Test Management

Throughout the years, Lightning Talks have been a popular part of the STAR conferences. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Lightning Talks consists of a series of five-minute talks by different speakers within one presentation period. Lightning Talks are the opportunity for speakers to deliver their single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea in a rapid-fire presentation. And now, lightning has struck the STAR keynotes. 

Testers face common challenges in automation. Unfortunately, these challenges often lead to subsequent failures. Jim Trentadue explains a variety of automation perceptions and myths―the perception that a significant increase in time and people is needed to implement automation; the myth that, once automation is achieved, testers will not be needed; the myth that scripted automation will serve all the testing needs for an application; the perception that developers and testers can add automation to a project without additional time, resources, or training; the belief that anyone can implement automation. The testing organization must ramp up quickly on the test automation process and the prep-work analysis that needs to be done including when to start, how to structure the tests, and what system to start with. Learn how to respond to these common challenges by developing a solid business case for increased automation adoption by engaging manual testers in the testing organization, being technology agnostic, and stabilizing test scripts regardless of applications changes.

Currently, 2.4 billion people use the Internet, and about 10 percent of the world’s population has some form of disability. This means millions of potential users will have difficulty accessing the Internet. Thus, accessibility testing should not be ignored. Anish Krishnan discusses the importance of accessibility testing, reasons for considering accessibility issues while designing, and international Web accessibility laws.

Many development and test organizations must work within the confines of compressed release cycles, various agile methodologies, and cloud and mobile environments for their business applications. So, how can test organizations keep up with the pace of development and increase the quality of their applications under test? Clint Sprauve describes how service virtualization and network virtualization can help your team improve speed and increase quality.

One of the Agile Principles states that working software is the primary measurement of success―generally measured by the level of customer satisfaction. So, how do you measure “customer satisfaction” when it is based on successful surgical outcomes? Join John Pasko as he takes you through a case study of the design, development, testing, and release of a complex system—integrating embedded software with hardware—for a surgical product which met stringent FDA standards and regulations.

What do test managers do? In traditional organizations, they assign people to projects, oversee the testers’ progress, provide feedback, and perhaps offer coaching to people who want it. Test managers are the go-to people when you don't know how to do something—not because they know, but because they know who does know. How does that change with a transition to agile? Do we still need test managers? As one who has successfully made the transition from traditional to agile test manager, Mary Thorn shares keys to the transition.

As organizations continue to adopt agile methodologies, testers are getting involved earlier in product testing. They need tools that empower them to manage varied test automation needs for web services, web APIs, and web and mobile applications. Open source solutions are available in abundance. However, most of these solutions are independent and not integrated, significantly increasing the tester’s work around test automation development. Ongoing test automation suite evolution and building a robust regression test suite have become cumbersome.

Ever feel like your manager, development manager, product manager, product owner, or (you fill in the blank) is not listening to you or your team? Are you struggling to make an impact with your messages? Are you “pushing a wet rope uphill” in championing product quality? Are you talking, but no one is listening? Mike Sowers shares practical examples of how to more effectively speak like a test manager and offers concrete advice based on his experiences in the technology, financial, transportation, and professional services sectors.

The dictionary defines a rainmaker as “an executive (or lawyer) in the unsentimental world of business with an exceptional ability to attract clients, use political connections, increase profits, etc.” Simply put, a rainmaker is someone who gets things done. Is this relevant to testing? Absolutely! It is too easy to get stuck in the status quo and to avoid trying something new because everything works well as it is. But what we do can always be made better.

Test automation is difficult to get right. Working under FDA regulation presents its own challenges. Combining the two is a scary proposition because the FDA requires—and will scrutinize—the validation of any test automation used. Despite this, working in a regulated environment only magnifies the value of test automation. Aware that automation is a driver of quality and consistency, the FDA welcomes automated tests as part of an audit submission. The key to success is demonstrating quality in a way that the FDA recognizes.

DevOps is gaining popularity as a way to quickly and successfully deploy new software. With all the emphasis on deployment, software quality can sometimes be overlooked. In order to understand how DevOps and software testing mesh, Jeff Payne demonstrates a fully implemented continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) stack. After describing the internals of how CI/CD works, Jeff identifies the touch points in the stack that are important for testing organizations.

Are you employing your offshore test team to its best advantage—gaining the cost savings and test coverage you expected? Unless correct management methodologies are in place, you will lose rather than gain both time and money with internationally-distributed testers. If you are thinking you can go offshore with minimal effort, think again. Distributed test leadership and management issues apply when working with third-party firms, a subsidiary, or even your own employees. Don’t let unrealistic expectations impact your career or your company’s goals.

Today, an alarming 65 percent of mobile apps—more than 1.3 million—have a 1-star rating or less. Why? The majority of development organizations have neither the right processes nor access to the devices required to properly test mobile applications. If not addressed, these deficiencies will have a major impact on the quality of the apps the organization develops. In addition, users are intolerant of problems and quick to switch to competing apps. Costa Avradopoulos explores how to address the unique challenges of mobile testing, starting with adopting the right test strategy.

As a test manager, James Christie experienced two divergent views of a single project. The official version claimed that planning and documentation were excellent, with problems discovered during test execution being managed effectively. In fact, the project had no useful plans, so testers improvised test execution. Creating standardized documentation took priority over preparing for the specific problems testers would actually face during testing. The required documentation standards didn't assist testing; they actually hindered by distracting from relevant, detailed preparation.

Business analysts, developers, and testers are sometimes not on the same page when it comes to test automation. When there is no transparency in test cases, execution, coverage, and data, review of automation by all stakeholders is difficult. Making automation scripts easily readable and writable allows stakeholders to better participate. Subodh Parulekar describes how his team dealt with these issues.

Performance testing requires knowledge of systems architecture, techniques to simulate the load equivalent of sometimes millions of transactions per day, and tools to monitor/report runtime statistics. With the evolution from desktop to web and now the cloud, performance testing involves an unparalleled combination of different workloads and technologies. There is no one tool available—either commercial or open source—that meets all performance testing needs.

Do you find yourself discussing with your peers what you think the system you’re building should do? Do you argue over what the users want? Do discussions wind up in a heated debate? This result indicates that no shared understanding exists about the system. With a lack of shared understanding, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making assumptions about system functionality, who the users will be, and how to build the system. These assumptions introduce errors into the requirements and design—long before a single line of code is written.

When doing test automation, you sometimes notice that things are not working out as expected, but it’s not clear why. You are so caught up in the day-to-day work that you don't see the bigger picture. It’s like when you get sick―you know something is wrong, but you don’t know what. That’s the time to visit a doctor. Doctors diagnose diseases mainly by asking questions. First, they get a general idea of what’s wrong; then the questions become more and more specific; and in the end, they identify the disease and prescribe the appropriate cure. This method also works well for test automation.