agile

Conference Presentations

Adopting Agile Practices on Non-Agile Projects

Does your team want to take a stab at Agile development without making a full commitment? Or, are you a manager who has read or heard about Agile development and want to experiment with it before making a large upfront investment? Then, this session is for you. Projects without the authority, time, or inclination to cast aside traditional development processes still can improve code quality, respond to change quickly, and deliver more valuable functionality by adopting one or more Agile practices. Learn how to embed Agile practices like automated testing, continuous integration, short iterations, and small releases into environments with heavy process, fixed schedules, and traditional waterfall methods. Here is an opportunity to discuss your development problems within the context of the presentation and walk away with valuable Agile techniques you can implement one at a time.

Peter Schuh, Peter Schuh Consulting
An Incremental Approach to Setting Up a Data Warehouse

With the growing popularity of agile methods like eXtreme Programming and the emergence of automated, open source unit testing frameworks such as JUnit, the idea that developers should actively participate in testing their own code finally is gaining broad acceptance. Numerous studies and countless examples show the tremendous benefits of having a suite of unit tests created by developers and always executed before integrating units into a build. Unfortunately, the majority of development organizations attempting to implement automated developer testing fail to achieve long-term success. Alberto Savoia shares the underlying reasons that most developer testing efforts fail to take off and, more importantly, offers his "Seven Laws of Developer Testing." Arm yourself and your organization with the information and tools you need to make managed developer testing your best bet for delivering significantly better software.

James Ferree, Motorola
Testing your Web Site for Privacy, Quality, and Accesibility

Today's business world relies heavily on transactions conducted through the web. Because of this, brand image and how a web site is rendered to customers has become increasingly important. A poorly functioning web site poses significant risk for web-based companies. This presentation discusses the challenges involved when testing to ensure the quality of your company's web site and to ensure that the components of the site function properly. With the ever-increasing web complexity, specific tools and processes are required to manage these challenges.

  • Discover ways to ensure that your web site reflects your privacy policy
  • Learn how to manage your web sites's links to ensure that they remain current and unbroken, and ensure that web content is accessible to users
  • Learn about specific tools and processes to test and manage your web site
John Burg, IBM Global Services
Software Test Automation Spring 2003: Mission Made Possible: A Lightweight Test Automation Experience

Using a challenging client engagement as a case study, Rex Black shows you how he and a team of test engineers created an integrated, automated unit, component, and integration testing harness, and a lightweight process for using it. The test harness supported both static and dynamic testing of a product that ran on multiple platforms. The test process allowed system development teams spread across three continents to test their own units before checking them into the code repository, while the capture of the tests provided automated integration testing and component regression going forward. He'll also explain the tools available to build such a testing harness and why his team chose the ones they did.

  • Examine the benefits-and challenges-of implementing an integrated, automated component and integration testing process in a Java/EJB development environment
Rex Black, Rex Black Consulting Services, Inc.
A Formula for Test Automation Success: Finding the Right Mix of Skill Sets and Tools

Not sure what elements to consider now that you're ready to embark on the mission of automating your testing? This session explores the possibilities-the key mix of skill sets, processes, and tools-that can make or break any automation effort. The instructor shows you how to develop an informed set of priorities that can make all the difference in your effort's success, and help you avoid project failure.

  • Create better, more reusable tests to improve efficiency and effectiveness
  • Increase the value and reputation of QA within your organization
  • Establish a closer relationship with developers based on mutual respect
Gerd Weishaar, IBM Rational software
Why Software Quality Assurance Practices Become Evil!

Are your organization's software quality assurance practices (SQA) working well? Would some developers even say they cause discomfort or are destructive? If so, maybe you are focusing too much on the processes and not enough on the underlying principles. Based on his 35 years of being involved in almost every aspect of the software development business from programmer to CEO, Greg Pope shares his eight principles for good software. You'll learn about a quantitative, risk-based approach to tailor these principles into appropriate practices. By employing a context-driven approach to select the right practices for each application and project, you'll go along way toward making customers and developers appreciate the value and benefits of SQA principles and practices.

  • Symptoms of "evil" SQA practices
  • Eight principles for good software development
Gregory Pope, Univ. of California / Lawrence Livermore National Laboritory
Fault Injection to Stress Test Windows Applications

Testing an application's robustness and tolerance for failures in its natural environment can be difficult or impossible. Developers and testers buy tool suites to simulate load, write programs that fill memory, and create large files on disk, all to determine the behavior of their application under test in a hostile and unpredictable environment. Herbert Thompson describes and demonstrates new, cutting edge methods for simulating stress that are more efficient and reliable than current industry practices. Using Windows Media Player and Winamp as examples, he demonstrates how new methods of fault injection can be used to simulate stress on Windows applications.

  • Runtime fault injection as a testing and assessment tool
  • Cutting edge stress-testing techniques
  • An in-depth case study on runtime fault injection
Herbert Thompson, Security Innovation
High Volume Test Automation

Most test design starts from the premise that extensive testing is not possible--too may tests, not enough time. What if we could generate millions of tests, execute them, and evaluate them automatically. This would dramatically change your approach to test planning. Learn how to perform this style of automation using free scripting tools (such as Ruby or Python) that are reasonably priced and easy to learn. Also, to use the system test automation tool you already use (but in a different way) or collaborating with your developers to build test diagnostics and execution support into the software. Cem Kaner describes several examples of high volume automated testing, lays out a structure for thinking about this style of testing, and suggests ideas for trying it in your shop.

Cem Kaner, Florida Institute of Technology
Testing "Best Practices": From Microsoft's Context to Yours

Testing is a never-ending series of trade-off decisions, what to test and what not to test; when to stop testing and release the product; how to budget your testing resources for automated vs. manual testing; how much code coverage is good enough; and much more. To make these difficult judgement calls, we often turn to the "best practices" recommended by testing experts and others who have encountered similar problems. The key to successful implementation is matching their "best practices" to your own context (team make-up, company culture, market
environment, etc.). Barry Preppernau shares his insights gathered from over 20 years of testing experience at Microsoft. You'll learn about the tools and processes that have been successful within Microsoft and ways for you to identify, adapt, and implement successful test improvement
initiatives within your organization.

Barry Preppernau, Microsoft Corporation
The Reality of XP: A Real World Case Study

This article explains what XP Programming is and how implementing it can benefit your team.

Drake Kirkham, Cirrus Systems Corporation

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