Jamie Mitchell explores an underused and often forgotten test type-white-box testing. Also known as structural testing, white-box techniques require some programming expertise and access to the code. Using only black-box testing, you could easily ship a system having tested only 50 percent or less of the code base. Are you comfortable with that? For mission-critical systems, such low test code coverage is clearly insufficient. Although you might believe that the developers have performed sufficient unit and integration testing, how do you know that they have achieved the level of coverage that your project requires? Jamie describes the levels of code coverage that the business and your customers may need-from statement coverage to modified condition/decision coverage. He explains when you should strive to achieve different code coverage target levels and leads you through examples of pseudo code.

Risk mitigation and risk analysis are delicious ingredients in a recipe Google calls risk-driven testing. Most of us are familiar with how to approach risk mitigation from a test perspective-in the form of test plan development, test cases, and documentation. However, comprehensive risk analysis is still considered black magic by many in our field. In this hands-on presentation, Jason Arbon and Sebastián Schiavone introduce ACC-Attributes–Components–Capabilities-a methodology for systematically breaking down an application into coherent and logically-related elements for risk analysis. ACC prescribes a very easy-to-follow process that you can apply consistently and quickly to many types of projects. Jason and Sebastián break down risk analysis into seven simple steps and walk participants through the complete ACC and risk analysis process for several high-profile Google products.

Generally, testers mix test execution and test analysis. Typically, each test case execution also does its bit of analysis focusing on the feature under test, comparing actual to expected results. Jacques Durand explains that by declaring and enforcing a "legal" separation between execution and analysis tasks, testers' perspectives automatically change. Rather than focusing only on actual vs. expected results of one output, every output in every test becomes fair game for a more comprehensive analysis, leading to finding more bugs sooner. With this separation approach, each test suite is split into a set of test scenarios plus a set of logical test assertions. Join Jacques to learn how to leverage XML to format scenario outputs and other analyzer inputs, and how to write executable declarative test assertions independent from test scenarios.

Your company is ready to launch its new product. How will it perform under real-world conditions? Will it meet the needs and expectations of the users? Will it operate on all the platforms and configurations for which it was designed? With the future of the product, your company, and perhaps your job depending on the answers, beta testing is a great way to maximize your chances of success. Beta testing provides empirical metrics that prove or disprove that your product will meet clients’ expectations, providing you with input for necessary course corrections in the product. Rob Swoboda explains the process of beta testing as well as the key concepts needed to plan, execute, and evaluate a successful beta testing effort. Rob shares his insights into the practices he employs to design and manage high-priority beta test efforts and offers you the keys to succeed in your own beta test program.