STAREAST 2008 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

The Angels and Devils of Software Testing

It's never been easier to fool your manager into thinking you're doing a great job testing! Does that sound tempting? Some would rather spend time playing Spider Solitaire, Foosball, or watching online videos of cats begging for cheeseburgers instead of doing their testing work. Jonathan Kohl and Michael Bolton discuss the types of test fakery that are out there-and that you need to avoid.
Michael Bolton, DevelopSense
The Four T's of Test Automation

Historically, organizations have measured the level of software quality after a system goes into production. What about measuring the level of software quality coming into testing? By measuring the number of test cases that pass or fail, and calculating the failure rate, you can forecast future failure rates and the number of test cases that will have to be executed each day during test. Then, you will have the information needed to adjust resources, timelines, and level of effort.
David Dang, Questcon Technologies, A Division of Howard Systems Intl.
The Promise of Model-Based Testing

Good test design is the cornerstone of every test effort. Although approximately 50% of testing time is spent on test design, very little has been done to bring structure, automation, and a scientific approach to the test design process itself. The quality of designs is highly dependent on the individual tester's expertise. Mahesh Velliyur N has found that model-based testing is extremely useful in testing end-to-end business scenarios. Model-based testing brings a rigor to test design by focusing on what and how much to test.
Mahesh Velliyur, Maveric Testing Solutions
The Rise of the Customer Champions

The customer champion model is a new way for test teams to systematically collect, organize, and act on customer feedback. This model helps test teams think more strategically about their overall customer connection approach, in addition to growing the test discipline in the long term. Mike Tholfsen describes how the Office OneNote test team employed innovative customer connection techniques to improve product quality and customer satisfaction during the Microsoft Office 2007 release.
Michael Tholfsen, Microsoft Corporation
The ROI of Testing

In today's competitive business environment, corporations need and demand a good return on investment (ROI) for everything they do-and testing is no exception. Although executive managers are requesting meaningful metrics more often than ever, many test managers are struggling to justify the cost versus benefit of their departments' work. Often these test managers are unsure how to calculate investment costs versus dollars saved when using solid QA and testing methodologies.
Shaun Bradshaw, Questcon Technologies, A Division of Howard Systems Intl.
The Ten Principles of an Agile Tester

On an agile team, everyone is a tester-anyone can and often does take on testing tasks. If that’s true, then what is special about being an agile tester? If I'm a tester on an agile team, what does that really mean? Do agile testers need different skill sets than testers on traditional teams? What guides agile testers in their daily activities? An agile tester embraces change, collaborates well with both technical and business people, and understands the concept of using tests to document requirements and help drive development.
Lisa Crispin, ePlan Services, Inc.
Today's Testing Innovations

As a consultant, Lee Copeland has spoken with thousands of software testers in hundreds of different organizations. Generally, he comes away from these discussions depressed with the state of testing. Many organizations neither know about nor have adopted recent important innovations in our field.
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Today's Top Ten Controversies in Testing

Having been in the IT industry for thirty years, Lloyd Roden believes that we often adopt behaviors even though there is little evidence that they are correct or beneficial. Some of these are "that's the way we've always done it" so they must be right. Others come from the latest development and testing philosophies (fads). Lloyd suggests we challenge our assumptions on a regular basis.
Lloyd Roden, Grove Consultants
Transforming Your Test Culture: One Step at a Time

Whether we develop software-based systems to create invoices, solve difficult physics problems, diagnose heart disease, or launch rockets, we've learned that nothing stays the same very long and software defects are inevitable. However, one thing has remained constant—the role and value of testing has been misunderstood by many in senior management.
Thomas Wissink, LM IS&S
Using Source Code Metrics to Guide Testing

Source code metrics are frequently used to evaluate software quality and identify risky code that requires focused testing. Paul Anderson surveys common source code metrics including Cyclomatic Complexity, Halstead Complexity, and additional metrics aimed at improving security. Using a NASA project as well as data from several recent studies, Paul explores the question of how effective these metrics are at identifying the portions of the software that are the most error prone.
Paul Anderson, GrammaTech, Inc.

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