system and acceptance testers to find all the defects?” “Can our experienced developers test their own code?” and “Should experienced users perform the acceptance testing?” Answer these and more questions with the numbers at hand to back up your claims.

Laptop Required
Laptop
Required
  To benefit fully from the hands-on activity, each participant should bring a laptop. All participants will receive a CD containing a calculation tool (with full instructions) as a takeaway.

With twenty-five years of involvement in the development of IT solutions and fifteen years of testing experience, Susan Herrick is currently a Testing Architect and corporate leader of Testing Management and Consulting for the Global Testing Capability at EDS. She provides expertise, leadership, and guidance in “architecting testing solutions,” particularly in the areas of testing strategy development and testing management/measurement. Susan has contributed to the development of supporting processes, tools, and techniques in these key areas.   Susan Herrick 
 
 
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Managing Test Outsourcing

Martin Pol, POLTEQ IT Services BV Half Day Morning Tutorial


When outsourcing all or part of your testing efforts to a third-party vendor, you need a special approach to make testing effective and controlled. Martin Pol explains the roadmap to successful outsourcing, how to define the objectives and strategy, and what tasks should be outsourced and what tasks should not—at least not yet. He describes how to select your supplier and how to migrate, implement, and cope with organizational issues. Martin discusses contracts, service level agreements, compensation issues, and monitoring and controlling the outsourced test work, including specific metrics. The good news for testers is that outsourcing requires more testing—not less—and that new testing jobs are coming into existence. Testing the outsourcing is becoming a very popular control mechanism for outsourcing in general.

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. During recent years he has specialized in test outsourcing/offshoring and he has developed an approach to successfully deal with this phenomenon. His experiences in both India and China are of great value. He has supported many organizations to define the test service levels, to organize the prerequisites and to implement test outsourcing management and monitoring.   Martin Pol
 
 
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Improving Testing’s Value through Customer Collaboration    

Gerard Meszaros, ClearStream Consulting Half Day Morning Tutorial


Unfortunately, test organizations often get involved in projects late in the development lifecycle. This fact inherently limits the value of reporting defects. For example, most testing activities focus on answering the question “Is the software built right?” It is much too late to ask the more important question “Is this the right software?” By becoming involved earlier in the project, test teams can increase their value to the project and in the eyes of their customers. Gerard Meszaros presents techniques and approaches you can use to increase testing’s value through face-to-face collaboration with customers—product managers, sponsors, and end users—of the software. These techniques can help you and your team do a better job of testing. And, more importantly, they can improve the “fitness for use” of the software by helping customers answer the question, “Is this the right software?” Although these techniques are used on many agile projects and have been shown to improve customer satisfaction many-fold, you do not need to be operating in an agile environment to use and benefit from close customer collaboration.

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
 
 
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Root Cause Analysis: The Key to Eliminating Systemic Defects

Ed Weller, Integrated Productivity Solutions, LLC. Half Day Morning Tutorial


Root Cause Analysis (RCA) has different meanings to different organizations, but it’s proper focus is on identifying how and why faults get into our requirements, design, code, and test products. When performed properly, RCA can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of any organization. Ed Weller explores the basics of RCA, and the enablers for its successful adoption and use including management attitude, teamwork, and organizational culture. He presents several methods of cause-effect analysis implemented with varying degrees of formality, allowing you to select the optimum method for your organization. The often forgotten second part of RCA is implementing preventive action to eliminate future problem occurrences. RCA is sometimes viewed as “THE Way to Improve Quality”; however, it is beneficial only in certain situations that Ed will describe as he draws on the experience of multiple organizations and their successes and failures in using RCA.

Edward F. Weller has over 40 years of experience in hardware, test, software, systems, and software process engineering. His primary focus for the last 15 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 V1.2 and instructor for the Introduction to the CMMI. He was the Program Chair of the 7th International Conference on the Applications of Software Measurement (1996). Ed was also program chair for ASM 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Ed has given nearly 40 presentations and tutorials at conferences. Ed can be reached at ed.weller@integratedproductivitysolutions.com.

  Edward Weller
 
 
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The Fundamentals of Pairwise Testing—With a Twist   

Randall Rice Rice Consulting Services Half Day Morning Tutorial


Pairwise testing is a technique for designing test cases to execute all possible discrete combinations of each pair of input parameters. Use case scenarios define a dialogue between a user and the system with a tangible result. Join Randy Rice to explore ways to employ these two techniques in combination to design tests that provide a high level of test coverage while minimizing the total number of tests needed. Learn practical ways to prioritize pairwise test scenarios by risk level and execution effort as you gain a new tool to increase both coverage and efficiency in your testing. This optimized scenario-based approach is useful for establishing a strong baseline of regression tests that are both compact and achievable in most project schedules. In addition, pairwise scenario-based test designs used together are a powerful technique for system testing, user acceptance testing, and testing new service-oriented architectures (SOAs).

