Better Software Magazine Articles

A Look at PerlClip

Need to get the scoop on the latest software tests and trends? You've come to the right place. Get one reviewer's opinion of PerlClip.
Danny R. Faught's picture Danny R. Faught
September 29, 2005
Staying on the Critical Path

Connect with an expert to learn how to work smarter and discover new ways to uncover more defects. Michael Bolton leads us further down the path to successful critical thinking by teaching us the kinds of questions we should ask to obtain the most useful information.
Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
September 18, 2005
Bridging the Gap Between Disciplines: Software Testing and UX Design

Two industry experts from very different worlds walk you through a Eureka! moment. Get their thoughts on how to build a strong, successful collaborative effort between two distinct disciplines—software testing and user experience (UX) design.
Brian Marick Jeff Patton
September 7, 2005
The Power of Predictability

Turn to The Last Word, where software professionals who care about quality give you their opinions on hot topics. This month, Linda Hayes details why being able to predict the end state of your data at the beginning of a test is vital to achieving accurate results.
Linda Hayes's picture Linda Hayes
September 7, 2005
A Look at Subversion 1.2

Need to get the scoop on the latest software tests and trends? You've come to the right place. Get one reviewer's opinion of Subversion 1.2.
Mike Mason
September 7, 2005
I Do Not Want a Bug Report

Building relationships is important because trust allows us to share information more freely. In his article, Jason Yip explains why he'd rather have a face-to-face conversation about bugs instead of relying solely on a traditional bug report.
Jason Yip
September 7, 2005
Web Services API Testing

Traditionally, test engineers have had some type of a visual user interface for testing client/server and Web applications. Web services, on the other hand, are completely without a user interface, providing only an application program interface (API). A Web service does not display a visual output for testing. Although this fact makes manual testing very difficult, Web services are ideal candidates for automated testing. As a result, some programming skills are almost certainly needed for testers
who test Web services. What about testers with less technical skills? Learn about the challenges Papa Acquah faced with Web services testing: WSDL validation, unit testing, functional testing, client side testing, and server testing. Find out how he used a test harness as well as existing commercial testing tools to accomplish his testing needs.
Papa Acquah, LexisNexis
Peanuts and Crackerjacks: What Baseball Taught Me about Metrics

Because people can easily relate to a familiar paradigm, analogies are an excellent way to communicate complex data. Rob Sabourin uses baseball as an analogy to set up a series of status reports to manage test projects, share results with stakeholders, and measure test effectiveness. For
test status, different audiences-test engineers, test leads and managers, development managers, customers, and senior management-need different information, different levels of detail, and different ways of looking at data. So, what "stats" would you put on the back of Testing Bubble Gum
Robert Sabourin, AmiBug.com Inc
Face-off: Stuctured Testing vs. Exploratory Testing and Error Guessing

Exploratory testing and error guessing are valuable functional testing techniques. Like all other methods, though, they have limitations partly because they are based on the knowledge, experience, and intuition of the test engineer. If you primarily use unstructured approaches for testing, you risk wasting effort on redundant testing, testing in non-critical areas, and under-testing critical areas-all of which can lead to missed bugs or finding defects later in the cycle. BJ Rollison uses two case
studies to demonstrate the limits of unstructured testing and how fundamental test design techniques and gray box test design can improve the effectiveness of your tests. You'll correctly prioritize critical areas and uncover serious issues earlier and with less effort. The first case tests Weinberg's triangle algorithm from the design requirements and a C# implementation. The second
William Rollison, Microsoft Corporation
Developing an Error-Based Testing Strategy

For more complete testing, you need to find and simulate possible error conditions in a system. Many methods throw exceptions when an error occurs. And although the application’s code catches many of these exceptions, an "unhandled" error condition could lead to unpredictable
events and big problems for customers. Rather than using only intuition to guide your error testing, join Christopher Shelley for a strategy to identify specific error conditions in your systems. Sharing sample code, he offers tips and hints for finding these often hidden defects in software. Then, he explains ways to devise specific error injection tests that expose these problems to the developers. Learn the skills you need to find unhandled exceptions within the source code and make sure that your code is exercised through all decision trees and error traps.
Chris Shelley, Dell, Inc.

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