STARWEST 2001 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

The Best of the New Testing Techniques

In the testing profession, we live in a blizzard of new ideas, reminders about how to obtain value from old ideas, and other helpful advice. That's part of being involved in a vigorous, fast-evolving field. But which promising leads should a test professional pursue? Ross Collard offers a perspective on the most promising new techniques and ideas from industry and academia. He gives direction on where test professionals and managers should focus in order to improve their effectiveness.
Ross Collard, Collard & Company
The Change Agent: Leveraging the Testing Role

How can you help change your corporate culture to appropriately regard the role of testing? In this presentation, David Capocci shows you how to position testing as a valued part of the project team. Since testers provide the expertise in such critical areas as defect detection and prevention, their merit can be leveraged simply by making their function understood by other roles, e.g. developers, business analysts, and project managers.
David Capocci, SAFECO Insurance
The Dangers of Use Cases Employed as Test Cases

Use cases are a great way to organize and document a software system's functionality from the user's perspective. However, they have limited uses for testers. They are great vehicles to accomplish some tasks, and not so great for others. Understand what you're trying to accomplish by testing before deciding if use cases can help-and be cognizant of the challenges they present. They are useful to testers, but not for every situation.
Bernie Berger, Test Assured, Inc.
The Path to Universal Automated Testing

The adoption of a universal automated testing methodology (UAT) can seem a complex and costly prospect at first glance. However, this session describes the many benefits that come with adopting such a tactic, including repeatability, reduced execution time, and relevant documentation. It seeks to prove that though definition and development takes time, in the long run it will deliver a positive return. The presenters walk participants through a "stepped solution" to universal automated testing.
Celestina Bianco and Joan Carles Sanchez, NTE s.a.
The Simplest Automated Unit Test Framework That Could Possibly Work

Everyone pays lip service to the importance of unit testing, but rarely do developers actually integrate unit testing into their daily routine. In the spirit of eXtreme Programming, this presentation offers a simple two-class framework for automating unit tests in three popular languages: C++, Java, and C. No GUI, no templates, just a fast and productive way of organizing and running suites of unit tests. You'll walk away wondering how you have done without this simple technique for so long.
Chuck Allison, Utah Valley State College
Theory and Practice in Test Process Improvement at Barclays Bank

How do you obtain buy-in on a test process improvement project in an organization with nearly two thousand developers? This presentation gives the inside story of how Barclays Bank Plc. set out to improve their test process, and how they succeeded. Kath Harrison and Martin Pol discuss their first-hand experience, offer recommendations for dealing with obstacles, and put the spotlight on possible pitfalls to avoid.
Kath Harrison, Barclays Bank Plc. and Martin Pol, POLTEQ IT Services B.V.
Three Seasons of Test Automation: A Case Study

This presentation makes the following recommendations related to automating testing: don't automate all of an application (seventy to eight percent); don't automate all applications (stable, long term); don't take a 3G approach for short term gain; if shelf life and maintenance costs are important, a 3G approach is best; insure proper roles are filled and people trained; have requirements before you start; have good access to data and test oracles; spend time in design to set the right level of granularity for the test cases and action

Russell Roundtree, Landmark Graphics and Mike Sowers, Software Development Technologies
User Acceptance Testing: The Overlooked and Underplanned

User acceptance testing is sometimes regarded as the red-headed stepchild of testing. Most of us tend to focus on functional and performance testing, and in doing so forget who it is we're actually developing the application for. Kevin Au makes the case that a formal process for user acceptance testing should be instituted on almost every project. Because no matter how well developed a product is, if the user doesn't like it, it'll soon be shelfware.
Kevin Au, Experio

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