Software Test Automation Fall 2001

You've been tasked with finding a new software tool to help automate your organization's testing. With so many tools on the market, though, where do you start? In this presentation, Elisabeth Hendrickson walks you through the selection process-from determining your organization's needs to acquiring the tool and then rolling it out to the entire organization. You will learn when to build a tool from scratch rather than buy it, and what to ask the vendor before committing to purchase it.

Testing can identify software defects, but it cannot prevent them. This presentation examines the opportunity for testers to engage in achieving eBusiness quality from the beginning of the development lifecycle. Architectural process and application of patterns can have a significant impact on eBusiness quality. Yet testing technology and testers' efforts have largely focused in the opposite direction-on deriving tests from the "as-built" system.

Examine the challenges and successes experienced by a test team analyzing application and systems performance for applications moving from distributed Client/Server solutions to centralized, Web-based designs. In this presentation, Nancy Landau presents case studies to address the changes made in automated testing methods to handle compressed delivery schedules, new architectures, new test tools requirements, and changing customer expectations.

Test automation is a specialized form of software development where executable code is produced for the validation and testing process. Many best practices have been identified to allow developers to code more quickly, efficiently, and correctly, but few test automators have adopted these practices. Learn about several of these "best practices"-including code reviews and coding standards-that can be applied to automated test development.