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STAREAST 2006 Concurrent Sessions
Go To: Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
View by Track
| Friday, May 19, 2006 10:00 AM | | The Last Presentation on Test Estimation You Will Ever Need to Attend
Geoff Horne, Geoff Horne Testing
Estimating the test effort for a project has always been a thorn in the test manager’s side. How do you get close to something reasonable when there are so many variables to consider? Sometimes, estimating test effort seems to be no more accurate than a finger in the wind. As Geoff Horne likes to call it, the “testimation” process can work for you if you do it right. Learn where to start, the steps involved, how to refine estimates, ways to sell the process and the result to management, and how to use the process to develop a test plan that resembles reality. Geoff demonstrates a spreadsheet-based tool that he uses to formulate his “testimations” and shows you how to use it at each step of the process.
• The different variables that need to be considered
• How to convert the “testimation” into a workable test schedule
• A spreadsheet template to help you estimate test effort |
| | You'll Be Surprised by the Things Testers Miss
James Lyndsay, Workroom Productions
Why do some bugs lie undetected until live operation of the software and then almost immediately bite us? Drawing on instances of problems that were obvious in production—but missed or nearly missed in testing, James Lyndsay can help you catch more bugs starting the day you return to work. James first describes bugs not found because too little time is spent on testing. Then, looking at the testers’ knowledge, he discusses bugs missed because of requirements issues or because testers did not understand the underlying technology’s potential for failure. In the most substantial part of the session, James looks at bugs missed because they could not be observed or because testers skimmed over the issue. Learn to recognize each type of testing problem and discover ways to mitigate or eliminate it.
• Coding errors that are hard to spot with typical test design techniques
• Working with emergent behaviors and unexpected risks
• What to do with bugs that should have been found earlier |
| | She Said, He Heard: Challenges and Triumphs in Global Outsourcing
Judy Hallstrom, Franklin Templeton Investments
You are asked to put together a QA group in India that will work in tandem with your US team to provide twenty-four hour support for a global financial company. And what did Judy Hallstrom, Manager of Testing Services, and Indian Project Manager, Ravi Sekhar Reddy, and their group accomplish? The successful implementation of a fully integrated QA function, from scratch, in less than one year with minimal infrastructure. Walk through the challenges and triumphs as they built their unit from the ground up with no outsourcing service company support. With obstacles ranging from leased equipment, inadequate infrastructure, and shared office space to training issues, visas, Indian Customs, and much more, Judy and Ravi have seen and overcome them all. Now, two years later, they have a global QA team with processes that meet industry recognized quality standards.
• Working with a sourcing partner vs. going it alone
• Ways to build bridges between internal and outsourced staff
• Managing the workflow across international boundaries and multiple time zones |
| | The Art of Exploration
David Gilbert, Sirius Software Quality Associates, Inc.
In order for exploratory testing to be perceived as a valuable process by all stakeholders in the organization, we need to make sure the result of that testing—our documentation—is presented with the same professionalism and attention to detail that distinguishes an artistic masterpiece from a paint-by-number kit. David Gilbert discusses the practical steps testers can take to improve the perceived value of exploratory testing in their organizations. He explains how we can apply a consistent, professional, and structured methodology to our exploratory testing and employ processes that will consistently create the level of detailed output that is considered the hallmark of any investigative analysis. Finally, David tells us how better to communicate the value of exploratory tests and document both the process and results of exploration in a way that stakeholders will understand.
• Why stakeholders may question the value of exploratory testing
• Steps during testing and analysis afterward to increase the benefits of exploration
• Changes in the presentation of exploratory results to improve its perceived value |
| | SOA and Web Services Testing Involve the Whole Team
John Michelsen, iTKO, Inc.
Serious enterprise application development is moving to Service Oriented Architectures as companies try to leverage existing applications while meeting new customer demands. Even as the ability to connect Web sites dynamically adds significant new levels of business functionality, it opens up a new point of failure with each connection. Code coverage is becoming far less important than the ability to test every component of your J2EE stack in the same environment as it will be deployed in production. John Michelsen shares the current trends in SOA testing, including unit testing with JUnit, test-driven Development (XP, TDD methods), test script automation, load testing, continuous testing, and much more. Learn about the pitfalls in testing SOA systems and why some companies wrongly give up on even trying.
