Better Software Magazine Articles

Reporting Systems: Tracking the Details

If you're paying the bill for all the graphics, glitz, and applets, you're going to want to have some evidence that thousands of potential customers have actually seen your Web site. Here is a step-by-step recipe for testing system, network, and Internet reporting systems.

Len DiMaggio
Test Design: Developing Test Cases from Use Cases

A use case is a sequence of actions performed by a system, which combined together produce a result of value to a system user. Use cases describe the "process flows" through a system based on its actual likely use, so the test cases derived from use cases are most useful in uncovering defects in the process flows during real-world use of the system. Here is an example of how a use case is used to derive and prioritize test cases.

Ross Collard's picture Ross Collard
Extreme Testing

Rapid application development means you have to accept that the things you build will need to change. Approach development in a way that makes it easy to transform yesterday’s code into what you need tomorrow. This article explains how testing works in the world of Extreme Programming.

Ronald E. Jeffries
What's With These Buffer Overrun Bugs?

Many of the culprits responsible for security breaches found on corporate networks and the Internet today have used buffer overrun problems as the main way to exploit the system. Here is an examination of buffer overrun bugs and how to prevent them.

Bob Johnson
Look Before You Test

Test coverage is about insuring that test plans and test cases include information vital for successful testing of the program in the areas of functionality, performance, and the overall quality of the software. This article shows how to create a plan of attack to provide strong test coverage, determine the scenarios for the test plan, and manage the changes made to information used by testing.

Kenneth Lengel
Quality Meets the CEO

Management and testers may not often speak the same language. This article takes an unvarnished look at the communication gap between quality advocates and management and offers ways to open a dialogue and gain credibility.

Jeffery Payne's picture Jeffery Payne
Mining Gold from Server Logs

What do your customers really think about your Web site? Here's how to use the records you already have to improve your Web testing.

Karen N. Johnson's picture Karen N. Johnson
Orthogonally Speaking: Deriving a Suitable Set of Test Cases

Is your testing effort facing an impossibly wide choice of test parameters? Shooting in the dark can yield hit-and-miss results--and that’s just not very effective. When your testing effort faces an impossibly wide choice of test parameters, the Orthogonal Array Testing System technique can be a very useful method for deriving a suitable set of test cases.

Elfriede Dustin's picture Elfriede Dustin
Looking Under the Hood

Understanding a program's inner workings, dataflows, and bug history can enable you to build more robust tests. Here are pointers on investigating a system's internal design as a tool for effective testing.

Len DiMaggio
Step-By-Step Test Design

Testers are often faced with short development cycles and partial product specifications. This simple, six-step design method helps you come up with a reasonably thorough set of tests for individual product features in a reasonable amount of time. It employs list and table and encourages you to look at the software from a variety of perspectives.

Kathy Iberle's picture Kathy Iberle

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