Process Improvement

Keynotes

K2 Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester

Lloyd Roden, Lloyd Roden Consultancy

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 10:00am

As testers and test managers we often find ourselves struggling just to survive within our organization—sometimes with the possibility of job loss due to outsourcing looming. Often, we are told to become more “effective,” “efficient,” and do “more with less.” However, most testers and test managers are unsure of what those mandates actually mean. Today, it is not sufficient to just survive; we must take initiatives to thrive. Lloyd Roden shares ten valuable lessons on how you can become better at testing and thrive in your career.

K5 The Mismeasure of Software: The Last Talk on Measurement You’ll Ever Need to Hear

Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 4:15pm

Lee Copeland maintains that most organizations have some kind of metrics program—and almost all are ineffective. After explaining the concept of measurement, Lee describes two key reasons for these almost universal metrics program failures. The first major mistake people make is forgetting that the model we are using for measurement is not necessarily reality. The second major blunder is treating ideas as if they were real things and then counting them.

Tutorials

TB Key Test Design Techniques

Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 8:30am

All testers know that we can identify many more test cases than we will ever have time to design and execute. The major problem in testing is choosing a small, “smart” subset from the almost infinite number of possibilities available. Join Lee Copeland to discover how to design test cases using formal black-box techniques, including equivalence class and boundary value testing, decision tables, state-transition diagrams, and all-pairs testing. Explore white-box techniques with their associated coverage metrics.

MB The Challenges of BIG Testing: Automation, Virtualization, Outsourcing, and More

Hans Buwalda, LogiGear

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

Large-scale testing projects severely stress “normal” testing practices. This can result in a number of less than optimal results. A number of innovative ideas and concepts have emerged to support industrial-strength testing of large and complex projects—some successful and others not so successful. Hans Buwalda shares his experiences and the strategies he's developed over the years for large testing on large projects. He describes the possibilities and pitfalls of outsourcing test automation.

MC Fundamentals of Risk-based Testing

Dale Perry, Software Quality Engineering

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

Whether you are new to testing or looking for a better way to organize your test practices and processes, the Systematic Test and Evaluation Process (STEP™) offers a flexible approach to help you and your team succeed. Dale Perry describes this risk-based framework—applicable to any development lifecycle model—to help you make critical testing decisions earlier and with more confidence. The STEP™ approach helps you decide how to focus your testing effort, what elements and areas to test, and how to organize test designs and documentation.

ME Leading Change—Even If You’re Not in Charge

Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

Has this happened to you? You try to implement a change in your organization and it doesn’t get the support that you thought it would. And, to make matters worse, you can't figure out why. Or, you have a great idea but can’t get the resources required for successful implementation. Jennifer Bonine shares a toolkit of techniques to help you determine which ideas will—and will not—work within your organization.

MG Measurement and Metrics for Test Managers

Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

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.

MH Implementing Crowdsourced Testing

Rajini Padmanaban, QA InfoTech

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

In today’s market, global outreach, quick time to release, and a feature rich design are the major factors that determine a product’s success. Organizations are constantly on the lookout for innovative testing techniques to match these driving forces. Crowdsourced testing is a paradigm increasing in popularity because it addresses these factors through its scale, flexibility, cost effectiveness, and fast turnaround.

MJ Quantifying the Value of Testing

Lloyd Roden, Lloyd Roden Consultancy

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

“Testing costs too much.” “We don’t get the value we should from the investment we make.” “Testing just delays the project.” Familiar sayings in your organization? Although testing is accepted by most as an integral part of any software development lifecycle, some see it as a hole in which to throw money rather than as an investment in quality. In order to gain credibility and reduce the negative views of our work, we testers and test managers must show senior management a clear return on their investment.

TN Collaboration Techniques: Combining New Approaches with Ancient Wisdom

Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com

Dorothy Graham, Software Test Consultant

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 1:00pm

In our increasingly agile world, the new buzzword is collaboration—so easy to preach but difficult to do well. Testers are challenged to work directly, effectively, efficiently, and productively with customers, programmers, business analysts, writers, trainers, and pretty much everyone in the business value chain. Many points of collaboration exist: grooming stories with customers, sprint planning with team members, reviewing user interaction with customers, troubleshooting bugs with developers, whiteboarding with peers, and buddy checking.

Concurrent Sessions

W7 Taming the Beast: Test/QA on Large-scale Projects

Shaun Bradshaw, Zenergy Technologies, Inc.

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 1:45pm

Large, complex projects—those with more than 100 people and lasting more that a year—require special considerations for developing, communicating, and managing the overall QA strategy and test plans. Shaun Bradshaw provides insights he gained from a $70 million financial software implementation project comprised of multiple components including a general ledger, business intelligence platform, data warehouse, and data integration hub.

T15 Innovations in Test Automation: It’s Not All about Regression

John Fodeh, Cognizant

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 1:30pm

Although classic test automation, which usually focuses on regression testing, has its its place in testing, there is much more you can do to improve testing productivity and its value to the project and your organization. Through experience-based examples, video clips, and demonstrations, John Fodeh shares one company’s innovation journey to improve its test automation practice. John illustrates how they learned to apply automated “test monkeys” that explore the software in new ways each time a test is executed.

T2 There’s No Room for Emotions in Testing—Not!

Michael Bolton, DevelopSense

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 9:45am

Software testing is a highly technical, logical, rational task. There's no place for squishy emotional stuff here—not among professional testers. Or is there? Because of commitment, risk, schedule, and money, emotions often do run high in software development and testing. Our ideas about quality and bugs are rooted in our desires, which in turn are rooted in our feelings. People don't decide things based on the numbers; they decide based on how they feel about the numbers. It is easy to become frustrated, confused, or bored; angry, impatient, or overwhelmed.

T5 Load and Performance Testing in the Cloud: Myth vs. Reality

Steve Weisfeldt, Neotys

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 9:45am

Is the cloud just another overhyped IT buzzword or a transformational technology wave? Steve Weisfeldt helps you get past all the noise and identify how you can leverage the cloud’s flexibility and scalability to save time and money on load and performance testing. Steve describes ways to generate user loads that are more geographically accurate and easily scaled to large user loads. He explores the myth that “generating load from the cloud” is the only valid testing approach and discusses when it is—and is not—important to test from the cloud for web and mobile apps.

T19 Maybe We Don’t Have to Test It

Eric Jacobson, Turner Broadcasting

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 3:00pm

Testers are taught they are responsible for all testing. Some even say “It’s not tested until I run the product myself.” Eric Jacobson believes this old school way of thinking can hurt a tester’s reputation and—even worse—may threaten the team’s success.

T24 New Testing Standards Are on the Horizon: What Will Be Their Impact?

Claire Lohr, Lohr Systems

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 3:00pm

The history of testing standards has not always been auspicious. Testing standards documents have been expensive to obtain, limited in scope, inflexible in expectations, and inconsistent. However, they contain important lessons learned from experienced practitioners—if a tester is willing to overcome the obstacles to get to the useful information. A set of new international standards is coming. These new standards are tailorable, consistent, and comprehensive in scope. In addition, they will be freely available (some are already).