STARWEST 2011 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

A Crowdsourcing Success Story

Today, many organizations are using crowdsourcing to develop and test their products. Anu Kak presents an overview of how eBay has applied this concept both internally and externally to improve their development and testing. Anu shares PayPal’s implementation of the crowdsourcing approach that helps employees gain insights into applications problems and solutions. With this knowledge in hand, they can quickly improve product quality and customer satisfaction.
Anu Kak, PayPal, Inc.
A Holistic Way to Measure Quality

Have your executives ever asked you to measure product quality? Is there a definitive way to measure application quality in relation to customer satisfaction? Have you observed improving or excellent defect counts and, at the same time, heard from customers about software quality issues? If you are in a quandary about quality metrics, Jennifer Bonine may have what you are looking for.
Jennifer Bonine, Up Ur Game Learning Solutions
All That Testing Is Getting in the Way of Quality

"You can't test in quality" is so cliché that it has to be true. Testing is an inherently negative discipline. It never proves quality has been attained-only that it has not. Perhaps it is time, once and for all, to do away with the traditional bug-finding tester role and come up with a better alternative. James Whittaker discusses the diminishing value of the old school testers in today’s software engineering practice and reveals what testers should really be doing instead of simply looking for more bugs.
James Whittaker, Google
Automated Testing: The Differentiators of Success

While automated testing is not new, it has undergone a resurgence in recent years. A combination of matured technology and continually increasing pressure to deliver more value has put a greater focus on finding efficiencies within testing. However, having the right automated testing tools is not enough. Nazar Hossain shares what he has found to be the key factors common to organizations that successfully use automated testing. First, have a comprehensive end-to-end process to manage and measure the success of automation efforts.
Nazar Hossain, Zarieas
Be the Tester Your Dog Thinks You Are

Most of us grew up wanting to be firemen or astronauts or teachers-not testers. Eric Jacobson, an average guy and not incredibly technical, loves software testing and his career in testing as much as his dog loves him. Using videos and candid photos of his test team at work, Eric shares the top ten skills and practices he’s developed and honed over the years to make himself a test leader. He explains how he helps his team establish reasonable goals and then meet them.
Eric Jacobson, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Better Testing through Cultural Change

Even though you employ the best testing processes, techniques, people, and tools, the overall effectiveness of your testing effort will always be bounded by your organization's commitment to quality. Cliff Morehead describes techniques he uses for assessing an organization's quality culture and shares approaches for influencing positive cultural change.
Clifford Morehead, ThoughtWorks Inc
Can You Hear Me Now? Yes...and Everyone Else Can Too

Mobile devices-connected to the world through the Internet, web, networks, and messaging-are everywhere and expanding rapidly in numbers, functionality, and, unfortunately, security threats. Not too many years ago, little attention was paid to mobile device security. Now, we hear reports almost daily of phone emails/messages being hacked, apps with worms, phishing via smart devices, and smart device fraud. People often have their records, personal data, and financial records on or accessible by the mobile device.
Jon Hagar, Consultant
Cloud Computing: Powering the Future of Testing

With the advent of agile development processes, the expected cycle time for building and shipping quality software has been cut dramatically. Yet, much of the IT infrastructure testing used has remained the same for most companies. Testing teams often find themselves squeezed between the need for speed and their inadequate test infrastructure. Today, hundreds of companies are using cloud-based IT infrastructures to streamline, parallelize, and accelerate their testing cycles.
Sundar Raghavan, Skytap
Crowdsourced Testing: An Emerging Model for Serious Testing

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a startlingly effective by-product of social networking and the web. Manoj Narayanan describes the many ways businesses are using crowdsourcing as a cost and quality lever in their most important software testing projects. Learn about crowdsourcing and how the value delivered can differ when testing a web application, mobile device, gaming app, or other types of systems. Manoj compares the business model practiced by organizations such as uTest to traditional testing practices.
Manoj Narayanan, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Establishing a Testing Center of Excellence: The Pros and Cons

Many testing organizations view implementing a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) as a positive step toward providing better service to their clients. They understand how a TCoE can define and promote standard testing practices, consolidate testing tools, reduce costs, define testing boundaries, and provide specialized testing services. Unfortunately, many organizations, as they work to establish their TCoE, face problems and don’t achieve the promised benefits.
Raja Neravati, AppLabs

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