Many software systems are required to process huge combinations of input data, all of which deserve to be tested. Since we rarely have time to create and execute test cases for all combinations, the fundamental problem in testing is how to choose a reasonably-sized subset that will find a...

Centralization of testing services into a testing center of excellence (TCoE) for system testing is common in IT shops today. To make this transformation mature, the next logical step is to incorporate the user acceptance testing (UAT) function into the TCoE. This poses unique challenges...

As a test manager, James Christie experienced two divergent views of a single project. The official version claimed that planning and documentation were excellent, with problems discovered during test execution being managed effectively. In fact, the project had no useful plans, so testers...

The Mismeasure of Software: The Last Metrics Talk You'll Ever Need to Hear Lee Copeland claims that most organizations have some kind of metrics program—and almost all are ineffective. After explaining the concept of measurement, Lee describes two key reasons for these almost universal...