Why Software Fails (And How Testers Can Exploit It)

Testers know all too well that software fails. If we can understand the fundamental reasons why this happens, we can become more efficient and effective at finding bugs. James Whittaker explains the reasons why software fails and demonstrates how this knowledge can be used to break real software. The technology described has emerged from three years of contract testing at Florida Tech in which teams of students test (and break) post-release commercial software. Learn how to overrun buffers, cause memory violations, force incorrect results to be computed, and generally wreak havoc on your favorite software applications.