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For years, testers implored developers to do better unit testing. Our pleas fell mostly on deaf ears. Testers were constantly frustrated, finding bugs that should never have escaped the developers.

Testing is a complex discipline. There are various approaches, methodologies, strategies. So where is the connection with CM? As with development, requirements specifications, and other aspects of product development, the connection is on the management side. A software configuration management audit is really about demonstrating that you have test case coverage for your requirements and that the test cases have been successfully run against the target build.

Getting all of the necessary people together to define what "done" means in a software development project will be difficult. Facilitating such a task will probably be a challenge, but there is nothing like working in an organization that works like a well-oiled machine, where everyone knows what is expected of him or her and just naturally does it.

Geographically Distributed Development (GDD) is a common strategy in the software world today. Organizations are gaining experience in developing software globally and are discovering that the competitive demand for best-in-class, high quality applications requires greater agility in quality management. Unfortunately, IT budgets are not keeping up with the staff required for quality management and the response is to accelerate quality management by leveraging global teams. This article compares and contrasts agile GDD testing strategies for affecting quality management.

As a new Army Ranger, Payson acquired many hard-earned lessons. But dodging snakes and alligators while navigating a Georgia swamp one moonless night, he learned two lessons in particular that can help project managers navigate their software projects.

Drawing on real events from the authors' combined experience, this story picks up where it left off in the November 2007 issue and follows a fictional team as it encounters some of the pitfalls of using test-driven development.

Instead of viewing software test automation as an effort to replace manual tests think of it as a means to extend the abilities of the tester. Combining the power of the human mind with automation tools helps fuel observation and discovery and provides a different perspective of the software under test.