development

Not sure what elements to consider now that you're ready to embark on the mission of automating your testing? This session explores the possibilities-the key mix of skill sets, processes, and tools-that can make or break any automation effort. The instructor shows you how to develop an informed set of priorities that can make all the difference in your effort's success, and help you avoid project failure.

• Create better, more reusable tests to improve efficiency and effectiveness
• Increase the value and reputation of QA within your organization
• Establish a closer relationship with developers based on mutual respect

Even a smaller-scale Web site requires careful planning and execution of performance tests. Making the critical decisions in a timely manner and identifying the performance goals are still prerequisites to a successful test. However, smaller sites don't necessarily have the resources required to do large-scale testing, so compromises have to be made. This requires good test planning. The instructor explains the testing of a small site looking to grow, as well as the successes and pitfalls of achieving reasonable goals.

• Define the test objectives; what's reasonable?
• Plan the test then utilize tools, choices, and tradeoffs effectively
• Apply and understand the results

Testing an application's robustness and tolerance for failures in its natural environment can be difficult or impossible. Developers and testers buy tool suites to simulate load, write programs that fill memory, and create large files on disk, all to determine the behavior of their application under test in a hostile and unpredictable environment. Herbert Thompson describes and demonstrates new, cutting edge methods for simulating stress that are more efficient and reliable than current industry practices. Using Windows Media Player and Winamp as examples, he demonstrates how new methods of fault injection can be used to simulate stress on Windows applications.

• Runtime fault injection as a testing and assessment tool
• Cutting edge stress-testing techniques
• An in-depth case study on runtime fault injection

How can Test Managers present information about test results so that the correct message is received by decision-makers? Testing generates a huge amount of raw data, which must be analyzed, processed, summarized, and presented to management so the best decisions can be made quickly. Lloyd Roden shares his experiences as a test manager and as a consultant about communicating with and disseminating information to various levels of senior management. Develop your skills to become a "trusted advisor" to senior management rather than the "bearer of bad news". Find out innovative ways to keep the information flowing to and from management and avoid losing control of the test process, particularly near the delivery date. Learn the seven monitoring techniques Lloyd recommends for reporting on different aspects of the system under test.