test cases

Articles

Problem-solving strategies Problem-Solving in Software Testing: A Conversation

How many times have you started to solve a particular problem and realized midway that the actual problem is not what you thought it was? Ajay Balamurugadas relates a conversation he had with a colleague in software testing about issues with test cases, and the lessons he learned from that problem-solving process. Here's what you should consider.

Ajay Balamurugadas's picture Ajay Balamurugadas
Do You Need to Write Test Cases?

Writing test cases can be a time-consuming activity, and approaches vary from comprehensive test plans to more casual and exploratory cases. What factors should influence your approach? We take a look at a couple of these factors to help you guide your project and team to success.

Vu Lam's picture Vu Lam
Treating Test Cases as a Product Software Test Case Engineering: Treating Test Cases as a Product (or An Approach for Finding Defects that have Low Albedo Value)

Software testing has become a self-governing and an important profession over time. As the software development process becomes a complex activity day by day, the demand to continuously evolve the software testing practices and keeping them aligned to the needs of software engineering is becoming important as well.

Ajay Bhagwat

Conference Presentations

Stop Writing Test Cases! It's All About Models and Exploration

With rapid application development environments and sometimes daily product releases, test cases can be an unnecessary burden on testers. Test cases are expensive to write, often fail to adequately describe interrelationships, and are ineffective for whole-team collaboration. Brett Leonard explains how you can employ software models to replace test cases as your main vehicle for test design, execution, and reporting. Using real-life examples from testing a business-to-business networking application, Brett explains two types of models to accelerate your test efforts: the simple Straight-Line Model approach and the more robust Uniform Customer Modeling language. By planning and executing tests from models, you will quickly gain an understanding of the software under test and have a new tool for collaborating with developers and all project stakeholders.

Brett Leonard, Construction Software Technologies (iSqft.com)
Leverage Earned Value Management with Function Point Analysis

In the Earned Value Management (EVM) approach, as work is performed, it is "earned" on the same basis it was planned-both the original plan and agreed to changes. Today, more and more software projects are using this approach. Function Point Analysis has been shown to be a reliable method for measuring the size of computer software based on detailed requirements and specifications. Function points can be leveraged throughout the EVM process to establish cost and schedule baselines, control project scope over the lifecycle, and quantitatively assess percent complete. Ian Brown delves into the concepts of EVM as applied to software development and the key conditions necessary to profitably employ this management technology. Learn how companies are using function point analysis to improve the technology.

  • Earned Value Management applied to software development projects
Ian Brown, Booz Allen Hamilton
Software Test Automation Spring 2003: Mission Made Possible: A Lightweight Test Automation Experience

Using a challenging client engagement as a case study, Rex Black shows you how he and a team of test engineers created an integrated, automated unit, component, and integration testing harness, and a lightweight process for using it. The test harness supported both static and dynamic testing of a product that ran on multiple platforms. The test process allowed system development teams spread across three continents to test their own units before checking them into the code repository, while the capture of the tests provided automated integration testing and component regression going forward. He'll also explain the tools available to build such a testing harness and why his team chose the ones they did.

  • Examine the benefits-and challenges-of implementing an integrated, automated component and integration testing process in a Java/EJB development environment
Rex Black, Rex Black Consulting Services, Inc.
A Custom Automation Framework and Test Case Management Solution

Interested in seeing a real test automation solution in action? Automated testing is an exciting thing to be part of, but automating the automation is even better. This session presents a system where the test case/automation system is set in motion after configuration management builds a piece of software for a project in which test has been automated. This means thousands of preprogrammed test cases can be run on multiple machines day and night. Darin Magoffin shows you a demonstration of the process, then explains its challenges as well as its flexibility.

Darin Magoffin, Todd Hovorka, and Rich Wolkins, PowerQuest Corporation Inc

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