Software Test Automation Spring 2002

With increasing demands for high-quality software applications in shorter development cycles, it's clear that teams need to go beyond simply running tests at the end of their development cycle. Instead, teams must approach development with quality as their primary objective. Brian Bryson shows you how to integrate automated testing tools with best practices to implement an effective quality assurance process from the beginning (and throughout) the development lifecycle.

Repeated attempts to decrease software time-to-market have borne a variety of processes and methodologies, resulting in dynamic development and testing environments that continue to ignore quality issues as well as budget constraints. To gain control of your project costs while still ensuring your application's quality, the use of automated software tools must extend beyond that of any single process.

Developing an automated regression test bed is no easy task. In fact, according to recent studies, more than 50 percent of test automation projects fail. To improve this statistic, companies must establish a consistent, repeatable approach for implementing test automation projects. Jeff Tatelman uses an inventory control application to teach you the key steps-from requirements gathering through implementation-to ensure success on any test automation endeavor.

Many struggle to accurately judge the value, success, and return on investment of test automation. In this session, Ross Collard helps you identify which areas and aspects of testing-both manual and automated-provide fruitful opportunities for improvement. You'll have the opportunity to compare the effectiveness of your organization's test automation with industry norms and best practices. You'll also see how other organizations gather, interpret, and apply these metrics. Find out what's worked and what hasn't.