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Large-scale and complex testing projects can stress the testing and automation practices we have learned through the years, resulting in less than optimal outcomes. However, a number of innovative ideas and concepts are emerging to better support industrial-strength testing for big projects. Hans Buwalda shares his experiences and presents strategies for organizing and managing testing on large projects. Learn how to design tests specifically for automation, including how to incorporate keyword testing and other techniques.

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MD Introduction to Selenium and WebDriver NEW
Alan Richardson, Compendium Developments
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

Selenium is an open source automation tool for test driving browser-based applications. WebDriver, the newly-introduced API for Selenium against which tests are written in Java, contains classes including ChromeDriver, AndroidDriver, and iPhoneDriver. Sometimes test authors find the API daunting and their initial automation code brittle and poorly structured. In this introduction, Alan Richardson provides hints and tips gained from his years of experience both using WebDriver and helping others improve their use of the tool.

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ME What’s Your Leadership IQ? NEW
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

Have you ever needed a way to measure your leadership IQ? Or been in a performance review where the majority of time was spent discussing your need to improve as a leader? If you have ever wondered what your core leadership competencies are and how to build on and improve them, Jennifer Bonine shares a toolkit to help you do just that.

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MF Application Performance Testing: A Simplified Universal Approach SOLD OUT
Scott Barber, SmartBear
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

In response to increasing market demand for high performance applications, many organizations implement performance testing projects, often at great expense. Sadly, these solutions alone are often insufficient to keep pace with emerging expectations and competitive pressures. With specific examples from recent client implementations, Scott Barber shares the fundamentals of implementing T4APM™, a simple and universal approach that is valuable independently or as an extension of existing performance testing programs.

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MH Take a Test Drive: Acceptance Test-Driven Development NEW
Jared Richardson, Agile Artisans
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

The practice of agile software development requires a clear understanding of business needs. Misunderstanding requirements causes waste, slipped schedules, and mistrust within the organization. Jared Richardson shows how good acceptance tests can reduce misunderstanding of requirements. A testable requirement provides a single source that serves as the analysis document, acceptance criteria, regression test suite, and progress-tracker for any given feature. Jared explores the creation, evaluation, and use of testable requirements by the business and developers.

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MI A Dozen Keys to Agile Testing Maturity
Bob Galen, Velocity Partners
Mary Thorn, ChannelAdvisor
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

You’ve “gone agile” and have been relatively successful. So, how do you know how well your team is really doing? And how do you continuously improve your practices? When things get rocky, how do you handle the challenges without reverting to old habits? You realize that the path to high-performance agile testing isn’t easy or quick. It also helps to have a guide. So consider this workshop your guide to ongoing, improved, and sustained high-performance. Join Bob Galen and Mary Thorn as they share lessons from their most successful agile testing transitions.

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ML Innovation Thinking: Evolve and Expand Your Capabilities SOLD OUT
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 1:00pm

Innovation is a word frequently tossed around in organizations today. The standard clichés are do more with less and be creative. Companies want to be innovative but often struggle with how to define, implement, prioritize, and track their innovation efforts. Using the Innovation to Types model, Jennifer Bonine will help you transform your thinking regarding innovation and understand if your team and company goals match their innovation efforts. Learn how to classify your activities as "core" (to the business) or "context" (essential, but non-revenue generating).

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TD Exploratory Testing Is Now in Session
Jon Bach, eBay, Inc.
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 8:30am

The nature of exploration, coupled with the ability of testers to rapidly apply their skills and experience, make exploratory testing a widely used test approach—especially when time is short. Unfortunately, exploratory testing often is dismissed by project managers who assume that it is not reproducible, measurable, or accountable. If you have these concerns, you may find a solution in a technique called session-based test management (SBTM), developed by Jon Bach and his brother James to specifically address these issues.

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TE Integrating Automated Testing into DevOps SOLD OUT NEW
Jeff Payne, Coveros, Inc.
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 8:30am

In many organizations, agile development processes are driving the pursuit of faster software releases, which has spawned a set of new practices called DevOps. DevOps stresses communications and integration between development and operations, including continuous integration, continuous delivery, and rapid deployments. Because DevOps practices require confidence that changes made to the code base will function as expected.

