Although testers and the test organization ultimately work for “the business,” they do not always know what the business values most. Success in testing is not just finding all the important defects. Rather, it means satisfying your business partners’ needs and helping them achieve their goals and objectives. Based on his experiences on both the testing and business sides of software development, Marc René shares three key things he has learned that business wants and needs from testing and testers—professional expertise, information that is valuable to the business, and a balance of technical and domain knowledge. Explore ways to develop professionalism in your test organization and instill product ownership in your testers. Learn the kinds of data and metrics the business values and how to interpret their findings in light of the business impact and present information the way that business needs to hear it. Help your test organization achieve the right balance of testing skills, technical expertise, and domain knowledge to become the best it can be. 

In this time of economic turmoil, it is more important than ever to justify—and even “sell”—the expenditures you need to achieve the quality goals for your software projects. Delivering a high return on investment is critical for your software test organization to succeed. Jeff Payne addresses why most quality organizations don't get the budget and resources they need, how to position “quality” to the business, and how to measure the return on investment for high quality software. Jeff discusses how to best approach executive management to gain funding approval for quality and testing initiatives. In this interactive session, participants will work together in small teams to develop innovative ways for QA and testing to do more with less and demonstrate an objective, measurable ROI. Each team will present their ideas and suggestions to the group for further evaluation and synthesis. Take back a new perspective on testing, quality, and the business.

During these challenging economic times and in coming years, test and quality professionals—and development organizations as a whole—will be under ever-increasing pressure to test better and test faster. In the face of rapid technology changes, vastly more complex systems, globalization, and new regulatory burdens, changes in the way we test—and develop—software are critical. Deeply embedded software, SOA, mobile devices, cloud computing, and technologies of which we aren’t even aware affect testing and often make it more difficult. And dynamically interacting systems that continuously morph themselves make it almost impossible to even know what we are testing. While new approaches like agile and lean development are rapidly gaining popularity, they pose new challenges and opportunities for software quality. Join Joachim Herschmann and delve into these and other emerging trends that impact testing. Explore the ways that these powerful forces will result in burgeoning new test technologies and require software leaders to change the way they think about the quality professional role, test technologies and processes. Joachim shares Borland’s experience as it undergoes massive changes in its development methodologies and test technologies to prepare them for the inevitable.