STARWEST 2002 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

Keyword Testing at the Object Level

It's time to put a new spin on the technique of keyword testing using a data-driven engine. Brian Qualters shows you how to effectively place your focus not on the action or process to be completed, but rather on the object type that's to be manipulated. This redirected focus lets you avoid the pitfalls and resource requirements encountered when you move to test another application. He gives a demonstration of how this modified approach can be integrated into the manual test case creation as a way to tremendously improve efficiency.

Brian Qualters, TurboTesting Concepts
Laws of Testability

This presentation explains the four "laws" of testability: test automation isn't possible without some level of testability; test automation is most successful when developers focus on providing testability; there is no clear distinction between automation support and testability features; and automated tests are never completely realistic. It also describes the characteristics of "testability."

Bret Pettichord, Pettichord Consulting
Making A Difference with Test Assessments

Assessments are a powerful way to understand the current status of your testing. They provide an independent view of where you are and they guide you to where you're going. They also highlight what your team needs to do to reach its testing goals. From her experiences performing test assessments, Sigrid Eldh covers all aspects of her assessment approach including processes, management issues, automation, and test deliverables.

Sigrid Eldh, Ericsson AB
Making It Happen....No Matter What

The bar hasn't been lowered, but for many, the resources have. Increased workloads and frozen spending can challenge any test team. It's not the best time to change jobs, yet it's stressful to think of the declining level of quality that may be in your soon-to-be-released product pipeline. But so what? You're not alone in these challenging times. You still have to make it happen. So, in today's climate, part of your unwritten job description is to find more efficient ways to prevent and detect defects before your customers do.

Ed Kit, Software Development Technologies
Managing Your Master Test Suite

What is your master test suite made of? Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails? If you're like most testing organizations, that probably isn't too far off. The trick is to find ways to improve and optimize your test suite by using all the information available to you. This includes customer documentation, test plans, customer-found defects, information from coverage analysis, and past project and application history. Dale Bettine points out the pitfalls of trying to manage your test suite even as he reveals its effectiveness.

Dale Bettine, Intel Corporation
PeopleSoft Load Testing: Strategies and Techniques

This session is a case study that demonstrates how to plan and execute pre-launch performance-and-tuning tests using commercially available performance testing tools. The study involves tuning a Web Logic/Oracle human resources system prior to its going live. You'll learn performance testing methodology for J2EE applications and explore the bottlenecks found and corrected in the system.

Dan Downing, Mentora Inc
Performance Testing for Web Services

Web services is a hot topic. Ever wonder, what are they really- or how can we test for the performance and scalability of these new types of Web applications? For instance, they certainly present new challenges for load testing, since they're not browser-based aplications. Rather, Web services are applications distributed throughout the Internet. This session discusses these questions and shows you how to prepare for the coming of Web services and their various permutations, all from a performance testing perspective.

David Weir, Keynote Systems Inc
Pressure-Cooker Testing: What to Do When the Squeeze is On

All things are possible in the face of adversity, even an under-resourced testing project with an immovable deadline. Many testing projects start out with high ideals, then descend into mad panic when the realities begin to set in. Usually by this stage it's too late to back out of commitments, yet delivering a product that doean't meet customer and business expectations is not an option.

Geoff Horne, iSQA

QA/Testing in an eXtreme Programming Environment

Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile software methodology that puts a heavy emphasis on testing by developers. In an XP project, the role of testing changes, because tests are considered to be a form of unambiguous requirement specification and are created before code is written. Therefore, rather than being back-end validators, the test team is brought on board early in the process to become front-end specifiers. By writing acceptance tests, the test team, in effect, writes the requirements the developers must conform to.

Robert Martin, Object Mentor
Selecting and Implementing a Test Management Tool

Tool selection is always tricky with its endless choices from vendors, boundless feature lists, and myriad of requirements from demanding team members. You've probably read a lot about selecting a test automation tool, but what about a test management tool? Emerging tools are more feature-rich than ever, and in many organizations they've become a permanent fixture in the QA environment. This session gives you a road map for the selection and implementation of a test management tool.

Rutesh Shah, Arsin Corporation and Byron Ackerman, Wells Fargo Internet Services

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