Dorothy Graham

Software Test Consultant

In testing for more than thirty years, Dorothy Graham is coauthor of four books—Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testing, and Experiences of Test Automation: Case Studies of Software Test Automation. Dot was a founding member of the ISEB Software Testing Board, a member of the working party that developed the first ISTQB Foundation Syllabus, and served on the boards of conferences and publications in software testing. A popular and entertaining speaker at conferences and seminars worldwide, she has been coming to STAR conferences since the first one in 1992. Dot holds the European Excellence Award in Software Testing and is the first recipient of the ISTQB Excellence Award. Learn more about Dot at DorothyGraham.co.uk.

Speaker Presentations

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - 8:30am

Full-day Tutorials

Managing Successful Test Automation

Many organizations never achieve the significant benefits that are promised from automated test execution. What are the secrets to test automation success? There are no secrets, but the paths to success are not commonly understood. Dorothy Graham describes the most important automation issues that you must address, both management and technical, and helps you understand and choose the best approaches for your organization—no matter which automation tools you use.

Thursday, April 11, 2013 - 10:30am

Test Automation

It Seemed a Good Idea at the Time: Intelligent Mistakes in Test Automation

Some test automation ideas seem very sensible at first glance but contain pitfalls and problems that can and should be avoided. Dot Graham describes five of these “intelligent mistakes”—1. Automated tests will find more bugs quicker. (Automation doesn’t find bugs, tests do.) 2. Spending a lot on a tool must guarantee great benefits. (Good automation does not come “out of the box” and is not automatic.) 3. Let’s automate all of our manual tests. (This may not give you better or faster testing, and you will miss out on some benefits.) 4. Tools are expensive so we have to show a return on investment. (This is not only surprisingly difficult but may actually be harmful.) 5. Because they are called “testing tools,” they must be tools for testers to use. (Making testers become test automators may be damaging to both testing and automation.) Join Dot for a rousing discussion of “intelligent mistakes”—so you can be smart enough to avoid them.