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
 
 
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Risk-Based Assurance and Acceptance: Playing the Risk Game    

Isabel Evans Testing Solutions Group Half Day Morning Tutorial


The lack of a rigorous risk management process may be the biggest risk you and your organization are taking! Understanding risk is critical to prioritizing testing, and testers need to evaluate risks from our stakeholders’ positions. We need to connect our risk management process to that used by the business. In this interactive tutorial designed for senior testers and managers who can influence process within their organizations, you will break up into teams and play “the risk game,” not just to identify and prioritize risks but also to create mitigations. Reflecting on what we have done, teams will suggest a risk management process, arising from their experiences in the tutorial game. Learn to identify key risk areas, look at ways of categorizing risks, try some risk analysis methods, and discuss how different risk mitigation actions can help you deal with root causes or with symptoms.

A principal consultant at Testing Solutions Group, Isabel Evans has more than twenty years of 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. The author of Achieving Software Quality Through Teamwork, Isabel has spoken on software quality, testing, and test management at conferences in the UK, Europe, and the US. Isabel is a Chartered IT Professional and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.   Isabel Evans
 
 
  Tutorials for Tuesday, May 6  1:00 p.m. — 4:30 p.m.
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Software Diagnosis: Tools and Techniques for Testers     

James Lyndsay, Workroom Productions Half Day Afternoon Tutorial

Good test analysts need to be able to go beyond simply logging defects and passing them to developers. To give more value to stakeholders and integrate with their development teams, you need to investigate the problems that they find and suggest their causes. Diagnostic skills will help you distinguish genuine problems from a rash of symptoms, to work out what lies behind defect reports, and to communicate bugs effectively by describing plausible models. In this workshop, James Lyndsay uses a succession of practical exercises based on real problems including truncation, bottlenecks, boundaries, and emergent behaviors. You will practice selecting test conditions to isolate and describe a defect, analyze data to reveal connections and populations, and work with logs and events to arrive at sequences that reveal potential cause and effect. At the end of the workshop, you will have improved better understanding of the techniques and principles of diagnosis that you can apply to issues in your own systems.

Laptop Required   Laptop Required

James Lyndsay is an independent test strategist, based in London. He's been testing since 1986, and has been the principal consultant at Workroom Productions since its formation in 1994. As a consultant, he's worked in a variety of businesses and project styles; from retail to telecommunications, from rapidly-evolving internet start-ups to more traditional large-scale enterprise. He's worked on technical requirements for companies that make and sell software, commercial requirements for companies that buy and use software, and unexpected requirements everywhere. James was an internal irritant to the ISEB exam process for five years, is a regular speaker and occasional teacher, and runs LEWT (the London Exploratory Workshop in Testing).   James Lyndsay 
 
 
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Risk Assessment and Risk Management for Test Managers     

Mike Ennis, Accenture Half Day Afternoon Tutorial

As organizations strive to hurry up software development to reduce time-to-market, there is significant probability that software development processes will be compromised to “make the date.” These compromises always seem to have a negative effect on the test team who has the difficult, if not impossible, task of helping ensure a quality release before shipping. Mike Ennis discusses ways test managers can implement risk-based testing and describes fundamental risk management techniques that can be leveraged throughout the development life cycle. Learn the essentials of managing risk—identification, analysis, prioritization, response planning, resolution, and monitoring. Additionally, you’ll learn the basics of risk-based testing—what it is, why it’s relevant to testing, how to implement it in your organization, and how to apply it throughout the software development life cycle.

Mike Ennis is a quality management expert with more than seventeen years of industry experience specializing in quality assessments, risk analysis, development, and testing in distributed systems environments. As a quality consultant, Mike has worked with several Fortune 100 companies such as IBM, Compaq, BMC Software, and Intuit, and tested a variety of applications in industries including financial services, pharmaceutical, energy, and telecommunications. Mike is a popular speaker at testing conferences including STAREAST, STARWEST, and Better Software Conference & EXPO.   Mike Ennis 
 
 
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Essential Thinking Skills for Test Analysts and Managers     

Krishna Iyer & Mukesh Mulchandani, ZenTEST Labs Half Day Afternoon Tutorial


The most important skills that testers need in their work are thinking skills. While often ignored in favor of testing techniques and automation tools, improving testers’ thinking skills has the greatest benefit. Having trained more than 5000 testers in testing skills and more than 500 testers in essential thinking skills, Krishna Iyer and Mukesh Mulchandani have proven this fact. In this tutorial, they present three vital thinking skills—critical thinking, creative thinking, and coverage thinking. Designed for both testers and test managers, this tutorial helps you develop an eye to see what no else sees, a nose to sniff out more defects, and an ear to critically evaluate every claim you hear. Join Krishna and Mukesh for the latest research in cognitive thinking; learn practical techniques such as ideational fluency, systems thinking, and filtering bias; and understand the mindset of effective testers.

