Skip to main content

Tutorials

Begin your experience by attending half- or full-day tutorials. Please note that you must register for the tutorial(s) you want to attend as space is limited and many sell out quickly.

Tutorials
TA Test Estimation in Practice
Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 8:30am - 12:00pm

Anyone who has ever attempted to estimate software testing effort realizes just how difficult the task is. The number of factors that can affect the estimate is virtually unlimited. The key to good estimates is to understand the primary variables, compare them to known standards, and normalize the estimates based on their differences. This is easy to say but difficult to accomplish because estimates are frequently required even when very little is known about the project—and what is known is constantly changing. Throw in a healthy dose of politics and a bit of wishful thinking, and estimation can become a nightmare. Rob Sabourin provides a foundation for anyone who must estimate software testing work effort. Learn about the test team’s and tester’s roles in estimation and measurement, and how to estimate in the face of uncertainty. Analysts, developers, leads, test managers, testers, and QA personnel can all benefit from this tutorial.

More Information
Learn more about Rob Sabourin.
TB Testers in Value-Driven Product Development
J.B. Rainsberger, JBRAINS.CA
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 8:30am - 12:00pm

Even in many agile projects, testers stand aside while others set product and project goals and requirements (stories). These other people aren’t doing poor work but rather are often developing artifacts that are too easily misinterpreted. J.B. Rainsberger presents two value-driven development techniques that testers—who by their very nature are critical thinkers—can use to help the team figure out what to build, which parts to build first, and most importantly, what not to build at all. Learn a powerful modeling technique to reduce a long laundry list of stories down to a clear, high-level path toward a great product. Join J.B. to practice the art of “talking in examples,” which will help you work with product owners, analysts, and programmers to develop a clear picture of what to build. Don’t remain relegated to after-the-fact acceptance testing. Learn how to play a vital role in building the right thing the first time.

More Information
Learn more about J.B. Rainsberger.
TC Essential Test Management and Planning
Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 8:30am - 12:00pm

The key to successful testing is effective and timely planning. Rick Craig introduces proven test planning methods and techniques, including the Master Test Plan and level-specific test plans for acceptance, system, integration, and unit testing. Rick explains how to customize an IEEE-829-style test plan and test summary report to fit your organization’s needs. Learn how to manage test activities, estimate test efforts, and achieve buy-in. Discover a practical risk analysis technique to prioritize your testing and become more effective with limited resources. Rick offers test measurement and reporting recommendations for monitoring the testing process. Discover new methods and develop renewed energy for taking your organization’s test management to the next level.

More Information
Learn more about Rick Craig.
TD Get Full Value from Your Automated Tests
Gerard Meszaros, FeedXL.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 8:30am - 12:00pm

Due to the demands for reduced cycle times, automated tests are considered “table stakes” these days—whether you’re working on agile or waterfall projects. How do you minimize the cost of creating and maintaining—and maximize the value you get from—these automated tests? What kinds of tools should you use to avoid getting mired in test automation rework hell? Gerard Meszaros shares a toolkit of techniques for preparing robust, easily-understood automated tests that also serves as a specification of what should be built. Gerard lays out the key success factors—using different levels of tests, consciously managing the scope of each test and its level of detail, writing tests using business (not technical) terminology, and selecting tools that support this strategy. Exercises give you hands-on experience refactoring tests to make them more readable and maintainable. Gain a valuable appreciation for the kinds of tools you’ll need to prepare tests anyone can read and understand.

More Information
Learn more about Gerard Meszaros.
TE Fundamental Test Design Techniques
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 8:30am - 12:00pm

As testers, we know that we can define many more test cases than we will ever have time to design, execute, and report. The key problem in testing is choosing from the almost infinite number of tests available a small, “smart” subset that will find a large percentage of the defects. Join Lee Copeland to discover how to design test cases using formal black-box techniques, including equivalence class testing, boundary value testing, decision tables, and state-transition diagrams. Explore examples of each of these techniques in action. Don’t just pick test cases at random. Learn to selectively choose a set of test cases that maximizes your effectiveness and efficiency to find more defects in less time. Then, examine how to use the test results to evaluate the quality of both your products and your testing. Discover the test design techniques that will make your testing more productive.

More Information
Learn more about Lee Copeland.
TF Tips for Expanding Your Testing Toolbox
Alan Page, Microsoft
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 1:00pm - 4:30pm

Regardless of how long you’ve been testing and learning—only a month or many years—there is always something new to help improve your testing and software development efforts. Although many testers, for better or worse, see test automation as their next—and sometimes only—step to grow their skill set and improve as a tester, there is much more to do. Alan Page discusses, demonstrates, and details concepts and tools that can help everyone test better and provide noticeable technical value to their organization. Alan explores a potpourri of suggestions to help you grow your testing toolbox: techniques for security and performance testing, tools to help you find better bugs, scripting that aids (rather than replaces) your testing, tester tips for code review that can be done with minimal (or zero) knowledge of coding, and more. Finally, you’ll learn simple approaches that will enable you to continue to grow your knowledge and skills throughout your career.

More Information
Learn more about Alan Page.
TG Getting Things Done: What Testers Do in Agile Sprints
Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 1:00pm - 4:30pm

Avoiding siloed development and test is a tricky business—even with agile practices in place. It is easy for agile teams to fall into the rut in which testers only do testing and programmers only do coding. Rob Sabourin explores many ways to apply your testing knowledge and experience inside a Scrum sprint or iteration and throughout an agile project. He finds that testers are among the most skilled team members in story grooming, elicitation, and exploration. Rob describes a host of ways testers add value to an agile sprint—using their analysis skills to help clear the way to make tough technical trade-offs; pairing with programmers to help design and review unit tests; studying static analysis reports to find unexpected code complexity or security; and much more. Join Rob to see how testers can start working hand-in-hand with developers, business analysts, and product owners to get more things done in agile sprints and projects.

More Information
Learn more about Rob Sabourin.
TH Security Testing for Testing Professionals
Gene Gotimer, Coveros, Inc.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 1:00pm - 4:30pm

Today’s software applications are often security critical, making security testing an essential part of a software quality program. Unfortunately, most testers have not been taught how to effectively test the security of the software applications they validate. Join Gene Gotimer as he shares what you need to know to integrate effective security testing into your everyday software testing activities. Learn how software vulnerabilities are introduced into code and exploited by hackers. Discover how to define and validate security requirements. Explore effective test techniques for assuring that common security features are tested. Learn about the most common security vulnerabilities in applications, how to identify key security risks and to mitigate them with testing. Understand how to security test applications—both web- and GUI-based—during the software development process. Review examples of how common security testing tools work and assist the security testing process. Take home valuable tools and techniques for effectively testing the security of your applications going forward.

More Information
Learn more about Gene Gotimer.
TI Measurement and Metrics for Test Managers
Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 1:00pm - 4:30pm

To be most effective, test managers must develop and use metrics to help direct the testing effort and make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important testing activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, test managers must measure the results of both the development and testing processes. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics is complicated because many developers and testers are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Rick Craig as he addresses common metrics—measures of product quality, defect removal efficiency, defect density, defect arrival rate, and testing status. Learn the guidelines for developing a test measurement program, rules of thumb for collecting data, and ways to avoid “metrics dysfunction.” Rick identifies several metrics paradigms and discusses the pros and cons of each. Delegates are urged to bring their metrics problems and issues for use as discussion points.

More Information
Learn more about Rick Craig.