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Going Wireless - Test Strategies for Mobile Applications Testers face unique challenges with mobile applications. Not only do the testers have to test the software for functional and performance correctness, they have to consider compatibility with innumerable combinations of devices and networks. Manish Mathuria discusses how test automation can be leveraged to tame this complex testing challenge in a highly competitive market. He offers a comprehensive perspective on the challenges, justifications, and requirements of doing test automation in the dynamic world of mobile applications. With specific examples from Brew and J2ME technologies, Manish demonstrates the essential components of a test automation framework using a real mobile application. See how test automation speeds the process leading to the certification that providers mandate.
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Manish Mathuria, InfoStretch Corporation
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STARWEST 2005: Testing Outside the Bachs: A Hands-On Exploratory Testing Workshop Simply put, exploratory testing means designing your tests as you perform them. When it's done well, it's a fantastically productive and rewarding approach to testing. However, to do it well requires training, practice, and discipline. Lecture presentations about exploratory testing are a poor substitute for seeing it and doing it. So ... plan to bring your laptop to this session and test along with James Bach and Jon Bach as they demonstrate exploratory testing in a live testing workshop. Participate or just observe as exploratory testing is performed in real time with play-by-play and color commentary. Learn how to bring structure to this apparently unstructured testing method. See if you can find bugs that they do not find as you test "outside the Bachs"!
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Jon Bach, Quardev Laboratories
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A Flight of Fancy - The Evolution of a Test Process for Spacecraft Software The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory formed an embedded software group for producing space flight software. In addition to defining the process for developing and testing this software, the group had to quickly apply and adjust the new processes to a series of four spacecraft missions, starting in 2001, as resources were over-extended and schedules were compressed. Brenda Clyde shares highlights, complexities, and differences of testing these spacecraft missions in the last four years. She describes the initial test process, the problems encountered during the test phase for each mission, the resolution of the problems, and the incorporation of the changes into the next mission. Learn about the challenges the Applied Physics Laboratory faced testing embedded software and the process in place for testing their next spacecraft mission.
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Brenda Clyde, Johns Hopkins University
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Testing with Styles Walt Disney is famous for characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, but there were three special characters he used as thinking tools. No, not Huey, Duey, and Louie, Donald's nephews, but three special character styles. These styles are dreamer, realist, and spoiler. Often Walt participated in meetings having adopted one of these styles. We can also use these styles to guide software development, reviews and testing, user-system interactions, and system-to-system interactions. For testers, the dreamer suggests positive testing to ensure the product works, the realist suggests negative testing in case the user makes mistakes, and the spoiler suggests illogical user actions or destructive testing to focus on unusual or malicious system use.
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Erik Petersen, Emprove
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STARWEST 2005: Apprenticeships: A Forgotten Concept in Testing Training The system of apprenticeship was first developed in the late Middle Ages. The uneducated and inexperienced were employed by a master craftsman in exchange for formal training in a particular craft. So why does apprenticeship seldom happen within software testing? Do we subconsciously believe that just about anyone can test software? Join Lloyd Roden and discover what apprenticeship training is and-even more importantly-what it is not. Learn how this practice can be easily adapted to suit software testing. Find out about the advantages and disadvantages of several apprenticeship models: Chief Tester, Hierarchical, Buddy, and Coterie. With personal experiences to share, Lloyd shows how projects will benefit immediately with the rebirth of the apprenticeship system in your test team.
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Lloyd Roden, Grove Consultants
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STARWEST 2005: Lightning Talks: A Potpourri of 5-Minute Presentations Lightning Talks are nine five-minute talks in a fifty-minute time period. Lightning Talks represent a much smaller investment of time than track speaking and offer the chance to try conference speaking without the heavy commitment. Lightning Talks are an opportunity to present your single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea quickly. Use this as an opportunity to give a first time talk or to present a new topic for the first time. Maybe you just want to ask a question, invite people to help you with your project, boast about something you did, or tell a short cautionary story. These things are all interesting and worth talking about, but there might not be enough to say about them to fill up a full track presentation. For more information on how to submit your Lightning Talk, visit www.sqe.com/lightningtalks.asp. Hurry! The
deadline for submissions is October 1, 2005.
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Erik Petersen, Emprove
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Agile Testing of Embedded, Real-Time Systems Until now, Agile development and testing concepts have been aimed largely at Web sites, interactive applications, and software packages where short production cycles are a must. With care, many of these same testing practices can work on embedded systems, in which long development cycles, no user interface, and regulatory requirements are the norm. Jon Hagar examines Agile testing practices you can implement within both hardware and software product domains. Learn to define the "user" for an embedded application, determine how much documentation is enough, and identify ways to perform early testing while the hardware remains in flux. Find out how to move from a more traditional embedded testing structure to embrace Agile concepts in your test practices.
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Jon Hagar, Lockheed Martin
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Open SourceTest Automation Frameworks Open source software has come a long way in the past few years. However, for automated testing there still are not many ready-made solutions. Testers often must spend their time working on test cases rather than working on a test automation framework. Allen Hutchison describes the elements of an automated test framework and demonstrates a framework that you can quickly assemble from several open source software tools. He then explains how to put the pieces together with a scripting language such as Perl. Once you build the framework, you can improve and reuse it in future test projects. At the end of the presentation, Google will release the described framework as a new open source project that you can begin using immediately.
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Allen Hutchison, Google
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What the US Marine Corp Taught Me About Test Management When we think of teams and teamwork, who epitomizes the team concept more than the US Marine Corps? From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli or to the hallways of your company, success requires teamwork. Are you building, overhauling, or just wanting to improve your test team? Looking for new ideas and approaches to tackle testing obstacles? A crucial part of success in testing is the motivation and effectiveness of the test team. The team of the best testers in the world fails if they are not working together to accomplish their mission. Former USMC Sergeant Sean Buck shares techniques for building motivated and successful teams based on time-tested USMC principles. Analyze what successful teams do right-and apply it to your test teams.
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Sean Buck, The Capital Group Companies Inc
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Globalization Testing Globalization testing encompasses both internationalization testing and localization testing. Localization testing focuses on system details that must be modified for a particular location, region, or culture. These include language, appropriate idioms, currency formats, alphabetic sort order, left/right vs. right/left language display, date/time formats, and clip art and photograph appropriateness. The necessity of testing these is generally well understood. Terry Shidner points out that before localization testing is performed, the system must first undergo internationalization testing. This type of testing is important to verify the readiness of the system for the localization work. For example, has the system been implemented without embedded text strings? Has all text input, processing, and display been implemented with Unicode?
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Terry Shidner, Symbio
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