STAREAST 2007 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

Communicating the Value of Testing

Test managers constantly lament that few outside their group understand or care much about the value they provide and consistently deliver. Unfortunately, they are often correct. The lack of visibility and understanding of the test team's contribution can lead to restricted budgets,
Theresa Lanowitz, voke, Inc. and Dan Koloski, Empirix
Crucial Test Conversations

Many test managers feel that Development or Management or The Business does not understand or support the contributions of their test teams. You know what? They're probably right! However, once we accept that fact, we should ask: Why? Bob Galen believes that it is our inability and ineffectiveness at 360º communications, in other words, "selling" ourselves, our abilities and our contribution. We believe that our work should speak for itself or that everyone should inherently understand our worth. Wrong!
Robert Galen, RGCG, LLC
Employ Tomorrow's Customers to Staff Your Testing Team Today

Regression testing of the Vital Images' medical imaging software was a continual challenge. Poor product testability, challenging automation implementation, tester shortages, and low process discipline contributed to an environment in which regression testing was often
Alex Dietz, Vital Images Inc
Essential Regression Testing

You are responsible for testing application releases, and the demand for quality is high. You must ensure that new functionality is adequately tested and that existing functionality is not negatively impacted when applications are modified. If you plan to conduct formal regression testing, you must answer a multitude of questions: What exactly is regression testing? What resources do I need? How can I justify the cost of regression testing? How can I quantify the benefits?
Deakon Provost, State Farm Insurance
Failure Patterns: A Powerful Tool to Optimize Your Testing

As professionals, we have always known that exhaustive testing is rarely feasible or affordable. Thus, we must find more efficient and effective approaches to testing. Discovering these approaches depends on the availability of data about defects-and this is where testers run into real problems. Few testers create experiments to measure their own testing effectiveness. Even fewer examine their results for statistical significance. Thus starved of sound data, we are forced to use our intuition.
Les Hatton, University of Kingston
Finding Success in System Testing

To achieve success in system testing-efficiently preventing important defects from reaching users-technical excellence is certainly necessary but it is not sufficient. Even more important are the skills to influence the project and team behavior to prevent defects from ever reaching the system test. Nathan Petschenik shares his insights into the technical skills you need for a successful system test.
Nathan Petschenik, Software Testing Services, Inc.
From Start Up to World Class Testing

So you have been asked to start or improve a testing group within your organization. Where do you start? What services should you provide? Who are the right people for the job? Iris Trout presents a framework of best practices needed to implement or rapidly improve your testing organization. Hear how Bloomberg LP, a large financial reporting institution, tackled the issue of implementing a new testing organization. Iris describes how she built a strong testing process in minimal time and achieved exceptional results.
Iris Trout, Bloomberg, lp
Gain Control over Chaotic Development Projects

Testers are frequently assigned to projects in which applications are undergoing major modifications, yet documentation may be incomplete, wrong, or non-existent. With limited time, testers must rely on developers, business partners, and others to tell them what to test. The result is often an incomplete grasp of the application resulting in inadequate testing. Dennis Tagliabue shares a real-world approach that allows you to gain control over chaotic application development environment.
Dennis Tagliabue, Dell
Harnessing the Power of Randomized Unit Testing

It is a problem all testers have had. We write tests believing we know how the system should behave, what inputs will precede others, and which calls will be made first and which will be made last. Unfortunately, the system may not operate that way, and as a result our tests are inadequate. However, there is a solution to this problem: Randomized unit testing helps you find bugs in places you wouldn't even think to look by selecting call sequences and parameter values randomly.
James Andrews, University of Western Ontario
How to Fake a Test Project

It has never been easier to fool your manager into thinking that you're doing a great job testing! James Bach covers all of today's most respected test fakery.
James Bach, Satisfice Inc

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