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TG Testing Cloud Services SOLD OUT NEW
Martin Pol, Polteq Testing Services BV
Jeroen Mengerink, Polteq Testing Services B.V.
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 8:30am

Cloud computing is rapidly changing the way systems are developed, tested, and deployed. New system hosting capabilities—software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS)—are forcing us to review and revise our testing processes. At the same time, cloud computing is affording us opportunities to employ new test tooling solutions, which we call testing as a service (TaaS). In this technical session, Martin Pol and Jeroen Mengerink focus on testing SaaS systems, describing relevant IaaS and PaaS capabilities along the way.

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TH Planning, Architecting, Implementing, and Measuring Automation SOLD OUT NEW
Mike Sowers, Software Quality Engineering
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 8:30am

In automation, we often use several different tools that are not well integrated. These tools have been developed or acquired over time with little consideration of an overall plan or architecture, and without considering the need for integration. As a result, both efficiency and effectiveness suffer, and additional time and money are spent. Ensuring that tools we currently have, or the tools we develop or acquire in the future, work well with other application lifecycle tools is critical to our testing team’s success.

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TJ Exploring Usability Testing for Mobile and Web Technologies SOLD OUT
Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 8:30am

It’s not enough to verify that software conforms to requirements by passing established acceptance tests. Successful software products engage, entertain, and support the users' experience. Goals vary from project to project, but no matter how robust and reliable your software is, if your users do not embrace it, business can slip from your hands. Rob Sabourin shares how to elicit effective usability requirements with techniques such as storyboarding and task analysis.

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TL Security Testing for Test Professionals
Jeff Payne, Coveros, Inc.
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 1:00pm

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 Jeff Payne 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.

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TR Test Automation Strategies for the Agile World SOLD OUT NEW
Bob Galen, Velocity Partners
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 1:00pm

With the adoption of agile practices in many organizations, the test automation landscape has changed. Bob Galen explores current disruptors to traditional automation strategies, and discusses relevant and current adjustments you need to make when developing your automation business case. Open source tools are becoming incredibly viable and beat their commercial equivalents in many ways―not only in cost, but also in functionality, creativity, evolutionary speed, and developer acceptance. Agile methods have fundamentally challenged our traditional automation strategies.

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Keynotes

In the past, developers knew every line of code in their applications. They designed it, wrote it, tested it, and controlled it. Today’s applications are far different. Rather than written, they are often assembled―from program language libraries, third-party frameworks, encapsulated web services, and even entire external systems—and glued together with small amounts of code. Before your organization committed to using these external pieces of software, were testers part of the evaluation process? Was the software thoroughly tested before betting your organization’s success on it?

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K3 Lightning Strikes the Keynotes
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 4:30pm

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. 

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K5 Softwarts: Security Testing for Muggles
Paco Hope, Cigital
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 4:15pm

Security testing is often shrouded in jargon and mystique. Security conjurers perform arcane rites using supposed “black hat” techniques and would have us believe that we cannot do the same. The fact is that security testing “magic” is little more than specialized application of exploratory test techniques we already understand. In this Defense against the Black Hats, Paco Hope dispels the myth that security testing is a magical art. By deconstructing security activities into techniques we already know well, we expand our testing.

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Concurrent Sessions

W5 Growing into Leadership
Peter Walen, Gordon Food Service
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 11:30am

Pete Walen is not going to tell you how to be a good test manager. Instead, Pete shares ideas on becoming a true leader. While some managers certainly are leaders, testers of all varieties and experience levels can become leaders. Developing technical leadership skills, regardless of job title, involves overcoming our own uncertainties, self-doubts, and perceptions. Learning to foster relationships while perfecting our craft is a challenge for everyone, particularly when others look to us to be an expert—even when we don’t feel like one.

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W8 Virtualization: Improve Speed and Increase Quality
Clint Sprauve, HP
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 1:45pm

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.

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W13 The Test Manager’s Role in Agile: Balancing the Old and the New
Mary Thorn, ChannelAdvisor
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

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.

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W14 Testing the New Disney World Website
Les Honniball, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Technology
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

At Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Technology, we provide the applications and infrastructure our online guests use to plan, book, explore, and enjoy their stay at our parks and resorts. With millions of page views per day and a multi-billion dollar ecommerce booking engine, we face a unique set of challenges. Join Les Honniball for insights into how they work with Product Owners and development teams to design tests, both manual and automated for these challenges.

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W15 End-to-End Test Automation with Open Source Technologies
Ramandeep Singh, QA InfoTech
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

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.

