Better Software Magazine Articles

Quality Requires a Better Understanding

To continue our series exploring what it means to care about quality and to build better software, we spoke with a software user who now collaborates with developers on Agile projects. Find out what she had to say.
 
Pam Young
September 29, 2004
Source Code, Power Source, and Outsourced

Get the software engineering slant on items from the recent news.
 
Heather Shanholtzer's picture Heather Shanholtzer
September 29, 2004
Cards–I've Got a Million of 'Em

One man's love/hate relationship with index cards, a common tool of the Agile trade.
Ron Jeffries
September 29, 2004
Unjust Deserts

Collaborative projects are a cornerstone of Agile development, but how can you recognize individuals for team work without spoiling team unity? Learn how to dole out praise and rewards without leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
Mary Poppendieck's picture Mary Poppendieck
September 29, 2004
communicate company strategy Communicating the Big Picture

Do you know how your work affects the bottom line? Esther Derby explains that taking more time to communicate company strategy to everyone on your team is an investment, which will save you time in the future. When people can connect the dots from their job to company success, they'll be better equipped to make decisions and set priorities.
Esther Derby's picture Esther Derby
September 24, 2004
Web Application Performance Testing with the Open Source Hyades Project

What if you could build and run multi-user performance tests with a free, open source tool? Then, this coming Monday, you could validate multi-user application performance before deploying your application to your users, automate performance tests without spending money, and add additional features and capabilities to the
performance test tool as desired. Join Jeff Robbins to learn about two open source tools, Eclipse and Hyades.
Jeff Robbins, IBM Rational Software Group
Why Software Quality Assurance Practices Become Evil!

Are your organization's software quality assurance practices (SQA) working well? Would some developers even say they cause discomfort or are destructive? If so, maybe you are focusing too much on the processes and not enough on the underlying principles. Based on his 35 years of being involved in almost every aspect of the software development business from programmer to CEO, Greg Pope shares his eight principles for good software. You'll learn about a quantitative, risk-based approach to tailor these principles into appropriate practices. By employing a context-driven approach to select the right practices for each application and project, you'll go along way toward making customers and developers appreciate the value and benefits of SQA principles and practices.

  • Symptoms of "evil" SQA practices
  • Eight principles for good software development
Gregory Pope, Univ. of California / Lawrence Livermore National Laboritory
Fault Injection to Stress Test Windows Applications

Testing an application's robustness and tolerance for failures in its natural environment can be difficult or impossible. Developers and testers buy tool suites to simulate load, write programs that fill memory, and create large files on disk, all to determine the behavior of their application under test in a hostile and unpredictable environment. Herbert Thompson describes and demonstrates new, cutting edge methods for simulating stress that are more efficient and reliable than current industry practices. Using Windows Media Player and Winamp as examples, he demonstrates how new methods of fault injection can be used to simulate stress on Windows applications.

  • Runtime fault injection as a testing and assessment tool
  • Cutting edge stress-testing techniques
  • An in-depth case study on runtime fault injection
Herbert Thompson, Security Innovation
Testing Web Services Interoperability

If your development organization is developing Web services because you want independence across languages and platforms, you'll need to undertake serious interoperability testing. John Scarborough explains the problem by creating a matrix of interoperability issues and explores possible testing strategies you might use. He also takes a sober look at what we may not be able to tackle with existing testing technology. Find out about SOAP monitoring and other approaches to interoperability testing. Take away a new understanding of how the desire for interoperability can open up opportunities for hackers and the likelihood of security breaches.

  • The matrix for interoperability testing of Web services
  • Web services testing experiences from both small and large companies
  • The need for designing interoperability testing into the software from the beginning
John Scarborough, Disha Technologies Inc.
How to Energize Your Test Team

You're waist deep in your third month of late nights, weekends, and shipping stress; you can see and feel your team's energy waning. The goal is in sight but still far off, and you need the very best from everyone to reach the goal. How are you going to motivate and energize your team to reach the finish line? This article explores the major issues test team leaders face: keeping a team motivated and knowing when it needs to be energized.
Jamie Tischart
September 13, 2004

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