Testing Microsoft Office: Experiences you Can Leverage to Drive Quality Upstream

Have you experienced those weeks when the new features being added to builds just flat out don't work? Do you strive to have a testable build throughout the full product development cycle? Are you tired of the mountain of bugs crushing you just before time to ship? Experienced test manager Tara Roth discusses how the Microsoft Office team is working to drive the level of test coverage up during the earlier phases of product development to improve build quality later in development. Tara describes two approaches, adopted by Microsoft Office, that improved efficiency and quality-Feature Crews and Big Button. Feature Crews is a tight-knit partnership of the developer, tester, and program manager who work together on a private release of new code prior to checking it in to the main build. Big Button is an approach to having the team kick off an automated suite of tests prior to checking in to the main build. Tara explains their successes and describes how you can apply these concepts in your organization. In addition to sharing her Microsoft Office experience, Tara describes how other Microsoft projects apply these techniques and how you can do the same.