STARWEST 2011 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

Get Testers Out of the QA Business

Why is the testing department often misnamed "Quality Assurance?" We testers usually aren't allowed to control the scope of the product or change the source code. We don't have authority over budgets, staffing, schedules, customer relationships, market placement, or development models. So how, exactly, can we testers assure quality? We can't. Quality assurance is in the hands of those with authority over it-the programmers who write the code and the managers who run the project.
Michael Bolton, DevelopSense
Google's New Methodology for Risk-driven Testing

Risk mitigation and risk analysis are delicious ingredients in a recipe Google calls risk-driven testing. Most of us are familiar with how to approach risk mitigation from a test perspective-in the form of test plan development, test cases, and documentation. However, comprehensive risk analysis is still considered black magic by many in our field.
Sebastian Schiavone, Google, Inc.
Hardware Bound: Testing with Limited Access to Resources

If you are challenged to test software applications with limited or no access to the hardware on which they operate in production, this session is for you. Gatan’s DigitalMicrograph software, the industry standard for use on electron microscopes controlling proprietary cameras and imaging filters, is highly specialized software requiring expensive hardware equipment for testing. This equipment must be shared by many individuals and organizations-including test.
Scott Miles, Gatan Inc.
I Didn't Know I Knew That: A Story of Self-Learning

During our testing careers, many of us are given the "opportunity" to test a system with which we have no experience-where the domain, the technology, or both are completely new to us. Rather than saying "Sorry, I can't do this job", perhaps you should embrace the opportunity, accept the challenge, and dive in! David Hayman shares the story of his journey testing a system that was new to him-establishing what he knew, what he thought he knew, what he didn't know and had to learn-and dealing with many surprises along the way.
David Hayman, Qual IT
Managing Intrateam Dysfunction

Inspired by her years of consulting with large and small test teams, Dawn Haynes shares her observations of the most common and troublesome dysfunctions within software project teams-absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Often team members and managers are so heads-down in the day-to-day tasks that they aren’t even aware of their problems. Without an understanding of the dysfunctions and their root causes, improvement is a non-starter.
Dawn Haynes, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Managing Test Data in Large and Complex Web-based Systems

Are you testing an application or web site whose complexity has grown exponentially through the years? Is your test data efficiently and effectively supporting your test suites? Does the test data reside in systems not under your direct control? Learn how the WellsFargo.com test team integrated test data management processes and provisions to gain control over test data in their very large and complex web system environment.
Ron Schioldager, Wells Fargo
Mobile Testing: Old Wine in a New Bottle?

In the enterprise, mobile adoption is increasing at a fast pace-and so are the concerns about security, reliability, and quality for the software that drives mobile devices. Some of the unique and unfamiliar challenges faced while testing mobile applications are usability, network connectivity, online/offline content, call interruptions, varying form factors, networks, and device providers. Manish Mathuria describes how mobile testing differs from testing traditional enterprise systems.
Manish Mathuria, InfoStretch Corporation
Model-based Testing: The Next Generation

Spotify is a music streaming service offering high-quality, instant access to music from a range of major and independent record labels. Model-based testing (MBT) is an important test technique they use to ensure that their systems deliver quality service. Spotify has discovered new ways to use MBT for effective testing in support of its more than ten-million user base. Alexander Andelkovic shares the challenges of implementing and integrating new MBT solutions and convincing company management that MBT is both efficient and effective.
Alexander Andelkovic, Spotify
New Generation Record/Playback Tools for AJAX Testing

While some in the test community talk about record/playback technology as dead-end test automation approach, a new generation of open source record/playback test tools that every tester should consider is now available. Tools like Sahi and TestMaker Object Designer were built for AJAX environments and support thousands of web objects and the asynchronous nature of AJAX.
Frank Cohen, PushToTest
Offshore and Outsourced Test Automation Adventures

Organizations look at two ways to reduce repetitive testing costs-automation and offshoring. Although either can work, combining these two approaches has the promise of even more savings to organizations by freeing up their employees for more creative testing. Because both automation and offshoring are complex operations in and of themselves, combining them adds more risks and challenges that can lead to disappointment and a "double backlash" instead of a "double benefit" if not implemented with proven approaches.
Hans Buwalda, LogiGear Corporation

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