Many struggle to accurately judge the value, success, and return on investment of test automation. In this session, Ross Collard helps you identify which areas and aspects of testing-both manual and automated-provide fruitful opportunities for improvement. You'll have the opportunity to compare the effectiveness of your organization's test automation with industry norms and best practices. You'll also see how other organizations gather, interpret, and apply these metrics. Find out what's worked and what hasn't.

Many testing organizations focus primarily on software executable code, but that's not the only thing you can test. For instance, did you ever consider testing your software requirements? When you test only code, you face some big disadvantages, not to mention that design defects often aren't even fixable because they demand too much effort, too late in the release cycle. In fact, it's difficult to even report some requirements defects since the developers have already committed to the design strategy. But if you test your requirements early in the game, you can discover defects before they're cast into designs and code, consequently saving your organization potentially huge rework costs.

Outsourcing arrangements are established on the basis of a contractual partnership, with both parties having a vested interest in the success of the relationship. Success can be viewed differently by the outsourcing provider and customer, however, making the use of objective, quantifying service level metrics instrumental to the success of the contract. Learn how to properly identify and develop service level metrics required to support both business and technical deliverables.

While revenues, cash flow, and earnings are vital statistics of a company's well-being, they're the by-product of what the company actually offers up as a product or service. Therefore, if the offering doesn't produce ROI for the customer, it doesn't represent a viable business opportunity. In this session, take a look at testing from the perspective that it's a service provided to your company. Since testing impacts not only your company, but also your company's customers, then you, as a tester, must provide and prove ROI to succeed in a business environment. Having the ability to discuss, define, manage, and demonstrate the ROI of testing is an invaluable skill. This session gives you the information and tools you need to define and demonstrate models of testing ROI, then translate them into upper management's terms.