Often the key to successful testing is effective and timely planning. This tutorial introduces you to proven test planning methods and techniques, including the Master Test Plan and level-specific test plans for acceptance, systems, integration, and unit testing. Rick Craig explains in detail how to complete an IEEE 829-style test plan and test summary report. You’ll learn how to manage test activities, estimate test effort, analyze risks, and achieve buy-in, as well as get test measurement and reporting recommendations for monitoring and control of testers and the testing process.

 
About the Instructor
Rick Craig is an experienced test manager, consultant, and lecturer. He’s helped hundreds of companies improve their testing in countries throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas and has been a featured speaker at testing conferences since 1983. He’s also the former American editor of Software Quality Management magazine and the co-author of the Systematic Software Testing Handbook. He’s currently a colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

Drawing on real-world examples of bug reports, Elisabeth Hendrickson uses this forum to reveal tips and techniques for capturing the wiliest and squirmiest of the critters crawling around in your software. You'll learn to identify leading causes of defects as well as new approaches to ensuring that once found, the bugs are fixed. This hands-on experience gives you the opportunity to practice these bug-hunting techniques in a fun, yet challenging, atmosphere.

 
About the Instructor
Elisabeth Hendrickson is an independent consultant who specializes in software quality assurance and management. She has more than 12 years of experience working with leading software companies and is the founder of Quality Tree Software, Inc. An award-winning author, she has published more than 20 articles and is a frequently invited speaker at major software quality and software management conferences.

This tutorial is a practical guide for selecting and managing test automation. Michael Sowers and Tom Wissink present core testing tool terminology, concepts, and best practices, while illustrating techniques for evaluating and implementing tools. Live demos are used to illustrate representative, full-function tools. Learn how to effectively integrate tools into the testing process, and examine a best-of-breed list of tool vendors and test automation products.

 
About the Instructors
Mike Sowers has over two decades of experience in the engineering and quality fields with extensive experience in requirements gathering, defect prevention techniques, defect containment approaches, software verification and validation-practices, and software engineering methodologies.

Realistically Estimating Software Testing 

Are your estimating skills duller than your grandma’s butter knife? Sharpen them quickly by learning to develop realistic, justifiable estimates for software testing projects. Ross Collard teaches you the rules of thumb for estimating the time, resources, and budgets needed for testing projects; ways to develop and tailor these rules for your own testing projects; and, using in-class exercises, practical examples of how to develop test project estimates — then he’ll show you how to critique the results. Due to time constraints, the session focuses mainly on feature testing, not on specialized types such as load testing. You’ll explore testing new and modified software, manual and automated testing, and traditional and iterative RAD development methodologies. No one particular test environment will be assumed.

 
About the Instructor
Ross Collard is a consultant specializing in software testing. His current clients include American Express, Citibank, Dell, General Electric, and Nortel. He has a master’s degree in computer science from California Institute of Technology and an MBA from Stanford. He also teaches software testing at the University of California Berkeley.

Doing software testing after coding is like looking for typos once a book has gone to press. Not only is it ineffective, it’s costly. The most efficient testing approach applies sound testing practices throughout the entire software lifecycle. In this tutorial, Dale Perry details a testing lifecycle that parallels the software development lifecycle and focuses on defect prevention as well as early detection. Learn when, what, and how to test, plus ways to improve the testability of your system. Get the basics for implementing a pragmatic, yet systematic, integrated approach to testing software.

 
About the Instructor
Dale Perry has more than 25 years of experience in information technology. He has been a developer, DBA, project manager, tester, and test manager. His project experience includes large system conversion, distributed systems, on-line applications, client/server, and Web applications.

Linda Hayes presents a detailed implementation approach for test automation that accelerates the development effort, dramatically shortens the learning curve, allows nontechnical analysts to develop and execute automated tests, and even simplifies test library management and maintenance. Learn how this practical and proven approach can be used with any testing tool and how it applies to Web, client/server, and character-based applications. Sample scripts and a demonstration of a completed test library are provided.

 
About the Instructor
Linda Hayes is CEO of WorkSoft, Inc., a software company specializing in test automation. She has more than 19 years of experience in software quality and testing and holds degrees in accounting, tax, and law. Linda is a frequent speaker and award-winning author of books and articles, including a monthly column in Datamation.

Many developers and testers are making the transition from testing traditional client/server, PC, and mainframe systems, to testing rapidly changing Web applications. This tutorial makes the transition easier by explaining these new technologies and recommending techniques that can be included in a Web site's functional, compatibility, usability, and navigation test plans. Gain an invaluable overview of the most common technologies being used to build Web sites and applications. Learn proven tips and techniques for testing Web technologies, and discover the latest tools available for Web testing.

 
About the Instructor
Lee Copeland has more than 30 years’ experience as an information systems professional in the areas of application development and software process improvement. He has taught seminars and consulted extensively throughout the United States and abroad.