People tend to gravitate toward what they feel comfortable with. This is also true when it's time to choose a testing methodology. Is a particular personality more suited to software testing than another? In this issue's "Technically Speaking," Brian Marick explores this possibility.

It may only be a matter of time before you hear the words, "We need you to test a Web service." Ebusiness technology is being transformed with the creation of a new type of application called a Web service. Software developers are poised, eager to deploy Web services, but what does it mean to the world of software testing? Read on to find out!

Assess the state of your career by making a list of the positives and negatives. By creating your dream job on paper you can form a plan to help you get there. Elisabeth Hendrickson encourages you to make the time to take stock of your current career situation.

Window mapping gives elements specific names so tests are easier to update and understand. Task libraries group sequences of steps that make up part of user tasks when those sequences show up in multiple tests. Data-driven test automation separates the parameters of a test case from the test script so that the test script can be reused for many related tasks. Keyword-driven test automation formats tests as tables or spreadsheets and creates parsers to read and execute the test descriptions. Take advantage of these four techniques to help you test a graphical user interface, and see how developers can make your life easier.