STARCanada | Development Manager

Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com

Wed, 04/10/2013 - 10:30am

If testers sit passively through agile planning, important testing activities will be missed or glossed over. Testing late in the sprint becomes a bottleneck, quickly diminishing the advantages of agile development. However, testers can actively advocate for customers’ concerns while helping the team implement robust solutions. Rob Sabourin shows how testers contribute to the estimation, task definition, clarification, and the scoping work required to implement user stories.

Nate Oster, CodeSquads, LLC

Wed, 04/10/2013 - 12:45pm

The best software development teams find ways for programmers and testers to work closely together. These teams recognize that programmers and testers each bring their own unique strengths and perspectives to the project. However, working in agile teams requires us to unlearn many of the patterns that traditional development taught us.

W9 Collaboration without Chaos

Griffin Jones, Congruent Compliance

Wed, 04/10/2013 - 2:00pm

Sometimes software testers overvalue the adherence to the collective wisdom embodied in organizational processes and the mechanical execution of tasks. Overly directive procedures work—to a point—projecting an impression of firm, clear control. But do they generate test results that are valuable to our stakeholders? Is there a way to orchestrate everyone’s creative contributions without inviting disorganized confusion? Is there a model that leverages the knowledge and creativity of the people doing the work, yet exerts reliable control in a non-directive way?

T4 Bad Testing Metrics—and What To Do About Them

Paul Holland, Testing Thoughts

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 10:30am

Many organizations use software testing metrics extensively to determine the status of their projects and whether or not their products are ready to ship. Unfortunately most, if not all, of the metrics in use are so flawed that they are not only useless but possibly dangerous—misleading decision makers, inadvertently encouraging unwanted behavior, or providing overly simplistic summaries out of context. Paul Holland reviews Goodhart’s Law and its applicability to software testing metrics.

T5 Snappy Visualizations for Test Communications

Thomas Vaniotis, Liquidnet

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 12:45pm

Do you struggle to find the best way to explain your testing status and coverage to your stakeholders? Do numbers and metrics make your stakeholders’ eyes glaze over, or, even worse, do you feel dirty giving metrics that you know are going to be abused? Do you have challenges explaining your strategy to fellow testers and developers? Visualizations are a great way to turn raw data into powerful communications. Thomas Vaniotis presents eleven powerful visual tools that can be created easily with simple materials around the office—sticky notes, graph paper, markers, and whiteboards.

T10 Quantifying the Value of Static Analysis

William Oliver, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 2:00pm

During the past ten years, static analysis tools have become a vital part of software development for many organizations. However, the question arises, “Can we quantify the benefits of static analysis?” William Oliver presents the results of a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory study that first measured the cost of finding software defects using formal testing on a system without static analysis; then, they integrated a static analysis tool into the process and, over a period of time, recalculated the cost of finding software defects.

Richard Bender, BenderRBT

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 2:00pm

The software industry knows that the majority of software defects have their root cause in poor requirements. So how can testers help improve requirements? Richard Bender asserts that requirements quality significantly improves when testers systematically validate the requirements as they are developed. Applying scenario-driven reviews ensures that the requirements have the proper focus and scope. Ambiguity reviews quantitatively identify unclear areas of the specification leading to early defect detection and defect avoidance.

T15 Android Mobile Development: A Test-driven Approach

Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan, LeanDog

David Shah, LeanDog

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 3:15pm

Few topics are hotter these days than mobile software development. It seems that every company is rushing to release its own mobile application. However, when it comes time to build that software, companies quickly discover that things are different now. Many developers claim that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to test drive an application. Traditional testing tools are unable to automate the application in the emulator or on the device so testers usually are left with a manual testing approach.

Dan Shire, IBM Canada

David Best, IBM Canada

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 3:15pm

In 2014, most Canadian businesses will face significant challenges as government regulations go into effect, requiring websites to be accessible to users with disabilities. Are your project teams knowledgeable about the technical accessibility standards? Is your business ready to comply with the regulations? Dan Shire and David Best review the key principles of web accessibility (WCAG 2.0) and the government regulations (including Ontario’s AODA) that your organization must meet.

Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 10:30am

How can testers spend more time doing productive testing and waste less time preparing "useless" project documentation? Rob Sabourin employs whiteboarding techniques to enable faster, easier, and more powerful communication and collaboration—without all the paperwork. Rob uses whiteboarding to help identify technical risks, understand user needs, and focus testing on what really matters to business stakeholders. Whiteboard block diagrams visualize technical risk to stakeholders. Whiteboard fault models highlight failure modes to developers and testers.

Development Manager

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