Better Software Magazine Articles

Test Automation Grows Up

Can software test automation ever replace manual software testing? Dion Johnson says no, but he does think it’s time that test automation is recognized as a mature discipline with its own body of knowledge. This ABOK allows test-automation professionals to hone their skills and provides organizations wishing to automate a pool of able resources from which to hire.

Dion Johnson's picture Dion Johnson
McLuhan for Testers

If a tester is "somebody who knows that things can be different," then Marshall McLuhan was a tester par excellence. According to McLuhan, the English professor who proposed the Laws of Media, the message of a medium is not its content but rather its effects. Find out how this translates to software testing and how we evaluate requirements.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
Four Tips for Technique Seeking

From an experience with a testing buddy in a large organization, Julie Gardiner had a career-shaping epiphany. She discovered that understanding and applying formal testing techniques can help you grow as a testing professional, and she has incorporated that knowledge into her management repertoire ever since. Learn four ways you can get started using formal testing techniques with your team.

Julie Gardiner
Pairwise Testing: An Easy Guide to Orthogonal Arrays & All-Pairs Combinations

One of the testing challenges we face is how to handle the large numbers of test cases we sometimes need to create and execute. We can't test everything, but pairwise testing using orthogonal arrays or an all-pairs algorithm can help generate pair combinations that reduce the number of test cases we run while still finding a large percentage of bugs.

Lloyd Roden
Navigating the Installation

If you've ever popped a CD into a drive and run an install for software you're about to test, then you might be performing installation testing indirectly. If not properly installed, an application could give false results for all other testing. A better strategy is to test the install process directly, which will give you greater confidence in the quality of your software.

Karen N. Johnson's picture Karen N. Johnson
What's Wrong with Your Testing Strategy?

When the design and the coding are complete, and the product seems ready to ship, it’s hard to understand why testing takes so long. Discover how your source code management system can help you unblock the testing bottleneck.

William W. White
Test Design with Risk in Mind

Sometimes in testing we find problems that surprise us. And that's where risk-based testing comes in. Build your tests around "What if...?" statements to help you anticipate problems before they arise.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
Hurry Up & Wait

There are no industry standards for Web response times. How long a user is willing to wait for a Web page to load depends on any number of variables and conditions. Find out how to determine and quantify performance criteria and use those criteria to create happy customers.

Scott Barber's picture Scott Barber
An Arsenal of Answers

Be ready with an answer the next time you're asked, "How long will it take to test this product?" Dive beneath the surface of the question to understand what your manager really wants to know.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
Testing Around the World

These days outsourcing is a pretty familiar concept in this industry. Has globalization hit your company yet? Naomi Mitsumori has been involved in sending testing work offshore, and she has six suggestions that can help you successfully manage the transition.

Naomi Mitsumori

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