STAREAST 2007 - Software Testing Conference

Many testers believe that their job is to find bugs. While finding bugs is indeed an important aspect of testing, detecting bugs earlier or preventing them from ever occurring has a far greater impact on improving software quality. You have probably seen charts showing the exponential increase in cost of fixing bugs late in the product development cycle; yet despite calls to "move quality upstream", the end of the product cycle is where many software projects focus their testing efforts.

Agile methodologies may be coming soon to a project near you. Agile software development holds the promise of faster development, less cost, fewer defects, and increased customer value, all while maintaining a sustainable work pace in a high morale environment. As a tester, you may be wondering, "How will agile affect me?" We've all heard stories that agile methodologies have no place for testers. In this presentation, Jean Tabaka changes that perspective.

London Heathrow Terminal 5 will open in March 2008. This new terminal will handle 30 million passengers a year, and all of these passengers will expect their baggage to accompany them on their flights. To achieve this end, a new baggage handling system is being built that will handle more than 100,000 bags a day. The challenge of testing the integrated software is related not only to its size and complexity but also to the limited time that will be available to test the software in its actual environment.

John Scarborough recounts the aftermath of a test project failure that stunned engineers and managers alike. The project was highly strategic yet very challenging. Team members were proud to be assigned to it. Early warning signs did not go unheeded. However, after the customer rejected a release of code, confidence plummeted, and the controls that the team had put in place were no longer sufficient to keep deliveries on track. The harder they worked, the more their deficiencies became apparent. Fortunately, all was not lost.