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W16 Your Team’s Not Agile If You’re Not Doing Agile Testing
Jeanne Schmidt, Rural Sourcing, Inc.
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

Many organizations adopt agile software development processes, yet they do not adopt agile testing processes. Then they fall into the trap of having development sprints that are just a set of mini-waterfall cycles. Some software developers still feel they can work more quickly if they let QA test after code is completed. Jeanne Schmidt identifies simple ways to get your team to adopt agile testing methods. Embracing agile testing requires you to change processes, responsibilities, and team organization.

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W18 Implementing Outsourced Testing Services with a Third Party
Shelley Rueger, Moxie Software
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

Outsourcing test services are all the rage today. But are they really faster, better, and cheaper? Shelley Rueger shares how you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your test process using a third-party test service. She provides guidance on how to determine if your product is a good candidate for testing services, how to select the right vendor, and how to avoid common pitfalls. Shelley discusses her team's experience as they made the transition from in-house testing to using external testing services. She addresses questions including: When should you outsource testing?

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T2 Release the Monkeys: Testing Using the Netflix Simian Army
Gareth Bowles, Netflix
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 9:45am

The cloud is all about redundancy and fault tolerance. Since no single component can guarantee 100 percent uptime, we have to design architectures where individual components can fail without affecting the availability of the entire system. But just designing a fault tolerant architecture is not enough. We have to constantly test our ability to actually survive these “once in a blue moon” failures. And the best way is to test in an environment that matches production as closely as possible or, ideally, actually in production.

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T3 A Path through the Jungle: Validating a Test Automation System for the FDA
Chris Crapo, Boston Scientific Neuromodulation
David Nelson, Boston Scientific Neuromodulation
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 9:45am

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.

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T5 Using DevOps to Improve Software Quality in the Cloud
Jeff Payne, Coveros, Inc.
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 9:45am

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.

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T7 Leading Internationally-Distributed Test Teams
Dennis Pikora, Symantec
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

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.

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T8 Career and Organizational Development Within a Software Testing Environment
Nate Shapiro, Blizzard Entertainment
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

Being a software tester has its own unique set of challenges. To help testers overcome these challenges, it is vital to set up a system where employees have available a number of development opportunities, including on-the-job mentorship, coaching, classroom training, and a defined career path. Nate Shapiro outlines how the quality assurance department at Blizzard Entertainment is investing in its employees by implementing a program to help create and sustain long-term careers in software testing.

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T9 Automation Abstractions: Page Objects and Beyond
Alan Richardson, Compendium Developments
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

When you start writing automation for your projects, you quickly realize that you need to organize and design the code. You will write far more than “test” code; you also will write abstraction code because you want to make tests easier to read and maintain. But how do you design all this code? How do you organize and structure it? Should you use a domain specific language? Should you go keyword driven or use Gherkin? Should you use page objects with POJO or Factories? Do you create DOM level abstractions? Where do domain models fit in?

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T10 Bridging the Gap in Mobile App Quality
Costa Avradopoulos, Capgemini Consulting
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

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.

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T11 Checking Performance along Your Build Pipeline
Andreas Grabner, Compuware
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

Do you consider the performance impact when adding a new JavaScript file, a single AJAX call, or a new database query to your app? Negligible, you say? I disagree―and so should you. Andreas Grabner demonstrates the severe impact small changes can have on performance and scalability. Many small changes will have an even bigger impact so it is important to catch them early.

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T12 Metrics That Matter
Pablo Garcia, Redmind
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

Imagine you’re a test manager starting a new assignment. On the first day of work, you’re presented with a list of metrics you are to report. Soon, you realize that most of the metrics are not really connected to what should be measured. Or, consider the situation where you’re told that there is no value collecting metrics because “we’re agile.” In either situation, what would be your next step be? Join Pablo Garcia as he shares his experience with the dangers of poor metrics.

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T18 Testing Application Security: The Hacker Psyche Exposed
Mike Benkovich, Imagine Technologies, Inc.
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 1:30pm

Computer hacking isn’t a new thing, but the threat is real and growing even today. It is always the attacker’s advantage and the defender’s dilemma. How do you keep your secrets safe and your data protected? In today’s ever-changing technology landscape, the fundamentals of producing secure code and systems are more important than ever. Exploring the psyche of hackers, Mike Benkovich exposes how they think, reveals common areas where they find weakness, and identifies novel ways to test your defenses against their threats.

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T19 Before You Test Your System, Test Your Assumptions
Aaron Sanders, Agile Coach
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 3:00pm

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.

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