• Trends in testing SOA and Web service enabled applications
• Methods for test-enabling the composite layers that make up SOA application
• Customer examples (eCommerce, Aerospace/Defense, Software ISV) of SOA applications |
| | | Friday, May 19, 2006 11:15 AM | | Deal Me In: Playing the Manage Your Manager Game
Jon Hagar, Lockheed Martin
We all have managers above us with whom we must deal—and how we deal with them requires skill and practice. To be successful and help a team be its best, you, as a test manager, need daily practice at managing your manager(s). Using an “arms length” viewpoint of gaming, Jon Hagar examines seven situations in which you may need to win in order to get what you want and what your team needs. But not all games can be won or at least not in exactly the way we might want to win them. The test management game is about positive intent, taking the high road—you do not have to cheat—and knowing when to bet and when to fold your cards.
• You want a promotion or even your manager’s job. What can you do?
• Your manager sets impossible schedule or budget goals. What can you do?
• A manager is not listening to the test information. What can you do?
. . . plus four more management games people play |
| | All I Need to Know about Testing I Learned from Dr. Seuss
Robert Sabourin, AmiBug.com Inc
Through the stories and parables of Theodor Geisel, we can learn simple, yet remarkably powerful approaches for solving testing problems. In a tour of common issues we encounter in testing—test planning, staff training, communications, test case design, test execution, status reporting, and more, Robert Sabourin explains how you can apply lessons from the great books of Dr. Seuss to testing. Green Eggs and Ham teaches us combinations; Go, Dog, Go teaches us the value of persistence; Because a Little Bug Went Kachoo teaches us about side effects, chaos, and risk management. Others such as Hop on Pop, Marvin K Mooney, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, and Inside Outside UpSide Down all have important lessons about how to get things done on software projects. Learn some simple truths and take away some heuristic testing aids to become a more productive and effective tester.
• Important heuristics to better test planning
• Different testing approaches that can be used for the same problem
• A back to basics way to improve performance |
| | Managing Global Teams and Projects
Samir Shah, Microsoft Corporation
Global teams are increasingly becoming a reality with advancement in networking and internet technologies. You may have part of your team on west coast, east coast, in Europe or Asia. Although global teams seem to be a great way to bring diverse talent and to improve time-to-market, many projects actually fail to deliver on promises. An exception is the MSN Messenger team. After first setting reasonable goals and roadmaps for each team(s) and selecting projects that were amenable to remote work then hired the right talent or vendor resources that could support long-term project requirements. Samir Shah shares the techniques, especially those related to communications, that they employ at each stage of the effort to help them succeed. Samir describes the data they capture and the set of metrics they use to keep them on track. Find out what it takes to scale your team to be a successful global team.
• Kick-off with the right projects and clear roadmap
• Hire and train the internal and vendor team
• Measure success along the way |
| | Session-Based Exploratory Testing: A Large Project Adventure
George Bliss, Captaris
You know the story: Marketing wants more features, faster release cycles, and release dates that do not slip. Customers want new functions and software that does not break. Testers and developers want to release high quality software with limited resources. Management wants good information to make ship don’t ship decisions. What if, facing all of these wants, you could reduce testing time by up to 50% and release better code as evidenced by fewer defects with lower severity after release? George Bliss shows you how a switch from traditional script-based testing to session-based exploratory testing—along with agile development practices and more automation—achieved those results. With session-based exploratory testing, they delivered real-time status updates to management and helped to make the quality of software everyone’s business.
• Improved communication and reporting to stakeholders with session-based exploratory testing
• Spread the decision surrounding release decisions to all critical groups
• Tools for handling the results from session-based exploratory testing |
| | Translating Business Risks into a Risk-Based Test Plan
Ruud Teunissen, POLTEQ IT Services BV
We all know that testing should be based on business risks. In practice, test managers often go from those risks to test coverage in an ad-hoc, intuitive way. Instead, by taking a step-by-step approach, you can improve coverage and better prioritize your tests. After translating business risks into product risks and establishing the required test coverage, you select the appropriate techniques and estimate test effort. Ruud Teunissen explains that the right test design technique is based on the required coverage, type of functionality, test level, quality characteristics to be tested, available documentation, available resources, and resource skill sets. This risk-based test planning approach enables the test manager to report progress and defects found in terms of the business risks so that stakeholders can make informed decisions about releasing the software into production.
• The well-defined steps from business risks to test design and execution
• Monitor, control, and report test progress in line with business risks
• Achieve the right test coverage by selecting appropriate test design techniques |
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