Krishna Iyer is a young entrepreneur and a prolific speaker and author. Before ZenTEST Labs, Krishna was a Quality Manager at Kanbay where he worked with clients such as CitiFinancial, HSBC, IBM, GE. At ZenTEST Labs, besides being at the helm, Krishna has also performed consulting assignments for Mercury Interactive. Krishna shapes ZenTEST Labs strategy using his financial background, improves ZenTEST Labs operations using his rich IT and process consulting experience, and transforms its culture using his expertise as a behavioral trainer. Krishna is a regular presenter in testing and quality conferences including STARWEST.   Krishna Iyer
Mukesh Mulchandani, CTO of ZenTEST Labs, is responsible for establishing ZenTEST Labs as a key player in the software testing domain. Mukesh has seven years of work experience in the Information Technology industry, most of which has been in Banking and Financial Services sector. Before joining ZenTEST Labs, Mukesh worked with Kanbay and Capgemini Consulting and Fortune 500 clients like Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. He has played a major role in designing functional automation processes at the organizational level. Mukesh holds a Masters Degree in Commerce from Pune University. Mukesh has presented in STARWEST 2007 on the topic,“Top Ten Automation Questions – And Answers"   Mukesh Mulchandani
 
 
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Writing Effective Defect Reports    

Kelly Whitmill, InfoPrint Solutions Company Half Day Afternoon Tutorial


You have found a defect. Now what do you do with it? How you write that defect report may make a significant difference in how long it takes to fix it—or whether the defect gets fixed at all. A well-written defect report will help you accomplish your real testing mission— whether it be improved quality through bug fixes or improved decision making through informed stakeholders. Your defect report affects important business decisions and influences your perceived credibility and value to the company. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a literary genius to be successful at writing defect reports. Kelly Whitmill shares ten keys he uses to write effective defect reports. After learning a quick mental checklist to use when you write up reports, you will practice writing a defect report in group exercises. Take home essential skills and information that you can use to make a difference the day you get back to work. Kelly assures us that you will get a more positive response from stakeholders and developers who read your reports.

Kelly Whitmill has more than twenty years of experience in testing software. Currently a senior software engineer at InfoPrint Solutions Company, Kelly has project experience with client/server and Web-based applications, large mainframe applications, and a variety of other applications on multiple platforms. He has worked on teams from the very small to the very large which has given him a great understanding of team dynamics. Kelly has special interests in test automation, system testing, and practical test techniques and practices to improve testing. He has written many defect reports and can provide practical tips on how to avoid the bad and embrace the good.   Kelly Whitmill
 
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Reliable Test Effort Estimation    

Ruud Teunissen, POLTEQ IT Services BV Half Day Afternoon Tutorial


How do you estimate your test effort? And how reliable is your estimate? Ruud Teunissen presents a practical and useful test estimation technique, directly related to the maturity of your test and development process. A reliable effort estimation approach requires five basic elements: (1) Strategy–Determine what to test ( performance, functionality, etc.) and how thoroughly it must be tested. (2) Size–yes, it does matter! Not only the size of the system but also the scope of your tests. (3) Expected Quality–What factors have been established to define quality? (4) Infrastructure and Tools–Define how fast you can test. Without the proper organizational support and the necessary tools, you’ll need more time. (5) Productivity–How experienced and efficient is your team? While it’s fun to learn new techniques, it means your time is not being spent finding defects.

Working in testing since 1989, Ruud Teunissen has held numerous positions in different organizations and projects: tester, test specialist, test consultant, and test manager. His main experience in testing is in test management and test process improvement. He has gained substantial experience in implementing test processes, including test techniques (for design as well as estimation). Ruud is co-author of Software Testing-A Guide to the TMap® Approach and is a frequent speaker at international conferences and workshops. He was a member of the program committee for Quality Week Europe and EuroSTAR.   Ruud Teunissen
 
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Behind Every Bug is a Story    

Antony Marcano Half Day Afternoon Tutorial


Agile teams often write user stories as a way of summarizing software requirements. Each story is elaborated with specific acceptance tests. User stories in the product backlog are prioritized by the customer. However, hiding in the shadows is a secret backlog, the defect list. As a project continues, this secret backlog grows, never receiving as much attention as the cool new user stories in the product backlog. Where user stories and their acceptance tests describe desired behavior, defect reports describe misbehavior. Behind each misbehavior is a desired behavior, often not previously defined. Thus, behind every defect report may be a hidden user story. Antony Marcano first provides an introduction to writing user stories and acceptance tests. Then, he explains how to represent each defect report as an acceptance test, enabling the discovery of the user story hidden within, thereby ensuring that defects get the attention they deserve.

Antony Marcano has a dozen years of experience in software testing across numerous sectors. Since 2000, much of Antony's work has been on agile projects. Now, as a practitioner, mentor, coach, and consultant, he helps teams realize the benefits associated with agile development. A regular speaker at peer-workshops and conferences, Antony’s views have been quoted in numerous publications including Corporate Insurance & Risk magazine, VNUNet, and the British Computer Society’s journal The Tester. Antony is creator and curator of testingReflections.com, one of the most influential software testing sites on the Internet and is a Technical Editor for Better Software Magazine.   Antony Marcano

Go To:   Monday  |   Tuesday  


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