development lifecycles

Articles

The Seven Habits of Highly Insecure Software

Severe functional bugs usually have pretty overt symptoms: an application crash, corrupt data, and screen corruption. Security bugs, though, usually have more subtle symptoms and habits. This article discusses the most common and difficult-to-notice symptoms of insecure software to help you track down these bugs during testing.

Herbert H. Thompson
software development model showing basic work products and the V&V activity Quality Assurance Section for a Design Specification

This article explains the contents of a quality assurance section for a design specification. It includes reasons why this section is needed by design-time, clarifies the difference between quality assurance and software testing, relates the outline to the V Model, and provides a format easily transferable to other project documents, such as project plans and proposals.

Margaret Harris
Open Source and Hype

Hype is not unknown in the software field. The advocates of every new software idea exaggerate the benefits of using that idea. Those exaggerated claims generally have no basis in reality. In this week's column, Robert Glass explains his theory about Open Source Software.

Robert Glass
Agile Codeline Management

Software developers often view version management tools and techniques as a necessary evil. This is particularly true of developers practicing agile techniques. However, version management, can be an aid to agility rather than something that gets in the way.

Steve Berczuk's picture Steve Berczuk
Driving Forces for Success

Uncertainty and risk weigh in the decision to outsource, or not to outsource. In this article, Jay Boyle provides useful information and tips for knowing when to outsource and making the right decision when selecting an outsource vendor.

Jay Boyle
Becoming a Testing Expert

Achieving expertise as a tester is a progressive journey. It helps to have a vision to guide your efforts. James Bach, a well-known name in software testing, shares his vision of expertise and provides a testing challenge for those aspiring toward expert status.

James Bach's picture James Bach
The 11th Hour

Testers are often on the critical path for getting a software release out. They must plan carefully in order to minimize the critical path, while still doing a complete job of testing. This schedule pressure is taken to an extreme when a production server must be taken offline in order to deploy the software, and everyone is waiting for the final test results before the system can go live again. Karen Johnson describes her company's carefully planned and orchestrated method for doing a final check of an installed system. Her story is relevant to e-commerce companies as well as IT shops that are under pressure to keep systems updated while minimizing downtime.

Karen N. Johnson's picture Karen N. Johnson
Addicted to Adrenaline

Are you a manager who lavishes praise on those who can swoop in and save the day when a project hits the skids? Are you an employee who prides yourself on damage control and the ability to pull all-nighters? If so, industry expert Linda Hayes suggests that you or your organization may have a condition that masks an even more troubling underlying problem.

Linda Hayes's picture Linda Hayes
How Did I Get So Jaded?

Churning out medium-grade software to meet deadlines, and experiencing critically defective projects over the years, can easily wear down optimism till it gives way to cynicism in the software testing and quality professions. In this column, Eileen Strider empathizes with that tendency and offers ideas that may improve the quality of your experience.

Eileen Strider
A Hudson's Bay Start

The correlation between project size and project failure is well known in the software industry. Despite this well documented danger, companies continue to sponsor huge projects. It's unlikely we will talk executives out of their dreams of huge projects, but we can talk with them about ways to manage the inherent risks. Often a short story is worth a thousand words. The "Hudson's Bay Start" is one of these stories and a great risk reduction technique.

Eileen Strider

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